The Conversation – “Aboriginal gambling” has become something of a hot-button issue in recent years. A number of academic research articles have documented the “risk factors” for Aboriginal people that increase their likelihood of develop gambling problems – enough to justify a recent overview paper by the Centre for Gambling Education and Research at Southern Cross University. Governments have not been lax in responding to the perceived evils of Aboriginal gambling. Gambling was one of four goods and services that the 2007 Northern Territory Intervention explicitly banned for the purposes of income management. Police in one remote NT community reportedly…

Yahoo – Planning a trip to Vegas to party and strike it rich? Here’s a tip: you’ll have a better chance of winning if you avoid roulette. That’s because casinos have a big advantage in roulette. There are 38 numbers on a standard American roulette wheel: 1 though 36, plus 0 and 00. That means you have a 1 in 38 chance of picking the right number. But, if you bet a dollar and win, you don’t get $38 – you win $35 and keep the original dollar you bet, for a total of $36. That $2 difference between $36…

Gaming Today – One man’s life was changed forever last Saturday night as New Jersey’s first-ever Next Poker Millionaire was crowned in a momentous online tournament that culminated in a televised championship event played live at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. Myroslaw Woroch (online screen name “onetime99”) had never won more than $7,000 playing poker until last weekend when he flopped a straight in the definitive hand against his heads-up opponent, Steven Edwards. “It was truly a surreal experience when I knew that I had him beat,” said Woroch. “When that final card came out my emotions…

Daily Mail – A 39-year-old man who leaped from a second-floor balcony to his death inside a Queens casino yesterday was on a winning streak. Sayed Alam was up by about $1,200 on the slot machines when he plunged 30-feet inside the Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct Race Track just before 6pm. Dozens of people were standing in the main lobby of the gambling hall on Rockaway Blvd in South Ozone Park when the man jumped, New York Daily News reported. The reason for the man’s death is not known. However sources told The New York Post that Alam was…

Digital Journal – In April 2011, the FBI and the Department Of Justice changed on-line poker for good. Where do we stand nearly three years down the line? Poker has changed dramatically since the Black Friday domain seizures; true, there have been winners as well as losers, but some of those losers have literally disappeared. Among those that are no more are UltimateBet and its sister site Absolute Poker. The site where the stars come to play is now the site where the stars came to play. The collapse of Hollywood Poker does not appear to have been related to…

CNN – Right now, Bitcoin is a hard sell for people who are accustomed to old-fashioned cash or credit. The stateless, digital currency can’t shake off the image that it’s unstable, unproven and largely still an experiment. Recent news doesn’t help. Last week, Russia’s top prosecutor declared that Bitcoin and all anonymous payment systems are illegal. One of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the world, Mt.Gox, prevented investors from pulling out their bitcoins, citing a technical glitch. Apple yanked the last remaining Bitcoin digital wallet from its app store. And earlier, a Bitcoin exchange CEO was arrested for money laundering….

Card Player – Some lawmakers in Italy are considering a ban on gambling advertisements that appear on TV and radio, according to reports. The amendment to a government finance bill has already passed the Senate. The lawmaker behind the proposal is Riccardo Nencini. Those in favor of it cite gambling as being an addictive activity. Italy has a murky regulated online poker industry, one which has been on the decline. This past fall, a European court issued a preliminary ruling that Italy cannot legally block some gambling sites from accessing its 61 million person population. Critics for Italy’s practice reportedly…

Fox News – A group of seniors in Washington state is pushing back against the state Gambling Commission’s decision to shut down their nickel-and-dime card games at a local senior center due to local ban on card games with money. Seniors at the 650-member Snohomish Senior Center had been playing illegally since 2009, when the city council banned “social” card games, The (Everett) Herald reported. Unaware the ordinance applied to them, the seniors continued to play poker, bridge, pinochle and other games for cash. In December, the Gambling Commission shut down their game with a letter informing them the games…