Only California could screw something like this up. Aside from the U.S. federal government, the California government is the most inept, wasteful and clueless governing body imaginable. This is the same state that decided to hand I.O.U’s to residents because they couldn’t afford to pay them.

What have they done now? The state of California has crafted an online gambling bill that has so little support that even proponents of gambling expansion are against it. Wow, now that’s an accomplishment.

The bill in question is Senate Bill 1485, which would authorize the creation of an intrastate online poker system. The bill proposes that the Department of Justice give out three five-year contracts to California operators to run online poker websites. The sites would be regulated by the state government and only residents of the state of California would be able to play.

So what’s the problem? As is often the case, the bill is reported to be poorly worded and too vague on the details. Opponents of the bill state that there is nothing preventing overseas companies from bidding for and winning the contracts. Therefore, a bill that was intended to bring money into the state could actually take money away from it.

The worries about the bill are so widespread that even the biggest proponents of online poker legislation seem to be against it. That includes the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations (TASIN), who sent a letter to Rod Wright, the chairman of California’s Senate Governmental Organization Committee, expressing their opposition to the bill. Even the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the biggest proponents of California online gambling, signed that letter.

The Morongo Indians have pushed hard for online gambling in the state, but even they can’t support this bill in its current form. If it is amended, they may change their mind. In the meantime, a hearing on the bill has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 29.

Online casinos, I have good news. You can now advertise on Youtube, the popular Google-owned website dedicated to users violating copyright laws by uploading material to which they do not own the rights. Youtube is mostly known for videos of people hurting themselves, teenage girls auditioning for porn or modeling jobs, and videos ripped from TV shows. Don’t we all love those heart-felt montages that show the most romantic scenes with our two favorite characters from our favorite show, set to a sappy ballad? No, me neither.

Anyway, in recent years, businesses have begun using Youtube for advertising purposes, like that guy with a series showing all of the insane things that his blender will blend (including an iPad). Youtube even has annoying pop-up ads during the videos now. Online casinos, however, have always been banned from advertising on Youtube.

Google, always a fan of censorship, was worried that underage members could accidentally view ads for online casinos. I don’t see what the problem is. You can’t gamble using the advertisement. You have to go to the casino for that and every online casino has an age verification system, making it so that minors can’t illegally gamble on the site. So what’s the harm in seeing the advertisements?

Google and others with similar mindsets often worry about what ads minors can see. We can’t let them see ads for online casinos, cigarettes or hard liquor! But beer is fine. It’s not like the casino ads are pornographic. Come to think of it, though, Obama’s Deputy Attorney General David Ogden doesn’t see a problem with children having access to porn, even in a public library. So why the fuss over casinos?

In 2008, Google decided to let online casinos advertise on their search engine using Adwords. Now they are allowing the casinos on Youtube, but with some restrictions. Only Youtube members who have proved that they’re over the age of 18 can view the advertisements. They can prove that either by registering and agreeing to view adult content or by clicking “Yes, I am 18 years of age or older” when the ad is to be displayed. In addition, the gambling ads can be found at special Youtube channels.

As the Great Recession continues and states look for ways to close budget shortfalls, many are turning toward their inner Libertarian. A more free market means a greater flow of money through the state. Taxing it provides more revenue for the states. Therefore, many states have learned (finally) that more freedom is good for the economy. For that reason, a handful of states are considering gambling expansion.

Other states aren’t interested and are instead trying to clamp down on the gambling that already exists. One such example is the state of North Carolina, the most liberal state in the south. Back in 2006, the state legislature banned video poker gambling machines. They exempted two models of sweepstakes machines, though, and those have been in operation ever since.

Now the state’s General Assembly wants to ban those sweepstakes machines as well. Democrats Melanie Goodwin and Martha Alexander have proposed House Bill 80, which would entirely ban video gambling in the Tar Heel State.

Why would they want to ban the sweepstakes machines? For your own good, of course! Like most liberal politicians, they feel they need to protect people from themselves. Some of the reasons they give for the proposed ban are that the games have low odds of winning (yet they still allow a state lottery), they prey upon the poor (yet they still allow a lottery), and that they lead to an increase in armed robbery, with people trying to steal from the machines. At the risk of being repetitive, let me just say “yet, they still allow a state lottery!”

Lotteries have incredibly low odds of winning, are played more by the poor than by the middle and upper classes, and are often the targets of robbery. However, the great state of North Carolina is more than happy to run the lottery and make money off of it. Maybe instead of banning the sweepstakes machines, they should just call them the North Carolina Sweepstakes and take most of the money while promising it will be used for education.

