Some members of the U.S. House of Representatives are trying to get a federal legalization of online gambling so they can regulate and tax the industry. Such initiatives would overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which – though it didn’t outlaw online gambling – does allow the feds to go after financial institutions used in “unlawful” online gambling transactions. There is currently no federal law that bans online gambling, though it is banned in a few states.

The push to overturn UIGEA and regulate online gambling in America has been led by Democrat Barney Frank (D-MA) and Republican Ron Paul (R-TX). My personal opinion is that Paul wants online gambling legalized because the government has no business telling people what they can and can’t do with their money and Frank wants it regulated because he loves the government controlling and taxing businesses.

Since the Frank-Paul bill was introduced – but not yet brought to the floor –Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced a companion bill called the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act. It has been co-sponsored by Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Frank and John Larson (D-CT).

Last week McDermott’s bill was brought before the House Ways and Means Committee, which is the chief tax-writing committee in the House. Strangely enough, several members of this tax-writing committee – such as Charlie Rangel (D-NY) – have used ignorance of the tax code as defense for tax fraud.

Anyway, last week the committee looked at McDermott’s bill and they seemed unimpressed. McDermott stated that America was simply driving gambling revenue offshore, giving money to foreign countries that America desperately needs. He also said that his bill would generate $72 billion in revenue over 10 years from creating new taxes. Among the new taxes are plans to tax the players on their deposits up front, taxes on the casinos on the wagers themselves, taxing the players’ winnings and more. Of course, there would also be many different types of licensing fees for the casinos, just like for current brick and mortar casinos.

Two representatives from Nevada weren’t too big on the bill, which isn’t surprising, since they have to look out for the interests of Las Vegas. Republican Dean Heller said he would keep an open mind, but he is concerned about online gambling’s impact on the Vegas strip. He is also against the “deposit tax” that would take money away from players up front, whether they win or lose at the casino. The other Nevada representative on the committee, Democrat Shelley Barkley, said she supports the legalization of online gambling, but not the taxing of it – at least not right away.

I know what you’re thinking? What? A Democrat is wary about adding a new tax? How can that be? Also surprising for a Democrat, she made a good argument. She wants to legalize and regulate the new online casino industry and let it develop first before taxing it. “Because the industry is not even established yet, I can’t imagine how we can know with any degree of certainty how the special tax would affect operators or customers,” she said. Instead, she says that it should be legalized and regulated, but should not be looked at as a source for revenue. Wow, now she’s sounding like a conservative.

No decision was made on whether to move forward with the bill. This is Washington; things move slowly.

Oh, those crazy Chinese are at it again. We know that the Communist Chinese government isn’t too high on freedom, including a free flow of information or the ability for people to do what they want with their money. Come to think of it, in China it’s not really your money, is it?

Anyway, those zany folk in Beijing have stated that there will be a crackdown on what they call “overseas hostile forces.” Of course, in China, you are seen as being a hostile force if you are anything other than the Chinese government, which means that everything overseas is automatically hostile.

In Red China, there is actually a department in the government called the Information Office. It is that office that controls what information the people are given and is responsible for telling the people what they want to be known and hiding what they don’t want to be known. So, in that way it’s a lot like Obama’s relationship with the New York Times.

Anyway, Wang Chen (no, I didn’t make up that name) is the chief of the Information Office and he released a statement saying that China “will strengthen the blocking for harmful information from outside China to prevent harmful information from being disseminated in China and withstand online penetration by overseas hostile forces.”

Allow me to translate that from propaganda to English. When China says “harmful information,” what they mean is any information that doesn’t match the official information released by the Information Office. For example, information about freedom, democracy, protests, ownership, property, and human rights would be considered “harmful” information that needs to be kept from the people. Such information is currently being blocked from the Internet in China, but there are always ways around that censorship, which is why they need to crack down.

How this relates to online gambling is that in China’s mainland, gambling is illegal. That includes online gambling. However, there are many online casinos from overseas that currently accept Chinese customers. Online gambling is another thing that is considered harmful by the Chinese government, because it is a way for the Chinese citizens to spend money on something that is not provided by the government.

