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It was argued before a congressional panel this week that Internet gambling should be legalized and taxed in the United States to raise $42 billion in the period of ten years and declare lawful gamers who bet online.

“We are talking about a decision by adults to do what they want to do with their own money,” said Democrat Representative Barney Frank, who sponsors a bill to legalize online gaming, citing John Stuart Mill’s essay “On Liberty” to bring across his perspective. The House of Representatives is considering two Internet gambling bills. One would legalize it. The other would require people to declare winnings from online gambling to U.S. tax authorities and set a 0.25 percent tax on wagers of all federally licensed bets.

The UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Act) has been signed into law on the 13^th of October, 2006. The UIGEA objective was to stop the transfer of funds from any USA financial institution to online gambling websites, excluding USA based websites for lotteries and horse racing.

If all states took part, taxing online gambling could raise about $42 billion over a decade, according to the joint congressional tax committee. Washington Democrat Jim McDermott sponsors the tax bill, but not all Democrats back it. Some Republicans favour it, but others are against it due to moral concerns.

Privately held Harrah’s Entertainment, the biggest casino company, backs legalizing online gambling, but not the House bill on taxation. Rival MGM Mirage said it has no position on the tax bill, but supports legalization and taxation in some form.

The Obama Administration has yet to take a position on the matter.

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When the United States initiated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, the world of online gambling nearly came to a shuddering halt with the ramifications implied in the Act.

Many massive online gambling providers, specifically those invested almost exclusively in the US, struggled to cope with the new legislation, and many smaller companies were either declared defunct and bankrupt, or joined forces to tackle the remaining global markets, such as Europe. Larger providers either settled on a narrower focus, or pulled out of the US completely, and are still feeling the crunch of losing the US online gambling markets (arguably one of the biggest target audiences available).

On Wednesday, 19 May 2010, the United States House Committee on Ways and Means will review the tax proposals pertaining to online gambling in the United States. This particular committee has jurisdiction regarding taxation purposes, and although this situation is not as rosy in terms of allowing full access to the US online gambling markets, like before, the potential for being allowed back inside US borders and online domains is nevertheless a plausible one. The House Committee will be looking at creating some form of taxable system applicable to online gambling. In effect, the best positive outcome would be a return to US markets, but under very strict rules and regulations, as well as the added weight of taxes.

UIGEA’s current stance on online gambling lies in the generic inability to constantly monitor any funding forwarded from credit providers for online gambling purposes. For this reason, such fund transfers were deemed illegal, effectively denying any potential online gambling aficionados the chance of receiving funds to gamble with from any bank or financial institute. On the 1^st of June 2010, the second phase of the overall UIGEA legislative motion will be instituted, demanding full compliance from financial authorities. The Committee will also bring proposals to legalise online gambling in the US again, positing a stance that there are plenty of taxable avenues intrinsic to legal online gambling. All of these proposals will be backed by research and findings based on the electronic commerce side of matters, and how these providers do and might feature in any possible re-legalisation process.

Arguably, the world of online gambling would heave a collective sigh of relief if the US was to once again open its electronic borders to online gambling, even if it meant a heavily-regulated and stringent adherence to whatever gambling legislation might be instituted. Until such clarification hits the newsstands, online gambling providers can only wait with bated breath and fingers crossed for possible good news.

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Many countries have a “blurred” legislative perspective on the online gaming industry, but yet another country has made clear its’ laws on the matter. China stands now clear with the implementations of a new law that does not allow any online casino to be operational, unless it is being operated from within China.

The Chinese Government is busy creating a gaming monopoly in the country, coming down on casino companies that are operating internationally, by blocking their websites across the nation without mercy. The blocks on the Internet in China, will be strengthened to ensure that no casino advertisement gets passed the filters.

China is known for controlling the information that is exposed to their nationals, and even though the Chinese people are not happy about this new legislation, there is nothing they can do. People believe that they should have the right to choose in which online casino they can spend their money at, but their opinion is unlikely to change the governments’ perspective on the law.

Since China’s financial incline, the country has become a monopolistic online community by blocking many websites including Google, meaning that more and more operations are being forced out of the country.

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After a greatly publicised and successful relationship with Cryptologic, an online casino software developer for over five years, which proved a very profitable endeavour for both parties, things in the relationship have turned soar.

The software developer has taken up arbitration proceedings opposing the comic designers. The reasoning behind their actions is stated due to Marvel apparently breaching their provisions as stated in the licensing agreement.

The partnership that began in 2005 between these two power-house brands was set to continue ‘til 2013 with Cryptologic holding exclusive licensing rights that would have let them use any of the Marvel-inspired superheroes as characters and themes for a collection of their slot games. To date, 17 various slot machines have used many characters including Spiderman, Blade, the Hulk and more.

However, in 2009, another deal was signed between marvel subsidiary (Marvel B.V) and PlayTech, which is in direct competition with Cryptologic.

In recent reports, it was said that Cryptologic had attempted to resolve the issues with marvel away from the courts but found themselves faced with an uncooperative Marvel. The software developer sees this legal action as a final resort in order to protect their licensing rights.

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The Resorts World Sentosa, the five-star resort and casino in Singapore has apprehended its first cheating player.

Hou Yongwei has been convicted and sentenced to at least 10 months in a federal prison.

Mr. Yongwei landed himself in the dock after attempting to cheat at a game of Tai Sai.

