Poker News – As Italy’s economy keeps being one of the most troublesome in the European region, the latest numbers show that the country’s online poker industry is still far from recovery. Right now while the House of Representatives votes for Italy’s 63rd government in 68 years, welcoming former major of Florence Matteo Renzi as the country’s youngest Prime Minister, industry data from newsagency Ansa / Agimeg show a significant decline both for cash and tournament poker. During 2014’s first month, cash games Gross Gambling Revenue (GGR) generated €12,200,000, showing a 20% decline compared to January 2013, and an even…

ZD Net – The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac), the Australian government agency responsible for countering money laundering and the financing of terrorism, is able to track each conversion transaction from bitcoin into or out of Australian dollars. “Australia is very fortunate among its international counterparts, in that we are one of the few countries which currently collects all international funds transfers, into or out of Australia,” John Schmidt, CEO of Austrac, told Senate Estimates today. “At some point, a person will be purchasing bitcoin using Australian dollars, for example, and then, if they are dealing in substances…

COIL – According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research “Social Gaming Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013-2019,” the global Social Gaming market is expected to reach a value of $17.40 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 16.1 percent from 2013 to 2019. Growth in the usage of Internet and social networking sites has spurred the growth of the games over the Internet. The other factor being the growing demand of smartphones and tablet PCs. Asia Pacific was the largest contributor in social gaming market and accounted for a…

An agreement for Delaware and Nevada interstate online poker has been reached. State leaders signed a landmark agreement Tuesday that will join their states for web based poker, potentially increasing jackpots for residents who gamble while aiming to model how states might collaborate on an emerging economic opportunity. A “Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement” signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada and Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware establishes a legal framework for the first authorized interstate Internet gambling. The deal aims to expand the marketplace for online poker in the small states that by themselves are not seen as having significant populations…

iGaming Business – The UK Gambling Commission has suspended the operating licence of social betting company Bodugi and will undertake a review of the firm after the regulator was made aware of a number of concerns. The body said that these concerns related to the ability of customers to withdraw funds from Bodugi and the lack of response to its requests to discuss such matters with the firm. The regulator said that the suspension is an “interim” and “precautionary” measure that would be kept under consideration while the review takes place. The review is under section 116 of the Gambling…

Kotaku – This can only be a bad thing. Virgin Gaming is a service that essentially allows users to sign up and place real world bets on online games. Seems like a complete recipe for disaster to me, but hey, I’m not judging. It’s an automatic service that does all the heavy lifting for you and automatically deposits the cash in the right player’s account. It’s probably worth noting that gambling in video games is a bit of an odd issue. Dan Golding looked into this subject fairly extensively last year and found that it was relatively easy for underage…