It’s the end of the race for female poker players

Showing a strong headstart in CBS’s Amazing Race, Maria and Tiffany finally ended their race around the world. In their Netherlands leg, the poker stars’ stamina and skills were tested.

Even with Brian and Erica being at the last having the difficulty in their bell tower task, but the female poker professionals just had lost their luck in the game in the detour task.

In their detour, they were asked to choose between two of Netherlands’ past time: Farmer’s Game or Farmer’s Dance. In Farmer’s game, the players are asked to wear Netherlands’ clothes, ride a bike, cross a river and play a golf-like game. In the game, they should place the ball in the hole within just 8 strokes. If the strike the ball more than 8 times they’re going to start over the game.

In Farmer’s dance, the players are asked to wear the same clothes, hit a button with a huge mallet and if it reaches the highest possible in the meter, then they would learn a traditional Netherlands dance and would dance it with the troupe. Finally, after the dance, they would eat some fish prepared for them.

Both detour tasks gave Maria and Tiffany a hard time. They first chose Farmer’s dance but found themselves having difficulties in hitting the button with the mallet and took them at most 60 plus hits. They gave up with 30 hits, changed task with Farmer’s game and found themselves struggling once again with the wind blowing hard making it difficult for them to hit the ball further.

They went back to the Farmer’s Dance task but couldn’t make it. They went back to Farmer’s Game task with the wind blowing harder and a bit drizzling. With that, they were the last of the pack and finally quit on the task having them eliminated.

People were expecting the poker tandem to have a strong end since they are used to strategizing in poker. But somehow, the physicality of the game made it difficult for them to move thus eliminated them. The poker community could be both saddened and proud of what Maria and Tiffany showed in the race.

Google Ad’s Restriction on promoting Online Gambling

The rise of online gambling has brought a greater demand from players all over the globe. Moreso, software companies have been dwelling on creating more software for online casinos. With this, more and more online casinos exist giving providing higher and tighter competitions.

Since online gambling is a serious business, and since the revenues are high, every online casino would give much effort to market and advertise their sites for more players to visit and play. There are cross-casino advertising, advertising in sites that speaks about online gambling, and the likes. But one entity that these sites cannot advertise in is Google.

Google, being one of the search engines and advertising giants, have certain restrictions on advertising online gambling in their company. Not all online gambling sites can promote and advertise.

According to an article in online-casinos.com, Google have made a couple or more restrictions on advertising and promoting online gambling in Google Ads. It states that these online gambling sites cannot post advertisements in other countries “except those for state license entities in Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, Portugal, Spain, New Zealand, and Sweden”. Other online betting and wagering sites can penetrate through other states and countries so long as they are licensed and authorized to operate.

In Google’s context of online gambling, it is defined as but is not limited to “sports books and sports betting lotteries, bingo, poker, sites that provide tips, odds, and handicapping, software facilitating online casinos and gambling, gambling tutoring online, gambling-related eBooks, ‘play for fun’ gambling or casino games of skill, including sites where the primary purpose is ‘play for fun’ gambling, or affiliate sites with the primary purpose of driving traffic to online gambling sites.”

With certain restrictions, probably gaining a wider market is quite impossible. Although measures are done to pave the way for online gambling to penetrate any market everywhere, it is yet closest to impossible as of the moment.

Online Poker Online Debate

Say that a thousand more times and that would be a perfect tongue twister! Excellently, that title serves 2 purposes – the tongue twister being one.

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 Online poker, as one of the most talked about topic and issue these days, always set the trend: poker rooms and poker software developed to be better every day; bonuses to entice players are getting bigger; gaming platforms improving from time to time; and even the players getting better at their strategy. There’s no denying that online poker is all around even in intellectual matters.

The news has been filled about them especially on its legalization. From proposal of the said bill to amend internet gambling laws to further developments, the media has been following this matter. And lately, online poker has been set into hot debates in every angle there is. Not that it hasn’t been that debatable and phenomenal in argumentations, but this time, there’s a better avenue to air out concerns and ideas on online poker.

There is now an online poker online debate: a community site which tackles on different issues of the different aspects in online poker. Is poker evil? Should it be legalized? Is it a good business to invest? Is poker a game of luck or a game of skill? All these discussed in one site.

So if you want your views and ideas on online poker be heard, or if you want to rebut existing views that you find quite wrong… then speak.

