One of the most popular fears about online gambling sounds like “How one can be sure that online gambling is fair?” It is very important to be sure that you are not playing in a rigged online casino. Also it is crucial to have guarantees that you will be paid if you win.

I am sure that a well prepared player is a winning player. For that reason I would like to give you 2 pieces of advice to help you receive the best gaming experience.

Check if a casino has an online gambling license. Did you ever wonder who regulates most of the online casino websites? Who runs them and who is the governing system behind them? That is actually one of the first things you should do before funding your casino account with real money. If a casino is licensed with a legitimate online gambling jurisdiction, than it is a casino you can trust. Online gambling commissions work to ensure:

1. That only suitable persons and entities are permitted to operate within the jurisdiction;
2. That the games offered are fair to the player; and
3. That winners are paid.

Online gambling commissions regulate and control every gambling website they have issued a license in order to guarantee fair play to online gamblers. For example, not so long ago a famous online poker room Absolute Poker was accused of unfair play by one of the online gambling regulating bodies. Currently the poker room is under process of severe audit.

Play within your financial means. One critical factor to bear in mind when you play online casino games is that it is meant to be entertainment so always play within your financial means. If you avail yourself of sound money management the rest will be an enjoyable breeze. Now you can focus on improving your knowledge of the various gambling games, and once you have the necessary experience you’ll be in a position to minimize the online casino’s house edge and you’ll give yourself the best possible chance of doing well.

There are a wide variety of online gambling games to choose from, some of which are pure fun with self-explanatory rules and others that require more skill and practice. If you’re playing the former you should still know which games have the best payouts or the biggest jackpot offerings, and if you’re playing the latter don’t let a lack of information hamper your ability to get that big score.

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According to the bill, any enterprise that wishes to provide online gambling services to citizens of The US must go through a severe licensing process that will be carried out by the Department of Treasury. Accepting wagers from US residents will be illegal for any online gambling enterprise without a license. The bill states that the US gambling licenses will be valid for 5 years with an opportunity to be renewed. The licensing process will involve deep and intensive inspection and check of such aspects as:

· Criminal background

· Financial condition

· Corporate structure

· Experience

· General suitability to run an online gambling business

Licensees will be obliged to guarantee that a number safeguards are in place and in full operation. This list includes:

· Prevention of underage gambling

· Ensure that customers are playing from permissible locations

· Collection of applicable taxes when proceeds from gambling are paid to the customer

· Payment of applicable taxes to the federal government, as well as proper record keeping

· Combat fraud, money laundering, and terrorist financing

· Combat problem or “compulsive” gambling

· Protect customer privacy

Also the licensees are obliged to obey the standards of such state programs as Problem Gambling, Responsible Gambling, and Self-Exclusion. The rules and standards of the programs will be elaborated by the Department of Treasury and the States.

It is also important to highlight the following limitation, made by Barney Frank:

“ELECTRONIC CHEATING DEVICES PROHIBITED — No person initiating, receiving, or otherwise making a bet or wager with a licensee, or sending, receiving, or inviting information assisting with a bet or wager with a licensee, knowingly shall use, or assist another in the use of, an electronic, electrical, or mechanical device which is designed, constructed, or programmed specifically for use in obtaining an advantage in any game authorized under this subchapter, where such advantage is prohibited or otherwise violates the rules of play established by the licensee.”

One of the most controversial aspects of the bill presented by Barney Frank is the state opt-out selection. Although the bill is aimed at legalizing online gambling US-wide, every individual state will have a right not to allow this kind of online business within its borders. It means that those states that will not support the bill adoption will simply opt-out and disallow online gambling in them. Anyway, the opt-out clause is needed to Barney Frank in order to get the necessary support for passing the bill and proceed with the legislation.

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Skill games are often mistakenly associated with gambling. It is obvious that chance is a faithful companion of any game. Even sports games are not an exception. But it never comes to think of football, for example, as of a gambling game. Things are completely the same with games of skill.

The main reason for this confusion is the tendency of playing for real money. Nevertheless, skill games and gambling games are based on different principles and have different objectives. Games of skill in its traditional understanding have a player vs player format and the chance to win in this kind of game depends mostly on gaming skills of every player. Moreover, it will never come to anyone’s mind to play dominoes or backgammon in a casino.

The most convincing argument for separating games of skill from gambling industry became the “The Skill Games Protection Act” acceptance by the American government. It is an eternal truth that the USA’s policy against online gambling is unprecedented in its severity and scales. Anyway, playing skill games is now legally allowed.

The Act states: “The term `bets or wagers’ does not include operating, or participation in, poker, chess, bridge, mahjong or any other game where success is predominantly determined by a player’s skill.”

The Skill Games Protection Act was accepted as an amendment to subchapter IV of chapter 53 of title 31 of United States Code prohibiting online gambling. The main aspects touched in the Act were the questions of game competition and game success. It is important to highlight the statement on the competition organization in games of skill. A competition should be held in a player vs player format. Playing against a system or against a game operator is not allowed. It means that system cheating over the players is almost excluded. It also reduces the level of luck influence on the game result. As concerns the success aspect, the Act legally agrees with the statement that fortune plays a minimal role in the skill gaming process.

