News Maker – Poker machines accounted for 60% ($9.8 billion) of the $16.3 billion spent by Australians on gambling in the 12 months to March 2014, well ahead of race betting and lotteries according to the latest results from the Roy Morgan Gambling Monitor. Australians spent $2.5 billion on race betting and $1.7 billion on lotteries, or 15% and 10% of the annual gambling spend respectively. The other forms of gambling make up the remaining 15% — including sports betting ($0.9 billion or 5%), casino table games ($0.6 billion or 4%), Keno ($0.5 billion or 3%), and scratch tickets ($0.3…

4Flush – Legal online poker is currently available in three US states, Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey, and it may soon be coming to a state near you thanks to the 2011 reversal of their interpretation of the Wire Act –after declaring the Wire Act applied to all forms of online gambling back in 2002, the DOJ now feels it only applies to sports-betting. This new interpretation opened the door for states to pass online gambling legislation, and with the federal government unlikely to take action either way, it appears online gambling will be left up to each state for…

Card Player – Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson has done nothing to shed his reputation as poker’s public enemy no. 1 ever since he announced that he was “willing to spend whatever it takes” to thwart online poker legislation in the United States. Adelson, who formed the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling in January, has made it abundantly clear that he has has a moral and financial problem with online poker, claiming it preys on vulnerable people and children. His group even drafted a bill that would stop the spread of state-by-state online poker regulation. The only problem is…

Card Player – After an historic consensus between 13 California tribal groups on online poker in the Golden State, PokerStars and its partner, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, as well as the Commerce Club, Hawaiian Gardens Casino and the Bicycle Casino, have responded. The latter group is opposed to what has been proposed by the 13 tribal groups. Currently two Internet poker bills sit in the legislature. “We strongly oppose the so-called ‘bad actor’ language that is nothing other than a blatant attempt to provide certain interests with an unfair competitive advantage by arbitrarily locking out trusted iPoker brands,”…

Online Poker News – Sheldon Adelson’s stance against online poker is no secret by now, and his strong and very rich opinion has some people nervous. Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands, makes it very clear just how far he’s willing to go to “protect” the US from online gambling. He’s threatened to “spend whatever it takes” on his anti-Internet gambling cause and in January of this year, he formed the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling. Adelson’s argument against online poker and online gambling is that it is morally wrong, preying on underage gamblers and other vulnerable sectors of society,…

Sacramento Bee –  Major California tribes with casinos announced Tuesday that they had reached agreement on legislation that would legalize online poker in the nation’s largest state. In a letter to state Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, and Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles – the authors of online poker bills that had each attracted support from various members of the state’s influential tribal casino industry – 13 tribal leaders said they had come to terms. “As you know, this journey has been long and difficult, but the challenges posed by the Internet demand that we harness rather than cede the…