Two countries, different moves on online gambling

The online gambling world has been expanding by the day. Any business online would want to involve themselves in online gaming since it is a fast-rising, high-earning industry. Companies from different sectors would want to invest in online gaming – advertising, marketing, and the likes.

Like companies, different states and countries would want to invest in online gambling. It has been known that online gambling would give huge revenue to a state or country only if it is regulated. However, not all are much pleased to this. Some see gambling as morally wrong, and that is might cause addiction. Opposing forces has been airing an exchange of intellectual rebuttals of the said topic. And like them, two countries have made opposing decisions regarding this matter.

The National Assembly in France recently approved the legislation “to license private companies for online gambling.” With this, a 2% tax would be taken from licensed online gambling companies. Companies who are service online gambling games like poker, horse racing, and sports betting are allowed to operate since their government believes that such are games of skills. Otherwise, if they operate other games of luck, they wouldn’t be given any license to operate.

Contrary to France is China which recently banned foreign participation in China’s market.

The General Administration of Press and Publication, which serves as the online video gaming industry regulator in China, sees China as “a target of considerable potential for many ambitious Internet gambling operators.” With this comes the banning of China to make deals and contracts with foreign companies providing technical support. This move was said “to eliminate unhealthy and illegal online content”, and even games that includes gang violence or those mafia-type games.

 Different their views may be, it would all depend on how legislators see online gaming and online gambling as something that would benefit or ruin the state, country, or the fellowmen themselves.

The table is now open…

Game developers in Australia and New Zealand are now bracing themselves for the much awaited awarding on who’s the best among the bests.

The Game Developer’s Association of Australia (GDAA) has opened the table for nominations for the annual GDAA Game Developers Awards. Being the home of video-game development industry, the awarding body caters to game developers in Australia and New Zealand wherein, though the world is experiencing a global financial crisis, continues to grow in the industry.

The aim of this event is to give due recognition to outstanding local achievement in the region. The organizers of this event are promising a closer fight between software development companies than it was last year.

Categories of the GDAA Game Developers Awards includes: Best Game, Best New Start-up (or Adam Lancman Award), Best Console Title, Best PC Title, Best Handheld Title, Best Mobile Title, Best Gameplay, Best Graphics, Best Audio, and for the first time, Best Downloadable Title.

The award giving body only caters nominations to games developed in Australia and New Zealand that have been release between November 1 of 2008 and November 6 of 2009. Nominations of the said awards for all the categories would be closed on November 6, Friday, 5PM.

Online Poker Software Updates and the kinks along the development

The development of online poker software comes every once in a while especially when poker players are asking for more from the software they’re using or from the online casino that they frequently visit. Aside from raking in the dollars and earning much from their game’s payout, players would like to opt for well-developed poker software that would give them utmost accessibility and functionality.

That’s why recent update on online poker software has been made. Some software has been updated to fix problems most especially to Mac users. These software were said to have “intolerable wait time in logging in, hold cards dealt face down, lost connection with servers, lagging action problems, Frequent Player Points, and break synchronization within multi-table tourneys”. These problems have sometimes brought lost money in the player’s pot.

However, integrating these updates weren’t as easy as it seems. The solutions to certain software problems have yet to set other problems especially on third party software.

Third party software allows players to track game and tournament components, gives detailed hand history and gaming patterns – basically playing a big role in a player’s game strategy. If these third party software wouldn’t work, it would leave the player “limping” on his game.

On their end, software developers of these third party software are also trying to match with the updates done by online poker software developers to fully support gamers on their online gaming.

Online Gambling Security 101

Since the growing popularity of online gambling, a lot of online casinos have emerged through the internet. Some have been there for quite some time now having been able to gather the players’ trust. While some are new, with a lot of promising offers to compete with online casinos that’ve already been online for quite some time.

Players, on the other hand, are divided as markets of these online casinos. Some players love the comfort of the online casino that they’ve been used to, while some are quiet bored in old and are looking for that refresher.

As players go from casino to casino, or as newbies would like to search for an online casino, there are a lot of factors they would want to consider – payout, game design, accessibility, and security. Security is one big factor in online gambling. From the word itself, online gambling doesn’t really sound 100% reliable. 1. It is ONLINE. People can falsify identity and information, and 2. It is GAMBLING. It involves money, and money is a good motive for someone to be fraudulent just to acquire a huge sum of money.