Anyway, there is hardly anyone who could come to a casino to play dominoes. And it has never been needed to be legally stated.

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Notwithstanding its being a trustful leader, the Isle of Man jurisdiction claimed to introduce new rules and regulation standards to the e-gaming licensing process and further-going control over the licensees. Head of the Isle of Man e-gaming commission Bill Mummery has announced in front of the London Stock Exchange of the new rules and laws of online gambling licensing. The changes were elaborated with support and assistance of Berwin Leighton-Paisner, the London based international law firm. The new standards are an attempt to establish a reputation of an “e-gaming center of excellence” and included such key sectors of online gambling industry as:

· software testing

· disaster recovery provision

· advertising and marketing

The software concern presupposes introducing new strict regulations, based on multi-step methodology of testing the key aspects of fair play ensuring, such as Random Numbers Generator used in card dealing and roulette spin. Moreover, continuous monitoring of online gambling business-holders work was implemented in order to guarantee high reliability, security, and responsible gaming to online gamers of chance.

As it comes to disaster recovery, the Isle of Man jurisdiction now supports all online gambling operators even those who are licensed by other jurisdictions. The jurisdiction is eager to provide disaster recovery services as well as off-line data storage facilities to support online gambling business operations world-wide.

Advertising and marketing regulations have become stricter. Informational support of online casinos and poker rooms is carefully monitored and controlled by the jurisdiction’s officers. Responsible gaming has become a keynote of this aspect of the introduced legislation rules innovations.

It is important to highlight that together with legislative changes the Isle of Man enhanced the telecommunication infrastructure that reaches the best world standards. Furthermore, zero rate corporate tax for online gambling business was adopted by the jurisdiction government. Online gaming businesses pay 0% tax, provided they do not accept bets from residents of the Isle of Man. These aspects are sure to increase the Isle of Man attractiveness from the side of off-shore Internet gambling stakes.

On a conference held with the participation of potential investors Mr. Mummery stated: “In the past year the Island has become a significant recognized force in global gaming – the industry is increasingly dynamic. These changes will help the Isle of Man to win more business and respond to the changes needed as industry develops.”

Currently the licensing application fee is £1,000. If an online gaming business was approved to meet all the jurisdiction’s new requirements, it will pay ₤35,000 license fee annually. Also it is important to mention that the tax on gross annual yield up to ₤20,000,000 is 1.5%, while yields that amount are taxed at reduced rates.

As of Spring 2009, the number of the Isle of Man licensees amounted to 16 operators.

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In spite of the high competition on the Belorussian IT market Viaden Media managed to appear in the list of  number 1 companies in the country in respect of business making. We were acknowledged to be among the best in the industry by becoming a laureate of the contest among Belarusian enterprises “Entrepreneur of the Year”.

Having obtained the diploma we are not going to stay on the sidelines. We are sure it is just the beginning and we are planning to continue our way to highest world standards and supreme quality.

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Now we are the happy owners of a well-designed user-friendly website that is the best reflection of Viaden Media corporate style. Minimalism and business orientation have become the keynote of the redesign process. We have made a full review of our previous design and text content. It was our firm decision to introduce our current and potential clients and partners a prospectively designed, business oriented, and highly informative corporate website.

If you browse through and take a look at www.viaden.com sections you will find a great lot of useful current information about gambling licensing and billing, casino and poker industry facts, and answers to the most frequently asked questions of casino and poker rooms owners as well as those who are going to build their online gaming website.

Apart from traditionally reliable innovative software for online casino websites and poker rooms, we have also decoded to make our customers acquainted with highly popular kind of online games for money, called Games of Skill. We are happy to offer you a rich variety of the most demanded skill games.

Viaden Media team believes the newly designed corporate website to become a milestone of our future successes, new partnerships establishing, and providing our current clients with best services ever possible.

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To refresh you memory about the how the story began I will remind you that contemporary Bingo is a straight descendant of Italian Lotteries, played as long as in 1530s.

Long after it was brought to the US from Germany in a form of game played with the help of carton cards and beans. It was called Beano for that reason. This simple algorithm of pulling out numbers from a cigar box and putting beans to the carton cards with the aim to cover lines with beans not only has saved a toy producing company owner Edwin S. Lowe by name, but also brought him fame and fortune.

Allow me telling you more details about this magic transformation of an unpretentious Beano game into a very popular and highly profitable game of Bingo.

When Ed Lowe returned home to NY, he immediately bought some beans and some cardboard. He drew numbers on the carton cards and invited his friends to try playing Beano. Very soon after a game started he noticed that his friends were playing with the same excitement and tension he saw in Jacksonville’s carnival.

That was that very day when Bingo appeared. One of the invited guests screamed excitedly “BEAN-GO!” instead of the already habitual “Beano!” And that made the game.

