By now, it’s pretty much common knowledge that the iPhone 4 sucks. You’ve heard countless complaints from friends, seen countless stories on the news and on the internet, and Apple has even held press conferences where Steve Jobs tries to convince the world that the phone does not, in fact, suck. So what does the bad iPhone mean for mobile casino gamblers?

It means a lot, actually. If you’re talking on the phone to a friend or playing Farmville and you lose your connection due to that terrible antenna, it’s annoying. You have to call your friend back, log back onto Farmville or whatever. But what if you’re logged into a mobile casino playing in an online poker tournament? That would be much worse.

If you’re playing online poker on an iPhone and suddenly lose reception, it could mean missing a hand. It could mean you miss something that someone else has done. It could mean getting booted from the poker tournament. None of these are good and they could cost you money.

So what is Apple’s response for the antenna problem? They are offering free rubber cases. I guess that way, when you throw your phone across the room, it won’t break. That’s a small consolation for an online poker player who just missed a hand during a poker tournament and lost money.

So what do I suggest? Well, maybe you shouldn’t buy the new iPhone. If you do, though, you should follow all of the Apple rules of how to hold the stupid phone. If you’re playing poker at a mobile casino, you should find a spot where you know you have good reception, hold the phone the Apple way, and hope for the best. That’s really all you can do for now. Here’s hoping Apple solves the antenna problem in the near future.

It’s about time. Lord of the Rings slots are coming to All Slots Casino. Now, I’m not one of those sci-fi/fantasy geeks who goes to conventions, watches Star Trek, reads comics and lives in my mother’s basement. In fact, I’m not really into sci-fi or fantasy at all. Despite that, I have always had an appreciation for J.R.R. Tolkien’s work and loved Peter Jackson’s adaptations of the saga. Now, online slots with that theme are coming to All Slots Casino.

Though they’re not yet released, I’m told that there will be separate slot games for each part of the trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. With the Microgaming software behind the slots, you can expect excellent graphics, possibly using actual still photos from the movies or maybe animating life-like characters.

I’m hoping that the Lord of the Rings slots will follow the storyline of the saga, with the story of the games progressing as you play. I’ve played slots with progressive stories before and using that feature in a Lord of the Rings slot would be a definite bonus.

Right now, Thunderstruck II is the hottest slot in online casinos, but I predict that once these Lord of the Rings slots are released, there will be one slot to rule them all and it will be the game with Hobbits and wizards.

There is not yet a release date for the Lord of the Rings slots, but all sources indicate that it will be soon. If you’re not yet a member of All Slots Casino, this could be a great time to join. If you join the online casino now, they will offer you a 100% match bonus on your first deposit, with a maximum bonus value of $200. Also, every month the casino will offer 10% cash back on your purchases, up to $450.

To play the upcoming Lord of the Rings slots, visit All Slots Casino.

Summer is in full swing in half of the world right now. It is a time when many people head off to summer camp or go with their family on summer vacation. The Summer Holiday slot plays on those themes and portrays a relaxed, fun summer away from the cares and stresses of work and school. As an added bonus, Roxy Palace Casino is offering a casino bonus for those who play the online slot.

This weekend, Roxy Palace is giving away double Players Club points to those who play the Summer Holiday slot. At the online casino, players earn Players Club points for every wager they place. Normally, they receive one point for every 10 credits wagered. Under this promotion, since the points are doubled, players will receive two Players Club points for every 10 credits wagered. Once enough points are accrued, they can be redeemed for more casino credits.

The Summer Holiday slot is a 5-reel online slot with a whopping 100 paylines. It is set on a scenic lake, on a dock by the river, and in other quiet, relaxing summer vacation spots. The slot features symbols of bicyclists, summer food, swimmers, ducks in the pond and more. The online slot has a jackpot of 750,000 coins, but in free spin rounds – where all payouts are tripled – the game has a jackpot of 2,250,000 coins.

The Summer Holiday slot also has an interesting bonus round, where you get to pick your prize. Your choices are a up to 25 free spins, a multiplier bonus of up to 100 times the payout and a mystery prize.

