Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid, was making online gambling news when he announced his renewed push for a full online gambling ban in the U.S. including poker. Reid told the Las Vegas Sun late Monday that if he isn’t able to get an exemption for poker from a proposed ban of online gaming making its way through Congress, he would consider supporting a full online gaming ban. “Unless we can get something done with poker, I’m going to look closely — I haven’t made up my mind — but I’m going to look closely into banning it totally,” Reid…

So-called Internet cafes have long been regarded as little more than thinly veiled gambling sites by law enforcement and prosecutors. The General Assembly banned video poker and other games in 2006, but the industry has fought hard in court and “adjusted” the games to slip under the legal radar for years. The ongoing battle and the maneuvering by the industry have been a sort of perfect storm of lobbyists rallying for a special interest group, lawyers for that special interest finding ways to follow the technicalities of the law while sidestepping its spirit, law enforcement beating its head against the…

Ladbrokes Sportsbook & Racebook has begun the roll out of “Cash Out,” allowing its mobile customers the chance to close their position on a bet ahead of the final result. The roll out follows the successful introduction of the functionality on the Ladbrokes “My Accas” product in April. Customer reaction has been good with over 25,000 players using the facility since its introduction. “Cash Out” is now available on 18 markets across 15 sports with football, tennis, cricket, snooker and darts all covered. The plan is to extend into further markets on an ongoing basis over the summer. Launching the…

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, the nation’s leading critic of gambling on the Internet, funded a poll released Wednesday that showed nearly three-quarters of registered voters in Pennsylvania oppose online gambling. Shocking results? Not to Rep. John Payne, R-Dauphin, author of a bill to legalize online gambling. Poll results done by independent organizations are more legitimate than polls funded by someone like Adelson, the Las Vegas Sands CEO, who has a vested interest in the outcome… “I don’t hold much credibility to the survey because of the way it was done,” Payne said. The poll, conducted by Brock McCleary, president of…

Portugal’s Secretary of State for Tourism, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, has confirmed that the country will launch a legalised online gaming market on June 28. As reported by iGaming Business, the country’s Council of Ministers in March approved a bill to establish a legal framework for online gaming, shortly before President Aníbal Cavaco Silva also signed off the new bill. The launch, which comes after a more than a decade of discussions, will enable players inside and outside of the country to access Portuguese gaming sites. National regulator Santa Casa de Misericordia de Lisboa will oversee the licence awarding process and…

WSOP.com launched a support forum on its website. It is available for players interested in online poker at the WSOP.com regulated poker sites in Nevada and New Jersey. Live participants in the World Series of Poker tournaments may also post questions. The forum is moderated by WSOPBill. This is the same username used by WSOP.com poker room manager Bill Rini. Forum topics include questions about World Series of Poker scheduling, funding of World Series of Poker accounts, general support questions for the online poker sites, and promotional inquiries. There are also links provided to the site’s mobile, PC, and Mac…