In response to this statement, many online casinos that were accepting bets from Chinese customers have stopped. Some have delayed deposits and withdrawals from China. Some online casinos have warned Chinese customers that the government may be monitoring their transactions.

So for any Chinese online gamblers, I’m sorry to say that you may soon be out of options for casinos. Of course, I’m also sorry to say that you live in China, don’t have freedom, and may soon be arrested and taken to a secret prison for the “crime” of reading this article.

Just so we’re clear, here’s a list of things that China does and doesn’t like. This is not a comprehensive list.

Chinese government likes: communism, controlling all aspects of the lives of its citizens, manufacturing products and selling them to America, running over protesters with tanks, executing political adversaries and starving millions of people to death.

Chinese government dislikes: freedom, democracy, truth, Google, privacy, religion, public gatherings, private property, self-sufficiency and online gambling.

You can only keep Americans in the dark for so long. Sure, you can fool us with propaganda and lies for a while, but Americans are resourceful people with access to a wealth of information from the internet, newspapers, online blogs (*ahem*), talk radio, Youtube, and more.

For that reason, only 6% of Americans still believe that President Obama’s “stimulus” bill has helped the economy. Only 19% of Americans believe that Bigfoot exists and only 6% of Americans believe that the moon landing was faked. People are resourceful and they eventually figure things out.

What about online gambling? Despite campaigning by the Department of Justice and other groups to convince people otherwise, there is no federal ban on online gambling. Neither the Wire Act nor the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) bans online gambling, with the exception of sports betting.

Until recently, however, the common belief among Americans was that online gambling in any form was illegal. The number people who feel that way, though, is dropping. In 2007, it was as low as 41% and earlier this year it was only 37%, according to a survey by Canadian group Ipsos Reid.

So what does this mean? It means that people are waking up and learning about their rights. They are learning what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do. Americans don’t like the government or anyone else telling them what to do and by educating themselves, they are empowering themselves.

The same survey shows that 55% of Americans would like a federal regulation of online casinos to ensure their safety while 45% would prefer the regulation be done by each individual state.

The European Union (EU) is kind of funny. They love to regulate and control the lives of the citizens of its member states and they love to control all business, but if someone actually stands up to them and says no, they don’t know what to do. That is because, despite all of their power and greed, the EU is still basically spineless.

Whenever a member country defies EU rules, they respond in much the same way as the United Nations: they tell you that they don’t like it. Do it again and you might get a friendly letter reminding you of the EU laws. Keep doing it and the letters may get less pleasant. Keep doing it after that and who knows what will happen? They might condemn you.

As part of the EU’s Free Trade Agreement creates a single set of rules and regulations for commerce between its member nations. Each member nation must accept and abide by the EU rules and the result is supposed to be a simplified and more inclusive market. The problem is that nations aren’t following the rules. Estonia is the latest to defy the EU’s regulations on online gambling.

Under EU rules, countries must accept all European-based online casinos and related sites, giving no preference based on origin. Estonia has recently begun licensing online gambling operators, but only those that are not included on their blacklist. Several things can land a casino on the blacklist, with one of them being having your operations based outside of Estonia. The country is giving preference to casinos based inside their borders and excluding foreign competition, a practice that is strictly prohibited under EU rules.

So far there has been no response from the European Union, but these things take time. After all, for some time now Germany, France and Greece have been ignoring the EU regulations and giving preference to their own casinos. Spain is giving tax breaks to customers who win money at Spanish casinos but none if you win at a foreign site.

Meanwhile, there has been little response from the EU. They now have a new Internal Markets Commissioner, who has drafted a paper and sent it to each member nation reminding them of the free trade rules. Now that a new country has joined in the defiance, you wonder what is next.

A recent study on US gambling habits claims to show that while visits to brick and mortar casinos are declining, there is an increase in online casino business. This is despite the belief that online gambling is illegal in America (wrong: it is only banned in 4 states) and the worry that the passage of the UIGEA in 2006 means the government can prosecute online gamblers and confiscate their winnings (it gives the authority for neither).