Summer Holiday is one of only two online slots at Roxy Palace that have 100 paylines (the other being Cashapillar). With its large number of lines and potential for huge payouts, it is sure to attract the high rollers in the slots crowd. If you don’t want to bet that much, though, there’s no shame in betting on one or a few lines.

To get double your Players Club points, play the Summer Holiday slot at Roxy Palace.

If The Barney Frank/Ron Paul online gambling bill becomes law, UIGEA will be repealed and online casino gambling will be legalized and regulated in the United States. Sports betting, though, would still likely be left out.

Yesterday, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act (HR 2267), which was concocted by Democrat Frank and Republican Paul, cleared the House Financial Services Committee. By a 41-22-1 vote, the bill to license and regulate online gambling in America passed the committee, paving the way for it to be voted on by the full U.S. House of Representatives.

There are already compromises in the bill, though. Republican Peter King inserted an amendment that emphasizes that sports betting would remain illegal online and offline. King did so to protect the interests of powerful and loved sports leagues in the country, particularly the NFL. King admitted that “the NFL has concerns about gambling.”

To be honest, so do I. Sports betting scandals are terrible for the leagues, the teams and America (just ask the Chicago White Sox or Tim Donaghy). Concerns over game fixing don’t necessarily mean that sports betting should be banned, but it is a legitimate concern.

In any case, the bill passed the House with King’s anti-sports betting amendment. However, that doesn’t mean the amendment will say in the bill. During the full House mark-up, it can still be removed. Another amendment was added by Republican John Campbell and Democrat Brad Sherman. That amendment ensures that online casinos that target U.S. customers would have to be based in America, thus ensuring that the country would profit from the legislation and not lose revenues overseas. Other amendments were added for the protection of players, requiring the online casinos to post the odds of the games, have loss limits and verify the players’ age and location.

The online gambling bill is not yet scheduled for a floor debate and is not expected to be brought to the floor earlier than early September.

A popular casino bonus that randomly rewards players is back at All Jackpots Casino. The promotion is called Bonus Magic and while I can’t say there’s any sorcery involved, I imagine anyone who wins will have a rather magical feeling.

Imagine this scenario. You log on to your favorite online casino (in this case, it’s All Jackpots Casino) and start playing your favorite games. Out of nowhere, the casino informs you that you’ve won some extra money. What did you do to earn that reward? Nothing, other than that you happened to be playing at the casino at that time. Sounds pretty good, right?

That’s basically what happens with the Bonus Magic promotion. The promotion runs from July 28 to August 9. To qualify for the casino bonus, all you have to do is wager at least 50 credits within the last three days of the promotion period. You can play any game at the online casino, whether it’s a favorite online slot, roulette game, blackjack or whatever. Every hour the online casino randomly chooses a winner to receive the casino bonus. The winners are selected from a pool of qualified customers, so if you are playing a game at the casino within the hour of that selection and meet the wagering requirements, you can win.

The amount of casino bonus you win during the Bonus Magic promotion varies depending on your membership status. Normal players receive a bonus of 50 credits, which have to be wagered 30 times before they can be withdrawn. For VIP members, All Jackpots will give you 75 credits and you only need to wager them 15 times before making a withdrawal. I guess it pays to be a VIP.

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This weekend, liberal bloggers, reporters and other activists got together in Las Vegas for one big evil progressive seminar called the Netroots Nation convention. It was a seminar in which radicals cried that the Obama administration is moving too slowly and hasn’t transformed the country enough, as if they expected us to already be a militarized nation under totalitarian rule at this time. Not quite yet. It was a conference where radicals lamented the lack of a public option (so far) in Obamacare, the fact that America is still a somewhat-capitalist country and the fact that Americans are starting to recognize radical organizations like the Tides Foundation, which basically launders money for radicals.

Even in a convention based on pushing agendas with which I couldn’t possibly disagree more, there was some positives, the main one being discussion on online poker. Professional poker player Andy Bloch, current Full Tilt sponsor and a former member of the MIT blackjack team, spoke about the industry. At the seminar, Bloch called on the government to legalize and regulate online poker, stating that denying Americans the ability to play the game violates their freedom of choice. Pro-freedom speeches aren’t exactly the norm at progressive conventions like Netroots, but the people were willing to hear him out.

