The topic of problem gambling is going to rear its head again whenever news like this hits the general public. However in my experience then the percentage of people who have a problem with gambling is on a par with the percentage of people who have a problem with drink, food and smoking and any other potentially destructive personal activity.

At the end of the day, people become addicted to something because they have enjoyed the process of actually doing it. So why should vast numbers of people be denied that avenue of entertainment simply because a very tiny percentage of people have a problem controlling the betting aspect of going inside a casino?

The casino is indeed open for business 24 hours a day and has on top of the 40 gaming tables, 150 slot machines, a huge 150 seater poker room and 92 gaming terminals. On top of all of this is a lavish restaurant and two up market bars. The casino is called “Aspers” after the Aspinall family and employs a massive 440 people and has provided numerous jobs. Although there are always going to be people who oppose places like this but there are two sides to every argument.

I would not go as far as to say that I am in the pro casino corner simply because I have worked in them and my living is derived from them in one way or another. I am open minded enough to see both sides of the argument but I honestly feel that the “anti-casino” lobby misrepresent their argument. We live in a world that has evolved very rapidly and in that world are vast number of people and companies who are looking to make money. We simply live in an environment where people from all walks of life want to do different things and if those activities are things that we enjoy then so much the better.

Behar Merlaku matched four out of five symbols but the machine started to indicate that he had won the jackpot. In this instance then it appears to have been a software error but that has not prevented Mr Merlaku from taking court action to try and get his money. The amount was actually 43 million euros and clearly a life changing sum of money.

He said: “The jackpot came up loud and clear. There was music and the sum I had won, nearly 43 million euros, was displayed on screen. I was so overjoyed and in my head I began calculating what I could do with all this money.”

The casino in Bregenz, Austria claimed that a mistake in the software had caused the error which led to Mr Merlaku claiming his win. There is a press conference due in Innsbruck and the case is due to be heard on the 10th January. It is difficult to say how this will pan out because if the claimant can prove untold distress caused by thinking that he had a big win when he hadn’t then he could be entitled to compensation even if he doesn’t get the full jackpot paid out. With such a huge potential pay-off then clearly it then becomes a chance worth taking for his legal team.

Jim Ryan, the Co-Chief Executive of Bwin.Party, has said that they are in negotiations with companies that are within the states that are most likely to receive the go-ahead for online gaming – such as New Jersey as well as California. In his statement, he also made it very clear that there are no acquisitions in place as these talks and contracts for partnerships only.

Although he did not mention any specific parties, he said, “At federal level, we are finalizing agreements with a couple of parties positioned nicely to operate in that market. In California, we are well advanced with a particular party. The same in New Jersey, consistent with where we are at a federal level.”

Back in 2006, online gaming was banned throughout the United States keeping major gambling groups from other countries, including Europe, from pulling into the market. In addition, there were also some overseas gambling operators that were operating online in the United States that were shut down earlier in 2011.

Since earlier this year and in recent years, there have been a number of moves toward the legalization of online gambling; however, there are still politicians that remain strong against the regulation of such. AS of right now, there is no clear answer as to when online gambling may be legalized in the United States and/or within any of the states. However, it is clear that Bwin.party will be one of the first online gaming giants to be ready for when the time does come – when that pen hits the paper and the legalization is final.

It’s no secret that mobile gaming is creating an entirely new spectrum for the gaming market. A lot of online casinos are creating mobility for their players with online gaming availability because it is easily accessible, convenient and user-friendly for the player. Bwin players have been able to play poker for a little while now on their iPhones since the launch of the iPhone bwin poker client at the first of this year, but now Ongame has created new development that has allowed bwin poker to makes its way onto Android devices.

Throughout last year, 2010, Western Europe increased their usage of Android devices by 32% leaving it the obvious number one choice for smartphone users in addition to being the fastest growing OS on the market, even surpassing iOS in many circumstances. It is expected to grow nearly 40% by the end of 2015 and is well on its way to rule the market.

Berthold Kao, product manager of mobile operations at bwin.party said, “Delivering a mobile application that appeals to the mass market requires you to reinvent the whole poker experience.” While the managing director of Ongame, David Pittel, added, “Poker players are an ideal target audience for a mobile app, they are tech-savvy and keen to enjoy games using multiple platforms.”

Ongame currently assists over 25 e-gaming operators and brands globally while having as many as 45,000 players online playing concurrently at peak hours.

Free of charge, you can download the app right now by visiting www.bwin.com/androidpoker.

Created when Bwin and Party Gaming merged together, Bwin.party has launched several different online gaming services with three different brand names – Party, bwin as well as Gioco Digitale. They have introduced cash game poker into the lucrative market as well as online casino games, which occurred after the company was provided necessary licenses by AAMS, the local gaming regulator. More brands are expected to be launched over the upcoming weeks but for now, the new brands are bwin.it, PartyPoker.it and Giocodigitale.it.

When investors caught wind of this news, shares rose six percent. Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger, who are the co-chief executives, have shared that this launch will only help strengthen the company’s already strong existence in the Italian market.

“The launch of our casino offer in Italy should provide an exciting new revenue stream for us, and we look forward to leveraging our strong market position in other products over the coming months.”