If you call yourself Superior Casino then you have set the bar pretty high for yourself. Let’s face it; there are certain expectations that go along with that name. If you offer games that aren’t as good as your competitors, then you’re not exactly superior. The same goes for bonuses and other promotions. I don’t know if Superior Casino is the best online gambling site in the business, but it definitely has some good things going for it.

One superior aspect of the casino is its welcome bonuses. Right now, there are separate bonuses depending on what games you play. For players of online slots, Superior Casino offers $1,900 in welcome bonuses. That bonus includes a 100% match bonus of up to $1,000 on your first deposit, a 50% match bonus of up to $400 on your second deposit, and a 40% match bonus of up to $500 on your third deposit.

There is also a different welcome bonus for players of other “casino games,” excluding craps, roulette and baccarat. This welcome bonus is for $1,000, again spread over the first three deposits. Superior Casino is giving away a 50% match bonus of up to $500 on the first deposit, a 30% match bonus of up to $300 on the second deposit, and a 20% match bonus of up to $200 on the third deposit.

Those match bonuses are pretty good, but are they superior? I don’t know, but what may put Superior Casino over the top is the fact that they will also give you bonus money without requiring a deposit from you. The online casino will offer a $20 do-deposit welcome bonus to help get you started. There are a number of specific games excluded from this bonus, though. The casino also offers a $50 bonus for referring friends.

All of the bonuses come with wagering requirements. See the casino website for details. To take advantage of these bonus opportunities, visit Superior Casino.

I honestly couldn’t care less about the World Cup. I’m not remotely interested in a sport where 95% of the game has no action at all, you can’t use your hands and players lie on the ground and thrash around to draw a yellow card but are fine a few minutes later. Or let me put it this way: If your sport can end in a 0-0 tie, I’m not watching.

A lot of people are watching the World Cup, though, and not just to see what inventive ways the referees are going to come up with to screw the U.S. team. If you don’t know what I’m referencing, Google the name “Koman Coulibaly.”

Anyway, many online casinos are holding special promotions for the World Cup, including All Jackpots Casino. All Jackpots has an interesting casino bonus where each week, prizes are given away at random. It’s a drawing of luck, rather than a tournament where players with the most points on the leader board take home prizes. That means everyone has an equal opportunity to win prizes…sort of.

The promotion is called the $50,000 World Kickoff. This casino tournament runs from June 7 to July 11, with casino bonuses awarded in 5 weekly drawings. There is a total of $50,000 in prize money to be given away throughout the promotion, in addition to the new FIFA soccer PlayStation 3 game as well as the gaming consol itself. $10,000 and 1 video game will be given away every week during the tournament, with the winners chosen at random by a drawing of tickets.

To have a ticket put in the pool for drawing, you have to wager at least $50 during the day. The wagers can be on any casino game offered at All Jackpots Casino, but you have to register with this tournament for your wagers to be tracked. Players can earn up to 7 tickets in each weekly draw.

To take part in the $50,000 World Kickoff promotion, visit All Jackpots Casino.

What? The president of a labor union used his power for his own benefit, without regard for what’s best for the union members? Who could imagine such a thing?

Okay, I will try to contain my pretend shock throughout the rest of this post (though I can make no guarantees). On Wednesday, Daniel Hughes, the former president of the Port Authority Field Association, pleaded guilty to using nearly $300,000 in union funds to pay for hookers and fund his gambling habit.

This is yet another example of how not to gamble. Do so only with your own money; not with stolen money. We have previously reported on employees who embezzle funds from their employer to fund a gambling habit. This man decided to waste union dues on his.

Though it may not be common (or maybe it is) for union presidents to use dues to pay for prostitutes and casino visits, it is very common for them to waste union money. They usually use it to line their own pockets, line the pockets of their favorite politicians, and bribe politicians to enact legislation that will benefit the union bosses – not the workers that are members of the union, but the union bosses.

The only people who benefit from unions are those running the unions, and this is yet another example. Members of New York’s Port Authority certainly didn’t benefit from the dues they paid to Hughes.

The charming and likeable Hughes, who is over 400 pounds and disgusting in many other ways, spend approximately $400 to $500 per session with prostitutes at a seedy Queens hotel. A law enforcement offfical said that “it’s unclear who he was meeting with, men or women.” A male escort service was one of the many prostitution agencies that he contacted.

Aside from the prostitution, Hughes also used union dues to pay for outings at the Mohegan Sun casino in nearby Connecticut. There he ran up huge tabs with his gambling, drinking, and fine dining. In court, Hughes admitted that he “didn’t use it (the $294,000 in funds) for union benefit.” Instead, he “used it as salary.” What’s interesting is that Hughes seems to realize that it’s wrong to waste union dues on gambling and hookers, but he doesn’t see a problem with using it to amass his own power with a disregard for the needs of the union workers. But hey, baby steps, right?

