Bet From Anywhere Blog

Internet gambling is the future of the casino industry, whether it’s approved at the federal or state level, a panel of online and brick-and-mortar casino executives said Tuesday.

And a New Jersey lawmaker predicted there will be a ballot question next year asking his state’s residents whether to amend the state Constitution to allow Internet gambling.

Speaking at the East Coast Gaming Congress, executives from two online betting organizations and Caesars Entertainment said the Internet provides the gambling industry its best opportunity for growth. But the prospect of a federal law permitting it appears dim in light of recent federal raids on online gambling sites.

More at ABC News.

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Launched in June 2010, Virgin Gaming is quickly becoming the top destination for competitive video game tournaments.  Classifying the competitions as games of skill, Virgin Gaming allows owners of Xbox 360 & PS3 gaming systems to compete directly with friends and bet money on the outcome.  If you don’t have friends, no problem –they provide a Skill Rating to help you find other members to play against, and for other members to find you.

Virgin hosts battles and video game tournaments in most popular games across all categories, including EA Sports, FIFA 11, Football 11, Hockey 11, Fight Night Champion and MMA and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood among many others.

Membership at Virgin Gaming is free and Virgin brings you the Fair Play Guarantee via a reputation management system that makes good sportsmanship a pre-requisite for gaining access to the biggest and best competitions and prizes and automatic results verification ensures that your hard earned victories will be justly rewarded.

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Antigua and Barbuda, which licenses Internet gambling companies, has waged a long battle in the WTO over U.S. efforts to keep Americans from patronizing offshore betting sites. Last week’s shutdown of the three biggest online poker sites has the Caribbean nation ready to go another round.

It contends U.S. crackdowns against foreign betting sites are illegal and protectionist, since gambling for money is permitted in U.S. casinos and since online betting is allowed for state-regulated horse racing in the United States.

More details about the Antigua claim at Reuters.

Tags:   Absolute Poker · antigua · Full Tilt Poker · PokerStars · WTONo Comments.

The repercussions of last week’s bust of three large online casinos by the US federal government is continuing.

• An editorial in the LA Times, suggests that a federal crackdown on Internet poker sites isn’t a good bet for solving problems with online gambling.
  

  The bigger question is whether taking down the U.S. operations of three global websites will solve whatever problem Congress was trying to solve when it declared a prohibition on most forms of Internet gambling. U.S. authorities are swimming against a powerful tide of contrary policies overseas — online gambling is a multibillion-dollar business welcomed by several countries, including England and Ireland. And trying to fence off America from a popular part of the Internet only invites people to find new ways around the law.

• Wynn Resorts said, the company terminated its agreement with PokerStars. Less then a month ago, billionaire Steve Wynn has announced he is joining up with PokerStars, the world’s biggest online gaming company, to establish a strategic relationship that aims to regulate online poker in the U.S.  The original plan was for
  

  PokerStars and Wynn Resorts plan to work together to secure the passage of federal legislation that will regulate online poker in the U.S. with an eye toward setting up a joint venture, PokerStarsWynn.com, that will offer for-money online poker play in the U.S.

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Update: Bloomberg reports Disney’s ESPN Drops Poker Programming After Websites Are Charged.

“We are aware of the indictment only through what has been announced publicly,” Bristol, Connecticut-based ESPN said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “For the immediate future, we are making efforts to remove related advertising and programming pending further review.”

On Friday, 11 people, including the founders of the three largest online poker companies doing business in the U.S.—PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker—were charged with offenses including bank fraud, money laundering and online-gambling offenses.

Yesterday, Bradley Franzen, one of 11 people charged last week with being part of an online gambling conspiracy, pleaded not guilty before a U.S. magistrate in New York.

Franzen, 41, of Illinois and Costa Rica, is accused of lying to banks about the nature of the transactions they were processing, and of creating fake companies and websites to disguise payments to poker companies.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have alleged the poker companies, which are located outside the U.S., tried to sidestep U.S. laws prohibiting banks and credit card issuers from processing gambling payments by disguising billions of dollars from U.S. gamblers as payments to nonexistent online merchants for golf balls, jewelry, flowers and other merchandise.

This crackdown is far stronger than any seen from the Bush administration, and is disappointing for those who had hoped for a better stance on civil liberties from the Obama administration. [Read more →]

Tags:   Absolute Poker · Full Tilt Poker · PokerStars · The Poker Players AllianceNo Comments.