Poker experts are getting younger and younger. It used to be a man’s game that people didn’t expect to get mastered until you were in your thirties. Times are changing, though, primarily because of the Internet. Though in Las Vegas you have to be 21 to enter a casino, as is the case in Atlantic City and many casinos worldwide, players are starting so young that they are becoming experts at online poker well before they can even set foot inside a casino on the Vegas Strip.

It is a trend that has become so noticeable that it even caught the attention of ABC News. Last year, Joe Cada became the youngest player ever to win the World Series of Poker, earning the bracelet at the age of 22. So how did he manage to get so good at poker only a year after being allowed to enter a casino? At most online casinos, you only need to be 18. Cada says that he was able to play more than 2,000 hands per day at online poker rooms.

The ABC article cites a study by the Institute for Research and Gambling Disorders that estimates that over 70% of Americans between the ages of 14 and 19 have gambled online in the last year. Seventy percent? Is it just me or does that number seem impossibly high? I’m not sure if 70% of Americans that age have eaten ice cream in the last year! I’m not sure if 70% of Americans that age have heard a Lady Gaga song on the radio.

Of course, this estimate is coming from an institute that wants to make it look like there is a gambling problem in the country, so I wouldn’t take their statistics seriously. Whatever the real number is, though, teens have more access to the game of poker than ever before.

The article also talks about Blaine Brount, a 19-year-old student at the University of Illinois who spends his summer playing online poker as a “second job.” According to Brount, he’s not playing poker to see what happens, he is “trying to make a profit.” He uses money made from online poker to pay his bills and says that “if you’re smart about it and manage your money well, it absolutely can be a real job.”

I don’t recommend players look at online poker as a career or a way to pay the bills. Like professional sports, most simply aren’t good enough. No matter how much you practice in the batting cage, you probably won’t ever make it onto a Major League Baseball roster. Such is the case with poker. Certainly there are professional poker players and some people – including Cada – are good enough to do that for a living, but most aren’t.

However, this story does make one important thing very clear: Poker is a game of skill. You don’t hear about professional slots players or professional roulette players. That’s because they are games of chance that no one can do well enough to be profitable. With poker, though there is some chance involved, they are games primarily of skill and with enough skill, profits can certainly be made. Does that mean we should all encourage our teenage children to play online poker? Maybe not, but we should certainly remove the stigma that poker has in our society.

Are you sick of hearing about Canadian provinces and their deals with online gambling? I hope not. We’ve already heard about British Columbia’s adventures with their online casino, Quebec’s plans to launch an online casino this fall, PlayNow.com, Ontario’s plans for an online casino by 2012 and Newfoundland and Labrador’s opposition to online gambling. I’ve even written about the speculation – largely unfounded – that Alberta may move to regulate online gambling as well. Therefore, I may as well mention Nova Scotia.

Even by Canada’s standards, the province of Nova Scotia is kind of inconsequential for the rest of the world. It’s a small piece of land with fewer than 54,000 residents. Still, sources say that the province’s government is planning to introduce online gambling legislation. This despite the fact that the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, which is the lottery for four governments – including Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island – is opposed to online gambling.

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation currently runs their own online gambling monopoly, PlaySphere, which sells lottery tickets and allows gambling games such as bingo and keno. Perhaps there is a conflict of interest there, in that they want to be the only game in town. Maybe Nova Scotia can satisfy them by approving an online casino but having it featured on the PlaySphere website. Then again, we’ve seen that online casinos run by governments instead of private businesses aren’t necessarily a good thing.

Graham Steele, Finance Minister of Nova Scotia, supports bringing online gambling to the province and said that they can do it even if all four members of the Atlantic Lottery Corporation don’t agree on the issue.

Now that the weekend is over and you’re back to work, I hope the Monday depression hasn’t been too powerful. Maybe you have a job as great as mine – one that makes you wake up happy every morning because you’re excited to head to the office – but if not then Lucky Red Casino has a promotion that might make you feel better. They are offering casino bonuses that can help you earn money at the casino by spending the house’s cash.