A survey by a media study group called Mintel International Group showed that 30% of Americans visited a land-based casino in 2009, which is down from 35% in 2001. Mintel also reports that 12% of Americans visited an online casino in 2009, which they say is an increase from an undisclosed amount. In truth, there is no way to accurately determine how many Americans gamble online, since so many think it is illegal or at least vague (to say that some states’ gambling laws are unclear on the subject is an understatement).

So what does this all mean? Perhaps nothing. You may recall that in 2009 the economy started getting pretty bad, with the bank bailouts and the housing bubble bursting and everything. Job losses, fear of job losses, depleted savings accounts and 401(k)’s led to a decrease in tourism everywhere, and that includes hotspots like Las Vegas.

Many in the online gambling community, including some of our competitors, have looked at this information and concluded that it means online casinos are taking business away from brick and mortar casinos. It means people have decided to gambling online instead of taking a trip to a casino. That’s possible, but it’s impossible to tell conclusively. Maybe if we were certain that the online gambling figure of 12% was a significant increase, that would mean something. However, with no previous number given, maybe the 12% figure is a decrease as well. Also, one year isn’t a big enough sample to conclude that former land-based gamblers are now playing online. In one year, any shift could be because of the economy. Even if more people are gambling online, it could be because it’s cheaper and if/when the economy improves they will go back to taking trips to Vegas and Atlantic City.

But for the sake of argument, let’s say that it’s true that people who once gambled in land-based casinos are now exclusively playing online. Why would that be? It’s probably because of price and convenience. Blockbuster is fighting tooth and nail to keep every possible customer right now amid their massive store closings, while people flock to Netflix and Pay-Per-View. Those services are cheaper and don’t require the customer to leave their house. Remember, Americans are lazy. Similarly, iTunes and internet piracy has led to closings of countless music stores. I even went into Best Buy recently with a list of about 20 CD’s I was looking for and couldn’t find one. They had nothing but bare shelves with one copy of a few current hit albums. It’s a sad day when a music store doesn’t fully stock CD’s anymore. They did, however, have lots of iTunes gift cards.

Whether the trend toward online gambling, if it’s a trend, continues or not, this study does tell us something: At least 12% of the country is gambling online at casinos that are operating in the jurisdiction of other countries. That is a lot of tax revenue that the government is losing. If there’s one thing our power-hungry government hates, it’s missing out on the ability to take someone’s money. Therefore, you can probably expect a federal regulation of online gambling in the near future.

Who would have guessed that getting a bunch of independent countries to agree on having the exact same laws would be difficult? Oh, I guess anyone with intelligence would. For whatever reason, that either didn’t occur to those who pushed for the establishment of a European Union back in 1993 or they just didn’t care.

In any case, if you’ve been following online gambling news you probably have noticed that there have been a lot of disputes between the European Union (EU) and its member countries about gambling. One of the things the EU is supposed to provide for its member countries is free trade. However, several countries either have a ban on foreign online casinos or give incentives for their citizens to use the casinos in their own country instead. The EU doesn’t like that.

You don’t want to make the EU mad, because when they get mad, they react about as harshly as the United Nations: They tell you that you’re being bad and ask you to stop. If you continue being bad, they’ll say that they’re getting really mad and really want you to stop. If you keep doing it, you can expect an angry letter.

The EU now has a new Internal Markets Commissioner, Michel Barnier, who resolves to end this problem once and for all. How? By drafting a paper that clearly outlines the EU’s position on online gambling, of course. He will then send the paper to each member country to remind them that these are the rules that they must follow. Not only that, but it will call out the countries that are violating the EU laws by pointing out what they’re doing wrong. Ooh, that’s gotta hurt.

So who’s ignoring the EU? A few countries right now. France, Germany and Greece have laws that give an advantage to state-run monopolies over foreign online casinos. Spain is a little more covert with their subversion. Though there is no law that gives an advantage to Spanish casinos, their tax code does. The Spanish government offers a tax break on winnings from gambling at Spanish-run casinos. If you win money from a foreign casino, however, you have to shoulder the full tax burden. For that reason, there is significant incentive for Spanish citizens to gamble using the state-run monopolies. Finland is a little more daring. They placed an outright ban on foreign online casinos, making it only legal to gamble using one of the two Finnish gambling companies.

