Betting and gaming site NetBet has restarted its activities in Romania after a 12-month break following its advance payment of all penalty, licensing and authorisation taxes and guarantees to the Romanian Government. The group did not reveal the amount it paid in retroactive taxes but as its exposure to Romania was not major it is not thought to be a high amount. It has received a temporary licence from Romania’s Supervising Committee of the National Gambling Office that will run until 31 December 2015, during which time NetBet will prepare its application for a 10-year licence. The issue of retrospective…

There apparently is nothing in Illinois’ gambling law that prohibits video gambling malls — a concept that may place as many as nine independently operated “casino cafes” in one location in the Southland. I mentioned in a previous column that the mayors of two suburbs are ready to welcome with open arms the idea of converting two strip malls in their towns. Crestwood Mayor Lou Presta and Hometown Mayor Kevin Casey have discussed the plans with developers, who want to lease the storefronts to multiple owners of gambling cafes. The businesses resemble coffee shops but serve liquor and are each…

Amaya Gaming’s PokerStars brand has become the latest operator to withdraw its services from Portugal. This week saw the PokerStars Partners Team issue emails to its Portuguese affiliates, instructing them that Stars’ affiliate program “will no longer accept players from Portugal until further notice.” The email warned that “all marketing materials (banners, links, etc.) and marketing efforts should cease immediately.” The decision also applies to Amaya’s Full Tilt brand. Portugal is in the process of implementing its new online gambling regime, which came into effect on Monday, June 29. Operators interested in obtaining new Portuguese licenses are withdrawing from the…

The UK Gambling Commission will be stepping up its efforts to regulate online gambling, as it issued a warning to bitcoin gaming operators to get the necessary licenses or face penalties. The commission stressed that regulations require gambling websites that offer services in the UK to have a license regardless of the currency it uses. “We wrote to these operators because they were either advertising gambling illegally or illegally offering gambling products to consumers or both,” said UKGC CEO Jenny Williams. “The Commission neither prohibits nor encourages bitcoin. We are interested only in ensuring the proper regulation of gambling products consumed…

California online poker has quite the full house when it comes to legalization According to the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, there are 89 cardrooms in 32 counties in California, and of the 110 federally recognized tribes in the state, 58 of them run 60 casinos — many of which have poker rooms. Even so, there is still a big pot of money left on the table when you consider California online poker, a game that’s currently not legal in California. Only New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware have legalized Internet poker for now. Efforts to legalize web poker have been ongoing…

The weather isn’t the only thing heating up in D.C. this summer. The battle over state-based online gambling has reached a fever pitch. Until last week, Congress had been seemingly quiet on the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA; H.R. 707), the bill to ban Internet gambling. But then Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced a companion bill to RAWA (S. 1668). Behind closed doors, the push for Congress to vote on the bill before adjourning for summer recess has intensified and the tactics become more extreme. And as usual, Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson, one of RAWA’s…