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Archive for April, 2011

No Risk Gambling Bill May Pass in Australia

Monday, April 25th, 2011

You gotta love the way they do things Down Under. I read this week that the Australians may be in the process of passing a bill that will allow gamblers to claim back any losses that they incur while betting at online sites. You’re reading this right – if you make a bet at an online casino using your credit card, and you lose while gambling, you’ll have the right, under the new law, to claim back those losses.

Nobody was surprised to read that the proposer of this law is none other than Senator Nick Xenophon, the politician who is synonymous with some of the most virulent anti-gambling policies in the country. Xenophon is always on the lookout to take down online gambling sites, and he introduced this new law with what I could only describe as pleasure. “With voided credit card bets, I have to say there’s something appealing to me about online casinos losing their shirts rather than the punters,” he was quoted as saying. “It would certainly make online casinos think twice about accepting Australian cards.”

The bill is scheduled to be tabled next month, but I wonder how far it will actually go in a county where the population certainly loves its punts and over $1 billion was wagered online last year alone.

But Xenophon is not one to give up easily, and he is already eyeing his next battle – against online gambling sites who may not be allowed to advertise through the Australian media, but get their ‘play-for-free’ subsidiaries to do so instead. These affiliated sites not only get to advertise on the airwaves, they also go as far as to sponsor sports teams and get their names on billboards and at sports grounds. Xenophon wants to have their ads restricted as well and see tougher gambling laws overall.

While there are laws that prohibit offshore gambling sites from offering their services, no operator has actually ever been prosecuted – a fact that must certainly make anti-gambling activists such as Senator Xenophon bristle with anger. Oh well.

Tags: australia, Gambling
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Jackpot Happy Progressive Slot Triggers Investigation

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Holland Casinos in the Netherlands, the government controlled gambling entity, has announced an urgent investigation into a progressive slot game that has hit one too many times in the past two years. Last year alone, the slot game, which boasts a massive seed amount, was hit ten times alone, prompting suspicion among management at the state run Holland Casinos. But suspicions turned to instant panic when the jackpot was hit seven times this year already, the latest two wins only two days apart from one another.

The Mega Millions progressive slot game has a EUR 1 million seed, which means that each time the jackpot is hit, the jackpot amount resets at a cool one million bucks. The game is found at all Holland Casinos around the Netherlands and players need to wager a mere EUR 3.75 in order to activate the jackpot and put themselves in line to win this incredible prize. While the game is definitely an attractive one, it has never hit so many times in such a short period of time, and even an amateur would find a suspicious pattern to the wins in the two years or so.

Since 2009 – or a period of 28 months – the Mega Millions has paid out an incredible twenty six times, giving away a total of EUR 30 million! All in all, 26 people from different casinos around the country hit the jackpot and were paid out. Last weekend, a woman hit the jackpot in Rotterdam and only 72 hours later, when the jackpot had only managed to reach the EUR 1,008,000, it was hit once more by a player in Groningen.

It was initially believed that these wins were random and just a matter of a lucky run on that particular progressive slot game which, incidentally, carries the highest jackpot in Holland. However, with the latest two wins, the security department of Holland Casinos has gone into full investigation mode to see whether there is something triggering too many wins on this machine.

It will interesting to see how this story unfolds… watch this space!

Tags: Gambling, holland, progressive jackpot, Slots
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Vancouver Nixes New Expanded Casino

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

In a blow to local gambling businesses and the provincial lottery company, Vancouver city councillors have rejected a proposal to expand a casino in the downtown area of the city. In a unanimous vote, the council told the BC Lottery Corporation, as well BC Pavilion Corp that it would not vote to allow the big new casino as it is believed that BCLC does not do enough to deal with problem gambling and money laundering issues in the province.

The decision was a blow to the BC Pavilion Corp, which hoped to lease adjacent land to the casino, in the hopes that the money would help pay for renovations to the pavilion to the tune of $565 million. The casino company, Paragon, had promised to pay $6 million a year in rent for a 70 year period should the proposal be approved.

The mayor of Vancouver was highly active in pushing for the plan to be voted down by his councillors, saying that “enabling the largest casino in Western Casino in our downtown doesn’t fit with Vancouver’s brand as the world’s most livable city, the green capital, and hotbed for innovation from clean and digital technology to resource management.”

The decision to reject the idea was not made overnight, and councillors sat through seven days of public hearings and hundreds of public speeches in meetings for and against the $500 million proposal. Speakers ranged from health workers, to casino workers, from psychologists to gambling proponents. However, in the end, councillors felt that Vancouver was not yet ready for a mega casino in its downtown and decided to nix the idea today.

While some council members expressed a twinge of regret that Vancouver may be missing out on valuable revenue by rejecting the idea, the overall feel was that the casino simply wasn’t the right thing for the city at this present time. “It was a complete contradiction for what people want in the heart of Vancouver,” said one councillor, Geoff Meggs. “

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Holy Union: When Gambling Meets the Church

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

The Church has always had a love/hate relationship with gambling. One the one hand, clergymen are quick to preach about the ‘evils’ of gambling and urge their followers to steer clear away from the temptation of spending their money on this type of fix which is always compared to alcohol abuse and other vices. Yet on the other hand, many churches have been built with proceeds earned at gambling evenings, lottery type raffles and more. Just think ‘bingo‘ and the first thing that pops into mind is a church hall!

This week, I read the tale of a priest from Ottawa who decided to come clean about his gambling habits and made a public confession to his congregation. His confession came only one day after a PostMedia investigation revealed how far he was in debt and how much money he owed to local casinos. Father Joe LeClair made his tearful apology to the congregation on Sunday morning, telling them that one of the side effects of his depression was the development of a gambling habit.