You may be wondering where the new Internal Markets Commissioner is from. Well, Mr. Barnier happens to be from France, which is one of the countries defying the EU rules on online gambling. Maybe this will get interesting after all. France may get a very special letter from Barnier, which would basically say “I’m really disappointed in you. Oh, yeah, and you’re making me look bad.”

Online gamblers and casino operators, watch out. China is coming after you. On the official website of the Ministry of Public Security, the government stated that they will “concentrate on investigating major and important cases of online gambling, knock out domestic and foreign groups that organize online gambling, and severely punish the criminal elements.”

If you’re involved in gambling in any way that relates to China and that statement doesn’t scare you, then you must not know much about the country. The Chinese government has a way of crushing all opposition and when they say phrases like “severely punish,” they mean it. This is the country that responds to protests by running over the protestors with tanks. It’s the country that controlled a population that wasn’t particularly keen on Communism by starving millions of people to death. Mao may be long gone and China may be seen as much kinder and gentler than in Mao’s day, but that’s only because anything would seem kinder and gentler in comparison.

Traditional gambling was banned in China after the Communist takeover in 1949 because the government didn’t want people to have control over their own money. If you could make and spend your own money, you are less reliant on the government. China, of course, continues to allow a state-run lottery, as is often the case in countries that ban gambling. In the absence of a legal way to gamble within Chinese borders, internet gambling has become more popular. In light of that development, China intends to go after those who gamble online as well as the financial institutions used and the online casinos who operate the games.

A fight for control of the internet is nothing new. When Google brought their popular search engine to the country, it was with the stipulation that the government controlled what information could be accessed. It has long been the policy of China, and all Communist governments for that matter, to control the flow of information, because that is the easiest way to crush an uprising.

When last year’s protests of a disputed election in Iran were publicized thanks to social networking sites like Twitter, China took note. China currently blocks the use of Twitter, Flickr, Youtube and Facebook. After Google accused the Chinese government of hacking into their Gmail service to retrieve information on human rights activists, it is likely that Google has seen the end of its days in China as well.

If you live in China, I doubt you have the ability to read this page. If you are in any way involved with online gambling in China, though, heed their warning. When China says someone will be punished, they mean business.

Halloween is my second favorite holiday, no doubt about it. Maybe it’s the changing of the leaves or the free candy. Or perhaps I enjoy monster movie marathons and costume parties that make it so good? While I’d like to think all of those things play a part, by far the best part of the season is the Halloween online slot promotions. Sure, you’re saying “But Ricky, every month brings with it cool online slot promotions.” Correct. But not every month’s slot tournaments have cool names like “Halloween Weekend Madness $66,666 Guaranteed Tournament,” “The Fearfully Fun Fright Night Freeroll,”or “Black Magic” slot. And let’s face it…when it comes to online slots, it’s all about the theme.

Golden Casino and Online Vegas are unleashing three delightfully terrifying online slot promotions for Halloween. The first, The Fearfully Fun Fright Night Freeroll guarantees $2,666 begins October 30 at 10am EST and to play, all must have a real money account. As the name suggests, The Fearfully Fun Fright Night Freeroll even ends at a scary time one minute before midnight. The freeroll utilizes the Black Magic slot and offers a chillingly appropriate “grim” prize of $666. On top of that, the top 200 players will also receive some tricks and treats of their own.

Another one of the goodies offered by Online Vegas and Golden Casino is the Halloween Weekend Madness $66,666 Guaranteed tournament. The thrills and chills will last from October 30 at 8pm EST and continue its haunt for the rest of the weekend. The weekend long online slot tournament boasts a prize pool of $66,666 and an entry fee of $13.13 with the top prize totaling $16,666.

Cash prizes for the “survivors” will go all the way down to 500^th place which is so awesome…it’s scary? (Sorry I’m getting carried away with the Halloween thing here.) The online slot featured in the tournament is the all new Monster Money slot consisting of a guaranteed bonus round where players explore a haunted castle in search of huge payouts.