From Tuesday, August 24 to Thursday, August 26, the online casino is running a deposit bonus promotion. If you play online slots, keno or video slots, the casino will offer a 60% match bonus on your deposit, with an upper limit of $1,000. The coupon code for that casino bonus is PROPOWER. That deposit and bonus must be wagered at least 25 times before a withdrawal can be made.

If you play online blackjack or video poker, Lucky Red Casino will offer a 45% match bonus on your deposit, with a maximum bonus of $1,000. The coupon code for that casino bonus is LUCKYWEED. That bonus and deposit has to be wagered 50 times or more before you can make a withdrawal.

For any other table games, Lucky Red Casino is offering a 50% match bonus on your deposit, with a maximum deposit amount of $1,000. The coupon code for that bonus is BIGWINNING. Players must wager that bonus at least 40 times before cashing out.

More information can be found on the promotions page. As always, you should read the Terms of Service for the online casino before participating in any kind of promotion. To take part in the promotion and receive your deposit match bonuses, visit Lucky Red Casino.

Online casinos based in Costa Rica will no longer be getting a free ride. President Laura Chinchilla Miranda is set to impose a new 5% tax on the online gambling companies located in the Central American nation. According to Chinchilla, the tax will help fight crime and finance education.

Currently offshore online gambling companies only need to purchase a data processing license in order to operate in Costa Rica. They do not need to pay taxes or engage in any form of revenue sharing. The recently elected Chinchilla, who took office in May of this year, will change chat. Previous attempts to tax online casinos that operate in Costa Rica were defeated out of a fear that adding taxes would simply cause the online gambling companies to leave the country.

Chinchilla was elected on the promise of putting the broke nation back on track financially as well as providing better security to a people under strain from increased criminal activity. So far she has done neither. Since she took office, the nation has experienced only 1.13% economic growth – a far cry from expectations – and crime has gotten worse.

It’s not surprising that Chinchilla’s economic policies have failed so far. Economics have never been a strong suit for socialists – in fact, economic common sense is often the exact opposite of socialist doctrine. Her economic plan seems to be taxing everything and everyone. The country needs more money, so they must raise taxes to make it. Of course, if the nation’s money is provided by the people, taking more money from the people doesn’t actually increase wealth. You’re simply taking the money from one person and giving it to another.

Among Chinchilla’s brilliant economic ideas – most of which are leftovers from the previous administration – are a $200 corporation tax that is charged to all businesses, regardless of income; a tax on all financial transactions, including ATM withdrawals, a tax on dealings with doctors, lawyers and other professionals and more. And now the newest tax is on offshore online gambling companies.

The result of the online casino tax is unknown. Many believe that it will scare off the online gambling operators who had been using Costa Rica to avoid taxation. If that happens, one thing is sure: It won’t help the education budget. Let’s hope Chinchilla has a Plan B for that.

Everyone looks forward to the weekend because, for most, it means a short break from work or school and a time to relax. In the online casino world, though, it also means tournaments. Online casinos tend to hold tournaments on the weekends as a way to combat the otherwise slow attendance of their websites during that time. This weekend Online Vegas Casino has some good online tournament action.

From Friday, August 20 to Tuesday, August 24, the online casino is running the $30,000 Guaranteed Weekend Madness tournament. It is played on the Vampire Vixen game, a clever online slot based on a vampire temptress that is quite fitting considering pop culture’s current obsession with vampires. The Weekend Madness tournament has a $10 entry fee, which earns you 325 credits to start with. If you run out of credits and want to buy some more, you can re-buy for the same amount. Players compete for a guaranteed prize pool of $30,000.

For some, that $10 buy-in is too expensive, though, and they want a slot tournament that won’t hurt their wallet. For those players, I recommend the $2500 Bonus Buck Weekend Freeroll. This slot tournament takes place from Saturday, August 21 to Sunday, August 22. It is played on the Cleopatra’s Pyramid slot. This is a free slot tournament, so there is no entry fee, but if you run of out of credits, you can re-buy for $1.99.

Another inexpensive slot tournament this weekend is the Frugal Friday tournament. It is held today, August 20 and is played on the Soloman’s Mines game. There is a $1.99 entry fee and players compete for a share of a $1,500 prize pool.

