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French online gaming group –  Chiligaming – has announced a new partnership arrangement with the Golden Nugget Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. This is just another indication that the big boys believe; legalisation of online poker is imminent throughout the entire USA. Currently only Nevada has legalised online gambling, but other states look set to follow suit. Then, hopefully the Federal Government will also start to play the game.

The new deal is to launch a play-for-free online poker site in the form of a joint venture which comes ahead of anticipated changes to US legislation. In a press release from the Golden Nugget – they said the launch of the site would take place at some time in the next quarter.

The Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino is one of the most famous as well as the most popular of all Las Vegas casinos. They are certainly the largest in the downtown area, and Chiligaming proprietary software – the iGaming platform – allows it to connect to any online gambling provider or poker software platform. This is a fact which is central to the new US proposition with the company, and will help the Golden Nugget to enter the online poker and gambling marketplace with maximum impact. Hopefully, as this new landscape takes shape it will maximize options for both the Golden Nugget and Chilligaming.

The Golden Nugget is also one of the oldest (established in 1946) and well knows Casinos in Vegas, it offers more than 2,300 luxury rooms, and is only one of many USA gambling establishments in the live business that is clamouring to get into the online gambling world. The strangest thing is that these businesses fought against this industry for so long, believing that online gambling would cannibalise their existing business. Now the Government has dug in its heels and it is proving really difficult for the about-face to take place. It just goes to show that you get what you ask for when you ask for it for long enough! It appears as though it will still take a long time for legislation to be put in place; if this should happen? Finally, at least land gambling concerns are seeing the online industry as another positive revenue stream.

With changes taking place in Nevada gambling laws as well as potentially on a federal level; the Golden Nugget started an intensive process to seek out an online gambling operator that would be a good fit as a partner. It took them approximately 9 months to find the right fit, and Chilligaming is it. They looked at over a dozen online gambling companies, and were taken by the passion, talent and knowledge demonstrated by this team.

They are extremely experienced in Europe, and the Golden Nugget believes that they far exceed their competitors in the same industry. The Chairman of the Golden Nugget also said ~ “We believe that online gaming is inevitable in the United States, and that the Golden Nugget will be well positioned to compete when US laws allow for online gaming.”

The Indian Government has been stepping up efforts to prevent residents having access to online gambling websites of the offshore variety. They are not the only government that is keen to do this, so, it comes as no surprise. But stopping 1.2 billion citizens from gambling online is rather a daunting task – certainly not one that we would be keen to tackle. Gambling is mostly illegal in this country, so, it makes sense that online gambling would be illegal too.

Currently the government is seeking to stop all visits by poker and blackjack players from entering online tournaments as well as playing gambling- based games. There is a culture of gambling in India, and placing bets on cockfights is almost a national pass-time, however legal gambling is only available in a very few isolated venues.

Obviously there are massive opportunities for online gambling operators in India, and in fact the Asian marketplace as a whole. The Media Entertainment Consulting Network has reported that gambling online in India could generate annual revenues that exceed US $50 billion. Sri Lanka is taking advantage of the Indian crackdown and is quickly making moves to aggressively attract foreign investment for hotels, resorts and online casinos. This is a sure-fire move to attract gambling tourism from India and China where gambling is only allowed on Macau, and not on the mainland. This approach from the Indian Government might leave some seriously untapped revenue generating opportunities.

In the meantime in the UK, hearings have been conducted regarding their online casino industry. The Parliamentary Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport will be continuing with this with the objective of offering more direction for the online gambling industry in terms of regulation. This industry in the UK is the best developed in the world, and they have learned that current legislation just doesn’t cover all of the bases. The latest to testify before the committee were Alderney and Gibraltar regulators – these are both white listed territories, which means they are extremely interested parties. White listing means that online gambling operators may advertise to customers in the UK.

Currently the UK Government is seriously considering secondary licensing. This should help generate additional tax revenues, as currently offshore licensees may ply their trade in Britain, but are not compelled to pay taxes. Different opinions have been expressed, and head of the AGCC – Andre Wilsenach said that the need to tighten up regulations was real. This has never been more evident than with the recent Full Tilt Poker debacle, where thousands of members of this online poker site have still be unable to recover the monies they are due.

His suggestion includes more careful assessment of risk with their licensees, from their base of operations. Operators could also receive a risk rating and their license details, governing or restrictions be factored by these.  A new report is available from the gambling prevalence study also, and these actually don’t bode very well for UK-facing online gambling ops.  Experts are second-guessing that any new regulations will tighten things up for everyone involved in the industry.

Today, online casinos become more aware of the need to organize online tournaments for players to attract them to play on their site. Thus, these tournaments became so popular because they represent in the eyes of players a great way to make money without making a large investment. Although tournaments of slot machines are among the most popular, online casinos also offer competitions around other games like video poker, roulette, blackjack, as well as other table games. To participate in these tournaments, you can simply go to the lobby of an online casino that offers a tournament on a specific game to receive a fixed amount of chips. Then you have to respect the time limit proposed by the casino to accumulate a number of chips on the game. It’s easy and you have as opponent human players as you !

Although the online casino industry is a relatively new industry, it is also a very fast-moving and highly competitive industry. Online casinos did not have to fight so hard for business in the beginning, but now it is a much tougher game. The result of this is that the online casino industry has reached new heights, or should we say depths – in innovative marketing? Certain sites have come up with most audacious advertising campaigns.

We all love memorabilia and the King of Pop – Michael Jackson’s memorabilia is worth even more since he passed away. His famous ‘Thriller’ jacket for example, was auctioned for the staggering sum of $1.8 million! A bit more of MJ has been recently purchased and will be used in a rather incredible way; his tresses will be turned into a roulette ball by OnlineGamblingPal.com. A rather strange way in which to be immortalized! But then perhaps it could not be more apt than to turn the King of Pop’s parts, into a part for the King of casino games?

A lock from the late pop idols hair was purportedly collected from New York’s Carlyle Hotel. We don’t even want to know how this was collected! It was then purchased from an online memorabilia seller for the bargain price of $10,871. The proud new owners said it’s conversion into a roulette ball is “an appropriately unique way to immortalize a small part of a truly peerless entertainer,” when announcing their plans for the new acquisition.

The Ball itself will not be put on display, but rather manufactured to the highest professional standards and be on licensed casino roulette tables. They believe that this is “fitting”, and will ensure that the pop star “continues to rock and ‘ROLL’ forever.”

There have been some other very strange purchases made by online casino sites; one website in particular is famous for buying bizarre items on auction. This is Golden Palace Casino. They are the proud (sic) owners of a grilled cheese sandwich that looks like the Virgin Mary, William Shatner’s kidney stone, a supposedly used pregnancy test once belonging to Britney Spears, a piece of sheet metal which is apparently emblazoned with the image of a face resembling; some say – the Virgin Mary, others claim  Jim Morrison.

A recent acquisition is four (4?!) toilets from the home of deceased Grateful Dead band leader- Jerry Garcia, a French-fry from Maccy D’s that looks like Abraham Lincoln, and the pièce de résistance – Suri Cruise’ poop. Apparently this must-have item for all eccentric parents was captured after her first solid meal, then cast in bronze by artist Daniel Edwards; no doubt using the lost wax process.

While it might seem extremely frivolous for an online casino to spend $25 000 on a “spent” kidney stone; nearly all of these items have been purchased to raise funds for various charities. Golden Palace Casino has one of the best collections of the absurd, and much like Ripley’s; they regularly take the show on the road. Look out for it coming to your town!