Online Casino Edition – Casino News News about online casinos and gambling

Casinos have been in existence for a long time. They are said to have originated from Europe and then spread to all parts of the world. Today they have reached the World Wide Web as well. Many casinos owners now feel that online casinos are more profitable than the on-land ones.

The Off-Liners See The Point

Most of the big casinos in the United States opposed the idea of online casinos and considered them as a big threat to their business. Besides that, online gambling is still illegal in the US. However, recently, in October 2010, some of these high end casinos like MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts and Harrah’s Entertainments have decided to come together and work on a proposal that would request the Congress to legalize online gambling. This was in lieu of a statement released by the American Gaming Association which stated that online casinos could also be properly regulated. The Association has also mentioned that the details of the Internet gambling regulatory rules are being worked out. Before all this, in July 2010, there was a congressional bill that was put forth by Democratic Representative Barney Frank, which aimed to legalize all Internet gambling. However, the bill at that time was not supported by the Gaming Association or the leading casinos. Due to this, the bill was not passed by the congressional committee.

With the air changing, there is definitely hope for the bill to pass. This would turn around the face of gambling all together. Some states, like California and Florida, have made online gambling legal within the state boundaries. But the passing of this bill in the congress would make it legal across all state boundaries. One of the major oppositions of Internet gambling comes from Nevada State which is the center for gambling in the United States. The senator of Nevada too is rethinking his stand and there is every likelihood that Nevada will be supporting online gambling.

There is speculation that if the bill is going to be passed it would be mainly legalizing online poker than the other games. A study by experts has shown that internet poker does not and will not cut the profits of off line casinos. Even if there is a cut it would be negligible. It is this study that has led to the changing of opinion in favor of Internet casinos. Another reason for the change in stand by many of the big guns in the casino industry is the fact that online gaming is a very profitable industry. Online companies like Pokerstar reel in as much as Dollar one billion in profits per year, a figure that cannot be ignored easily.

Mr. Fahrenkopf, CEO of American Gaming Association, states that the group has been studying Internet gambling for a period of two years and also studying the issues involved with it including taxation, consumer protection and security. According to him, the group will be making a presentation to the congress soon once the study is complete and all the loop holes would be closed. With that presentation and the already existing bill, there is no denying the fact that online gambling would be legalized under Federal laws.

A recent survey conducted among US students has revealed that an increasing number of students – high school and college – are logging on to online gambling websites. The survey was conducted over the phone by the Annesberg Adolescent Communication Institute of the University of Pennsylvania. Figures arrived at denote an upward trend among US students with regards to frequenting online gambling websites. The research has revealed many interesting facts.

Facts Of The Matter

Students in the age group of fourteen to twenty-two years were involved in the study conducted by the Annesberg Adolescent Communication Institute. An important finding of the study was that as many as sixteen percent of the college-going male population in the US participates in online gambling. This sixteen percent is a twelve percent leap from the percentage in 2008, which then stood at 4.4 percent. In addition to the significant increase in the number of college-going males logging on to online gambling websites, an increase was also registered in the number of high school children who visit such sites. The percentage of high school children frequenting online gambling websites has risen from 2.7 percent to as much as 6.2 percent.

As per the study, the percentage of high school or college going females taking part in online gambling has too seen an upward trend. Both online as well as offline gambling by high school females belonging to the age group of fourteen to seventeen years has risen by over nine percent since 2008. Nevertheless, popularity of gambling websites among females is comparatively lesser as compared to males in the same age group.

Virtual Gambling

The survey conducted by the Annesberg Adolescent Communication Institute of the University of Pennsylvania included as many as 835 respondents interviewed in 2008, followed by 596 respondents in 2010. All the respondents were between the ages of fourteen and twenty-two. The researchers estimated that on an average more than 400,000 college men belonging to the age group of eighteen to twenty-two gamble online at least once a week and more than 1.7 million tend to gamble over the Internet once in a month. Another finding by the researchers was that around 530,000 males belonging to high school going age gambled online at least once a month.

According to Dan Romer, the Director of the Annesberg Adolescent Communication Institute, the increase in the number of college males frequenting online gambling websites reveals that payment restrictions are no longer any hindrance for the young population. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, in effect since 2006, has hardly discouraged people from participating in online gambling. Rather, there has been a further increase in the number of people gambling online ever since the Act has been passed. Currently, approximately 400,000 college-going males participate in online gambling each week, as per the survey.

Recently, there has been much lobbying by online poker players to convince lawmakers to change the laws currently in place. Despite the incessant lobbying, there has not been much progress on the subject. Many states in the US have also been attempting to open up more casinos in a bid to add to the tax revenue for balancing the budget of the state.

All states have different laws regarding online gambling, but few states go after it with the vengeance that Kentucky does. The state of Kentucky has a rather nefarious reputation in the online gambling world. If you like to gamble online, Kentucky would most probably come last in the list of places you would like to retire to. The state of Kentucky seems to have declared itself the official bounty hunter of online casinos. With its latest foray into taking legal action, the state has cemented its position.

What Is The lawsuit

Now this particular lawsuit, the newest of the lot, has a history. Although it is the Kentucky state’s most recent salvo at online casinos, its story starts much before. It is actually a part of a series of lawsuits that Kentucky started some years back. Now all you have to do is sit back and listen to the story as it unfolds to its latest most chapters.

In a bid to rid its state of all sorts of online gambling, the state of Kentucky began to seize and capture the domain names of the online casino’s websites that used to run its operations in Kentucky. Now when one says ‘operates in Kentucky’, what it really means is that Kentucky doggedly chased every casino that allowed people from Kentucky or accepted them into their sites. If you do not find this even the least bit kooky, the next bit of news will guarantee at least one smirk.

The latest online casino to come under the target of Kentucky is the Microgaming banner. Full Tilt Poker and Party Gaming have already had lawsuits filed against them and now Microgaming has been forced to join the party. Although, Microgaming left the state of Kentucky in 2008, i.e. the year the absurd ban and suing of online casinos ‘operating’ in Kentucky started, a new type of lawsuit filed by Kentucky ropes Microgaming right back in.

It is this newest lawsuit that has succeeded in raising people’s eyebrows. The state of Kentucky in its latest lawsuit is looking to recover all the funds that Microgaming earned when it was operating in Kentucky from September 29^th, 2005 to October 23, 2008 before they were unceremoniously chased out. The statute on which the state filed this case is even more bizarre. The state statute that they are using allows the state to take legal proceedings on behalf of any of those citizens who are unable to take any legal action on their own. Now in a sane world, this excellent statute is used to protect the rights of the old, sickly, handicapped, poor and other people who generally face such exploitation. However, in the state of Kentucky this statute encompasses the gamblers who gambled at an online casino. The point of absurdity is that people who bet on horse races in Kentucky are a 100% able. Maybe this will set a precedent for sore losers to get their money back. The only thing that any of us should look out for is people who lost heavily on these online casinos demanding refunds of their bets. You will not be able to find anything stranger than that associated with this case!