It seems that everyone is one Facebook now. Heck, even Gambling Review is on Facebook (so look us up). It’s gotten to the point that someone saying they’re not on Facebook is the new someone saying that they don’t own a TV. You don’t believe them and think they’re a jerk for trying to sound superior.

The online gambling industry was admittedly a little slow to jump on the Facebook bandwagon. The industry seemed to be waiting out, seeing if it was a fad that would soon end, like most social networking websites. With over 750 million users and counting, it seems that Facebook will be around for quite some time. In fact, it’s gotten to the point that Facebook is so popular because it’s so popular. In other words, people are on there not because of its great features, but because all of their friends are on it.

And now you can count online casinos among the user profiles. If you have a favorite online casino or several that you visit, searching for their name on www.facebook.com should reveal a fan page that you can “like.” But why should you like a casino’s page? It’s a legitimate question. While using Facebook to interact with all of your friends, why would you also want to follow an online casino? The reason is because it can be beneficial to you.

Online casinos use Facebook to interact with their customers, giving you another point of contact if you have an issue, want to make a suggestion, or just want to talk about their games or software. Through status updates, the casinos will also notify you when they launch a new game, start a new promotion, have a great tournament, or do anything else you want to know about. Sometimes they will even have exclusive bonuses only for those that are fans of their Facebook page. If you are a frequent customer, befriending them on Facebook can be beneficial.

Last year, the online gambling world, especially American gamblers, celebrated. The District of Columbia, the capitol of the United States, passed regulation for the online gambling industry. Though it was only going to allow intra-district gambling, it was still the first of its kind in America, and was seen as a stepping stone for larger regulation. Now that regulation is no more.

After mounting controversy over the regulation, Washington, D.C. decided to look more closely at the matter. This afternoon, the D.C. Council voted 10-2 to repeal the law regulation online gambling in the district. Michael Brown, who sponsored and wrote the regulation, was only joined by a single councilmember in opposing the repeal.

Though the regulation was signed into law last year, it was never implemented. Once opposition caught wind of the law, it became a huge source of controversy. The regulation was never debated by the Council and was slipped by Brown into a supplemental budget bill. Concerns were later raised over whether Brown had a conflict of interest in authoring the bill. Public hearings were held and many in the public came out to oppose it, though the majority of D.C. residents were either ambivalent or supportive.

Still, the controversy got all over www.cnn.com and other major media outlets, with speculation of corruption by Brown. In the end, the Council decided that since they had not debated the bill and had not voted directly on regulation, that they should vote on whether or not to repeal it. Today ten of the 12 council members vote in support of repeal.