Apart from cash game poker and online casino games, bwin has already made their way into Italy with licensed online bingo, skill games such as tournament poker and online sports betting.

Earlier this week, Net Entertainment, a Swedish software provider for online casinos, has announced that they will be providing games for the bwin local casino and will also launch their own operations with the brand Gioco Digitale.

The winner this year takes home around $8.7 million for winning the event which by anyone’s standards is a life changing sum of money. However if the winner markets themselves right then the spin offs could be huge and that is the real value of winning the event. The cosmopolitan nature of the field means that only three Americans are left with no fewer than five players from Europe and one from Belize.

There is a player from England and Ireland and an Irish winner would be huge considering how well they are doing in the golf at the moment. Of course the winner has been hugely lucky to win the event but then again that can said for any poker tournament to be fare. But now that the fields have got so big then it is almost impossible to play well and win without being super lucky.

The suspension came after the investigation by the United States led the Channel Island of Alderney Gambling Commission to launch their very own investigation. There must have been some suspension somewhere for the Gambling Commission to decide to open up their own investigation when the United States have their own; however, they released no official information as to what led them to suspend the license, which caused them to shut down their complete international operations.

Austria-based Bwin merged with one of their rivals, PartyGaming, earlier in 2011 and is based in one of the most popular places for online gambling companies because of soft tax laws yet highly regulated systems known as Gibraltar. Shares did fall a bit after their merger; however, they are definitely back up and running now and it has to be thanks in part to the shutdown of Full Tilt. With Full Tilt being off the market for at least until July 26 when a regulatory hearing is set to be held, their customers will need to find places to gambling online elsewhere. This will lead them to other popular websites including Bwin.Party as well as Playtech and 888 venues. In addition, PokerStars will also get their fair share of customers as well. While they may have been part of the Black Friday of Poker, they are still operating and are currently leading the European gambling market.

Despite everything, Bwin.Party still has a rough road ahead as they try to sell Ongame Poker Network before the end of the year and face the change in gambling laws in Germany, which could ultimately affect the way their business operates in addition to the success of their business.

James Farrier and Charlie Batch both planned to attend this grand opening until they were brought to the realization that they may be breaking the rules of the NFL regarding gambling promotion banning. They were scheduled to be the ribbon cutters – or at least so press releases said. Batch made a comment stating that he didn’t even realize that his name was being released as a ribbon cutter and would not be in attendance for the opening of the high stakes gambling venue or the ribbon cutting.

Neither of the players want to put their football career at risk. Definitely one of the better decisions that either of these players could have made. No one wants to “gamble” with their career.

Here is what Farrier had to say to the Tribune-Review:

“I wasn’t planning on doing any gambling there. I didn’t even think about it. After looking into it, I’m not going to do it. I don’t want any ripples with the NFL. (Commissioner) Roger Goodell already said if you break the rules during the lockout, you will get in trouble when we come back.”

As for Batch, ”I had no intentions of going. You know to stay away from casinos and those kinds of things. You don’t play around with league rules like that.”

A document is released to all NFL players every year that states the following:

The League has a long-standing policy against any advertising or promotional activities by players, clubs, coaches or other management personnel that can reasonably be perceived as constituting affiliation with or endorsement of gambling or gambling-related activities.

All club employees, including coaches and players, are prohibited from being associated with such activities through endorsements, commercials, ads or public appearances. Violators will be subject to appropriate discipline. Promotional appearances by players, coaches, or other personnel involving casinos, sports books, gambling cruises, or similar activities are not permitted.

AT the onset of the 2011 year, prior to any of the Black Friday or related occurrences, this same company – H2 Gambling Capital – said that online gambling would see a growth of around €25 billion and 10.2 percent over 2010. That amount now has been dropped to €23.76 billion resulting in the 4.4 percent growth that has now been reached.

The company made list of a few different factors that they are expecting to reduce this online gambling growth with the most influential factor being the impact that Black Friday had on the poker industry within the United States. In fact, their specific release stated,

“Black Friday (and subsequent actions) occurring in the US that have decimated the scale of the Internet poker industry in that market. At this stage we have calculated that the impact will equate to as much as €765 million of lost market value this year and a further €100 million loss next year.”

The next highest impact was the Japanese earthquake that occurred on the Japanese Racing Association, which is known to be the leading interactive operator in the entire world and is expressed as such in the company’s press release. H2 expects their interactive business to see a drop of 13 percent this year.

A couple other reasons were the current economic state as well as the regulation of online gambling markets being conducted slow than initially expected.

However, when taking out the United States and Japan, H2 reported a 12 percent win after considering what’s going down in Italy sometime during the middle of the year – the widely anticipated launch of online casino gambling and online poker cash games. In addition, there are also expanding markets expected in Belgium, Greece and Spain sometime next year in 2012, which will lead to further online gambling growth for 2012.

As for what to expect in the United States, here is what H2 had to say in their press release regarding their data and the future of the online gambling market in the U.S.

“H2 are more bullish than we were at the beginning of the year regarding the prospects for some permissive eGaming regulation in the US going forward. There appears to be some buy in across party lines to at least consider the issue more closely. However, H2 remain of the view that it will be at least three to five years before any significant regulated activity will be seen on the ground in the US and so at this time no regulated Internet gaming is included in our core forecasts which extend to 2015.”