Russian authorities have updated the country’s Internet blacklist nearly 600 different websites, including online poker sites, in an operation that some consider to be the first step of a major crackdown on online gambling. With a standard procedure that is usually adopted for censoring websites promoting child pornography and illegal drugs, on March 21, Russia’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) blocked access to a large number of online gambling sites including international giants like PokerStars, partypoker, Unibet and Titan Poker. “The request came straight from the prosecutor office,” said Maxim Ksenzov, the deputy head of Russia’s federal telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor, when…

Poker News – Belgium’s Gambling Commission has doubled the number of inspectors on its staff, which could lead to a hunt for players on non-licensed gambling sites. “The Belgian Gambling Commission (BGC) reportedly announced that it would extend its actions to online players,” said Patrick Van Eecke and Antoon Dierick from international law firm DLA Piper. “It will be interesting to see how far the BGC wishes to go in fining individual players and whether the Public Prosecution office is also willing to make infringements in this area a matter of prosecution priority.” DLA Piper’s words were triggered by some…

Poker News – Spain’s average poker player is male, under 34 years old, and well educated. Spanish online poker players also appear to be at a lower risk of problem gambling when compared to any other form of online gambling. These are the results of the third online gaming industry study by Spain’s Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) published on the DGOJ website earlier this month. The DGOJ’s study combined interviews from 1,027 Spanish residents who have gambled online at least once in the past year. The study does not focus exclusively on online poker, but includes a…

Casino.org – Bwin – the world’s largest online publicly traded betting site – says it expects to return to a period of sustainable growth following a difficult year, which saw revenue across all gambling operations tumble 19 percent to €652.4m ($908,623,000). The company blamed several factors for the slump, such as ISP blocking in Greece, the decline of the poker market in France and Italy, and the migration of players to its new technology platform in December 2012. Poker, in fact, was a significant disappointment. Despite the launch of its new poker site with Atlantic City land-based casino Borgata and…

Online Poker Report – When the Department of Justice rewrote its interpretation of the 1961 Wire Act in 2011, a number of legislators rushed to their state capitols and started hammering out ways to pass online gambling bills. One state that looked into online gambling was Rhode Island, which set up an exploratory committee. Nothing ever came of that precursor to a precursor to a bill, but Rhode Island Lottery Director Gerald S. Aubin made some interesting comments about online gambling that appeared in the Providence Journal this week. Aubin’s comments are just shy of being against online gambling, but…

Sacramento Business Journal – State lawmakers have introduced competing legislation to legalize online poker. California has seen several attempts to legalize the game over the last five years, but the state’s powerful tribes opposed the legislation out of fear that online gaming would encroach on their brick-and-mortar casinos. The bills never made it out of committee. But in a development that is similar to the anti-marijuana lobby’s can’t-beat-them-then-join-them attitude, the tribes are coming around, said one Capitol staffer. It isn’t difficult to sign up for online poker today — the U.S. has seen a proliferation of illegal digital gaming from…