Poker News – After an attempt to regulate online gaming last November did not succeed, the Portuguese government has already pledged that it will be ready to approve a new piece of legislation by the end of February. Público, Portugal’s leading newspaper, reports that the changes were anticipated in a memorandum of understanding that Portugal’s government sent earlier this week to Europe’s troika (European Commission, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund) for presenting some of the measures planned to help the country’s growth. Although it is still unclear how the government intends to regulate Portugal’s online gaming and betting markets,…

Card Player – There likely won’t be any passage of legislation that would legalize nationwide — or ban nationwide — forms of Internet gambling. For one, a few states are already realizing those revenues and Congress would surely not put an end to those revenue streams. Since the states are already venturing out on their own, there is less of an impetus to push through a bill to make it legal nationwide. Not to mention, the issue is pretty controversial and there have always been more pressing matters for Congress to look at. Despite all of this, one group led…

Digital Journal – In April 2011, the FBI and the Department Of Justice changed on-line poker for good. Where do we stand nearly three years down the line? Poker has changed dramatically since the Black Friday domain seizures; true, there have been winners as well as losers, but some of those losers have literally disappeared. Among those that are no more are UltimateBet and its sister site Absolute Poker. The site where the stars come to play is now the site where the stars came to play. The collapse of Hollywood Poker does not appear to have been related to…

Former Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli knows online gaming as well as anyone. After being appointed to the Board in 2009, Lipparelli eventually was at the forefront of the Silver State’s charge into the Internet gaming business. In late 2011, Nevada became the first state in U.S. history to adopt regulations for online poker. Lipparelli stayed on the Board until September of last year, stepping down because he had chosen not to serve another term. Thanks to leaving his position as a regulator, Lipparelli has returned to the private sector and has been working on a couple of…

In his second show back from a long summer off, Jon Stewart took on the “Groundhog Deja Clusterf@#k” that is the debate over military action in Syria. Stewart had a particularly good time ribbing Sen. John McCain for his unabashed iPhone poker play during yesterday’s Senate hearings. “Hey, man, is this possible global conflagration interrupting your video poker time?” Stewart asked McCain. “You know what, Senator? Go. There’s a rascal scooter and a bucket of quarters with your name on it over at the Golden Nugget… Instead of playing pretend poker in the actual Senate, go to an actual casino…

Could virtual currency save web poker? The wild world of online poker that can see millions of dollars spent on the game has been under attack in the USA and some other jurisdictions on the planet. One of the most effective methods of controlling the online poker industry has been the control of the financial transactions. Most of the concern in America has been based on the taxes that the government hasn’t been collecting when the game is played. Then came Bitcoin the virtual online money that has taken the internet by a storm came into online gambling’s focus. Bitcoins…