They are asking for an assessment of online gambling in the ACT to see if in fact this is something that is likely to happen.

Clubs NSW is asking the government to look at studying problem gambling both before and after the pre-commitment trial.  The clubs have pointed out that when Norway introduced mandatory pre-commitment technology in 2009 there was a big rise in online gambling.  However, there is no evidence that the rise continued after the initial flurry of activity.

It is hoped that any study would be able to work out more about pokie machine problem gambling as well as other forms of gambling like sports wagering, horse racing and internet casino gambling.

In the recent, much publicised,  study undertaken by Professor Alex  Blaszcynski at Sydney University where he concluded that online gambling was the fastest growing form of gambling in Australia, the Professor felt that online gambling rates should definitely be included in any study on gambling in general, particularly before and after the pre-commitment trail.

There can be no doubt that online gambling is easy to access wherever you live and as such will always be a popular form of gambling.  Whether or not this will prove to be a major problem in the future only time will tell, but as with all forms of gambling some will abuse it, while the majority will use it sensibly keeping within their means.

They publish a list called the Hot 50 of Online Gambling’s Brightest Stars.  The list, which is decided upon by experts in the field, reflects the immense range of talent that is making internet gambling what it is today.

Online casinos are often acknowledged, but without the people behind them, they would never be a success, so the list “recognises  the achievements of all those who are shaping the future of this vibrant market”, says the managing editor of Gaming Intelligence.

The firm also specialises  in looking after the needs of the world-wide interactive gaming industry.  It looks at and analyses all the new developments, both technological and legally in the industry and how they may affect the future of the internet gambling world.

GamingIntelligence.com and GIQ Magazine (its sister publication) have proved to be invaluable to the main decision makers in online gaming operations, national regulators, legal and financial businesses with an interest in online gambling and also in making the media in general more aware of what is going on in the industry.

Companies like Gaming Intelligence may provide a service for the gambling public too.  In Australia there are fears that because online casinos cannot operate here, punters may be using unregulated overseas sites.  These sort of sites will become easier to spot and hopefully put out of business by the likes of watchdogs such as Gaming Intelligence.

William Hill’s online casino 32Vegas was said to have infringed 32Red’s trademarks.

However, last year’s ruling wasn’t enough to stop William Hill, with all its top lawyers and seemingly endless funds, from appealing the decision.

Earlier this week the appeal reached the courts again where once again the case was dismissed.  The Court of Appeal said that William Hill’s lawyers had made a “full-scale wide ranging attack on the (last) judge’s analysis and conclusions on every aspect of this judgement”.

It is good to see the minnows winning out against the big guns, and Red32 has now convincingly won the trademark infringement dispute.  What is uncertain is how long it will take William Hill to pay up.

32Red is an award winning online gambling operator and it has reported record growth in the last two years.  They plan to continue their marketing investment this year, and are making moves into the Italian online casino market.

While their main focus is the UK, moves into the European market present good growth potential.  So far there are no signs that they have their eyes set on the Australian online gambling market, but who knows what the future will hold for them.  In a statement to the press they said that, “we maintain a watching brief on other regulatory developments around the world”.

In the same week a player won $84,000 playing on two pokie games, both of them classic three slots.  It is unusual for such a large amount to be won on three reel slots.  The player, who did wish his name to be published, seemed to favour the number 7.  The two games he chose were Fantastic 7s and Royal 7s.  Fantastic 7s is an uncomplicated single payline  pokie game, with Fantastic 7s and Red 7s as symbols, with any combination of 7s paying out.  It features the triple, double and single bars which every pokie player will recognise, so any bar combination is also a winner.  The final symbol is a cherry, where one, two or three cherries on the payline will win.  The punter can bet up to 3 coins, and the jackpot is paid when there are three Fantastic 7s on the payline and three coins have been wagered.

Spin Palace is a very popular online casino with Australians, offering a wide range of online gaming opportunities.

Spin Palace is registered and licensed with the Gaming Authority in Malta and its software is powered by the well known and respected software developer, Microgaming.

Microgaming recently developed a redesigned swipe and tap interface to use on smartphones and tablet computers.  This application puts an end to the keyboard, which is often tricky to operate, taking the technology to an exciting new level.  The company is currently working on new developments for the mobile computer, with many exciting new games to come.

A recent survey on the online gambling habits of Australians, looked at around 6,500 people and of those polled, 50% admitted to taking up some form of online gambling in the last 6 years.

Sally Gainsbury, who was the chief researcher said that, “Australia is one of the strongest international markets for online gambling, particularly online sports betting, on which an estimated $600 million is spent annually.

Anti-gambling Senator Nick Xenophone is worried that online gambling will open up a whole new generation of people with gambling addictions.

The survey found that many people combined land based gambling with internet gambling, and that the participants were more likely to be men in full time employment or students.  Most were married or lived with a partner and enjoyed a higher standard of living than land based gamblers.

Most online gamblers used the computer for sports and race betting as well as various casino games such as bingo, and poker (a favourite with students).

A big surge in new technology, such as iPads, smartphones and tablet computers has made internet betting a 24 hour activity for some punters.

However, some caution must be exercised as a small percentage of the  gamblers surveyed said that online gambling is more addictive than its land based counterpart, mainly because it is so easy to access, and by using payments other than cash some people did not worry about how much they were spending.

The other main concern regarding the easy access to online gambling is that it may be too tempting for teenagers and young people in general.