When we speak of an online casino’s security, it would always include a secure encryption technology (so that personal and sensitive information won’t be hacked), a gambling license (which would mean that the online casino is legally monitored), a reputable software provider (preferably with technical support), and with certified payouts (a casino should be transparent with regards to money matters).

Once all those are in your chosen online casino, whether old or new, it is safe to assume that your online casino is secure. With that thought, you can enjoy online gambling with utmost enjoyment and ease.

Reference:

 http://www.casinotop10.net/security-and-online-gambling-552.shtml

Live vs. Online Poker Playing

So what’s the difference between playing in a live poker room and online poker playing? There are lots of differences that people can pinpoint but surely, most of poker enthusiast would prefer online poker playing.

It’s the same game and same rules – but the experience and the feel is different. Online poker playing has given live poker a new life making it more accessible to more poker players.

Accessibility is one. In online poker playing, one need not go to a live casino to play. There’s no more driving how many miles (that is if there’s no casino nearby) – all that’s to be done is to turn on the computer, have an internet connection, secure a bank account, and sign-up to a trusted online casino and you’re on.

In online poker, one can play multiple tables at the same time. This would allow a player to play multiple hands, and probably win more than just playing at one table in a live casino. This would require more concentration and attention to the player though since poker is a game where you need to see every move of your opponents. Playing two or more tables might take away your concentration from one table to the other.

Although there is less interaction in online poker playing (the biggest disadvantage it have), the best way to know win in online poker is to observe your opponents moves to see if there’s any betting pattern of each one of them. For sure, these players play in a certain pattern that, if you’re observant enough, would be easy to catch and counter, and would probably give you that win.

At some points, live and online poker playing have their own advantages and disadvantages – all would depend on which kind of game would suit you better.

Government-run online gambling? It is possible.

North America has just proven that the government can make online gambling work, thanks to British Columbia.

It has been a long fight for online gambling and its legalization in the United States with constant debates of the pros and cons of the said “sport”. Suggestions of having it regulated by the government have been the constant blow of online gamblers in the United States. And now, their northern neighbor spoke for them.

The British Columbia Lottery Commission (BCLC) retooled their website now offering online casino gaming, having their own state-operated source for online gambling. The BCLC decided to offer casinos games in their website to answer the demands of online gaming – considering that this could help in increasing the state’s revenue. However, they would like to keep the revenue within the city, which is just right and appropriate.

With this move of the BCLC, Canadian residents are now free to enjoy legal and regulated online gambling. Players are allowed to choose their own weekly deposit limit ranging from $1 – $9,999. For proper regulation, these online games are only available to residents within British Columbia and should be at least 19 years of age. To keep the gaming safe and secure, some safety features (like an on screen display of the appropriate odds and a timer to show how long the player has been playing) are being incorporated in online gambling. BCLC also considered some ways to avoid problem gaming by placing bet limits and giving gaming reminders to the players.

With this recent move by the British Columbian government, they could show a perfect example to the United Stated that the government can regulate online gambling – and even use it for its advantage. And from here, United States can benchmark from them for a possible online gambling legalization.

Online poker legalization’s continues struggle

As the fight to legalize online poker continues, the U.S. court also strengthens its hold on banning internet gambling. Both sides have been tagging strongly against each other on whose fight would win in the end. Surely, the fight for online poker legalization has been and will be a long struggle and might take a longer time than it is expected.

As many statements were said by the side of Poker Players Alliance and their supporters in different news, they would not want to prolong the hearing regarding online poker legalization. They fear that prolonging this would give much time for the opposition to think more arguments against the legalization of online poker, and furthermore argue, debate and oppose the proposal.

The delay perhaps have effected to what they fear of. Recently, a U.S. appeals court upheld an internet gambling ban. Philadelphia’s 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association’s arguments stating that the federal prohibition was too vague and that it violated privacy right. This argument is IMEGA’s move to legalize online poker in New Jersey.

Although many states, not only New Jersey, have been fighting for online poker legalization, the Justice Department found it easier to gain victory over the ruling since these states have not expressly addressed their concerns to fight for online poker legalization. At this note, it has made the federal court stand strong and hold firmly on its opposition towards the legalization of online poker.

Both forces seem to stand strong on what they believe is right for the common good. They’re pulling off more and more arguments against each other. But if poker communities would want online poker be legalized, then they are pushing enough arguments. They might need stronger arguments and rebuttals to finally pursue online poker legalization.