Poker News – If there will hardly be a pan-European online poker market before 2015, it’s about time Spain’s brick-and-mortar casinos start investing more in developing their online offer. A few months away from the new opening of the country’s regulated market, DLA Piper Spain partner and gambling specialist Albert Agustinoy Guilayn spoke to PokerNews about the future of the national gambling industry, highlighting some interesting opportunities for the future. Right when eGaming Review published a report that shows how over 40% of Spain’s online poker players are still active on non-licensed operators, Agustinoy Guilayn explained how the nearest future…

Card Player – The state of New York is again taking a hard look at online poker within its borders. A proposed law was introduced into the Senate on Friday, which calls for the authorization of online poker, a game referenced as one in which requires skill, and for the awarding of 10 licenses. Each license would be good for a decade, costing $10 million apiece. Revenues would also be subjected to taxes, which, if the bill passed right now, would be 15 percent. The proposal comes after New York voters last year said OK to a handful of commercial…

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…