The casino tournaments this weekend are not only for online slots, though. For video poker fans, there is the Video Poker $2500 Bonus Bucks tournament. There are two different tournaments this weekend, one on August 21 and one on August 22. The first tournament is played on the Mega Multi Hand Deuces Wild game and the other is played on the Multi Hand Aces and Faces game. Both video poker tournaments have entry fees of $1.99 and players compete for $2,500 in bonus bucks.

There is also an online blackjack tournament this weekend. From Friday, August 20 to Saturday, August 21, the Blackjack Pot Percentage tournament takes place. The blackjack tournament is played on the Vegas Strip Blackjack game and players compete for a share of the pot. The entry fee is $0.99.

No matter what your budget or game of choice, Online Vegas should have you covered this weekend, since the online casino has a variety of tournaments available. To take part in the tournament action, visit Online Vegas Casino.

British Columbia’s controversial online casino is back up and running. At 7:00 PM last night, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s PlayNow.com website was re-launched, giving players in the Canadian province the first opportunity in more than a month to play their favorite casino games online.

The online casino was the first launched in North America but it only lasted a couple hours before a security breach caused it to be shut down. A glitch in the software allowed some players to use the accounts of others, wagering with someone else’s money. For security reasons, the website was quickly shut down and only re-launched after an investigation concluded that it was safe.

Following the shutdown of the online casino, the Lottery Corporation went to work investigating the incident, along with an independent investigation from the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner and another review by a private consulting firm, Deloitte. At the end of the investigation, those involved concluded that the problem was caused by a software glitch that would have been “almost impossible” for the BCLC to foresee.

Is that supposed to make me feel better? Right now I’m wondering if there are any other glitches that are almost impossible to see. I don’t know about you, but if I was a resident of British Columbia, I’m not sure I would feel comfortable gambling at their online casino. This debacle is yet another in a long list of examples of how government has never been able to run a business as well as a private enterprise. British Columbia residents should demand private casinos, separate from their bumbling government.

The British Columbia Lottery Corporation estimates that each day the website was shut down they lost $150,000 in revenue. In total, they estimate losing $5 million while the online casino was shut down. PlayNow.com is the first online casino to be launched in North America, though Quebec expects to launch one of their own this fall and Ontario plans to follow by the year 2012.

The dog days of summer are rough on everyone, but there are some good things about August. For starters, my birthday is in August. That may not mean much to you, but to some people it’s important. Also, it’s a great time for sports in the United States, as Major League Baseball gets into the pennant race and college football starts (with the NFL games right around the corner). At Casino Tropez, August is also a time of casino bonuses and tournaments.

From now until August 22, the online casino is offering a 30% match bonus on all deposits. Usually those match bonuses are only one for a month or if you’re a new member they might be on your first deposit or your first few deposits. Right now at Casino Tropez, though, you can make 500 deposits if you want to and you will receive a 30% match bonus on each one. Anyone who deposits more than $100 can also get a high roller bonus, which is available by contacting customer service.

If you’re a fan of casino tournaments, Casino Tropez is also holding the Elite Challenge tournaments. One is a slot tournament runs from August 19 (today) to August 22. During the slots tournament, players earn points for wagers made on any online slot. There is a $4,000 prize pool for the tournament, with the top spender winning $1,000. Win that kind of money and you’ll be happier than a 12-year-old girl at a Justin Bieber concert.

If online roulette is more your style, the other part of the Elite Challenge tournament involves the ol’ red and black wheel. Though this tournament is for roulette, it is played the same way. There is a prize pool of $4,000 and players earn points for the money they wager during the tournament period. The roulette tournament also takes place from August 19 to August 22.

To take part in the Elite Challenge tournaments and earn a 30% match bonus on all of your deposits, visit Casino Tropez before August 22.

It hurts the most when someone you care about disappoints you. This time it’s Israel. The Middle Eastern nation is blocking access to online gambling providers from overseas. It seems that online gambling is illegal in Israel and the country is protecting its citizens from themselves.

