The settlement in the case involving the United States Department of Justice and Anurag Dikshit, the co-founder of PartyGaming has disappointed many people and organizations including the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). Las week, Dikshit decided to submit a guilty plea in the Southern District New York for being in violation of the 1961 Wire Act. He has since agreed to pay some $300 million in fines. He has also committed himself to helping out authorities in charge of their ongoing investigation into the violations.

Back in 1997, Dikshit helped to create the highly successful online casino software platform to serve the Gibraltar-based online gaming operator. Dikshit has ever since been considered the largest shareholder in the company, commanding some 28% of all of the company’s stocks.

Officials from PPA, a poker advocacy group based in Washington, DC, have voiced their deep disappointment with the guilty plea that Dikshit submitted. They feel that this development makes the United States official online gambling regulatory policy even more unclear. There has been no precedent set by this situation but it does not bode well for anybody who has any stake in the success of the industry.

Since the original Wire Act was put into effect so long ago and it doesn’t have any mention of the internet which was not yet invented in 1961, this all seems a little absurd. Especially since the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the Wire Act should apply only to Internet wagers that involve sports events or other related contests. Many details of the regulations still contain contradictions. There are many holes that need to be filled in regarding the Wire Act and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was put in place back in 2006.

The online games owner and operator based out of Norway, Jadestone Networks, recently made the announcement that DiceArena, their multiple player dice games network is officially alive and open to players who live in Europe. This signifies the start of a brand new era in online gaming as multiplayer dice games are going to catch on like wildfire. The people at Jadestone are very confident of this venture’s potential.

The games are on a roll over at www.paf.com. That site is the very first partner to undergo the integration process to take the steps to actually go live. Everyone involved is very excited about this development and they are eager to see the results of their hard work pay off. Several other partner websites are supposed to be going live now and during the next several days.

The people of Jadestone have worked very closely with their network partners to make the process as smooth as possible and they are immensely excited to be able to bring the sites alive so people can finally get on them and start rolling the dice. For the launch to celebrate going live, players will get a chance to test their fortune in a wide assortment of cash games and special tournaments. Everything will revolve around different dice games, obviously. If you love Texas Hold’em poker, you can try its dice game counterpart, Dice Hold’em. If you want something a little bit more laid back, you can try Shoot the Moons. It is a fast and thrilling table game that has easy to follow rules.

In a time when many online casinos have pulled out of the United States as restrictions and regulations get increasingly stringent, new casinos have taken advantage of the exodus and filled in the holes they have left behind. Some of these new casinos have had a remarkably successful year like Rushmore Casino. Luckily, for the online casinos who are still doing business, there is the possibility of a sweet reward waiting for them. The folks at Oggs.com have released the names for their 2008 Global Online Casino Award nominees.

During the year of 2008, the quality and professionalism of both new and old casinos alike has made for a strikingly competitive field in most of the available categories. Technology has advanced in huge ways so the expectations of players are much higher than ever before. The good people at Oggs.com who review the sites have taking in account a variety of factors for determining the nominees. Some of those key elements include speed, user-friendliness, style and design, customer support, financial transaction processing (depositing and cashing out) and safety and reliability.

The nominees for Best Online Casino (US) include Allslots, Club USA, Intertops, Jackpot City and iNetBet. Best Online Casino (UK) nominees are 32Red, Ladbrokes, Virgin, Paddy Power and Canbet. For European online gaming sites, the Best Online Casino nominees are Bet365, Ladbrokes, Intercasino, 32Red and Roxy Palace. The nominees for Best New Online Casino for the year 2008 include Red Flush, Rushmore and Players Palace. Best New Slots nominees are Elvis Multistrike, Hulks Ultimate Revenge, Cashapilla, My Slot, King Kong, Tomb Raider, Secret of the Sword and Triple Fortune Dragon.

In order to distinguish oneself amidst the highly competitive market of online casino magazines, you must really go the extra mile. It is an unbelievable uphill climb just to build a respectable level of readership let alone trying to retain some solid advertisers. The hard-working people begin the magazine Eight have apparently succeeded beyond most people’s wildest imaginations. The magazine that is tied to the online casino operator 888 Holdings came away as one of the big winners. They managed to snag the Most Effective Membership award at the Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) Effectiveness Awards. When such hard work finally pays off, the victory is extremely sweet.

