Online Casinos News Guide

Online casino, Slotland.com, has become a popular place during the past few months, as two very happy players won the progressive online slot jackpot.

Last weekend, a woman from Canada took home a whopping $146,761, after another player known as ‘Newman32’ won $165,318 only a few months earlier.

The young woman who won said, “I usually play the Booster slot because I like the way you can boost your bets. But a friend won a few dollars playing the slot machne called Magic so I decided to give it a try last Sunday.”

“That machine sure lived up to its name that night, eh?” she said.

Many online gamblers enjoy playing slot machines, and prefer them over other casino games because of the jackpots.

Spokesperson for Slotland.com, John Lancelet, said, “I know a lot of people think slot players just like slots because they’re easy. But the chance to win hundreds of thousands on a very minimal bet is a big part of it.”

Slotland.com offers fourteen progressive slot machines and video poker games, with six of those games available for mobile phones and PDA’s. The mobile games are tied into the same progressive jackpot, so the next big winner could be at their computer or anywhere they take their phone.

Last month, PlayersOnly.com’s hostess, Carrie Stroup, was announced Babe of the Month for Playboy magazine.  This time she is being featured in FHM magazine, which will be released later this month.

Carrie Stroup will be taking over a 4-page spread in the ever popular men’s magazine featuring photography by Nicholas De Bruin at his studio in Los Angeles.

The young aspiring model/actress said that her talents do not extend to the poker table, confirming that she will not be participating in this Sunday’s first monthly Million Dollar Free Roll Final.

“Omigod…I tried playing in one of the games they run where you qualify for the Sunday Final,” Stroup said.

“I didn’t last long.  I’ll be watching the game on Sunday though-pretty exciting to see someone win $75,000,” she added.

PlayersOnly.com will award a total of $1 million over the next ten months with winners of monthly finals each taking home $75,000.

Players can win their way to the monthly finals at free rolls which are held twice a day, at one of three cash satellites with buy-ins as low as $2, or buy direct for $50.  There will be special opportunities for Gold Chip players, and 25 seats at the final table will be awarded in a unique Deposit Bonus Lottery.

Online gambling firm, DoylesRoom, has announced the summer series freeroll winner.

Emanuel ‘ManneKK’ Karlen won this past Wednesday’s $25,000 freeroll Grand Finale, and will now have the opportunity to play against the ‘Godfather of Poker’ himself, Doyle Brunson.

Karlen will go against the winner of ten World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets in a head to head match for $25,000 at DoylesRoom.com this Sunday. 

“The tournament was really fun,” Karlen said.

“Early on, I managed to double up with a couple of flopped sets and big slicks that held up.  Things went my way.  Late game was all about choosing spots carefully since the structure was pretty fast.  Playing a legend like Doyle Brunson heads-up is more than I ever could have dreamed of and will be really exciting.  I’m looking forward to it and I will be happy, win or lose,” he concluded.

As part of his prize, Karlen will get to appear on the cover of Online Poker Pro magazine alongside Doyle Brunson, as well as appearing in feature stories for other major poker publications.

Doyle Brunson said, “Congratulations to Karlen on winning the right to take me on heads-up.”

“I’ve seen some of our Scandinavian players in action and they are pretty good.  I am looking forward to putting Karlen to the test in the final match of the most innovative tournament series DoylesRoom has ever produced,” he concluded.

Online casino, 32Red.com, has announced its plans with an unknown party to sell its Gibraltar-based, BetDirect.com sportsbook subsidiary.

A statement was made to the London Stock Exchange saying that 32Red, following ‘recent press speculation’, would confirm it was ‘in discussions concerning a potential sale’ without disclosing who the other party involved was.

There have been rumours however that the buyer may possibly be the Irish company, Boyle Sports, but nothing has been confirmed or clarified by either party.

BetDirect.com was acquired by 32Red just over a year ago from Sportech for $25 million.  According to the latest reports, the company has over 46,000 active customers, generating gross win revenues of seven million dollars with over 11,000 new clients signing up in the past year.

Although these figures look promising, the business has operated under poor trading conditions, which resulted in a slowed performance pre-tax loss of $7.4 million.

According to reports from that time, BetDirect.com, then owned by Sportech, produced operating losses of $9.6 million in the year to the end of December 2005 on turnover of $286 million.

Online gambling group, Betfair, is pleased to announce its increased IT energy efficiency in support of its rapidly growing data centre by adopting environmentally sound policies.

Betfair’s website currently reaches more than 22,000 transactions per second during major events, however, the power required to support such high-performance systems places a heavy demand on energy.

Service Quality Director for Betfair, John Hegarty, said, “We found that in our data centres we were pushing the boundary of how much power we could take.”

“We were under pressure on rack space and so we started with a very pragmatic view that focused on business benefit,” he added.

Betfair operates 60 Solaris-based databases, which in the past ran on individual servers spread across 40 equipment racks.  The company now uses virtualisation technology, which reduced the racks to 16 and led to an 84 percent power saving.

Betfair’s storage virtualisation also reduced disk space and cut energy use by 60 percent, while a move from Intel processors to AMD Opteron chips in 70 front-end web servers cut power use there by half.

“It was easy for us to start to save through energy efficiency, and it came straight through to our bottom line,” Hegarty said.