Golden Casino and Online Vegas are also inviting online slots lovers to discover their Columbus Day Free Entry $20,000 Guaranteed promotion starting October 12^th for all players with real money accounts. Columbus day being my favorite holiday, I might have to check that one out as well.

Full Tilt Poker is the focus of a new lawsuit after accusing two of its players of using bot software in its online poker rooms. The lawsuit comes from Lary “pokergirl_z” Kennedy and Greg Omotoy, two former Full Tilt Poker customers, and takes aim at both Full Tilt and Tiltware and several Team Full Tilt members including Andy Bloch, Perry Friedman, Erick Lindgren, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and Allen Cunningham. The players are accusing Full Tilt of a laundry list of nasty things including fraud, false advertising, racketeering, unjust enrichment, libel and slander.

The details state that Full Tilt seized over $80,000 from the players’ accounts after they were suspected of using online poker bot software to increase their winnings. According to the suit, another player who goes by the name “The Complainer” suspected “pokergirl_z” of foul play and reported her. TheComplainer’s opinion is apparently held in very high regard with the company and pokergirl was then removed from the site and relieved of her winnings. According to Poker News Daily, these are not the only players The Complainer has outed.

The suit unleashes a number of damaging claims. Among them, that the online poker room, which claims to have operated as two separate entities (Tiltware and Vert Enterprises) is in fact one company and that they operated out of a Los Angeles office for over two years. It also says that Full Tilt itself uses bots to increase income on slow tables. Perhaps most damaging is the accusation of Team Full Tilt playing with Full Tilt’s money which equates them to the “house” in a casino, thereby classifying them as an online casino and not a card room, thus violating California state laws.

This is not the only lawsuit with which Full Tilt online poker is currently involved. Former Full Tilt employee Jason Newitt, who was let go after leaking confidential information onto the web, filed suit against his ex-online poker employer claiming he was “unfairly fired and that his distribution payments were unfairly ceased.”

As if that weren’t enough, just recently Brandon McSmith filed a lawsuit alleging that his idea for “Face the Ace” was stolen by Poker PROductions. Though Full Tilt Poker is not named in the suit, they are tied to the production as the show features Full Tilt Pros.

Something wicked this way comes… On December 1^st, the United States must come in full compliance with the regulations set forth in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act or UIGEA for short. Meanwhile, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is scrambling behind the scenes to slow the coming storm of vague laws aimed at bureaucratizing the illegality of online gambling.

The patron saint of online gambling (or is he?) Barney Frank introduced HR 2266 which would delay the effects of the UIGEA by one year. This would in theory give lawmakers enough time to consider a better way to tax and regulate online gambling. Unfortunately, despite garnering much support from 48 cosponsors to the bill, there are apparently “other issues” going on with the government and the economy that are somehow “more important” than the delay of the UIGEA. So it doesn’t look like help will arrive in time.

John Pappas, executive director of the PPA spoke to Poker News Daily and had this to say, “The reality is that our country is facing a lot of challenges. From a poker player’s perspective, the UIGEA may be the top priority, but it’s not the top priority of Congress. Until Barney Frank can solve the issues facing his Committee, ours is not going to take precedence.”

The PPA is apparently pursuing all avenues in search of a delay to the harmful anti-online gambling legislation. One of the considered weapons in their arsenal is the Administrative Procedure Act “allows for individuals and organizations like the PPA to weigh in with the Department of the Treasury and ask for a delay of a proposed rule.”

Also working in favor of online gambling supporters is the amount of money the government stands to gain by taxing and regulating online gambling. However, this same issue may work against them. The Obama administration and Democratic Congress have so many issues on the table like health care reform and thinking of ways to distract the American people from understanding the financial implications of passing government controlled health care that passage of anything seems like a tall order at this time.

“We are working with Barney Frank and others for a non-legislative solution to clarifying or delaying the UIGEA regulations. Given everything on the Chairman’s plate, one thing off of it is a good thing. We’re hoping to see a delay.”