I’ve searched high and low and the only Father’s Day slot tournament I could find is at Go Casino. Now, I don’t want to imply that only Go Casino cares about honoring fathers. I don’t want to imply that Go Casino is the only online casino that cares about celebrating the holiday. I do think it’s a shame that there aren’t more tournaments out there this weekend, though.

If you want to honor your father by playing in an online slot tournament, you must visit Go Casino. Or I guess if you are a father and you want to celebrate that by playing in a slot tournament, you have to visit Go Casino. In any case, you get the point: Go Casino is the place to be this weekend.

This weekend, Go Casino is holding the Father’s Day Weekend Madness promotion. This promotion runs from Friday, June 18 to Tuesday, June 22. This tournament is played on the Fire Hawk online slot, which is a slot with a Native American theme, which is appropriate if your father is Native American, I guess.

The Father’s Day Weekend Madness tournament has a $75,000 prize pool, with $39,900 paid out in casino credits and the rest given in Bonus Bucks, which is Go’s name for loyalty points. This slot tournament follows a leader board format, with the top point-earners winning prizes. The top prize is $20,000.

That weekend slot tournament has an entry fee of $12.99 and a rebuy of the same amount. For some, that is expensive, but there are some big prizes up for grabs. For players who want a cheaper slot tournament for the weekend, though, there is another option.

On Saturday, June 19, Go Casino is holding the Father’s Day Weekend Bonus Buck Weekend Freeroll. Okay, you’re going to need to forgive that incredibly long, redundant name (it has the word “weekend” twice). This slot tournament has no entry fee and a rebuy of $2.49 (if you choose to rebuy).

The Bonus Buck Weekend tournament (which I’ve decided to call it for short) is played on the 20,000 Leagues online slot. The $5,000 prize pool for this game is entirely Bonus Bucks. This tournament is a single-day tournament, meaning you don’t need to play as long or earn as many points to be atop the leader board.

To take part in either of the Father’s Day slot tournaments, visit Go Casino today.

After 32 years of asking, the Shinnecock tribe has finally received formal recognition from the federal government. The Shinnecock tribe knew they existed, as evidenced by their 1,292 members living on an 800-acre reservation in Southampton, New York, but it took 32 years for the government to come to that realization, it seems.

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Indian Affairs formally recognized the Shinnecocks as a Native American tribe. Along with the symbolic nature of that designation and the feeling of finally having their existence verified, the Shinnecocks are now allowed to open a casino in on their reservation.

Seeking the ability to open a casino was one of the reasons that the tribe petitioned the government for recognition in the first place. Though living among the wealthy and famous in the Hamptons, the Shinnecock tribe is an impoverished one. Opening a casino can lead to a drastic improvement in the economic status of the tribe; just ask the Seminole.

There is a slight problem, though, and that is that the Shinnecocks don’t want their casino to actually be located on their reservation. The Hamptons are full of rich people and are flooded with tourists every summer. A casino in the area would face stiff competition from basically everything else that the Hamptons offer. For that reason, the tribe wants their casino located elsewhere, preferably in New York City or in its suburbs. Such a move is possible, though it is complicated by federal law and politics.

By the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, federal recognition automatically entitles a tribe to a Class II casino that can carry slot machines but no table games. To have a Class III casino, which can have table games, the tribe would need to make a deal with the state in which it’s located, with the state getting a share of the revenue. The Shinnecock tribe is interested in a Class III casino off of their reservation, which would require a deal with the state legislature that would be signed by the governor and permission from the federal government.

New York Governor David Patterson supported recognition of the tribe and said that he wants to “explore with them ways in which they might be able to partner with us and bring revenues into the state.”

Even with a deal with the state in place, there is no guarantee that the federal government will allow the tribe to open a casino outside of their reservation. In addition, any proposed casino will likely be opposed by unions and lobbies for casinos in nearby markets. For example, approximately 20% of the customers in Atlantic City casinos come from New York City. More than 30% of the customers of Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut are New Yorkers. Those establishments are not going to love the idea of a tribal casino in New York City.

What will happen next is anybody’s guess. The Shinnecocks want a casino, but not on their reservation in the Hamptons. The people of the Hamptons don’t want a casino there. There are mixed feelings about an off-reservation casino in New York City. The Shinnecocks have already lobbied Congress for such a casino, with no decision being made.

