All the little birdies on Jaybird Street are heading to Golden Casino. That’s because right now there is an online slot tournament for the Rockin Robin game. The competition is a 24-hour tournament and began yesterday at 7:00 PM. There is a $5 entry fee. Upon entering the tournament, players are given 250 credits to wager. There is a $5,000 prize pool for the Rockin Robin tournament.

Before you jump to conclusions, this is not an online slot to exploit Michael Jackson’s recently renewed popularity. The slot was around before Jackson’s death and there is no resemblance to him or any of the Jackson 5 in the game. Instead, there is an image of a cartoon robin that does the bob and goes tweet tweet tweet.

You’ll be singing “go bird, go” if you take part in the Rockin Robin tournament. With such a small entry fee, a fairly generous prize pool, and a game that is just plain fun to play, in no time you’ll find yourself hoppin’ and a boppin’ and singing his song.

To enter the tournament, visit Golden Casino today.

Frequent readers of Gambling Review have no doubt noticed my less than sunny position on big government. While I do think that government is certainly necessary and important, big government means big taxes. As a prime example of how too much government intervention/taxation has a negative effect on an already hurting economy, I give you William Hill Online’s recent move and their reasons for doing so.

William Hill Online recently moved their online gambling operations to Gibraltar, sighting mammoth taxes as a hindrance to growing their business. In an article posted on eGamingReview.com, William Hill expresses why the company pulled up their stakes and took their online gambling operation to Gibraltar.

“Any company which wants to be a leading online betting and gaming business on the international stage has to take every competitive advantage possible. And it was simply impossible for us to compete from the UK, as the current 15% gross profits tax regime and 10% levy on all UK horse racing bets accepted discriminates against onshore operators. Existing offshore operators don’t have those costs, giving them more capital to invest in growing their business.”

William Hill clearly would have preferred to keep their business on UK soil, which would have not kept jobs in the UK’s already hurting economy as well as supplying the government with at least some revenue. But the online gambling company’s words apparently fell on deaf ears.

“Although that was a point which we made repeatedly to the UK government, who has always claimed that it wanted to be an international center for gaming, we got no response. The decision to move was one we could no longer avoid making. Our online operations now have a really bright future.”

Some concern has been made over the idea that moving online gambling operations off shore could lead to possible increases in fraud and flawed security, but William Hill is certain this will not be an issue. “As for those who have claimed that moving offshore will increase the risk of match-fixing or corrupt betting, bookmakers are the ones that suffer if fraudulent bets are placed. They have no interest in lowering their guard when it comes to monitoring these criminal activities.”

William Hill stated that over 60 of its employees are making the move from the UK to Gibraltar with expected growth ahead. This move will no doubt cost the UK government a pretty penny. Not only are they missing out on collecting at least some tax from the online gambling giant, but they are losing the lifetime income taxes of more than 60 people. Walmart estimates that every time they permanently lose a customer, they lose somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000 that would have been spent in that customer’s lifetime. One can only imagine how much money the UK government has missed out on by letting William Hill leave their shores.

The NFL season just started, so of course it’s time to talk about a Super Bowl tie-in promotion. No, seriously. Rushmore Casino has announced that it will be holding the popular blackjack tournament Blackjack Bowl III. It is a 21-week long event that culminates in a final competition in February 2010, coinciding with the Super Bowl. The winners in the final will share a $21,000 prize pool. There are many qualifiers leading up to the final tournament, and those rounds have a total prize pool of $50,000.

The first round of qualifiers is held three times per week, on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. As the qualifier extends into the week, the entry fee and prize increases. In the Monday event, called BKJK III-$7 Playoff, there is a $7 entry fee and a $25 prize pool. In that playoff, the first-place finisher wins $15, the second-place finisher gets $7.50 and the third-place player wins $2.50. On Thursdays the BKJK III-$14 Playoff is held, where players compete for a $50 prize pool. The winner gets $30, the second-place finisher wins $15 and the third-place finisher wins $5. BKJK III-$21 is held on Saturday, where with a $21 entry fee players compete for a prize pool of $75. The winner gets a prize of $45, the second-place finisher wins $22.50 and the third-place finisher takes home $7.50.