In order for a magazine to even be considered for being awarded this prestigious prize, they must have demonstrated an incredible amount of editorial creativity and pluck. With this fabulous award under its belt, Eight has proved that it has what it takes to have staying power within an intensely competitive industry. The brand’s marketing endeavors have been working well in terms of positioning the magazine to play a vital role for the company overall.

The award for Most Effective Membership is considered to be one of the most sought-after points of recognition that a magazine like this could possibly obtain. The folks behind the magic at 888 Holdings are delighted with this development and look forward to having an even better year in 2009. Eight has been selected out of a fierce group of rivals for demonstrating what a solid publishing endeavor should really be like. The magazine is widely known throughout the industry for being very informative and also very interesting to read.

The spectacular customer magazine of online casino operator 888 Holdings was recently recognized for being a cut above the rest of the competition within its market. The magazine, Eight, came away as a big winner in the Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) Effectiveness Awards for 2008. The specific prize that the magazine won was the Most Effective Membership award. The people behind the magazine were very pleased with receiving this honor.

Eight’s main function is to serve as a bridge for customer management efforts for the Gibraltar-based 888 Holdings. They have received this valuable recognition for offering some of the industry’s best service in terms of incorporating innovative forms of communication and using super efficient systems. The magazine ends up getting mailed out to all of the operator’s casino and poker members within the United Kingdom.

Online casino operator 888 Holdings has announced that its customer magazine, Eight, won the important Most Effective Membership prize at the recent Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) Effectiveness Awards 2008. Its glossy pages are packed full of fascinating lifestyle features and special gaming tips, strategies and other gaming-related content.

The Effectiveness Awards for this year were designed specifically to shed some positive light on the best in terms of editorialized branded content. The actual awards ceremony was one of the biggest events for the association in all of its ten-year history. More than 350 magazine titles that span countless different industries were in the running for the 18 individual awards that were distributed among the top winners. Each category had somewhere around 20 entries to choose from so the competition was indeed pretty fierce.

The top online marketing resource4 and community website for Internet casino, Casino Affiliate Programs (CAP) brought its magic down under. They recently released an announcement that indicated that their first ever CAP Down Under event was an amazing success. Some 180 people, consisting of 80% Australians and 66% affiliates were able to attend the phenomenal four-day affiliate marketing conference. The CAP Down Under took place in Sydney at the fabulously luxurious five-star Shangri-La hotel. This all happened during the very last week of November of 2008.

This was the first ever Australian-based online gaming affiliate marketing conference in the history of the industry and everyone involved is quite pleased with how well it went over. One of the main catalysts for getting this event off the ground was the slew of requests that members from the CAP forums submitted. The CAP Forums are heavily trafficked and function primarily as a social networking community that is administered from the main CAP site. In total, they have about 8,000 members. That is more than anywhere else in the entire industry.

Participants flew in for the big CAP Down Under event from all parts of the world, according to conference officials. The opening party was sponsored by Rewards Affiliates and it took place in the opera bar. People in attendance were in awe of the marvelous views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. There was a great deal of excitement throughout the whole night. Top Australian boxer Jeff Fenech was on hand and he managed to get in a couple of hands of heads up poker against specially selected delegates for grand prizes.

“This was an incredible event; CAP Down Under attracted a ton of participants from all over the world,” reported Alex Pratt, an organizer for the conference. “From the opening party sponsored by Rewards Affiliates in the Opera Bar with its stunning views of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, to the attendance of Australian Boxer Jeff Fenech, who played heads up poker against the delegates for prizes, there wasn’t a dull moment.

If you have been craving a taste for bright lights, luxury, danger and scandal but think that the lofty Las Vegas prices are out of your reach, think again. They strip is lowering prices on everything to get more and more people coming to tour their attractions and spend their hard-earned money inside the carpeted plush atmosphere of their top casinos. Right now the hotels and casinos are offering amazing deals on rooms. Obviously the best times to go to any sort of resort destination are during the off-season nights and midweek. Of course if you can only manage to get away on the weekend, you should expect to pay higher prices.