Don’t expect anything to happen soon. It takes 30 days after this formal recognition for the tribe to be official. Also, though the fight for recognition began in 1978, the tribe didn’t make any progress until they sued the Interior Department in 2006. Suddenly, it became more difficult to ignore them.

Online bookmakers – sites like William Hill – offer odds on a lot of events other than sports. The most common other bet involves politics and, in particular, elections. Among the many political odds offered are the odds of a certain person winning the United States presidential election in 2012.

The incumbent is always going to have the best chance of winning if he’s eligible for re-election and for that reason, President Obama has 2-3 odds of winning. According to the bookmakers, though, Al Gore has taken a nose dive since news of an alleged affair surfaced.

Shortly after his split with Tipper Gore after 40 years of marriage, a story was released alleging that he had a lengthy affair with Laurie David, the ex-wife of comedian Larry David (Yes, Larry David’s wife was named Lauria David; I am gagging a little). Affairs are never good for campaigns, so the news has reduced the former Vice President’s odds of winning in 2012. He was already a longshot with 60-1 odds, but following the affair allegations, his odds are almost 70-1.

So having an affair is the nail in the coffin that will prevent Al Gore from becoming the next president? I would have thought he’d be prevented that honor on the basis that he’s one of the biggest con artists in history, has profited off stirring up “global warming” propaganda, thinks that light bulbs are more of a threat to America than terrorists, claims he created the internet, engaged in illegal fundraising activities, rented out slum apartments and trailers, and is generally considered dishonest – even by the standards of a politician!

Or if you need a better reason for disqualification, how about this? Gore lost to George W. Bush in 2000! If you’re not capable of beating him (though that was before Bush’s popularity really tanked), then you can’t win in 2012.

So if Gore won’t win, who are the frontrunners? Aside from Obama, Mitt Romney and (God no) Sarah Palin have the best odds at 10-1. Mike Huckabee has 12-1 odds and Tim Pawlenty has 14-1 odds. Romney probably has the best chance of that group, though I think Pawlenty, though not a household name, could become a factor. With respect to the bookmakers, nobody is going to vote for Huckabee. He’s a nice enough guy, but no one feels he has what it takes to be president. Plus, his wife just admitted to murdering someone (editor’s note: That was actually Melissa Huckaby, who is not related). As for Sarah Palin, she needs to stick to posting controversial comments on her Facebook page. That’s what she’s best at.

After those Republicans, the next Democrats are Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, at 15-1 odds. Strangely enough, polls show that Hillary now has a higher approval rating than Obama, so maybe she should be the frontrunner. As for Biden, isn’t he Obama’s insurance policy against assassination? I assumed Obama picked him as the VP because he knew people would say “the last thing we want is that idiot Biden running the country!” Then again, during Clinton’s impeachment hearings, that’s what people said about Gore.

Republicans Bobby Jindal (20-1), Condoleeza Rice (20-1) and Bill Frist (25-1) also deserve mention. What’s interesting is that there are so many Democrats with decent odds. The incumbent is almost always chosen as his party’s nominee the following term. Maybe the bookmakers are taking into account the likelihood of Obama being impeached. Considering his troubling ties to ACORN, SEIU, the Chicago Climate Exchange, STORM, the Apollo Alliance, the Weather Underground, the Joyce Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and other radical groups, impeachment is a definite possibility.

The most perplexing candidate listed in the betting odds, though, is Rob Portman, with 80-1 odds. I don’t think there are 80-1 odds of finding a person that knows who Portman is. I wonder if I can find that action in a sports book.

Throughout the month of June, Millionaire Casino is holding a sweepstakes where players can trade their loyalty points for a shot at prizes. Like most online casinos, Millionaire Casino rewards players with loyalty points for wagering on games, so the more you wager and the more games you play, the bigger your reward. Those loyalty points can then be traded for something good. You can always redeem them for cash when you have enough points. Right now, though, the online casino is offering something a little different.

Every week Millionaire Casino is holding a sweepstake with $50 up for grabs. In addition, at the end of the month, there is a monthly sweepstake with a $500 prize. The contest is like a raffle and tickets are drawn at random to choose the winners. Those tickets can be purchased for loyalty points. Each ticket in the weekly sweepstakes costs 250 loyalty points, while a ticket in the monthly contest costs 500.

There is also another contest, called Come and Get It! In this contest, the prize, instead of cash, is a free Weber Genesis Grill. Entry into this contest costs 500 loyalty points. I don’t know much about grilling, but I hear this grill is pretty good and Millionaire Casino calls it the “newest in BBQ technology.”

To redeem your hard-earned loyalty points and take part in the fun sweepstakes, visit Millionaire Casino today.