Issue N16, 2011
April 20, 2011
Black Friday for US Online Gambling
Last Friday, April 15th, saw the United States authorities crack down on some of the top online gambling and poker sites in the country. The FBI sting led to the indictment of eleven men in the industry, including the founders of major poker sites, Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. The day became known as ‘Black Friday’ in the media, referring to the way that the industry was literally changed upside down in one single swoop. In no time at all, the Feds had frozen the bank accounts belonging to these poker sites, with many players reporting that they had been unable to withdraw their money as a result. Those players who attempted to access the sites through their US domains were turned away by a notice posted by the Department of Justice, informing them that the domain names had been seized.
The US crackdown has been strongly condemned from a wide circle of people – and not all of them from the online gambling industry. The move has been seen as one that makes cynical use of power, removing the individual’s rights to enjoy entertainment from the privacy of his own home, and removing the chance to make a living from thousands of professional online gamblers. Over 10 million people in the US alone play poker online, and many believe that the authorities won’t have any choice but to allow some form of online poker in the very near future.
New Online Slot Game at WinADay Online Casino
Fair Tycoon is the newest game to debut at Win A Day Casino, sister site to the popular Slotland. The carnival themed Fair Tycoon is the 24th game to be launched by this instant-play site and WinADay is celebrating its release through a free cash offer until April 24th. All real money players will receive $14 to try out the new game until this date, while the top 20 wagerers in the promotion period will win bonuses of up to $750 each!
In a statement released about the carnival themed game, WinADay said: “Fair Tycoon challenges players to build their own amusement park and comes complete with a premium game where participants can become a mighty entertainment magnate. You can almost smell the hot dogs and cotton candy and hear the screams of delight coming from the amusement park rides as symbols like candy, windmills, roses and gingerbread men spin on the colourful wheels.”
“As they spin the reels, players collect fair credits to use later in the bonus game when building their very own fairground. If they’re lucky, they can also collect premium attractions for their fair like a rollercoaster or a Ferris wheel,” it concluded.
Virgin Casino Running Exciting Online Slots Promotion
Online slots fans will love the promotion rolled out by Virgin Casino, which could see them win up to £250 a day until April 24th. The promotion awards cash prizes to players who manage to reach the top forty rankings each day of the promotion and gives players a new chance the next day to reach the top of the leader board. All players need to do is play any of the slot games featured in the competition, including titles such as Thunderstruck II, Star Trek, Clover Rollover, Da Vinci Diamonds and Cleopatra II.
The top ranked player each day will win GBP 250, while second place will win GBP 100. Third to fifth place will win GBP 50, sixth to tenth place will win GBP 25, while 11th to 25th place will take home a GBP 10 prize. Ranks 26 to 40 will each win GBP 5. The promotion was launched to celebrate the launch of the brand new Unicorns Legend online slot game, which has proven to be enormously popular already.
Roxy Palace Casino Reports Large Payouts Recently
The Microgaming powered online casino, Roxy Palace, has reported that many of its players have enjoyed big payouts in the last month. One player, Ben V, reportedly took home a very impressive €44,918 after playing the relatively new Fellowship of the Ring slot game at Roxy Palace. This game has managed to bring the excitement of the epic book and film right to casino fans’ fingertips, made all that much better through the Cinematic Spins feature.
Roxy Palace also said that a player won big on Bonus Deuces Wild video poker, when he scooped nearly €37,000 at the beginning of the month. Other big wins reported on were around the €20,000 mark – definitely not an amount to turn your nose up at – with lucky titles being Ladies Nite, Grand Circus and Thunderstruck II. Roxy Palace is particularly popular among online casino players due to its huge range of quality games and the fact that it carries the Safe and Fair seal from eCOGRA.