Chiliconnect is now live and it enables players to assimilate their poker account with their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Players can now challenge other players, make bets to last longer and sell a share of their play.

Alexandre Dreyfus CEO of ChiliPoker said that interaction amongst players via a “buddy list” enjoys precedence over the social media aspect. It creates a distinctive selling point for one’s website, stating that “We invite players to wager at ChiliPoker because of ChiliPoker not because of iPoker.”

Dreyfus pointed out the importance of control within the internet casinos industry, he said: “Obviously there are other networks whose brand is more flexible than ours in terms of marketing however; we’d like to see ourselves not just as another iPoker site promoted by affiliates, but as an innovative site exploring new avenues.”

“Our poker client is the same all over and we control one of strong …

Various European governments are presently scrutinising their internet gambling policies. One of the key issues is how to effectively tax operators. Taxation is regarded as a vital yet debatable topic at times. As it stands most governments presently employ two distinct tax rates such as gross profits tax (GPT) or turnover tax.

What is a turn over tax? Every bet that is placed is taxed so to speak. Then we have a GPT tax rate, it’s a tax levied on stakes minus winnings for conventional bookmakers, or in the case of betting exchanges commission charged to players.

In the past a turnover structure has been used to tax land-based casinos. This method of taxation is favoured by governments since it’s easy to employ and governments are now contemplating to use this same tax model to tax internet casinos. Betfair and other internet casinos are not in favour of this taxation …

Of late many prominent European countries are thinking of legalising online gambling. However, there are European countries that are trying to weed out it in all its formats and made headline news the previous week.

Cyprus Legalization

The Cyprus government is still trying to impose a ban on internet gambling but still awaits feedback from the European Commission (EC). The Cyprus police conducted raids on internet gambling establishments and last week three properties were raided. According to the Cyprus Mail large sums of cash, computer equipment and title deeds were confiscated in the raids.

The owner of one operator had been arrested but no conclusive evidence was found to persecute him and he was released on bail. Loucas Louca, Justice Minister said that the Cyprus government notified the public a few months ago that they would start investigating all parties guilty of operating internet casinos. He concluded, “If parliament passes the …

One of the most sought after and trustworthy payment solutions utilised by online casinos today is Neteller. Neteller manages to stay ahead of other ewallet rivals by offering its customers money-spinning promotions on a regular basis. A Lucky Day promotion has been announced by Neteller for the month of April 2011.

The invitation to the promotion reads as follow, “You don’t need to be special to win with Neteller; the only thing needed is a bit of luck and clients must register an account with Neteller before they can participate in our Lucky Day promotion. So, when will it be your Lucky Day?” Via its lucky draw throughout April Neteller will be giving away €100 on a daily basis. The main draw will be held the end of April 2011 and some lucky player will be the recipient of a whopping €4,000.

Players must first register for the promotion and …

We’d like to share our latest slots review with you none other than, King Kong. Playtech is the software provider for this video slots.

Introduction

King Kong as a movie first made its appearance in 1933 and since then it has become a household name ever since. In 2005 Hollywood decided to remake the old 1933 version and overnight it became a movie sensation raking in tens of millions of dollars. It was not long before the online gambling industry decided to piggy-back on a very successful franchise. The net result; Playtech released King Kong at all Playtech powered operators.

King Kong Slots Features

We highly recommends this slots because it remains true to the 2005 Hollywood blockbuster of its namesake. In other words; it offers players a total jackpot of $15,000, it might not appeal to high rollers because of the small jackpot amount. Sadly it does not offer a …

It goes without saying that Prepaid cards will be the payment solution of choice used by players to fund their accounts at internet casinos. A key aspect of Prepaid cards is that a player can control the amount of cash spent in contrast to using credit cards. Arguably one of its best features since it prevents players from becoming problem gamblers.

One of the premier eWallet solutions today is Neteller. Two years ago Neteller introduced its very own prepaid card Net+ two. Neteller guarantees that its cards act as a financial safe house equipping internet casino players with added security and expediency. Recently the ewallet payment solution stated on its blog that all their hard work that has gone into its Net+ prepaid card has finally paid off. “It gives us immense pleasure if our critics praise us and customers laud all our efforts that we’ve put into making the …

All the major internet casinos as well as the European Commission (EC) are predominantly focusing on developments in France, Italy and Germany. The Polish government on the other hand might clamp down on its budding online gambling industry.

The new Polish Gambling Act might be enforced by the Polish government soon but the EC must still approve it. Jacek Kapica, the person responsible for driving this new Gambling Act’s legislation in Poland can’t wait before it’s legalised. However, it seems that the EC does not share the same sentiments when it comes to the ban of internet gambling as Kapica.

Key points within draft state that sports betting only would be permitted in Poland. Internet casinos that aim to host sports betting must receive a license from the Polish government first and must be prepared to carry out all financial dealings in Poland.

At this stage the bone of contention …

The online gambling industry has a third party accreditation organization called eCOGRA. It not only champions player protection but also ensures that casino software and operators are up to standard. eCOGRA was founded by the three heavy weights within the industry namely Microgaming, 888 and Bwin. One of the stand-out features of eCOGRA it is audited regularly further enhancing its transparency.

eCOGRA’s management has bought it out spearheaded by Andrew Beveridge its chief executive. As a result of this buy-out eCOGRA’s ownership structure will change and won’t include casino software providers, internet casinos or any other organization within the industry anymore. This delineates eCogra’s independence going forward.

The founding members noted that the time was ripe to move on and decided to sever former ties, thus enabling eCOGRA to forge new tactical and policy guidelines in future. Before the buy-out was concluded it stated that the independent directors would stay …

The long anticipated European Commission’s (EC) Green Paper on internet gambling has been publicized this week. It outlines the need for player protection, gambling related problems, scams and money laundering and the ramifications that local restrictions might have on free services within the EU.

Basically the EC uses the Green Paper as a vehicle to harvest all the necessary information pertaining to the internet gambling industry and in accordance with facts garnered will then impose the mandatory legislation. Many internet casinos see this policy in a positive light and as a step in the right direction. However, there are those within the EU who don’t share the same sentiment with regard to this train of thought, in affect it might hamper the progress of internet gambling.

If one has a look at the bigger picture there might be a “silver lining on the horizon”, although no quick fix for those …

Casino owner Wynn Resorts Ltd recently concluded a business venture with Pokerstars in support of centralized internet casino legislation in the United States.

The aim of this business venture is to form a new internet poker site namely PokerstarsWynn.com, on condition the bill introduced this month receives the thumbs up from Congressman John Campbell. Steve Wynn CEO of Wynn resorts informed Cassaon-casino that “The Company has operated in America for more than four decades; it’s in our best interest to bring an internet poker site to fruition.”

As it is there’s some hefty debates going on in the U.S concerning the legalization of internet casinos and its future and whether or not American players should be permitted to take bets, since the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was promulgated by the Bush administration in 2006. Steve Wynn is confident that his casino would receive an egaming license to host …