Bloch said that a ban on online poker goes against freedom of choice and a free Internet and stressed that the activity is a mainstream one that people of all political stripes watch on TV. If it’s too dangerous for people to do, why are ESPN, Bravo, E! and countless other channels allowed to televise it?

Since he was speaking to radicals at Netroots, Bloch was sure to also take on a progressive tone regarding online poker. He talked about the additional revenue the government could generate and the responsibility of the government to protect people from themselves. Bloch said that the government is “forgoing billions in tax revenue when our budgets are most in need.” He also said that by not regulating the online poker industry, the government is “ignoring their responsibility to protect children and other vulnerable members of our society.”

Never mind the fact that protecting people from themselves is not the role of the government. Putting that aside, Bloch made good points at the convention, particularly when he criticized the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and pointed out that, despite the federal government’s opinion, some form of poker is legal in 48 out of 50 American states.

And that is where I agree with Bloch. If the federal government just gets out of the way and lets states handle the question of online poker, things will be a lot better. I imagine most states will opt to legalize online poker and many will tax it for additional revenue. An activity like poker was never meant to have federal intervention and that intervention must stop.

To even the casual observer, it should be apparent that the global online gambling industry is growing. After all, we are seeing nations overturn gambling bans, other nations do away with gambling monopolies, and new online casinos spring up all over the place. Just how much the industry is growing, though, exceeds even my estimates.

Recently iGaming Business, one of the major providers of business intelligence for the online gambling industry, released a report on the state of the market. Their report, called The Global Business of Online Casinos, shows tremendous growth in the online gambling sector worldwide. In the report, iGaming Business states that the online casino market will gross approximately $4.7 billion worldwide by the end of 2010. By the end of 2012, they predict that the industry will be worth $5.8 billion. They estimate that by the end of 2014, the online casino industry should rake in $7.1 billion, which is a 79% growth from 2009 numbers.

The Global Business of Online Casinos does more than look at revenue statistics and predict growth, though. It looks at every aspect of the industry, including internet gambling history and comparing established online casinos to start-ups. It also goes into the difficulties of starting up a new online casino, which it estimates costs $1.5 million initially but pays for itself quickly due to the low payroll and overhead. In comparison, opening a brick and mortar casino carries approximately $300 million in start-up costs.

Though there are many factors at play in the expansion of online gambling, perhaps none is more significant than the global recession. Global economic stupidity led to most of the economic powers in the world spending drastically more than they could afford, borrowing more money, and creating huge money-gobbling bureaucracies. The result was a recession that affected the entire planet, though each country was hurt to varying degrees. Virtually every nation, state, province, county, city and town is in debt and strapped for cash. As the world looks at ways to increase revenue to pay off massive dept and crippling entitlement programs, online gambling is seen as a much-needed source of revenue.

Most economic experts predict that the recession will last many more years, with no recovery in sight. With that in mind, continuous expansion of the online gambling market by governments looking for funds seems likely, and thus the expansion of the online casino market is all but assured.

For fans of online blackjack, it can be hard to find some good tournament action. Fewer and fewer online casinos are holding blackjack tournaments, as they continue to focus on the more popular slot tournaments. River Belle Casino, though, has a good number of blackjack tournaments every month.

The online casino holds scheduled and Sit n’ Go blackjack tournaments. The scheduled tournaments last longer, have more contestants and larger prize pools. They usually have larger entry fees, though. In the Sit n’ Go blackjack tournaments, they will start any time that there are a specified number of players entered in the tournament. Some of the Sit n’ Go tournaments are freeroll tournaments, which you can join for free.

The scheduled blackjack tournaments, on the other hand, start at a specified time and you must register in advance if you want to play. Right now, River Belle Casino is running scheduled blackjack tournaments that kind of feel like the Sit n’ Go variety. They are short and have low prize pools and entry fees, but they are multi-tiered.

There are several tournaments scheduled each day and those small tournaments continue until the end of the month. They can be thought of as a multi-stage tournament. The blackjack tournaments have small prize pools, entry fees and numbers of participants. The largest blackjack tournament in this promotion has an entry fee of $10 and a $126 prize pool. Only 250 players can enter the tournament and only the top three players in the tournament will win prizes, with the top player winning $63. That may not be an exciting amount, but players have the opportunity to win multiple tournaments during this promotion while paying only a small  buy-in.

