The hearing for the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2267), also known as the anti-UIGEA bill, took place before the House Financial Services Committee on December 3. The general consensus was that the hearing projected a favorable picture for the regulation of online gambling.

Chairman of the committee and sponsor of the anti-UIGEA bill, Barney Frank, made the opening statement. He highlighted that the Government cannot tell adult Americans “what they should with their own money on their own time on their own computer”. He went on to say that there were several things on the Internet that were unsuitable for minors. Banning all those things just because some people may have abused the system is a threat to individual liberty.

Several experts testified that technologies were available to overcome the so called ills of Internet gambling such as underage gambling, compulsive gambling, money laundering, fraud and identity theft. Parry Aftab of WiredSafety, the Internet safety and help group, said that relevant technologies were being used in other Internet based industries and could be adapted to online gambling. The technologies are continuously improving as well. Professor Malcolm K. Sparrow of Harvard University cited his study that had concluded that combining regulation with education, technology and support would offer better protection to online casino players.

Samuel Vallandingham, representing the Independent Community Bankers of America, stated that the banking community will never be able to comply with the UIGEA rules. In order to meet the new rules the banking community would have to withdraw resources from combating terror and money laundering, from complying with the regulations imposed by the financial crisis and even from the day to day transactions. He added that the whole issue was made more difficult because no clear definition of illegal online gambling exists. Therefore he said that the banking industry was firmly supporting Frank’s bill.

The opponents of Internet gambling also spoke at the hearing. They were led by Republican Spencer Bachus, who insisted that the UIGEA should be implemented as soon as possible. In a new argument he referred to an FBI letter that claimed that collusion was possible in online gambling. Opposition on a different front came from Robert Martin, tribal chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in California. Martin claimed that legalizing online gambling would be hurt the gambling rights given to Indians. Barney Frank refuted this claim, pointing out that the Morongo had tried to enact laws in California that would give them exclusive control over Internet gambling.

Barney Frank closed the hearing stating that the House Financial Services Committee would set another date next year for debate and mark up. There was no vote taken at this hearing.

It is Christmas time and most online casinos are devising their promotions on Christmas based themes. Sloto’ Cash online casino has come out with two Christmas promotions for its players. One is Reindeer Riches Give-Away and the other is 12 Days of Christmas.

In Reindeer Riches Give-Away for every $50 that the players deposit and wager at Sloto’ Cash online casino between December 1 and December 23 they will be awarded one Reindeer. Players who collect at least 10 Reindeers before December 23 will receive two benefits. The first benefit is a free bonus of $50 that will be automatically credited to their account. The second benefit is a free entry to a lucky draw that has a prize pool of $5,000. This amount will be share by 133 players. The first prize is of $1,000; the second prize is of $500; the third prize is of $250 and there are 130 runners up prizes of $25 each. All prizes will be credited on December 24 so that players can utilize them on Christmas Day.

The 12 Days of Christmas bonuses begin with a Partridge in a Pear Tree bonus of $10 for a deposit of at least $25. Then over the next 11 days players will receive a match bonus with the percentage increasing as in the famous Christmas song. The details are as follows.
20% for Two Turtle Doves
30% for Three French Hens
40% for Four Calling Birds
50% for Five Golden Rings
60% for Six Geese a Laying
70% for Seven Swans a Swimming
80% for Eight Maids a Milking
90% for Nine Ladies Dancing
100% for Ten Lords a Leaping
110% for Eleven Pipers Piping
120% for Drummers Drumming

Another promotion at Sloto’ Cash online casino that was started for its affiliates will be ending next week. Depending on the number of customers that the affiliate gets between October 15 and December 15, he will be given a number of tickets to a lucky draw. At stake are 10 Acer Mini Laptops in the color of the winner’s choice. The options available are Black, White, Blue, Brown and Pink. Also given away will be Christmas hampers containing wine, beer and food items. The lucky draw will take place on December 16.

Sloto’ Cash online casino is owned by Deckmedia N.V. and licensed by the Curacao Gaming Commission. It is powered by Rival Gaming. Players can check out the Christmas themed online slot game Winter Wonders. New players who join Sloto’ Cash online casino are entitled to a maximum welcome bonus of $577.

