The fight between internet gambling and US govt is heating up with yet another case poping up regarding internet gambling money seizure.

This time, banks such as Citi bank and Bank of America has come under scanner. The reports are coming up that US government has seized $30 million internet gambling funds at Citi and BOA banks.

The seizure warrants were issued by the courts in Maryland and New York. Neither of these states prohibit online gambling yet the courts recently deemed the legal issues surrounding online gambling to be the responsibility of the state.

Recently, the US govt has seized millions of dollars in internet gambling funds and the case is still pending for a decision in court.

Talks were going on as to which company will acquire cashcade and the top two bidders were 888.com and Party Gaming plc , but at the end Party Gaming clinched it from 888.com

Cashcade company owns very famous brands such as Foxybingo, Getminted and other famous portals. Now all these major brands will run under Party gaming’s empire.

The company, Cashcade was created in the year 2000 and has grown steadily since. The majority of firm’s shares are owned by the staff and it’s directors. In 2008 the company delivered exceptional value for the investment with a GBP 12 million return on estimated revenues of GBP 45 million.

Party has been trying to acquire some big reputed online gambling firms in order to pace up their revenues and come back strong against rivals, poker stars and full tilt and party is doing so.

The UK times reported that Party Gaming acquired cashcade for whooping 100 million pounds which will help them in their expansion plan.

Online gambling is always a hot field where some thing or other happens.

Now the fresh news is coming up that US government has ordered few major banks to block online gambling payments.

John Pappas, director of Poker Player Alliance (PPA) confirmed that $30 million in winnings which belongs to US players has been blocked by the banks. According to UIGEA playing poker online, betting and other online gambling activities are purely illegal.

I always think that why US government is trying to snatch away their own people’s liberty and privacy.

Sweden government is trying to censor internet by blocking online gambling sites and protect its local gambling companies.

It has been years since Sweden is trying to catch hold of internet gambling industry, but now they seems to be very serious in terms of censoring online gambling portals.

If the law passes in the Swedish parliament, then no Swedish citizens can play poker online or casino’s.

According to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the report has faced some heavy criticism, as Swedish ISP’s and authorities have largely condemned the proposal.

People of Sweden proposed not to censor foreign gambling sites as its not illegal to gamble and further stated that government is trying to flourish their own local gambling firms.

Guys will post later….

PokerRoom.com and Europoker.com has finally given away due to current financial crisis as they are going to close their affiliate portal namely PokerAffiliate.com .

From next month onwards Poker room and Euro poker will not be accepting any new players for PokerAffiliate.com .

The owner of bith the room has stated that “As the owner of EuroPoker.com and PokerRoom.com, the bwin group has now decided to centre its Affiliate Marketing efforts on bwin.com, the most successful and best converting of its brands”.

Affiliates will continue earning commission for users referred before the 1st December 2008 and receive their payments as usual in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Marketing Agreement with PokerAffiliate.com. Your account at PokerAffiliate.com will remain fully accessible and regulated.

In the past few months, things are going good for online gambling market. Firstly, French authorities are looking in a good mood to give green signal to online gambling, French suppose to be the biggest market for online gambling firms. Secondly, Poland is planning to legalize gambling as well followed by Denmark. So what that means every EU country is coming closer to legalizing online gambling.

Danish market is one such market where people gamble a lot and Danish people are well known for money and wealth. Danish govt is planning to end it gambling  monopoly and will soon allow other foreign gambling firms to operate in their jurisdiction.

E-passporte, one of the major online payment processors says good bye to US market and will no more accepts online gambling related transactions. It was a major blow to the online gambling portals like Full Tilt, Poker Stars, cake poker who were allowing their players to deposit funds through e-passporte.

First it was Neteller to withdraw their business from US market and now its e-passporte to follow their foot steps. Now what, the question is, will the e-passporte’s decision effects massively to online gambling industry or whether online gambling portals brings in some other funding options.

South Africa has moved another step forward towards legalizing online gambling in the country. The bill to regulate and legalize Internet Gambling gained momentum, According to a local newspaper at South Africa, online gambling  bill went to the Select Committee of National Provinces on Wednesday.