If you like fast-paced blackjack tournaments, this is a good promotion for you. More information can be found on River Belle’s website.

This weekend, Go Casino starts a big slot tournament to end the month of July and start August with a bang. How big is the tournament? It’s $60,000 worth of big. Though the entry fee for the tournament is a bit higher than usual, the big prize pool should make up for it for anyone who doesn’t mind spending a few bucks.

From Friday, July 30 to Tuesday, August 3, Go Casino is running the $60,000 Guaranteed Weekend Madness tournament. The slot tournament is played on the Cherry Blossoms game, which is a Vegas Technology online slot with a Japanese theme. The slot tournament has an entry fee of $14.99, which earns you 325 coins with which to play. If you run out and want more, you can re-buy for the same amount. Each player has an unlimited number of re-buys available.

As the name indicates, this slot tournament has a $60,000 prize pool of guaranteed money. The biggest chunk of that will go to the player who finishes first on the leader board at the end of the tournament. The $60,000 Guaranteed Weekend Madness slot tournament is a good promotion for anyone who doesn’t mind spending almost $15 to compete for a share of big bucks, but for some, the buy-in is too steep. For those players, there are other tournament options available.

Right now, Go Casino is at the end of a $30,000 Guaranteed Weekend Madness tournament. That has an entry fee of a more manageable $10. For the most frugal of online casino customers, Go Casino also has freeroll tournaments. On such free tournament is the $2,500 Bonus Buck Weekend Freeroll, which runs from Saturday, July 31 to Sunday, August 1. It is played on the Love Bugs slot and has re-buys of only $1.99.

In general, the prize pool is proportionate to the entry fee, so those with smaller buy-ins have smaller prize pools. Go Casino has entry fees that range from $0.25 to $6.99 to $14.99. Some slot tournaments have no entry fee at all. If you want to take part in a tournament, you should fine one that suits your budget. More information can be found on the promotions page.

The $60,000 Guaranteed Weekend Madness tournament can be played at Go Casino.

When MTV first launched in 1981, it was a station devoted to playing music videos by hot and up-and-coming artists. Then the station, whose acronym used to mean Music Television, became nothing but a mindless pop culture channel, more likely to have a show about annoying teenagers or a dating show than actually have any music. Now they are evolving again, as the network enters the online gambling market.

Though they started in the U.S., MTV is now global. The UK and Ireland branches of the network now have signed a deal with 888.com to bring an MTV-brand online casino to the people. The deal is a clear move to attract a younger audience to the online gambling market, since people of a certain age would once do anything that MTV says is cool. Therefore, 888 is hoping to use MTV’s influence to bring youth to a new site to play online bingo.

Yes, you read that correctly. They are tapping MTV’s influence on younger demographics for an online bingo site. What, no pinochle? An MTV online poker room sounds like a great marketing idea, but to me MTV doesn’t really scream bingo. I can picture the old, cool MTV trashing a bingo hall. I can see Dan Cortese or Adam Sandler wrecking a bingo hall and tearing up the place, making fun of everyone there. Somehow I can’t imagine Daisy Fuentes standing by a pool in Cancun telling the Spring Breakers that once they check into their hotel room for the night, they should log onto an online bingo site.

I know that MTV lost their edge a long time ago and they lost most people’s respect when their lone music video show, TRL, played only parts of songs while fans talked over them by giving shout-outs. Still, it hurts me to see MTV like this. I realize that it’s been a long time since anyone has said “I want my MTV,” but are they so out of it that they’re sponsoring bingo?

To be fair, bingo is more popular among young crowds than it once was, especially online bingo. The online casino is trying to increase that trend, bringing more youth to the game. It’s a risky move, though. Selling a cooler game, like poker or blackjack, would be an easier trick for them and MTV.

The MTV online bingo website will launch in August and will be promoted on MTV’s channels and websites in the UK and Ireland. If this had happened 20 years ago, you could almost guarantee success, but today when MTV does something, does anyone really care? I doubt it, but maybe if the bingo hall offers “money for nothing and chicks for free” we can have this discussion again.