Some time after Lowe started selling his Bingo game in his toy shop. The game was presented in two variants – one-dollar 12 card set and two-dollar 24 card set for the game. The game was selling like hot pies and soon returned the dying Lowe’s business to the successful road.

The game was trademarked, but still could not be fully protected from the imitations because of the coming out of the public domain. Since the game was so popular there appeared too many solicitous to get a piece of Lowe’s fortune. The history doesn’t know if Lowe was too gracious or too conceited, but anyway he asked his competitors to pay him a dollar annually for the permission to call their games Bingo. The price was really low for litigation escape and made them agree to the conditions, and the original Bingo game became generic. This was a Bingo boom that glorified Edwin Lowe and brought citizens of the US an exciting game of chance.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… Cached: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

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Did you know that contemporary Bingo game descends from the Italian National Lottery Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia, that was first organized in 1530? Today the Italian State lottery is indispensable to the government’s budget, with a yearly contribution in excess of 75 million dollars.

In 1929 the game was eventually brought to the US from Germany. It was made really popular by an American businessman Edwin S. Lowe. One night he was returning back home tired and exhausted, when he decided to drive on to Jacksonville, Georgia in order to start his business appointments at the earliest. Jacksonville met him with bright lights and noise on a town carnival…

One year before he started his own toy business that was about to collapse because of the market crash. That night he couldn’t even imagine that this eventual overnight stop will bring him money and fame.

It was rather late at night and the carnival was about to end. All the booths were closed except one that was really overcrowded with people. He stood on his tiptoes to see what was happening. The action centered on a horseshoe-shaped table covered with numbered cards and beans. People looked concentrated and interested while putting beans on the cards with numbers after a pitchman was pulling numbers from an old cigar box and saying them out loud. “Beano!” used to cry out one of the players when he covered one of the number lines of his number card with beans. As Ed Lowe recalls, he was so excited that tried to participate in the game himself, but he couldn’t get a seat. He noticed that the players were nearly addicted to the game. The pitchman tried to finish the game several times but no one was going to leave. When he finally closed at 3:00 a.m. he had to chase everybody out. After locking up, the pitchman told Lowe that he had run across a game called Lotto while traveling with a carnival in Germany the previous year. His immediate thought was that it would make a good tent or carnival game and bring good profit.

It was the Beano game, the one that made him popular.

Read the end of the story in my next post.

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To begin with, I’ve decided to share some secrets of how not to get lost among the buttons and options of online poker websites. Online poker strategy does exist! Moreover, it is destinkt from the habbitual poker strategy. Playing poker in a virtual world has too many hidden agendas to be simple.

Since the time that computers became as common in homes as microwave ovens, people began spending as much time surfing the net as they did watching television. Of course it didn’t take long for the poker craze to catch on like wild fire and consume internet users. But have all of these on-line poker sites overwhelmed users with too many options?

First you must wade through the hundreds of online poker rooms, their bonuses, promotions and enticing offers to choose the site that’s right for you. So, you find the one that fits your criteria, download the software, then you have to decide which method to use to open your account. Finally, you’re logged in and ready to play, right? Not quite. At this point you can choose what format, level and type of game to play. And now, you’re ready for a fast-paced, exciting game.

At the table, you are again plagued by choices in the form of buttons to check, push or click for game play. These can be used before play advances to your position. Although selecting your action in advance may speed up an already quick game, they are overall a poor choice to use the majority of the time. Over-using these seemingly convenient options may end up costing you more of your chips than you desire.

For example, you’re in middle position with suited face cards and think, “I’d like to see a flop,” so you commit yourself to calling the amount of the big blind by selecting that option. Immediately after making this choice, one player doubled the bet, but you decide you still want to see the flop and reselect the advance option to call the raise. However, three players have also called with three still to act including the blinds. Now you’re stuck in the middle of the action. Although it’s still possible to change your mind and uncheck the box (provided you’re fast enough), it’s a lot easier to say “Aww, what the heck,” and call with a mediocre hand out of position.

On the other hand, if you are in either of the blind positions with a bad hand, don’t be too quick to fold it. Selecting the check/fold button is equivocal to folding out of turn in a live game, which obviously is never a wise play. If all the players acting before you fold when you’re in the small blind position, it may be possible to steal the blind by raising. Furthermore, if one or two players limp in, as the big blind raising may drive out the competition. But use these strategies cautiously because the other players will catch on after a while.

Another example that over-using the pre-select options is a bad choice is if you’re in early position with high pocket pairs and you want to make a pot-sized bet, so you select “bet pot”. What if the only person to act before you goes all-in? Now you’re in for more than you had intended. It may all work out in your favor or you may have just lost a sizable portion of your stack.

When playing online, always try to think ahead, but never play ahead. Play your position. Don’t let the convenience of these buttons cloud your ability to decide how to play your hand. A pre-selected action may be faster than your reaction, especially if a player does the unexpected. But of course, you’ve thought ahead and anticipated your opponent’s action. Remember, that playing poker on-line requires strategy, planning and perhaps a little bit of luck. But the choices are yours to make, even if it’s deciding whether to play in your business suit or your birthday suit.

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