Key Gambling » karen

Online lottery tickets

karen — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 05:35:18 +0000

Once in a while I do like to play games that involve no skill whatsoever even though I know the odds of hitting a huge jackpot can be pretty poor and you’re better off playing something like blackjack or craps with a low house edge. But its precisely because these games take skill that they have a low house edge. And the lottery is just so tempting sometimes because you barely have to put in any thought and you could win a life changing sum of money in the blink of an eye. If you are going to buy lottery tickets, in my book you may as well enter the ones with the biggest and richest jackpots. These are the ones that are allowed to continue rolling over until they are finally won and cover a huge population. I’m thinking of the US Powerball, Mega Millions and Euro Millions. These days you don’t even need to live in a place where you can walk into a retailer and purchase a ticket because there are now quite a few messenger services online who will do it for you and you can pay with your credit card. The one that I’m thinking of in particular is called Conga Lotto but there are others around as well. Check them out for yourself!

Players bracing for the UIGEA

karen — Sat, 22 May 2010 08:14:29 +0000

Placing a wager at online casinos for US based players is set to get a whole lot tougher in just a few days time. Unfortunately, the stage is set for that federal law signed in 2006 and known as the UIGEA to come into force on 1 June. This law prohibits the use of credit cards, checks and other financial instruments for online gambling transactions. The flow on effect of this law is intend to undermine on the online gambling industry. In other words, the law doesn’t actually make playing online illegal but just makes it more difficult. So it might not necessarily mean the end of online gambling in the States. There has, however, been a group of Democrats (lead by Barney Frank) advocating for certain online games to be legalized. Amongst them are online poker. The central pillar of his argument against the UIGEA is that the government is missing out on potentially millions of dollars of revenue that could be generated by the industry. So what do you think? Should the existing law take effect? Or should certain games like online poker be legal to create millions of extra dollars for the benefit of American citizens?
If you’re confused about what the UIGEA will actually do, here’s a good and straightforward explanation from the perspective of an online poker player.

$42 Million jackpot was false alarm

karen — Sun, 09 May 2010 03:01:55 +0000

One slot player, Louise Chavez, at the Fortune Valley Hotel and Casino in Colorado was bitterly disappointed recently when she learnt that she didn’t in fact win the $42 million jackpot as she had thought. This was a nationwide jackpot and one of the biggest in the history of Colorado. The player saw her machine display the message that she had won the progressive jackpot. However, she was then informed by the casino officials that the machine displayed a faulty message and that the highest jackpot they could award was just $250,000. Apparently Ms Chavez for was compensated for the money that she put into the slot machine which was a total of $23 and given a free hotel room and breakfast. The Colorado state gaming board is investigating the matter to see if either the casino or Ms Chavez is at fault. Ms Chavez has gone public about her ordeal and has given several interviews on TV and radio talk shows. She is convinced that the casino is attempting to cheat her out of her winnings although it is not yet known whether she will sue the casino.

Missing Out on Millions

karen — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 03:52:33 +0000

In Australia, there is currently an all-out prohibition against local gaming operators. A recently released report in Australia (called ‘Online Gaming: A Gamble or a Sure Bet?) claims unsurprisingly that the government is potentially missing out on millions and millions of dollars it if does not relax its position against the online gambling market. In 2008, it is reported that as a result of the Aussie players spent about $790 million in an underground economy to play at online poker rooms and online casinos at offshore sites. The report also predicts that the global online gambling market will simply explode and double by 2012 thanks to the technological advances in mobile phones, internet connectivity and other handheld devices. This is all food for thought for the Australian government and KPMG, who produced the report, calls on the government to have a serious rethink. Australia is apparently one of the biggest markets that currently prohibits online gambling. If Australia was to be involved in the market, it could benefit from the huge revenue that its currently missing out on.

World Cup Mania slot game

karen — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:07:20 +0000

This is a Microgaming video slot and one of the games that I have been enjoying lately. It’s obviously a football themed video slot centred around the soccer World Cup and will no doubt help you get in the mood for the ensuing football frenzy that is about to grip the globe come June this year. In the lead up to the World Cup in South Africa, its available at a few different online casinos including Jackpot City for example. This is a 5-reel game with 15 pay lines. There is a ball symbol which is the wild and can substitute for any other symbol except for scatters and bonuses. If you get three of the whistle symbols, on the other hand, the Free Spins Bonus Game will be triggered. If you happen to have five trophy symbols appear, you get to the Free Kick Bonus Round where there is no option of missing the goal posts! With the World Cup just around the corner really, this is one way to have a bit of the action right in your own home and perhaps even enjoy a few prizes. This is not a progressive jackpot but is still enjoyable to play nonetheless and comes recommended.