Ruby Royal online casino invites its players to “Have a Ruby Christmas” with three new and generous promotions that celebrate the spirit of giving.

The first promotion is the Ruby Christmas Bonus Bash. This promotion has already begun on December 1 and will run till Christmas Day. Players will be offered a surprise deposit bonus every day along with other freebies. The details of the bonuses will not be put up at the website of the casino but players will be required to log into their accounts on a daily basis to check out what that day has in store for them.

Ruby Royal online casino is offering some fantastic gifts this Christmas in a lucky draw scheme. A brand new 42 inch LCD TV, 4 I-pod touch units and plenty of Amazon gift vouchers are up for grabs. In order to be eligible for the lucky draw players have to make at least the minimum deposit in their casino accounts between December 1 and December 25. The names of the winners will be declared on December 27.

Ruby Royal online casino has saved the best promotion for the last. This promotion involves a wagering competition on the Rival Gaming Christmas themed online slot game Winter Wonders. In order to participate in this competition, players will have to make the minimum deposit between December 1 and December 31. They will then have to start wagering on Winter Wonders. Those players who have made the deposit will automatically be entered in the competition and their wagering on Winter Wonders will be tracked by Ruby Royal online casino. The top five players who have wagered the most on this slot game during the promotion period will share the prize pool of $1,000. The names of the winners will be announced on January 4, 2010. Players who are wagering in euros or British pounds will get their prizes in the currency of wagering.

Winter Wonders is a 5 reel and 15 payline slot game. Santa Claus is the wild symbol and hands out goodies by doubling the payouts. His sleigh is a scatter symbol and triggers the free spins bonus round in which players are awarded 10 free spins at triple the payouts. Other symbols include bells, candles, turkey, stocking, candy cane and Christmas tree. The highest fixed jackpot pays out 5000 coins. Hence even if players do not make it to the top five there are plenty of opportunities for winning in the Winter Wonders online slot game.

Ruby Royal is a Rival Gaming powered online casino. It has been licensed by the Curacao Gaming Commission. The operations of Ruby Royal online casino are regularly audited by Technical Services Testing.

The Grand Prive group had been running a number of popular online casinos powered by Microgaming for over a decade. In August 2008 the group announced its decision to close operations from December 1, 2008. According to the Grand Prive management all accounts with the affiliates were settled. However there has been considerable and rising discontent at Internet forums against Grand Prive Affiliates, which managed the affiliate program of the online casino group. Therefore in order to protect its business reputation and to make amends to any affiliate members if required, Grand Prive has commissioned eCOGRA to carry out an independent and comprehensive probe into the closure.

While entrusting eCOGRA with the investigation, the Grand Prive group has given the following clarifications to the online casino industry at large. The closure of the online casinos was only for commercial reasons. All affiliates were paid as per the contract terms in force. Extra compensation was paid to affiliates who had active players and would be incurring an opportunity loss because of the closure. No complaint has been directly addressed to Grand Prive in the matter of payment to affiliates.

Grand Prive has also made the following commitments in connection with the eCOGRA investigation. eCOGRA will place it findings in the public domain. Grand Prive will not interfere with the enquiry but will submit all information it is asked to by eCOGRA. The most important commitment is that Grand Prive will accept the findings of eCOGRA without demur and will abide by the recommendations made by eCOGRA. eCOGRA has been given the authority to solicit any claims from any member of the Grand Prive Affiliate program.

The entire software and database of Grand Prive online casinos has been made available to eCOGRA so that its professional staff can trace the payments due to the affiliate members and verify whether the payments were made. eCOGRA has simultaneously initiated a process of collecting claims of non-payment directly from affiliate members. In an e-mail sent across the Internet to subscribers of its newsletters, eCOGRA has sought assistance from Internet forums and watchdog organizations in publicizing this request so that aggrieved affiliates step forward. eCOGRA has provided the Internet address of the site where the claims can be lodged. This is www.ecogra.org/grandprive.aspx. A claim form will have to be filled by the affiliate providing stated details so that eCOGRA can verify the claim. A last date of December 21, 2009 has been set by eCOGRA for receiving the claims.