“I simply went often enough to keep me in the game,” said LeClair. “The highs and lows of winning and losing fed off each other to the point where I realized I had a serious problem.”

Now, it could very well be that LeClair really has a problem and the fact that he’s a man of the cloak or a construction worker makes absolutely no difference – there will always be people with gambling problems. But then, there will also be the other vast majority – in the high 90 percentiles – who DON’T have a gambling problem, and who know very well when to stop playing and how much to spend. By lumping all recreational gamblers under one category and branding them weak and evil, the church is making it taboo, leading people like LeClaire ‘underground’.

The church needs to redefine its position on gambling. It’s no use taking the money from state lotteries, for example, in order to build churches and fund soup kitchens, but on the other hand slamming anyone who looks in the direction of a casino. Believe it or not, a recreational gambler can be a God fearing member of church too!

Just my two cents!

Tags: bingo, Gambling
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Star Gazing: Gambling and Your Horoscope

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

Elements of luck and chance are very much rooted in the world of gambling. Whether you kiss the dice before you throw them across the table, rub your lucky penny before spinning the slot reels or say a prayer before you have a poker hand dealt, the majority of us believe that calling on the powers that be – whoever or whatever they are – will help us win more when we gamble.

I’ve noticed an interesting trend lately. Some gambling portals are offering their players gambling horoscopes. In other words, by checking up your star sign for that particular week, you’ll be able to see how the stars are aligned and how you’ll fare at the online casinos.

For example, if you’re a Taurus, this week you are being warned to “wait all week. Make no other bets than at the weekend. Think positive and you’ll pull it off.” Pisces are told that “this week, all your bets will be coming in possibly for the first time. You’ve always struggled to make any real cash from sports betting but now is the time to take a bow and enjoy the money.”

Even people who don’t usually follow the horoscopes in every day life turn to gambling horoscopes to find out whether today (or this week) is a good time to gamble. Gamblers want to know ahead of time which days are going to luckier for them so that they can plan their gaming sessions for those days.

The reading of stars to plot our life’s journey and know what is in store for us is an age-old tradition, which began with the ancient Greeks who believed that a person’s life is pre-determined by the positioning of the moon and the sun and the constellations that were present when the person was born. This practice soon spread throughout the world, becoming more ‘mainstream’ when William Lilly made it acceptable to churchgoers by naming it Christian Astrology.

Today, many gamblers rely heavily on gambling horoscopes to plot their own sessions, and have brought this very ancient tradition into the ultra modern world of online gambling.

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Macau Offers the World’s Tallest Bungee Jump

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

A visit to Macau definitely appears on my list of places-to-see-before-I-die and the more I read about this amazing place, the more I am tempted to hop on a plane and visit right now. Not only is this Chinese peninsula known as the capital of the Asian gambling world, it is also known for other super tourist attractions – with more in the pipeline as this area expands.

One of the reasons that Macau has been bumped to the top of my list is the fact that I read about Macau Tower this week. Apparently, this is extreme sport paradise at its most extreme! Macau Tower is not for the faint hearted and anybody who starts to get weak at the knees if they’re anywhere above 2 m should stick to the slot machines on ground zero!

The bungee jump off Macau Tower has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest bungee jump in the world and the 233 m jump definitely looks impressive from the sidelines! Die hard bungee fans claim that since the rebounds are controlled by a cable guide system, the Macau Tower bungee can’t be considered a true bungee jump. But, if you take into account that the five second free fall is the longest in existence, then it can technically be said that this is the world’s highest bungee jump.

If you’re into going up, rather than down, you may want to opt to climb to the mast of Macau Tower. You’ll be climbing 100 m from the 61st floor of the building to the 338 m pinnacle of the tower, a climb that should take you around 2 hours. Prerequites are that you come in good physical condition, although you don’t need to have had previous experience in climbing.

After a hard day of climbing up or jumping down the tower, what could be better than hitting the casino floors, getting in a couple of hours of great gambling action at the blackjack tables or slot machines. Macau rivals no other place – not even Vegas – for its 24/7 gambling action and non-stop entertainment… see you there some day!

Tags: blackjack, macau, Slots
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Helen Mirren Tells of her Lottery Dream

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

The vast majority of us dream about winning the lottery, but that’s because we can always do with that extra cash to pay off our mortgage, fix up our car or take that dream holiday that we know we’ll never be able to afford on our current salary. Buying the lottery ticket is like buying a fantasy, and even if we know that the odds of us winning are minute, at least we can fantasize what we’re going to do with the millions if we ever win.

But have you ever stopped to think that celebs also buy lottery tickets? My first reaction when I heard this the other day was: ‘What for?’ After all, when you’re earning seven digit sums on movies, why would you even waste your time buying a lottery ticket?

Well, it turns out that movie stars have their ownlottery dreams. Take Helen Mirren, for example, one of the most respected actresses of all times. In a recent interview, Mirren said that she still buys lottery tickets, and when she was asked why, she said it was to pay for her Italian castle. It turns out that the poor dear purchased an Italian castle in 2007, in the stunning area of Puglia, and now needs a hefty amount to refurbish it.

“When the lottery gets big, up to $50 million, I buy a ticket, because maybe I will win,” she said. “It’s a fantasy we all have.”

It seems that Dame Mirren has been inspired by her roles in films such Elizabeth I and The Queen and wanted to own her own piece of royal property. However, owning a castle definitely comes with a price tag. A 500 year old castle like the one Mirren purchased is usually in less than pristine condition, and Mirren and her husband Tylor Hackford were well aware that they’d have to pour literally millions of dollars in to make the place habitable. But I guess, if you have a talent like Mirren’s and know that you’ll be making top paying movies for a long while still, buying a castle may not seem such a crazy thing – even if you need the lottery to keep it going!

Tags: Lottery
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