It may be that Andrew Wilkie’s threat to bring down the government if he does not get the reforms through by 2014, is now not on very solid ground.  After talks with Julia Gillard recently, news is coming through that he may be prepared to put off the start date for the reforms until 2016, in other words until after the next election.  This new target date is one that was always preferred by most interested parties.

Mr Wilkie is convinced that a pre-commitment scheme would  help those people who have a gambling problem, but his views are not necessarily shared by other parties with an interest in poker machines.  The powerful clubs lobby is angry at being excluded from the talks which will have a great impact on their future.

Mr Wilkie is standing firm around criticism that he has abandoned his position and that the Prime Minister is now the one holding all the cards.  He insists that the scheme is not “dead in the water” and he has no reason to think that the mandatory pre-commitment will not go ahead in the future.

Meanwhile anti-gambling Senator Nick Xenophon has expressed his concern over Facebook’s plan to begin real money games on the site. The site is due to test real-cash gaming in the UK within the next few months.  The games will include virtual poker machines, poker, bingo and roulette, and are sure to be popular.

Although Australia cannot provide online gambling to punters in Australia,  there is nothing to stop Australian residents from gambling online on overseas based online casinos.

Meanwhile in Australia there are rumours that Echo Entertainment may be a target for takeover by James Packer’s Crown Casino group.  Crown already owns nearly 5% of Echo Entertainment.  A spokesperson said, “Packer can be thankful that his casino investments in Macau are paying off which is helping keep his bottom line more impressive than all other Australian based gaming entrepreneurs.”

Bet365 continues to dominate the online gambling news.  They are now the biggest online casino and sportsbook operator in the UK.  It’s year-on-year revenue rose by 22% in 2011.

Betfair launched in the UK in 2000.  Many of their biggest rivals have moved their entire operations overseas because of high taxation on their businesses in the UK.  Betfair has maintained its base in Stoke-on-Trent, although it has moved some operations to Gibraltar, a favourite destination for online casinos, in order to support the online poker, bingo and online casinos websites.

Betfair CEO, who was recently honoured in the Queen’s New Year Honours list, has said in recent weeks that they are always looking to expand the company by moving into new markets, and is already preparing licences for Australia, Spain and Denmark.

Lastly, the Crown Casino in Melbourne is celebrating the Aussie Millions Poker Championships 10th Anniversary.  It is the sixth largest  live poker tournament in the world, and many Australians have been very successful in past years.  This year’s competition runs from January 12th to January 30th.

Recently the Justice Department looked as though it had given the go ahead for individual states to legalise online gambling.  Many big players in the industry have been working hard to make sure they are ready.

Many believe that the door has opened just a crack, and with the online wagering industry being worth an estimated  $35 billion, everyone is keen to get in on the act.  Casinos in Las Vegas, which have seen a drop in land-based casino revenue, are all ready to go when the time is deemed right.

Industry experts believe that, in theory, states will be able to regulate and legalise some forms of online gaming, such as slots/pokies, lotteries and online poker.

Many operators already have good customer databases, and any legalisation will allow these customers other online venues on which to play.  Operators have plans ready to partner companies which already have operational offshore online gambling sites.

There are, of course, many who feel that any opening up of the online gambling market in the US will lead to further problems of gambling addictions, and this is one of the arguments that often arises here in Australia too.  However, there is no concrete proof that this has happened in the many countries that do not operate in the same restrictive ways as the US and Australia.

Everyone in the industry is keeping close watch on developments in the USA.

Their new sports betting site has been important to the successful year, and they hope to keep moving forward with this.

Like many other online casinos, Bet365 uses Playtech as their software provider, and in spite of rumours to the contrary they have maintained a good relationship with them.  Playtech is likely to continue to provide the software for its online casino and for other arms of their business for the long term.

Like every other online casino they are looking for new markets.  They have watched the success of Paddy Power in Australia, and may start to look in that direction this year.

As always, everyone has their eye on America, and Bet365 is no exception.  They are not part of the gambling reform lobby, but no doubt any developments in the US will be quickly responded to.  It is possible that a US State might go ahead the regulate some form of online gambling during the coming year.  However, with 2012 being an election year, most politicians will have other things on their minds.

Bet365′s Denise Coates feels that the opening up of the markets to outside competition in Spain and Denmark has been good for the industry in general, and along with many others would like to see changes made to online gambling regulations in the US and Australia as well.

Yesterday alone, Spin Palace Casino had 17 winners with wins over $4000.  The biggest win yesterday was on Franken Cash and Tomb Raider Secret of the Sword where a lucky punter won $45,350 to help them over the post Christmas blues!  Spin Palace reckons on paying out over $5 million daily, with someone winning over $4 million on their Mega Moolah Summertime Progressive Slot.

Casino.com is another popular online casino used by Australians.  Here a European player recently won over 177,000 euros playing the progressive slot game Beach Life.  Another big win was made by someone playing Bonus Bears, and they won over $126,000.  Fruit Mania is a slot/pokie game where one lucky winner went home with nearly $151,000.

Grand Reef Online Casino is also very popular in Australia.  One of their big winners recently was a man trying his luck on the Marvel Progressive Jackpot where he managed to crack the Marvel Super Power playing Fantastic Four.  He netted nearly $40,000.  Another lucky winner had only been playing one of the Marvel games for around a minute when he fond himself the winner of about $8,000.

In the UK online casino Jackpotjoy has seen two really exciting slot winners recently, with one winner pocketing £11,000 and another £17,500.

The big wins are out there and with online gambling set to grow in 2012 there may never be a better time on get in on the act.