A Louisville-based Kentucky casino advocacy group said Friday that it will support any of three proposed gambling bills. Kentucky Wins states that includes one introduced this week by House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg. But the board of the Kentucky Equine Education Project, a pro-casino horse group, voted Thursday to “strongly oppose” Stumbo’s bill, KEEP executive director Robert Heleringer said. Stumbo has said he didn’t confer with horse racing tracks before filing his bill, which would amend the state Constitution to allow the General Assembly to legislate expanded gambling. Stumbo’s bill doesn’t specify a number of potential casinos; he has not…

KCTV5 – A recent decline in Missouri’s casino revenues has created funding shortfalls for public schools and state-run veterans’ nursing homes, raising questions among lawmakers about the extent to which the state can continue to rely on gambling to fund some key programs. Underlying the concern is an uncertainty over whether the shortfall is a temporary event caused by a cold winter, the economy and increased casino competition from neighboring states, or whether it is the start of a long-term trend. Missouri relies on two sources of casino revenues. A portion of a per-patron casino fee is used to pay…

PBS – Mechs is a whale. More specifically, Mechs is the username of a well-known high roller whale on an online gambling website where there is nearly no limit on the size or frequency of bets. Last October, Mechs made a series of winning online wagers, culminating with a single all-or-nothing bet of a little more than $800,000. Mechs had a 96.2 percent chance of winning. Mechs lost. But what really set Mechs’ game apart wasn’t the odds, but the currency. All of his bets were placed in Bitcoins. The wagers rolled instantly across the Internet in both directions, registered…

iGaming Business – Financial services providers Mastercard, Visa and PayPal have reached a voluntary agreement with the Gambling Commission to block payment transactions with unlicensed gambling websites when new laws come into force in the UK. Speaking in the House of Lords, Baroness Jolly confirmed the three providers had made the agreement with the regulatory body despite members of the House rejecting an amendment to the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill. As reported by iGaming Business, the House of Lords voted 171 for and 185 against an amendment that would have allowed the Gambling Commission to block financial transactions between…

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement, or the UIGEA, is a slick bit of con work by US politicians. Attached to a terrorism bill called the SAFE Port Act in 2006, the UIGEA was a last minute addition to a must-pass security measure. The manner in which the UIGEA was passed was borderline criminal. Political stooges like Senator Bill Frist on Tennessee and Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia pushed for passage of the UIGEA, not because it was the will of the people… but the will of their political donors. The UIGEA prohibits gambling businesses from “knowingly accepting payments in connection…

RGJ.com – From grocery stores to government agencies, there seems to be an app for nearly every entity. It comes as no surprise, then, that mobile apps are beginning to spill over into casino gaming. How far mobile gambling may go remains to be seen — and depends on state laws. According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, poker and sports betting are the only forms of remote mobile app-based gambling currently legal in Nevada. For example, in Nevada, it’s possible to view the entire William Hill US sports book wagering menu on a mobile device and place bets from…