I would expect such a thing in Saudi Arabia, Iran or Syria. Israel, however, prides itself on being a bastion of freedom in the Middle East. They pride themselves on being a symbol of Western civilization, technological advances and liberty. For the most part, this is true. The people of Israel, regardless of race, religion and socioeconomic status, live mostly free from oppression and government control. Like the United States, though, the government has grown over time while spending more and more money, putting the nation in the red. Facing tough economic times, the country needs extra revenue now more than ever, so this would be a good time to legalize online gambling and tax it, but the country is going in the opposite direction.

Last month, Israeli police began visiting the internet service providers (ISPs) in the country, brandishing orders to block access to overseas online gambling websites. The police handed over a list of blacklisted websites, including their IP (Internet protocol) addresses. The ISPs are ordered to block those IP addresses to prevent Israeli citizens from being able to access online gambling sites.

There are several problems with this. First of all, though Israel has every right to enforce their own laws, I am against laws that ban online gambling in the name of protecting the people. Let the people protect themselves. Secondly, using an IP address to block websites is not very effective, since the online casino owners can simply start a new website with a different IP address. People smarter than me can also find ways of faking or cloning IP addresses. Some also say that the law the police are using applies only to brick and mortar casinos, not online casinos, and therefore the government is overstepping their authority. Since I’m not familiar with Israeli law, I don’t know if that’s the case.

In any case, most ISPs are cooperating fully with the orders, though some plan to contest the orders in court. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Israel isn’t the only Western or Western-influenced country to attempt to censor the Internet by blocking certain websites. Australia, France and Norway come to mind.

All Slots Casino isn’t really known for their poker. As you might assume, they are mostly known for their online slots. When it comes to slots and slot tournaments, few online casinos can rival All Slots. Don’t get me wrong. The casino has lots of other games. In fact, aside from their regular table games, the casino also has a selection of live-dealer table games, where you can play baccarat, blackjack and roulette with a video feed or a live dealer. Right now the casino has a tournament for fans of video poker.

From now until August 24, All Slots Casino is holding a video poker tournament where players compete for a share of a $5,000 prize pool. This is not a video poker tournament where you earn points instead of money and compete against other players for the top point total. Instead, you play the games as you normally would, depositing real money, winning real money and losing real money. The only catch is that you will also earn one point for every 50 credits you wager. At the end of the promotion, the players with the most points (from wagering the most money) will earn prizes.

During this promotion period, the online casino will reward you for your wagers on any video poker game in the casino. That means you can pick your favorite game and play it over and over or you can play a whole lot of games. Whatever you decide, you will earn points for wagering on the video poker games and have the potential to earn prizes at the end.

To take part in the $5,000 video poker tournament, visit All Slots Casino.

Online gambling is becoming more popular in Greece, or so says an online gambling website, onlinegamblingpal.com. According to the source, you can tell that online gambling is becoming more popular there due to the large number of Greeks who are reporting winning money at online casinos right now.

Okay, or I guess that could be a coincidence. It gets worse, though. Here is an actual quote from the website: “The southeastern country is currently facing major financial problems, which could be solved by playing at online casinos.”

Really? So Greece is in the middle of a financial meltdown due to irresponsible spending and the solution is to gamble? That seems a little odd. Unemployment in Greece is ridiculous, though that is partly because so many people there would rather not work and simply make money off of government assistance programs. Recent austerity measures imposed by the EU, however, have led to rioting in the streets by communists, unions and other radicals. And while those people are burning cars, throwing rocks at police and marching on government lawns, your friends at onlinegamblingpal.com want you to think that the solution, if you’re Greek, is to take all of your money and spend it at an online casino in the hopes of doubling your cash or better.

It doesn’t take a genius to know that’s a bad strategy. In fact, it is the exact opposite of what I propose almost every day on this website: Never spend money that you can’t afford to lose. If you are hurting for money and need a quick buck, the casino is not an answer, because it is more likely to take your money than give you some.

Of course I support online gambling and I think it can be a very enjoyable activity if done responsibly. The key is the word “responsibly.” There are some websites out there – and onlinegamblingpal.com seems to be one of them – who don’t care about that and just want to encourage you to spend, spend spend. I’m not like them. If you don’t have enough money right now then go to your favorite online casino and play the free games. You can play the same games for free using fake money. Just keep your credit card in your wallet and enjoy the fun games. Hopefully soon you’ll be in a better financial situation and can go back to playing real-money games.