Las Vegas is not the place where morality is the topic to be openly discussed. People, moralists to be called, who considered gambling to be a sin, used to be the gambling industry’s enemy 1. Nowadays they have different targets, such as stem cells, gay marriages, etc. Nevertheless, people feeling bad about gambling don’t live in Las Vegas, as here gambling is everywhere: at the cinema, at the grocery store, practically at any place you may go to. Either you or people surrounding you in Las Vegas are the ones involved in risking money playing games: tourists, hobbyists, professionals, etc. There is one more category of gamblers – people with life-destroying problems who often destroy not only their lives, but the lives of their families.

The companies investing millions and millions of dollars to build, market and operate the Strip resorts are afraid of changes as still an impact of gambling moral and legal history is felt there. Resorts involved in that business are often said to be merciless in politics and gaudy in charity because of the hall’s shadowy legacy. They try to be aware of everything that might influence them and that even often means coming down hard on opponents.

Coming back to gambling addicts, it is necessary to say that all casinos have some programs to help them, like “sign up to not be mailed flyers, to get yourself banned from the casino or to be contacted by a support group”. But no plan to get your money back is offered by the casinos.

Not only the society is anxious about addicts, the gambling industry has some fears as well. And they are not only connected with social pressure and lawsuits. One more fear is connected with the bill offered by Bill Kearney, a Philadelphia mortgage broker. The idea is centered upon casino customers to be sent somewhat like a credit card bill or 401K statement that would let you know how much money you lost and won. Casinos consider this idea to be extremely expensive and unjustified. Experts are confused and their opinions are mixed. But still it is true that there is some sound sense in this offer.

After his trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, a well-known TV commentator and a senior employee in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Sackey Namugongo, was arrested at Windhoek International Airport. He was criminated with fraud-related charges, i.e. production and issuing of fake gambling licenses.

The Director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Paulus Noa, claims that Namugango was suspected in issuing unauthorized gambling licenses and “…it could be that he is not the only one involved”. Noa explained that Namugango had made a few copies of one and the same document and issued licenses under the same number. This was in practice for quite a long time. So, Noa appealed to the people who had received the gambling licenses to help in this case with related information.

The thing is that earlier this year a moratorium on licenses was lifted. No new licenses have been issued since 1996. At that time Cabinet established a Commission of Inquiry investigating the impact of gambling on society and the ease with which gambling licenses were being issued.

As it is claimed, licenses were sold at the price of $100,000 each. So, illegal gambling has received a wide spread, and to say more, only those who wished to run a gambling house needed a license.

As they say, there is a chance to improve the state’s transportation system in Virginia by a subsidiary of millions of dollars. The source of money is believed to be a pari-mutuel game, called “Instant Racing” that people would be able to play at Colonial Downs and nine off-track betting parlors located around the state. The game is believed to raise as much as from $660 million to $934 million dollars. This money will definitely help to deal with all the transportation problems. To say more, the game has already been adopted in Arkansas.

People are sure that there will be some amendment in the pari-mutuel game to allow the game to be played. The game is to be played on machines resembling ATMs. The players will be featured races of the past years. Moreover, records of horses, jockeys and trainers will be available for them. The only thing that is supposed to be left behind the players’ knowledge is when and where the race took place.

Actually, the bill has already been introduced in the House by Del. Phillip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News. The same bill has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Thomas K. Norment, R-James City. The implementers are sure to face long odds in the legislature. Here’s what Hamilton worries about: “I haven’t started working the bill. There’s a little bit of concern from horse breeders. They would receive only 2 percent of the profits and Colonial Downs would take away 49 percent. So far, the House and Senate have not even gotten out of the gate, much less finished the race to raise substantial new cash for transportation”.

What has already been proposed by the governor and the Senate is increasing some taxes and fees to deal with the transportation problems, but the House has declined the offer. The other proposal deals with the punishment of reckless drivers causing serious accidents and resulting in delays on highways, tunnels and bridges. Besides fines and possible jail time, these drivers shall get a fee not exceeding $10,000. The fee will go to Virginia’s Transportation Find, and will be used for road building and transportation.

If you are a Bluff Magazine reader or a poker fan, you can take part in Bluff Magazine’s Annual Readers Choice Awards by visiting either www.bluffmagazine.com or www.bluffmagazine.com/readersChoice/ . Online voting began in the 12th of January and will last up to the 20th of October. The 2006 Bluff Reader’s Choice Awards voting includes the following categories: Most Entertaining Player to Watch, Best All-Around Online Poker Room, Best Online Customer Service, Best Live Poker Tournaments and Best Poker Commentary. The results of the voting will be revealed to the public on the 20th of December in Bluff Magazine’s World Series of Poker preview issue. Five random voters will get an IPod Nano.

So, the readers of the Bluff Magazine are again given a chance to influence and shape the future of poker. “…the Bluff Magazine awards will be a true testament to the companies who receive various accolades,” said Eric Morris, Co-President of Bluff Magazine.

According to some opinion, Macau – the only territory in China that allows casino gambling – soon will compete with the world’s gaming capital – Las Vegas. In 1999 former Portuguese enclave Macau returned to Chinese rule. Stanley Ho held the monopoly in the gambling industry in Macau for 40 years, but in 2002 the government began to invite competition from Las Vegas. So, Ho’s monopoly was over.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp were the two companies allowed to run their gambling business in Macau. The launch of Sands Macau in 2004 was very successful and attracted lots of visitors. Last year the income Macau got could be compared with the $5.3 billion earned on Las Vegas strip.