In addition to those qualifiers, Rushmore Casino holds the BKJK III-$1000 Bowl of the Week qualifier every Sunday night. The players who qualified in the events on Monday, Thursday or Saturday can complete in this blackjack tournament for a share of the $1,000 prize pool. T who didn’t qualify can pay their way in with a $55 entry fee. In this blackjack tournament qualifier, the winner takes home $420, the second-place finisher wins $250, the third-place finisher wins $150, the fourth-place finisher gets $100 and the fifth-place finisher gets $80. Each of the top 5 finishers earns free entry into the Bowl of the Month.

The Bowl of the Month, called BKJK III-$2000, is held on the first Tuesday of every month. Though qualifiers from the weekly tournaments enter for free, anyone can join with a $99 entry fee. In the Bowl of the Month, blackjack players compete for a $2,000 prize pool. The winner earns $840, the second-place finisher earns $500, the third-place finisher wins $300, the fourth-place finisher wins $200 and the fifth-place finisher takes home $160.

The final event is the Blackjack Bowl $21,000. The event is held on February 4, 2010, 3 days before the Super Bowl in Miami. Players who qualified from the Bowl of the Month can enter for free. For everyone else, there is a $250 entry fee. There is a $21,000 prize pool that will be shared by the top 12 players.

With football season just underway, it’s a little early to look forward to the playoffs, but it’s not too early to get ready for Blackjack Bowl III. To enter, visit Rushmore Casino.

Lady Gaga has had quite a year in the world of gambling industry whether she knows it or not.  From her smash hit PokerFace drawing much attention to the game to the endless betting on her boy/girl parts, the news just keeps on coming.  And even though the song’s popularity has faded, yet another poker event has extended an open invitation to platinum selling recording artist Lady Gaga.  Ladbrokes is holding the Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival next week in Kilarney and has asked the singer of the chart-topping hit PokerFace to make an appearance.

The Irish Poker Festival takes place during a break in Lady Gaga’s tour.  Gaga is currently touring the world with rapper/narcissist/crazy man Kanye West, but will have a break in her tour when the festival commences.  The invitation has been extended for Lady Gaga to perform for the festival’s main event which begins on October 2.

“It would be great if she could come and we’ll even make room for Kanye,” said Kate McLennan, head of poker at Ladbrokes,  “The question everyone wants to know is if Lady Gaga can make sweet music on the green baize.”

While Lady Gaga has yet to respond, the festival can confirm that Irish boyband star Shane Lynch of Boyzone is set to perform.  So if Lady Gaga can’t make it, they still have some entertainment which is good.

I still wonder if Lady Gaga has any real interest in poker at all.  I also wonder if the people who keep inviting her to poker tournaments realize that Lady Gaga is, in fact, NOT singing about “poker” in PokerFace.  Instead, the song refers to sexual attraction while dancing with a gentleman in a club and uses the term “poker face” as a poignant metaphor to describe the ambiguity of her intentions.

*No offense to Ladbrokes, but The Asian Poker Tour had the best Lady Gaga invitation of the year.

If there’s one thing I love in this world, it’s that there is a world record for everything. And they’re all in Guinness’s book. Guinness judges have determined the fastest time to pluck a turkey, the most books typed backwards (67 books, by the way), the youngest person to wear a full set of dentures, and the largest gathering of Santa Claus’. I have also proposed some world records that have yet to be confirmed by the nice folks at Guinness, such as Robert Altman’s record for the most consecutive minutes of pointless boredom in film, Barack Obama’s record for most times talking about himself in public, Jack Johnson’s record for the most songs that sound exactly the same, and Paris Hilton’s record for spreading STD’s to the most people.

Now there is another record. Popular online casino PokerStars has set a new record for hosting the most players at an internet poker room at the same time. PokerStars’ new record of 307,016 players playing online poker simultaneously on 42,814 tables shatters the record previously held by…PokerStars. Okay, so breaking a record is never as cool when it’s your own record, but it’s still a great achievement. The record-breaking moment occurred on September 6, 2009 and has been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, which means it must truly be a record.

I’m not sure how Guinness decides if something is a record, but I imagine it involves them saying, “Well, gosh, that’s a pretty big number. That’s gotta be a record. Have you ever heard of anyone with more than that? No, me neither. Let’s just put that down as a record and we’ll see if anyone challenges it.” I could be wrong. Maybe their judges do a lot of research.  In any case, I haven’t seen that many people gathered in one room since the homeowner’s association meeting after I proposed making everyone trade in their grass for AstroTurf. I still think it’s a good idea, just for the record.

