A new exciting tournament “Avalanche” was launched on the 3rd of January by Everest Poker. The event is said to last 9 months, and it consists of 3 rounds. The prize pool, as it is claimed, is $1 million.

What is amazing and very exciting is the fact that players will be allowed to join at any levels. One more thing is that players with different gaming skills and experience will be able to take part in it.

So, Round 1 satellites is for the little up-front risk players whose buy-ins make up $3 plus 30 or $11 plus 1. Those who are more confident can take part in Round 2 satellites. Their buy-ins are $56 plus 5. Those players with big bankrolls skipping to the top can choose either $530 plus 30 buy-ins in Round 3 or the Online Avalanche Finale for $5000 plus 300 which will take place on September 17, 2007.

The prize for the ten finalists of the Online Avalanche Finale will be a trip to a secret place, where they will take part in live final table with the prize pool – $1 million.

The European Poker Tour is said to be Europe’s richest poker tour, and they say that the prize money in Season 3 will amount to more than €7 million.

Recently it has been announced that a new event is planned for Season 3, which is going to take place in Warsaw, Poland between March 14 and 17, 2007. 300 players will be able to take part in the tournament having paid 15,000 Zloty as a buy-in.

John Duthie, an EPT chief executive, claims that the event is sure to play a great role in raising “the game’s profile in Eastern Europe” in spite of the fact that that it will not be televised.

To get more information, go to the EPT website. You’ll be able to qualify for the Warsaw EPT on PokerStars.com starting January, 15.

There is good news for the residents of New York State that prohibited from having Internet accounts with out-of-state providers: some rules and regulations allowing the state’s racetracks and offtrack facilities to accept wagering via the Internet were adopted by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. The rules and regulations should become effective on the 22nd of January. So, NYRA are doing their best to make it possible by the launch date.

“I think this is a breakthrough,” said Bill Nader, the New York Racing Association’s senior vice president and chief operating officer. “If you’re trying to introduce Thoroughbred racing to a new audience, this is a step forward. Somebody under 35 would rather use their personal computer than the telephone. We think our site is going to be very attractive and very exciting”.

At the moment only telephone wagering is offered throughout the state. New rules and regulations will make it possible to make wagers in person using any kind of electronic means: either a cell phone or Internet, or anything else.

Ray Casey, president of New York City OTB, who has been lobbying for Internet wagering for the past two years, says: “To me, it’s part of some of the tools that I thought were critical for not only OTB’s future but horse racing in general: an ability to take advantage of technology and make horse racing more accessible for the X and Y generation”. But he hopes that “by the summer, all of the state’s six OTB corporations could have a common website at which to wager”. But as he claims they are not going to make partners with any of out-of-state providers yet.

What is going on in Germany cannot be called a friendly atmosphere for the internet gambling. Recently there has been an attempt to enforce an anti gambling law what can be found against the European Trade Commission trying to legalize online gaming all over the European Union. So far the federal law has not been approved yet. But still three of German states have local laws prohibiting online gambling in Germany. The only explanation to the fact is that officials are trying to help the state lotteries to keep their monopoly.

Germany, by the way, is not the only country trying to prohibit internet gambling. The only way out is for the European Union is to set a precedent with one of the countries protecting their own gambling interests, to stop the future attempts of banning internet gambling.

UK, Italy and Spain have already laws legalizing gambling licenses of online companies.

2007 is said to be a year of expansion for Boomtown New Orleans. The cost of expansion is said to be about $145 million. What is to be understood under the expansion is a new gambling boat and a 200-room hotel. The expansion is to be designed by the architectural firm of Bergman, Walls & Associates, Ltd and is promised to be more lavish than it was planned.

R. Lee, Pinnacle’s Chairman and CEO, said: “We’re excited to be part of the renaissance of New Orleans with a major new investment in the region. This expansion is designed to bring Boomtown New Orleans to new levels of comfort, luxury and excitement, similar to the ambiance of our L’Auberge du Lac property in Lake Charles”.

The plans for Boomtown New Orleans expansion include the boat similar to that at L’Auberge du Lac, a Lake Charles casino that is also owned by Pinnacle; the hotel upgraded by a pool area, spa and a salon, increased size of the guest rooms; expansion of the existing Boomers nightclub, addition of an Asian restaurant, and refurbishment of the existing buffet.

If you a casino fan, you’ve probably heard of Casino Online International. It is a G-Fed certified casino, government licensed and regulated within Belize that was open in 2004. Since that time it has been providing its visitors with a great variety of exciting games. Its fair game odds, safe transactions, quick payouts, and response to all players’ needs cannot but attract lots of people from all over the world.

