The State Journal-Register – Senate President John Cullerton said Wednesday that legalizing Internet gambling in Illinois could provide the state with needed revenue, although passing the bill will be difficult. The Chicago Democrat, who has pushed for online gambling for two years, said it could become part of gambling expansion talks that are already underway at the Capitol. “I’ve been supportive of this ever since we found out from the Justice Department we could do this,” Cullerton said following a short Senate committee hearing on the issue. “The point is people are already gambling, and we’re not making any of…

Card Player – On Monday, the firm in charge of assisting the government with compensating victims of the old Full Tilt Poker released an update to its website. Garden City Group said that the first round of payments will come tomorrow, Feb. 28, 2014, in the form of ACH deposits. Friday’s payments will be for those who filled out all the paperwork correctly and have undisputed claims. In other words, what they thought they were owed and what GCG said they were owed matched up. Americans have been without access to the funds since April 2011. As for others who…

Poker News – Ever since he first introduced legislation to license and regulate Internet gambling in New Jersey in 2010, New Jersey State Sen. Ray Lesniak has prophesied of the Garden State being at the center of the emerging industry in the United States — the Silicon Valley of online wagering. That explains his frustration Tuesday when he heard that Delaware and Nevada had taken the first step to create an interstate online poker network, announcing an agreement to combine poker player pools. Delaware and New Jersey seem to make the more natural partners. They are neighbors, and they both…

iGaming Business – The Bulgarian State Gambling Commission (SGC) has granted online gambling licences to gambling company Betfair and sports betting operator Eurofootball. From this week, the Betfair.bg website will be authorised to offer sports betting in addition to wagers on horse and dog racing. Betfair will also be able to offer online casino betting games in the country under the terms of its licence. In addition, Eurofootball has also been approved to offer online betting on sports, as well as horse and dog racing, via its Eurofootball.bg website. iGaming Business

iGaming Business – The Finland Cabinet Committee on Economic Policy has outlined new measures to help strengthen the country’s gambling monopoly. Under the new measures, the Cabinet Committee is to set up a digital monitoring group in order to analyse ways of preventing operations that violate the Finnish Lotteries Act. As part of this strategy, the Cabinet Committee examined the possibility of tackling illegal marketing through the criteria set of for radio and television licences, which are granted by the government. The Committee said that at this stage, financial transfers will not be proposed as a primary instrument and alternative…

iGaming Business – The Autonomous Administration of the State Monopolies (AAMS) Italian gaming authority has reported that the country’s regulated online poker market is continuing to decline. According to the Pokerfuse.com website, wagers in poker cash games during January 2014 grossed €12.2 billion ($16.7 billion), a drop of 20% on the previous year and a fall of 50% on January 2012. In addition, tournament revenues also declined by 26% in comparison with January 2013. Pokerstars Italy remains the most successful operator in the country as it generates 52.8% of all cash game revenue. It also holds a 54% share of…