Though the global recession is hurting most businesses, there are some that are thriving. Gun and ammunition manufacturers are making a killing due to Americans who fear that a government that is rapidly expanding its power may soon outlaw the sale of firearms. Fast food restaurants with dollar menus are fattening their wallets because consumers can’t afford good food. The chocolate industry has made a sweet profit because chocolate is a comfort food and right now a lot of people need to be comforted. Whatever company provides the paper for the unemployment offices is doing pretty well, too. The point is, though business in general is bad, some companies are still making money.

Count PartyGaming in that category. Between the second and third quarters of the year, PartyGaming, the parent company of PartyCasino, reported a 17% growth in average daily revenue for their online casino operations. At the half-year point, the company saw underlying earnings rise by 34.8%.

The increase in revenue is attributed to an aggressive marketing strategy as well as the launching of 60 new games. That expansion is believed to have added new customers and convinced established customers to stop by the site more often.  The increase in revenue is very welcome news to the company, who is paying $105 million to the US government in a settlement related to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

According to CEO Jim Ryan, though some of their websites have seen losses, PartyCasino has been their biggest earner.  He stated that “Casino has been our star performer and continues to go from strength-to-strength, consolidating our position as the world’s leading online casino.” That is good news indeed. So when you get a stomach ache from eating too much chocolate, log on to PartyCasino and enjoy the new games that have made the online casino profitable.

Not long ago I warned our readers to not be too confident in the overturning of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the United States. There are simply too many reasons the legislation in Congress could fail, as it did last time Barney Frank tried to get it done. I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Tony Cabot, founding member and former president of the International Masters of Gaming Law Association, agrees with me. Considered an expert on gambling legislation, Cabot believes that no law will be passed on a federal level that legalizes and regulates online gambling. Barney Frank has already pushed his House bill back and it likely will not be heard on the floor this year. Expect the same from Menendez’s similar Senate bill. In both cases, online gambling is simply not a priority, with the no end in sight to the recession and no prospect for the creation of new jobs in the near future. In addition, with the administration focusing on healthcare reform, there simply isn’t the time or energy to devote to a bill that would have a minor impact on the economy.

If the bill isn’t passed this year, though, it could be dead, according to Cabot. Next year is an election year and no politician is going to want to give their opponents ammunition by backing a controversial subject like gambling. I agree. Not only that, but the reason Barney Frank is so confident that he will succeed this time where he failed in the past is because he has strong support from Congress that has a strong Democratic majority. However, if the politicians hold off on the legislation until after the 2010 elections, the Democrats could lose that majority and therefore, online gambling would lose its support. Midterm elections are always unfavorable to the party in the White House, and with the approval rating of Obama and Congress plummeting, many experts predict a huge shakeup on Capitol Hill.

Another reason Cabot provided for a lack of optimism is that some online casinos are against the legislation. Yes, you read that correctly. According to Cabot, some of the online casinos that are already dealing with American customers are against repealing UIGEA because it would give them more competition in the market. Some fear that they will even be denied licenses to operate in the United States. Likewise, land-based casinos in the country, especially in Las Vegas, are divided on the issue. Some want online gambling legalized because they want to expand into the online realm. Other casinos are against online gambling because they see it as competition. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who is basically a puppet of the Vegas casino lobby, has refused to pick a side on the issue.

Cabot gave 20 to 1 odds for the success of Barney Frank’s bill, but thinks legislation at the state level is much more likely. Sorry to be a buzz kill, fellow gamblers. I’ll try to have better news tomorrow.

Slots are the most common game in casinos, both online and brick and mortar. They are popular because it doesn’t take much skill or strategy and if you play long enough, every now and they you’ll get a payout and feel happy, even if you’re still losing money in the long run. One of the downsides to slots, though, is that you have to play alone. Or at least you did.

All Slots online casino will make history by releasing the first multi-player slot. In the game, Wheel of Wealth, a group of players compete against each other while interacting in a chat room environment. It is a unique idea that is sure to attract attention in the gaming world. The internet, through social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace and blogging sites like Live Journal and Thoughts, has been helping people connect for years. To date, playing online slots has been a solitary experience, but All Slots will soon make it more interactive.

