If this legislation passes, Illinois could have the head start on online gambling in the USA, where online gambling is still largely illegal in most states. Cullerton hopes to make Illinois the worldwide epicentre of online poker and other iGaming ventures, and has stressed that once other states hop on board of the loosening laws surrounding internet gambling, that Illinois could be a hub for inter-state gambling as well as worldwide online gambling.

The law would make online gambling legal for everyone who is physically inside of the state of Illinois, as well as compel providers to offer time limits and spending limits to gamblers.

Related articles

• IL Senate president proposes iGaming plan for the state(illinois.statehousenewsonline.com)

  ---

• DOJ Says Wire Act Only Applies to Sports Betting(pokerlistings.com)

  ---

• Illinois sells lottery online as jackpot soars(sfgate.com)

  ---

Thousands of gamers flocked to midnight release events held around the world, and the game has sold out in many stores already. A lot has happened in the world of technology since 2000, when Diablo II was released. With new graphics, deeper worlds, more combat and a wider range of ways to interact online, Diablo III will offer an experience that is way beyond what its predecessor could dream of.

There have been plenty of frustrated gamers who have ranked the game low, giving it a three out of ten rating on several gaming sites, but pundits say this kind of reaction is normal for people whose expectations have been building for over a decade.

We fully expect a few members of the Casino Jones team to disappear for the next few days – see you on the flipside of the Diablo III riot.

Related articles

• Diablo III Servers Feel The Strain On Launch Day(geeky-gadgets.com)

  ---

• Diablo III is going live, but is Diablo still relevant?(reviews.cnet.com)

  ---

• Diablo III “Servers are down” fix in the works(slashgear.com)

  ---

• Diablo III player finishes campaign 12 hours after release(digitaltrends.com)

  ---

Located in a four-storey building that used to be the Higbee department store, the Horseshoe Cleveland will be a far cry from the Las Vegas-style casinos popping up elsewhere around the world. With no extravagant attractions like Eiffel Tower copycats – instead, the Horseshoe is built on pared-down, sensible Mid-West values. While it’s modest on the outside, the interior’s art-deco style exudes glamour and has over 2,000 slot machines, over 60 table games and a massive World Series of Poker room.

While complimentary drinks are par for the course in casinos, Ohio’s state laws forbid complimentary liquor and it’ll be interesting to see how sober the casino’s revenues are in regards to this unique problem. Critics are (as ever) wary of the problems a new casino would bring to the community, but with an increase in tourism and over 1,600 jobs already created, it may be a good bet for Cleveland, which has been badly affected with America’s recession cutting back so many manufacturing jobs over the last few years.

Related articles

• Cleveland Casino To Mark Ohio Gambling Debut(cleveland.cbslocal.com)

  ---

• Ohio’s first casino bets on big first-day crowds(mysanantonio.com)

  ---

Marina Bay Sands Casino, Singapore (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ho Boon Keat joined several other accomplices in a scam which involved someone on the casino floor claiming to have made a winning bet on a Sic Bo table. The scammers would argue with the dealer and eventually the pit boss would contact Ho to analyze the security footage. He would then falsely state that the bet had been made and the scammers would be paid out by the casino.

This process repeated itself thirty-three times from July to August 2011. This is the first time a security footage monitor has been implicated in a Singaporean casino scam.

They chose the most lucrative chance-based game, Sic Bo, which is a dice-based game that pays out up to 180 times one’s bet if three dice come up the same number. It would be these massive winning rolls that the scamsters would pretend to bet upon.

Ho Boon Keat received a three year jail sentence, and his accomplices have yet to be sentenced.

Related articles

• Cheating gamblers hide cameras on casino tables (casinojones.com)
• S’pore to become world’s second-biggest gaming hub this year? (todayonline.com)

Infographic: social media and change. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Following a massive plummet in share value over the past week, Japanese social media giants Gree Inc. and DeNA Co Ltd are planning to remove games with a gambling element from their offering. The change is mostly due to the companies trying to get back on their feet and removing controversy to lure back investors. Gambling is not exactly taboo in Japan but is something relegated to the lower classes – definitely not suit-and-tie friendly as it’s considered immoral. Combine that with tighter regulations regarding gambling in Japan, keeping the games around is a bad bet.

The games being removed from Gree and DeNA’s service offerings aren’t even bona fide gambling games like blackjack or poker. The main culprit are games practicing Complete Gacha, and which charges up to $4 for a chance to turn over collectible cards, in the hopes of getting a rare card or other virtual rewards. While these games are bringing in huge profits for the social media sites, they are under investigation from the Consumer Affairs Agency of Japan, so it seems that the companies have bit the bullet and will remove the games in favor of those more “acceptable to society.”

Related articles

• Technology › Gree to boost gaming controls after ‘complete gacha’ charge (japantoday.com)
• Japan’s Social Game Publishers Nix Controversial Gacha Sales (wired.com)

Nenana Alaska during the tripod festival in the first week of March. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This year, the lucky winner wasn’t so much lucky as doggedly persistent and methodical. Tom Waters spent over $5,000 on tickets, and spent over 1,000 hours doing sums and drilling holes in the ice to figure out exactly when it would fall.