Given eCOGRA’s expertise, professionalism and integrity, the online casino players’ community should welcome this move by the Grand Prive management. If there is any affiliate who has not been compensated adequately according to the findings of eCOGRA, then Grand Prive will issue an apology and make the required financial settlement.

The Playtech progressive jackpot online slot game Beach Life has drawn a lot of traffic in the past month. As the cold winter sets in online casino players would find the sunny beaches displayed in Beach Life an attraction. However the real reason for the unprecedented wagering is that the progressive jackpot amount has reached almost $4 million and is growing fast.

Beach Life was last hit 169 days ago and reset to $50,000. Since then it has had a great run growing at an average of $23,000 a day. The current growth is around $30,000 a day. It is in the nature of progressive jackpots to start growing faster as they reach higher amounts. The amount wagered remains the same and as the jackpot grows it provides greater value for money. Also there is the expectation that it will be hit shortly. Both these factors bringing added traffic. With more traffic the jackpot grows faster and as it grows more traffic enters. Hence it becomes a self propelling cycle and that is what is happening with Beach Life.

At the time of writing the progressive jackpot amount stands at $3.98 million. It will cross $4 million by the end of the day if it is not hit. The total payouts from Beach Life over the last 365 days have been about $4 million at an average rate of $1.86 million. Viewed in this perspective one can understand the excitement that this progressive jackpot online slot is currently generating. On an average it has been hit every 75 days in the last year. The last hit took place 170 days ago. Though progressive jackpots can be hit any time the fact that the last hit a place at more than twice the average period between hits does work on the minds of online casino slots players.

Once Beach Life crosses the $4 million mark the next stop is $4,238,508. This is the highest hit recorded on Beach Life. The hit took place way back in August 2008. In another ten days Beach Life should cross this landmark if not hit before then. However, Beach Life will have a long way to go if it is to cross the largest ever jackpot hit across all progressive slots. Microgaming’s Mega Moolah was hit for over $6 million less than a year ago. This comparison is a bit unfair because Mega Moolah resets at $1 million while Beach Life resets at $0.05 million.

Beach Life can be played at all Playtech online casinos. CasinoAdvisor recommends Casino Tropez, Casino Del Rio, Omni Casino, Play United Casino and Golden Palace Casino.

Online casino PlatinumPlay has released the new Thunderstruck video slot, which will take players back to a time when Thor, the Norse god of thunder, ruled over his kingdom with an electric gaze and an iron fist.

Malta-licensed PlatinumPlay revealed that Thunderstruck is a five-reel nine-payline online video slot offering a maximum betting option of 45 coins with a ceiling jackpot of 150,000 coins.

The graphics for Thunderstruck are characterised by blowing winds and warriors beating drums while a crack of lightning accompanies a flash from Thor’s eyes every time a player completes a winning combination.

Thunderstruck comes complete with a Thor ‘wild’ and ‘multiplier’ symbol, which replaces every other symbol with the exception of the ‘Scatter’, to both complete and double a player’s winnings.

The ‘scatter’ is represented by a ram and a player can win 15 free spins in the bonus round where all prizes are tripled by revealing two or more of these symbols on any of the reels.

The Microgaming-powered online casino revealed that Thunderstruck also comes complete with a ‘gamble’ game, which is optional for players. This extra amusement gives players the chance to predict a winning combination or colour for the opportunity to double their winnings.

Leading online poker site BoylePoker will hold a special $10 buy-in $1,000 added bounty tournament on Wednesday evening to celebrate signing a sponsorship deal with Irish professional player Nicky Power.

Power is regarded as an expert at six-man sit-and-go tournaments and joins Marty Smyth and Padraig Parkinson as a sponsored BoylePoker pro.

The site’s special tournament will take place on December 16 from 8pm London time with $250 on Power’s head along with $25 on the heads of three others.

Known for his witty table talk and infectious enthusiasm for the game, BoylePoker stated that Power is one of the most popular and consistent players on the Irish poker landscape. It stated that Power stumbled into professional poker after completing a Masters Degree in Accounting as a mature student in September of 2004. He began by competing in online freerolls and joined small hold’em game in a local pub.