Many hotels are now offering some of the lowest rates seen in a long, long time. Check directly with the hotels themselves before you jump on some sort of fancy pre-packaged deal because they hotels can often give you much lower rates directly themselves. They are known for being very generous with their direct mailings to loyal customers who are enrolled in special select loyalty programs. Room rates are incredibly low right now. You can find rates that are on average 9.2% less than they were a year ago.

At the MGM Mirage, the company officials offer special guarantees to deliver the lowest rates. All you need to do if you are truly interested is book online through the individual properties. For going rates as o now through the month of March in 2009, you could score a stay at the MGM Grand for only $64 per night or, with a two-night minimum, you would spend only $45 for each night you stay at the Monte Carlo. These deals are unbeatable!

If you have a love for poker and are about ready to ring in the new year with some fun new online poker action, there is one online destination that you should definitely pay a visit to. The wildly popular online poker room that is based originally within the United Kingdom known as Victor Chandler has taken it upon itself to launch a brand new online casino. Shockingly enough, the name of the casino happens to be Victor Chandler. I bet you didn’t see that one coming.

The representatives from Victor Chandler have put a lot of stock in this most recent venture. They feel that with their super reliable software that is dependable and secure enough to meet the needs of even the most pickiest of online poker aficionados. Victor Chandler definitely seems like it is a company that is on the path toward carving out a substantial portion of the market in not only the world of online poker but they have obviously high hopes of being a big time player in the online casino industry as well. The online poker operator has recently developed a partnership with Net Entertainment to expand the strengths and variety in their catalogue of profits.

The people behind the scenes at Victor Chandler also have huge expectations of growth and further success for the year 2009. The casino has already gotten off to a strong start. Their collection of progressive jackpots has already built up to be more than 6 million pounds altogether. The new Victory Chandler casino comes with some fabulous traditional casino games like blackjack and roulette. They also have micro-stakes roulette for the poor folks out there who don’t have too much extra disposable income to put toward their online gaming pursuits.

The future of the online gambling industry is still very much up in the air as far as how the regulations struggle will play out. If the regulations are passed within the United States as has been expected, there would be no stopping the online gambling industry. It has the potential to become one of the biggest operations in the country. But there is still a bit of a wait to see if that will happen. As the year of 2008 comes to a close, a study involving some 2,000 gamblers was conducted and the results are fascinating.

The gamblers admitted to playing both online casino slots and frequenting land-based casino slot operations. The gamers in the study answered a wide assortment of questions that went to great lengths to compare the two distinct types of gambling. The results were interesting. For the 2,000 people who participated in the survey, more than 70% of them indicated that they actually prefer to play online slot games as opposed to playing slots at their local land-based casinos.

The reasons that they based their preferences on were quite varied. What people loved most of all about playing slot machines online is the luxury of being able to play from the comfort of their own home. All of the additional costs associated with playing at a land-based casino such as tips for the dealer, drinks, food and gas money played a factor in making online slots seem more appealing.

The participants in the stuffy were players who had to have visited a land-based casino at least two separate times within the past month and they had to have played online slots more than five times also.

If you love Microgaming and playing online poker, you need to hightail it over to the Cool Hand Online Poker Room. Their players are now set up to take full advantage of the wonders that come with being a part of the Microgaming online poker network. What this means for players who know and care deeply about these developments is that players can now get in on playing in what is arguably one of the most respected, reliable and top quality poker environments in the entire online gaming industry. Most of all, it is a safe place to play.

Do not be alarmed if you are a serious hardcore Cool Hand poker player. This change will not end up annoying you or inconveniencing you in any way. This is good news. Being a part of the Microgaming network means that faithful Cool Hand players will now have access to an even great collection of online poker tournaments and regular games.

And all the perks that you have come to love at Cool Hand Online Poker Room will still be there in abundance. Players who are interested can take part in an awesome, irresistible 100% match bonus on as much as $350. Players can also have their choice between choosing to play real games or just practice games until they get the hang of it. This flexibility can be a vital asset to newer players who are just starting out and trying to learn the ropes. What’s more is that Cool Hand Online Poker Room also possesses an amazing poker school that delivers step by step instructional support to help you learn the game.