Backgammon Fans

karen — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:18:09 +0000

I love backgammon myself but until recently it never even occurred to me to try playing it online let alone at an online casino. I have found playing backgammon online to be surprisingly exciting and some of the online casinos offer quite high prize tournaments. Some of what I regard as the better and more reliable online casinos offer backgammon. For example, William Hill Skill Games, Party Gammon and 888 all provide backgammon as a gaming option for their players.

In case you haven’t discovered backgammon before (and I realise that it is more popular in some parts of the world than others), it is a basically a board game for two players. The basic idea is to move your pieces around a board according to the roll of a dice. The player who removes all his pieces first from the board is declared the winner. It is true that luck is a large portion of the game (as what numbers the dice roll can’t be influenced) but your strategy also plays a role in the outcome of the game. After each roll, you have a choice to make about how you will place your pieces and you have to be able to think ahead about how your opponent might react.
You can choose to play either for free or for real money and I’m sure you will find it as engaging as I do.

Here’s a short tutorial from Party Gammon.

What constitutes bonus abuse?

karen — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:48:05 +0000

Don’t be fooled. Casinos can and do take action against players they consider to be abusing the bonus system. Many a player before you has been stripped of their bonus privileges and a huge proportion of disputes with online casinos are centred around bonuses. A typical casino response where they suspect abuse is to freeze your gaming account and to return your deposit.
So the question becomes: what constitutes bonus ‘abuse’ and how do you make sure you are not considered to be abusing the bonus system? The answer is a bit murky and some casinos take a stricter approach than others. It is the sign up or welcome bonus that is the subject of most abuse. Opening multiple accounts at the same casino will definitely land you with the label ‘abuser’ and whilst I don’t agree with this type of behaviour (and is clearly against the rules of most if not all casinos) I don’t think bonus abuse the correct term. However, it is pretty hard to register more than one account these days and if you ever intend on cashing out your winnings you should always use your real name as you will have to go through some pretty serious identification checks.
It is because of bonus abusers in the past who thought that bonuses were free money to take home that we now have higher (actually, very high) wagering requirements and can only be meet on certain games that have a higher house edge (like the slots). Sticky bonuses are the next step after wagering requirements (these are bonuses where you can withdraw your winnings but not your actual bonus).

Poker bots: good or bad?

karen — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:47:55 +0000

Personally, the jury is still out for me on whether poker bots are a good development or not for the online poker industry. In case you’re not familiar with the term, online poker bots are computer programs that help poker players to win based on the statistical data that is fed to them. It’s obviously argued by many that those players who rely on poker bots receive an unfair advantage over the others players at the table as they can dramatically increase your chances of winning. I agree to some extent. Why should I continue to play online when I’m probably playing against artificial intelligence? Not all online poker rooms allow the use of bots understandably so I tend to stick to these ones but it is very hard to detect the use of bots and enforce. On other hand, you could argue that bots aren’t perfect anyway and are only as good as the programmer who built them. There is a lot more to poker than just statistics and odds such as bluffing. Poker is an extreme complex game and it will be a long time until anyone can build a 100% effect bot. In any event, if you are planning on using a bot, you should read through the T & C’s carefully beforehand.

Poker Playing Priest

karen — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:40:47 +0000

In one of the more bizarre gambling related news stories that I’ve come across, I just read that a South Carolinian priest took a gamble – literally speaking – on a poker tournament to raise the remainder of his church’s 5.5 million goal to build a new facility. I should add that he did seek (and was granted) approval beforehand from his pastor. Reverend Andrew Trapp took part in the PokerStars.net. The priest apparently holds the position that whilst he was playing in a poker tournament, he wasn’t actually gambling since the tourney was free to enter, and to gain access to the final round, a player had to finish in the top ten in the free tournament, and also submit an audition video. In the end missed out on the top prize of $1 million but he did win a respectable $100,000 which he donated back to his church (although this wasn’t quite enough to reach their target goal). Check out the video here and I’m sure he won’t match the image you had in mind for a priest. It was certainly a good PR exercise for the priesthood!

Australia in Top Ten Gambling Countries

karen — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:57:31 +0000

There is apparently now one poker machine per every 110 people in Australia which means that the country now ranks amongst the top 10 international gambling centres in the world. Yep. That’s right … Australia is up there next to the likes of Macau and Monaco even. Actually, Monaco took out the top spot (with 1 machine for every 16 people!) but other surprising appearances in the top 10 (well, to me at least) were Japan and the Netherlands.
Unsurprisingly there is a reform movement pushing the Australian government to develop and adopt safer gambling regulations. For example, making the pokie machine automatically cut off after a certain period of time to reduce the potential for harm and loss.