He found the game came easy to him due to ‘an aptitude for numbers coupled with a misspent youth playing seven-card stud and draw poker’ and had soon taken down one of the top events on the Irish poker calendar, the €1,100 buy-in Macau Winter Festival Main Event for €20,000. After this initial success, which came after only nine months, Power made the decision to try his hand as a full-time player and quit his job as an accountant.

“It’s an honour to be signed to such a strong and successful team as BoylePoker,” said Power.

“The site is well known as one of the best value and fun places to play online and I hope I can do them proud wearing the lucky logo.”

Power first came to the attention of most poker fans in 2007 during the Irish Open where he finished in sixth spot to win $133,000.

“Nicky is a great asset to have,” said Paul Spillane, Head Of Poker for BoylePoker.

“He’s a formidable poker player, a great ambassador for the game and a fun-loving and popular guy to boot so we expect he’ll have a great impact as the latest BoylePoker pro and we welcome him into the family.”

Microgaming-powered online casino CaptainCooksCasino has been awarded with a Seal Of Approval by player protection and standards organisation eCommerce And Online Gaming Regulation And Assurance (eCOGRA).

The recognition means that Kahnawake-licensed CaptainCooksCasino meets the independent body’s standards for quality in the online gaming industry including prompt payments, safe storage of information, random games, honest advertising and responsible behaviour.

The award was announced last week following the online casino passing eCOGRA’s auditing standards with ‘flying colours’. It means that CaptainCooksCasino offers the most secure online gaming environment possible including industry-standard 128-bit SSL encryption to make depositing and withdrawing money as safe and convenient as using a local bank.

CaptainCooksCasino offers all new players £500 for free and one hour to use the complimentary bonus to try its range of blackjack, poker, roulette and slots games. Any money won in that hour can then be carried over into the main casino where six-figure jackpots await.

The online casino currently offers 347 games but revealed that new titles are being added each month to ensure that every taste and level is satisfied.

Fans of the popular Wheel Of Wealth slot can now compete against others after Gibraltar-licensed Casino. Ladbrokes released a multi-player version of the title.

The five-reel 25-payline title multi-player version of Wheel Of Wealth comes complete with a gamble feature offering players the chance to double their winnings while the base game has a jackpot of up to 100,000 coins.

In addition, the slot has bonus features offering an additional 50,000 coins as well as multipliers to increase winnings alongside a chat function. Most impressively, the multi-player Wheel Of Wealth comes complete with a feature that sees rewards shared between all other players when any one competitor triggers the bonus feature.

To celebrate the launch of its new slot, the download online casino is running a special prize draw promotion from now until December 28 giving away 500 free spins every week.

In order to take part, players must have an account and have spent at least ten pounds on the multi-player variant of Wheel Of Wealth and turned over £60. For this, they will be entered into a prize draw that is awarding ten players each week with 50 free spins on the game.

Leading online casino 32Red has revealed that one lucky player recently took home over £25,000 courtesy of a promotion that is awarding free bets on its Major Millions slot.

The award-winning Gibraltar-based online casino stated that new player Brett Hill hit a trio of jackpot symbols to trigger the £25,000 payout and instantly change his Christmas plans.

“We have given our children a bit of cash for Christmas and I have just returned from picking up my wife’s brand new car as a result of the win,” said Hill.

“I’m saving the rest for a holiday or just a rainy day as well as having a £1,000 each for Christmas.”

It is not unusual for Major Millions to produce big winners at 32Red with online player ‘Anne C’ taking home over one million pounds last year courtesy of the game’s bonus jackpot. However, this most recent win was outside of that jackpot and was produced through the slot’s regular pay table.

“Brett’s win is amazing,” said Pat Harrison, Operations Director for 32Red.

“He turned the £32 free from 32Red for signing up into £25,000 and, in his own words, changed his Christmas and 2010. 32Red would like to congratulate Brett again and wish him all the best for the New Year.

“Brett’s win demonstrates the strength of Major Millions and of our online slots in general, proving that the big wins are out there to be had.”

Hill revealed that he began ‘dancing around the room like a lunatic’ after receiving news of his win and even asked his wife to double-check his news before he got too carried away.

“I sent the payments team my account details at 10.30 in the morning and noticed my account was in credit by £25,000 just after dinner time,” said Hill.

“The aftercare I was given was second to none; the best of any online casino as most others make you wait a week before getting winnings.”