The game will also feature a unique bonus round, where all of the players logged in compete at the same time, each choosing a spot on the wheel which will determine their bonus. By being able to share in each other’s wins and losses, and of course trash talk, playing online slots should be infinitely more fun.

To join in the fun of online slots, visit All Slots online casino.

If you are like me, combining the words “Kung Fu” with anything immediately transforms something ordinary into something that is awesome. Go ahead and try it: Kung Fu Hair Drier. Kung Fu Wet Nurse. Kung Fu Accountant. See? That goes double when you combine cool animals and online slots with Kung Fu…which is probably the marketing strategy going on over at Microgaming these days.

The new Kung Fu Monkey online slot sounds like a winner on all accounts. Kung Fu Monkey Goes To Chinatown (that’s the full title), is a 5 reel, 15 pay-line video slot new from Microgaming. This brand new online slot is set in China where evil ninja monkeys guard the road to reward. Only Kung Fu Monkey (and you) can take them down. With a Wild, two Scatters, Multipliers, Free Spins and an innovative 3 level, second screen bonus feature, there is surely no bigger and more exciting online slot featuring the martial arts and primates available anywhere online.

Fighting alongside the Kung Fu Monkey, it is your job to take down Kung Fu Baboons, Monkey Ninjas and big, scary and mean looking Big Bad Boss gorilla. By defeating enemies, Kung Fu Monkey wins rewards, rescues hostages and has a lot of fun.

The slot features symbols like Chinese gongs, crazy looking monkeys, wise older monkeys, the Kung Fu Monkey himself (that’s the wild symbol) and a hot girl monkey who is hot in that “bugs bunny dressed like a girl” way. Don’t judge me.

Bottom line, the game play is exciting, the colors are brilliant and the sound effects are funny and engaging. What can I say? I love zany online slots and this one fits the bill. I am bananas for Kung Fu Monkey. Sorry. I had to. (Bows)

I know this is going to draw the ire of Ricky, but I’m writing yet again about comic book-themed slots. Yes, it’s Marvel again. I can’t help it. Marvel is pimping their image out almost as much as Obama. At least their CEO didn’t appear on 5 news shows on the same day, though. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Anyway, PartyCasino has launched 4 new Marvel-themed online slots, including Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four and Thor. They have also launched King Kong, which, to my knowledge, has nothing to do with Marvel. Fanboys, feel free to correct me if that’s wrong. That includes you, Ricky.

The Spider-Man slot is the coolest because, let’s face it, Peter Parker is the coolest superhero. The game is a 25-payline slot featuring everyone’s favorite web-slinger. There are two bonus rounds and players can wager as little as $0.01 per line for a chance to win $5,000.

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Revenge is an online slot based on everyone’s favorite green Anger Management poster child. This slot machine has 20 paylines with a bonus round that gives out free games. Bets, like with Spider-Man, can be as little as 1 cent with the possibility of a $5,000 payout.

The Fantastic Four is another new online slot for PartyCasino. To be honest, I’ve never understood the appeal of this comic, because 0/4 of the group is interesting. There’s a big, stupid rock-like guy, a boring girl who turns invisible, a guy who can fly and set himself on fire (okay, that’s kind of cool) and a guy who’s basically like Stretch Armstrong. Admittedly, though, I like the Invisible Girl in the movies, but that’s only because she’s played by Jessica Alba. In any case, this slot has 25 paylines and a $5,000 jackpot.

Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is also featured in a new online slot. Thor is the coolest Avenger because I’m pretty sure all he does is go around smashing things with his hammer, so he’s basically the Gallagher of superheroes. This is a 5-reel, 9-payline online slot with a jackpot of $4,000.

Last but not least of the new PartyCasino slots is King Kong. I still like Donkey Kong better, even though he really doesn’t do anything but stand at the top of a platform and throw barrels at an Italian guy trying to climb a ladder. The King Kong online slot is a 5-reel, 25-payline slot and it should be a hit for anyone who finds kidnapping beautiful blonde women a fun, wholesome form of entertainment.

To play any of the new slots, be sure to visit PartyCasino today. Or I guess you can do it tomorrow. But today would be better if you don’t already have plans.