Following his attempts at cheating in the game, the dealer noticed it; and later, CCTV footage picked up what the dealer had already suspected.

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27-year-old, Daniel Tzvetkoff, an Australian national has been arrested in Las Vegas.

Daniel is facing charges of aiding offshore online gambling companies with the processing of banking transaction for US players. The estimated worth of these illegal transactions is said to be more than $543 million.

The official charge Daniel is facing is illegal gambling conspiracy as well as bank fraud and money laundering conspiracy, and money laundering.

If convicted, he could be facing more than 75 years jail time and fines totalling more than $543 million.

Sources claim that Daniels whereabouts in the US where know due to tip offs authorities received from certain internet gaming companies who are claiming that Daniel had stolen up to $100 million of their customer deposits in the US.

In the indictment, David had been laundering money for some time now (from February 2008 to March 2009); his laundering days were numbered when internet gaming companies stopped their work relationship with him due to his apparent theft.

David’s company, Instabill, Inc., has used Automated Clearing House transactions to move cash around from player accounts to various offshore shell companies. He then proceeded to move these funds into gaming accounts. He would also use these companies to shuffle player winnings made at internet casinos back to the bank accounts of US players.

David’s arrest comes off the arrest of another man, Douglas Rennick, a Canadian resident, who in August 2009 was charged with transferring a staggering $350 million to bank accounts in the US from accounts in Cyprus.

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Online casino operators who constantly have to find new ways of protecting customer safety will be pleased to hear that there is a new, and improved, way of ensuring the security of their players as well as the operators themselves. PlayerVerify is a new system that makes it easier for players to protect themselves against identity theft and other online scams.

In the past, players were generally required to send in personal documents in order to verify their identity. While these documents were required to protect their safety, by sharing these documents these players sometimes put their personal details at risk. Details from sensitive documents like driver’s licenses and passports were at risk of being stolen by hackers, therefore discouraging many potential players from playing.

PlayerVerify allows players to upload their documents on the system’s secure server. The information is then made available to the authorised online casino operator that requires the data for verification purposes. The player then provides the operator with their secure code enabling the operator to access the personal information. Data is therefore never sent across unsecure lines of online transfer.

Online casino operators will also benefit from this new service because staff won’t have to sort through vast numbers of faxes and emails from all their customers and they won’t have to worry about proper storage for such sensitive items.

It seems likely that more and more online casinos will use this system or other systems like it in the near future.

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Operators in the online casino industry have stated their opinion on the recent French laws, which have opened the online gambling community in the country to much concern over companies not being able to prosper.

Gambling operators located internationally, who are willing to accept the business of the French have complained about taxes and additional restrictions that would pull profits, and give the existing gambling monopoly an unfair advantage.

New laws in the country do not allow online blackjack or roulette options of play, due to the Francaise de Jeux having the monopoly over these casino games. Sports betting will be allowed, but will have an 8.8 per cent tax; this percentage being a lot higher than many bookmakers would like.

Insiders have suggested that the Francaise de Jeux could lead to an offset of exposure through sports betting together with table games, but international casino operators will be left with increased risk propositions. With the exclusion of casino games it has been stated that the monopoly would be just fine.

Recent information has surfaced that these French online casino regulations have not been found to comply with European Union (EU) rules as stated by the Court of Justice. Numerous nations have been involved in heated debates over the issue of online casino gambling as well as the free markets, with response to the problems being slow.

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The second high profile online casino owner in the last 12 months has died.

Police are currently investigating the death of Kenneth Weitzner, the founder of ThePrescription.com (therx.com); the company he sold eight years ago for more than $2 million. This followed with the inception of the online casino portal EOG.com (Eye on Gambling) which he founded. He was also a frequent punter of big sports books within Las Vegas; he was also a good friend of one of the states betting sharks, Billy Walters.

Initial investigations have revealed that both Kenneth as well as Jackie, his wife had committed a double suicide. Police officials have however also stated that the exact cause of the deaths had not been established, with investigations into the deaths still an ongoing process.

Rumours have circulated in various casino communities that Kenneth owed many people quite a bit of cash. The cause of this debt could possibility be due to gambling, but it is still up for debate as to why Jackie would have been considered a target.

As mentioned, Kenneth is the latest casino owner to be found dead. Andreas Oscarsson, the founder of pokerlistings.com was found murdered less than a year ago. It has been noted that Andreas had received a death threat due to the testimony he gave in the trial of a man attempting to extort over $2 million from him.

The news of Kenneth’s death is set to create a lot of buzz within gambling circles, and until police finalise their investigation into the couple’s deaths, the interest in the case is sure to continue.

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A recent survey from Casino.com shows that France is the nation with the most casino players in Europe. 25.5 percent, just over a quarter of the female players are French. The games that these women favour: roulette and slots. The survey also revealed that the French players don’t just see internet gambling as a means to win money, but also as a form of social entertainment.

The Marketing Director of Casino.com, says that they were very surprised to learn that more French women play at their casino than women of any other nationality. Casino.com now plans on duplicating these results beyond France by improving customer service.

This information is particularly relevant because casino operators in the UK because France was due to ease up on its policies regarding foreign online gaming providers advertising in the country. This is happening throughout the EU. UK operators can now advertise and promote their services in France. Currently, France only allows locally based providers.

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