Once the committee is done with it, it will be tabled in the National Assembly for final approval. At present Internet Gambling is not legal in South Africa.

The famous Irish betting group ‘Paddy Power’ showed a handsome increase in their net profits about 52% increase. Paddy Power a local Irish company is showing a tremendous growth in Ireland due to massive advertisement and marketing.

Dublin based firm showed a wooping €62.8 million in net profit, up from €41.2 million a year earlier. Its betting volume rose 13 percent to €2.03 billion,  led by increased online business.

Bulgarian coalition govt has agreed to give online gambling a legal position in their country. The country will regularize and license online gambling.

The regulations were agreed during the two-day closed debate held in the town of Hisarya and also include a change in the structural plan of the country’s state lottery to expand the distribution network allowing more companies to sell tickets.

So, another good news for online gaming industry. )

‘Bodog’, a well known online gambling group has recently applied for the UK gambling license in order to improve their market share in European countries.

UK’s local paper had pin pointed on Calvine Ayre, the CEO of Bodog that he operated illegaly in United States, despite online gambling banned in America. In reply Ayer has to say this “We have licenses from sovereign governments to do what we do that’s how it works on every other industry on the planet.” He further added that bodog do accepts betting from US but his company never operated there.

Both Germany and Sweden banned online gambling for those companies which operated outside their borders and focused to develop their own local gaming companies.

The motive behind banning online gambling by these companies were not liked by EU, and perhaps made EU to take action against these two countries. Recently EU high commission has sent a formal letter and wanted to know the reason behind this, as it was against EU free trade services law.

EU commission is pressurizing these two countries to lift the ban against internet gambling, and had given two months for the justification.

A new hope for online gambling industry in French market has arise after the talks between EU commission and French Authorities.  EU commission has stated that France is breaching the law of free trade between EU states and must allow foreign gambling sites to operate in French market.

The French government has indicated following discussions with the European Commission a willingness to look at and possibly propose a regulated regime for the provision of online gambling and betting”.

Hefuther added that a French civil servant will “be drafting a report for sometime before the summer, which will provide a sort of background on the industry and most likely make some suggestion as to how to accommodate and legalize an online gambling market in France.”

According to a local Finnish news paper, Finland govt is trying to put a ban on internet gambling, things are not yet cleared as to how to implement the ban, but some sources says that if a player bet online he or she can force the bank or the gaming company website to return the whole money that player looses.

It means player can claim back their looses, which directly makes gaming websites to stop accpeting Finnish players. We have also come to know that now Minister of Culture and Sports Stefan Wallin has come out in favor of introducing national online poker for Finland.

Local online poker site which means local benefits, money not to be out sourced to foreign gaming companies, ultimately knows as monopoly.

According to Newsweek article,  United States have to legalize online gambling in order to solve the word trade matter and getting billions of dollars fine and export sanctions.

The article,  further added that if the American govt does not resolve the trade dispute other countries may gain the ability to sell billions of dollars of pirated movies, music and computer software without paying the copyright owners.

So, this could be a danger jing bell for US govt.

U.K new Gambling advertising rules have create a great huss and phuss among the online gambling companies. William Hill poker room is is all seto to leave their business from Dutch Antilles to UK Gibraltar.

Gibraltar, an EEA territory, already hosts Ladbroke’s online gambling operation, as well as those of 888.com and PartyGaming. But so far, only the Isle of Man and Alderney have made the Government’s white list…”

It could be a very good news for those people living in California state, who play online poker regularly. If every thing goes on well and the petition is once filed you could see California stepping into online poker business next year.

An initiative to create a state owned local Internet poker game, drew attention on Tuesday from the existing gambling community including Indian casino tribes and support from independent experts.Let us see if things work out.

California is one of the biggest state that contributes half of the online gambling revenues in U.S and it could be a profitable business and revenue driving source for the local Government.

According to a press released by Neteller last week, they won’t accept any gaming transaction from the israeli customers. The reason for this action is due to recent legislation development in israel on online gaming.

The neteller stops payment processing to israeli’s with the effect of July 19th and continue to offer payment services to non gaming transactions.