Once he’d calculated the closest window of time he could, Waters bet on every minute on the afternoon of April 23 and waited to see if he could beat out the guesses of thousands of other players.

Ironically after all that cold, emotionless calculation, the math all pointed to a fairly sentimental date: Waters’ birthday. He turned 55, won $350,000 and probably got some cake too. Not a bad day for a guy who lives in Alaska and spends his spare time drilling holes in river ice.

Related articles

• It’s Breakup Time!: The Nenana Ice Classic (girlmeetsbulgaria.com)
• Drilling his own river ice pays off for Alaska man (hosted.ap.org)
• Nenana Ice Classic (robertforto.wordpress.com)

The study, conducted by the Canadian Pediatric Society, found most teenagers admit to gambling in some form: internet poker, buying lottery tickets, playing bingo for money or shooting dice with their peers. While most people who gamble do so without developing a problem or letting it interfere with their functioning, those who begin gambling in adolescence are far more vulnerable to this than those who begin gambling later in life.

The study recommends that gambling advertisements aimed at young people should be revised, doctors dealing with teenagers should be aware of their vulnerability to gambling and ask about their habits, and if teens are engaging in other risky behaviour such as drug use their caretakers must be conscious that problem gambling may rear itself as another aspect of their poor decisions.

While a blanket ban on gambling may be the solution for some parenting styles, the study suggests that monitoring and watching out for signs of problem gambling (such as gambling regularly, usually more than once a week) in adolescents is the most suitable solution.

Related articles

• Teen gambling called ‘risky business’(cbc.ca)

  ---

• New software spots problem gamblers quickly(casinojones.com)

  ---

• Paediatricians Warn of the Dangers of Teen Gambling(sys-con.com)

  ---

Real estate mogul Donald Trump has changed his stance on Governor Cuomo’s push to get mainstream casinos in New York legalized. Trump now supports the initiative he rejected the first time it was proposed.Trump insists that large, Vegas-style casinos in New York will not hurt the neighbouring Atlantic City casinos, even though New Jersey’s gambling revenue is in new pits of turmoil. Even Trump’s own interests in Atlantic City are in poor financial health.

Trump Entertainment Resorts has recently filed for bankruptcy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Though New York has certain online casinos operating throughout the state as well as Native American-owned casinos upstate, gambling is still largely illegal, which traditionally drove gambling tourists towards near-by Atlantic City for their long-weekends and bachelor parties.

It’s possible that one of Trump’s companies, Trump Entertainment, filing for bankruptcy has prompted this sudden change of heart. Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. is affiliated with big Las Vegas and Atlantic city brands such as the Plaza and the Taj Mahal. New Jersey’s Atlantic City experienced record revenue falls in the last year, giving a death-blow to the finances of Trump Entertainment. Of course with his huge influence and property empire in New York, Trump would be perfectly positioned to take huge advantage of the legalization of gambling in the state.

Related articles

• Atlantic City suffers big losses when casinos appeal tax assessments(nj.com)

  ---

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook seems to be growing exponentially, with over 900 million users and endless associations with advertisers, game developers and other big brands such as Instagram, so you’d think its worth wouldn’t be up for debate. But there has been speculation that its rate of expansion is slowing down, as its profits fell 6% from the last quarter. Though it promises more growth, its users are averse to more advertising and large international markets like China are off limits to social networks.

Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder, is selling some of his stake in the company to cover the massive taxes the venture has left him with, but will remain the majority shareholder with 57% voting power.

The final pricing of the company will probably take place within the next two weeks, when it will be trading as FB on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Related articles

• Facebook sets IPO price range at $28-$35 per share (foxbusiness.com)
• Updated Facebook Ipo Valuation Terms (fb) (247wallst.com)
• Facebook must convince investors of its value (sfgate.com)

Gerald Phillips Jr. turned $200 from a tax refund cheque into millions after hitting the jackpot. His television appearance in an interview about the windfall was recognized by the daughter of an elderly woman from whom Kimberly Lemke, Phillips’ wife, had stolen over $100,000. Lemke had defrauded three seniors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars as she attempted to pay off her own massive credit card debt. She had taken the money under the pretense that it was a short term loan needed until she came into her inheritance, which never happened. The victims were people she knew from her job as an assistant in an elderly care facility, including a pair of teachers who had known her since she was a child.

Lemke had served three years in prison for the crimes but remained unable to pay back the debt until her husband hit the jackpot. The Attorney General’s office immediately filed a racketeering-restitution lien on the jackpot, which meant that Phillips and Lemke would not see the money until Lemke’s victims had been awarded their restitution. The restitution, along with the couple’s credit card debts, were paid off in full just one day later.

Related articles

• Victim of crime sees story on casino win (myfoxphoenix.com)