“I would encourage anyone, even if they’re not considering green IT, to really look at the savings you could make from getting your operations greener,” he concluded.

In a statement, Betfair said that they will continue working to make environmental concerns a fundamental part of its everyday operations.

Online casino favourite, GoldenCasino, is pleased to announce its newest slot machine, ‘X Marks the Spot.’

The new slot game will be a fun challenge for online casino players worldwide. One of the main features for the game is GoldenCasino’s ever popular ‘Weekend Adventure Slots Tournaments’ with $10,000 prize pools.

‘X Marks the Spot’ is a video slot, with a 20-line pirate-themed bonus game that gives players the chance to win free spins the more they play. When a player reaches the bonus round, they are guaranteed to win!

If you are interested in participating in the Weekend Adventure Slots Tournaments and competing for a prize pool of $10,000, the available dates for play are: September 22 and 29, 2007.

The player that reaches the highest balance over the weekends combined wins an additional $1000 in bonus credits.

GoldenCasino will be offering all new players a 100 percent Welcome Bonus on the first deposit up to $555. Players are welcomed from across the globe, including the United States.

Leading mobile gaming developer from the Microgaming network, Spin3, has announced a partnership agreement with Netherlands-based New Media firm, International Marketing Concepts and Innovation (IMCI), to provide a suite of mobile casino games.

The agreement will see Spin3 furnishing IMCI with the SpinLite suite of stand-alone, play-for-fun casino style mobile games, which are scheduled for release later this year.

CEO of IMCI, Michael Boevink, said, “The SpinLite suite of play-for-fun games is perfect for us as it provides a ready made games platform allowing us to expand the product offering to our customers and, most importantly, penetrate  new markets and expand our revenues.”

The partnership will also help IMCI provide its existing lottery and mobile customers with access to the increasingly popular wireless gaming market.

Spin3 offers dynamic casino systems, marketing services and innovative technologies that push the interactive gaming industry to new frontiers.  The company provides its clients with industry-leading Java-based games and platforms, as well as online management solutions to the dynamic mobile environment.

Online gambling management company from the UK, Inside Gaming, has received its licence for the Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta in order to offer remote gaming services while also being audited to ensure payment card industry (PCI) compliance.

Director for Inside Gaming, Richard Hogg, said, “We are extremely pleased to offer our clients licensing in a jurisdiction suitable for the UK.”

“In taking security very seriously, gaining PCI compliance sustains our ambition to provide our clients with safe and secure gaming solutions,” he added.

Inside Gaming currently has a full schedule of conference and exhibition appearances planned in order to promote its activities as a fully managed online gaming service.

Included on the company’s list of activities are the development and management of online gaming products for the online and mobile casino, poker and bingo, as well as full support for promotion, marketing and consultancy services.

Inside Gaming began in 1997 and has since grown to be one of the foremost consultancy groups in the e-gaming industry. The company’s mission is to provide a range of managed services and infrastructure to businesses currently involved, or about to enter the online gaming market.

A lucky player from Australia lost a Texas Hold’Em poker hand and set off Absolute Poker’s Bad Beat Jackpot bells, winning a record breaking $821,670.69.

KADI, an online poker player from Australia, lost a 10-high Straight Flush to a King-high Straight Flush. KADI was seated at one of Absolute Poker’s Bad Beat Jackpot tables, where her losing hand won her $267,042.97 in cash. The pot winner walked away with $133,521.48 and the participants in the hand each earned $33,380.37.

The $821,670 jackpot shatters all igaming records, including the previous Bad Beat Jackpot record of $739,621. In poker, the term ‘Bad Beat’ refers to a losing hand that is clearly favored to win.

While this massive win is most certainly impressive, the next record breaker could be waiting right around the corner. The jackpot has since been reset and, at last count, sat at $215,000. With $0.50 collected from each qualifying hand at designated Bad Beat Jackpot tables, that number is growing by an average of $2,000 per hour.

In order to win the next jackpot, a player will have to lose to a hand holding four 8’s or anything better, and any participants in the Bad Beat hand will also share in the winnings.

Online gaming software provider and leader in entertainment services, Veridigm, has announced that it is adding a new suite of online casino games to its gambling portfolio, only a few months after releasing ‘Megaz Bucks’, which offers an impressive $5 million plus jackpot.

The company has signed a master licensing agreement (excluding the USA), with Cannes Games, giving its customers access to a wide range of new games including Bingo.

Vice President of Corporate Communications, Alise Mills, said, “During the past six months, Veridigm has experienced rapid expansion and made many gains in its corporate positioning and branding strategy, adding the master licensing agreement with Cannes Games is a result of the management’s commitment to Veridigm’s ongoing success.”

“Veridigm is the only software developer of the largest progressive online slot game in the world and now we’re very excited to announce that we have acquired and will be offering our customers the most popular game in the world-’MegazMania Bingo’. Bingo is the most played and fastest growing game online today and its popularity can be attributed to its ability to attract players from all ages and walks of life. Bingo is synonymous with communities, organizations, families and fun,” Mills said.

In other news, Veridigm confirmed that it would be relocating its company headquarters from Pacific Palisades, California to Dublin, a move that may have been prompted by the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the US.