Recently it has been reported that that its combined jackpot total from 12 progressive slots games amounted to more than $1.5 million. If to be exact, such slot games as Lucky Ink, Jackpot Quarterback, Nashville Gold, and Dragons Lair have current jackpots ranging from $68,000 to $84,000, and Super 777, Atlantis, Haunted House, and Fruity Loot – from $114,000 to $127,000. The highest jackpot marks are shown by such slot games as Joe’s Jackpot, Golden Goal, Payday, and Martian Landing and they range from $131,000 to $420,000.

So, it must be noted that in spite of its young age, Casino Online International is very popular and very successful.

The following news is one of the many exciting things to happen at FastWin Casino – a one year old online casino spot. It has recently added 4 new games to the 80 games already available there including table games, slots games, video poker games, roller coaster dice, bonus bowling, rock paper scissors, etc. Beach Life ( a 5 reel, 20 line game), Dolphin Paradise pachinko (it is known to be the most popular slot type game in Japan, and the first real money pachinko game), Ultimate Fighters (an 8 line slot game allowing to win up to 120,000 times the original bet) and Mini Roulette (casino classic allowing to win more) are the newest additions.

Here is what FastWin operators ay about some of the four games:

– “…Beach Life has got all the best bits of the others like exciting bonus rounds and scatter symbols which add extra ways to win but now players can go for a huge progressive JP at the same time!”

– “…We think Ultimate Fighters is going to be huge…”

“We’ve had big winners, a very successful Lotto Madness launch, payout percentages of over 200% in Keno, one of the most generous bonus offers available, the list goes on… Our first year at FastWin Casino is turning out to be more exciting than we could ever had hoped for” – FastWin Casino management claim.

Canadians living in Edmonton, Alberta, gladly witnessed the opening of a new Century Casino & Hotel. The opening took place in November 17, 2006. The site having 35,000 square feet of gaming floor, houses 31 gaming tables, 588 slot machines, two bars, two restaurants, show lounge. More than that, there is going to be some addition to that – 12 slot machines, a bar and a restaurant, a dinner theater and 26 hotel rooms. It is being claimed that people will be able to use it already before Christmas.

The opening proved to be very special: with Alberta Gaming Minister Gordon Grayon and Geoff Smith, Managing Director of the resort, welcoming guests and Century Casinos CO CEOs Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger cutting the red ribbon. Moreover, a charity event took place during the opening. The money was raised for the benefit of the nonprofit organization – Edmonton Food bank – providing people in need with food. But that was not the only event: performances of Chinese Dragon Dance group and the show All the Rage in Dallas were also included into the program.

The results of the operation during the first weekend are simply amazing: an average win/slot/day of Can$520 (ca. US$450), an average win/table/day of Can$1,400 (ca. US$1,220) and an average food & beverage revenue per day of Can$22,900 (ca. US$20,000).

“We… are looking forward to our next big event, the grand opening of our new casino facility for the Century Casino Newcastle, formerly Monte Vista Casino & Conference Center, in Newcastle, South Africa, on December 2, 2006,” said Co CEOs Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger in a joint statement.

Victor Chandler, being Gibraltar based online gambling operator, has been in business for sixty years. They are known all over the world for their sports betting operations. They are providing their services and products in more than 160 countries and more than 14 languages.

Today, they are expanding their business in South America. Actually, they are the first to have received a gambling license by the Argentina government what cannot but be noticed by the gambling industry. By getting into the market in Argentina, Victor Chandler made it possible to open that market up to global regulation what is absolutely necessary for keeping the industry a trusted and respectable one.

By the way, Victor Chandler have already had partners in Argentina. They have worked with IPLyC – an official licensing authority. They did their best to develop a wide range of betting services and products. The partnership is known to be a success.

Victor Chandler’s sports betting site, is VCapuestas.com.ar, their Spanish version, has already been launched. There you can find four different portals: sports betting, online casino games, poker and arcade games. All these portals have their own individual homepages interlinked between one another.

If you are an insistent and proved to be a success player on Betfair, online casino and poker operator, you’ll soon get a chance to become a sponsored professional poker player. Your chance will come during Twelve Plays of Christmas campaign announced by Betfair. Once chosen to be the best, you’ll be able to take part in live events up to the value of $20,000 and you’ll proudly add your name to the list of Betfair Poker professionals such as Ben ‘milkybarkid’ Grundy, Swedish player Bengt Sonnert, and STT player Thomas ‘Buzzer’ Bhil.

As it has been reported, to get the sponsored deal won’t be an easy thing to do. You’ll have to take part in $15,000 and $10,000 guaranteed tournaments and prove to be the most consistent successful player. “We are thinking of calling the winner ‘Poker God’ because only the best and most consistent performer will win. One-off lucky winners will not get a look in,” – claims Betfair Head of Poker Ben Fried.

During the Twelve Plays of Christmas campaign that includes such events as bounty tournaments, team games, plus the ‘Snowball’, a $50,000 plus freeroll tournament, $240,000 of prizes will be given away.