Stephen Wynn, an American billionaire, opened a $1 billion hotel casino in Macau on Wednesday. As Wynn believes, his amazing, lavish, trendsetting crescent-shaped complex will attract huge masses of people ready to wager their money. Still, some of Wynn’s critics doubt it.

To attract lots of visitors to Macau, casino owners should not concentrate only on gambling. The entertainment should include places to shop, to see shows, fancy restaurants as well. Only then Macau will be transformed into an Asian Las Vegas.

Looking for a long time for decent legal work at home jobs, three housewives – Jennifer 26, Kandice 29, and Nikki 28 (out of Toledo) – have finally found them. They are online poker affiliates.

They never had an idea of becoming ones until they learnt about affiliating through Jennifer’s husband, Eric by name, who is also an online poker affiliate, owning the website www.pokerbonusworld.com .

“It really never crossed my mind to become an affiliate for poker rooms because I’m a woman, I’ve always thought of my husbands business as something only men do” – says Jennifer. It used to be so at the time when poker only appeared, but many women have already proved that poker is not only for men. Females can also make money in this business. And there is lot of things to do.

Affiliating for poker rooms is a financially promising thing to do. There are more than 600 poker rooms to affiliate for, and most of them offer $65 – $150 to their affiliates for every poker player who signs up and makes a cash deposit. E.g., in 2005 Partypoker.com paid out over 75 million dollars to their marketing partners with their top paid affiliate generating close to 1 million dollars. Doesn’t it sound rewarding?

There are many ways to become a successful affiliate for online poker rooms: to own a website dedicated to online poker, banners, online and offline campaigns. Besides, a lot of poker rooms offer free promotional flyers and software CDs that you as an affiliate can place on counters in stores.

At the moment Jennifer, Kandice and Nikki are busy with designing a website for women who are interested in this type of work. And there is a web page that you can visit at www.largestwebsiteever.com . Obviously their goal is to teach women “how to affiliate for online poker rooms instead of wasting their time sinking money into get rich quick schemes”.

The women have already proved to be a success by having earned in the past month over $3000. Jennifer explains their success: “We go to local poker games and pass out software CDs to the players, I’m pretty sure that’s where we get most of our sign ups, but we also distribute flyers to privately owned mini-mart stores, it’s working out very well so far and we are very pleased”.

At the moment Mac users have an access to software for playing online poker, as well as Mac online casino games. Unfortunately, Mac users are limited in their choice of online casino software. But this thing cannot be said about the variety of games available.

If you are about to look for the compatible casino software, http://www.maconlinepoker.com/ is the best place to start for it recommends only the best Mac software available.

Blackjack, video poker, slot machines, video slots and roulette are the most popular games with Mac users this year. “We were finding that avid Mac poker players were emailing us asking where they could play blackjack,” said http://www.maconlinepoker.com/ CEO Derek Criddle. “So, we added an entire section on the site dedicated to Macintosh compatible casino games. It’s been very popular so far”. Some online slot machines jackpots exceeded $2.5 million dollars, and it is the best thing to show their popularity.

The decision to become partners has been recently announced by FrugalBox.com, an industry leader, and Online-Casino.com.
FrugalBox.com is the site that provides gamblers with all the necessary information concerning rules to play blackjack, tips, strategies, etc. As for Online-Casino, it offers a free blackjack game, roulette, video poker, two slot machines that do not require both registration and downloading. If you are a Webmaster or a site owner, you can install games on you own website free by having taken the code from Online-Casino.
“We offered a complete online tutorial for blackjack but one thing was missing – a free practice version of the game,” Michael Jacobi, Marketing Manager for FrugalBox.com, said. “Now, courtesy of Online-Casino, our visitors can learn the rules, read the tips and play the game, all for free…Online-Casino.com has helped us improve our site enormously”.

32Red Macintosh online casino is a new discovery of MacOnlinePoker.com. In spite of its recent discovery, it has been online for years and it is considered to be one of the leading online casinos, and it is able to compete even with Golden Palace and 888 that are also Mac compatible.

32Red can be proud of their reputation since their parent company is traded publicly on the London Stock Exchange. Besides, they are an official sponsor of one of the best Football clubs in England.

The variety of games, which is over 100, may surprise any Mac user: different card games such as blackjack and poker, roulette, online slot machines, video poker and many others. The wide selection of games will make you forget the difficulty you might experience while setting up the account at 32Red. And once the account has been set up, you can easily start playing by logging into your account and picking a game you like.

No doubt that as a Mac user you’ll appreciate your opportunity to play your favorite games online without any need to download them or install Flash, a very common web technology required to play online. The installation Flash is not necessary since all Mac casino games operate it.

For more information, go to http://www.maconlinepoker.com/.

Being a developer of wireless gaming products, e.g. WiFiCasino (TM) – a wireless hand-held gaming system, Diamond I, Inc. noticed a significant growth in traffic at its new interactive website that offers just for entertainment such games to play as slots, roulette, blackjack, poker. The games are like those available on the company’s GS2 wireless gambling device.

If you wish to play Diamond’s GS2 games, go to www.diamondiinc.com. GS2 is the first of Diamond’s products containing technologies available for players.

Diamond I, Inc. develops wireless gaming products, including a hand-held Wi-Fi-based gaming system that meets published 802.11 (x) standards and operates in unlicensed spectra, such as 2.4 and 5.8 Ghz.

The Palms Resort and Casino continue to develop a working relationship with Diamond I, Inc. Besides that, Diamond I looks for some more casinos or hotels to serve as the demonstration site for its WiFi Casino. Preliminary discussions have already taken place between Diamond I and some cruise ships, owners of horse racing facilities in the USA and dog and horse racing facilities outside the USA.