Well, actually they’re talking to the Alderney Gambling Control Board in the British Channel Island. But why would the folks in Nevada, we’re talking Las Vegas territory, need to talk to the Brits about gambling? After all, Las Vegas has been a top gambling destination for decades. But times are changing. People aren’t traveling as often as they used to. We’ve invented the word “staycation” and a staycation isn’t good for Vegas. But they are a sign of the economy and the current times and all of that is probably here to stay for a while. Bummer. Especially if you’re Las Vegas. Or Nevada, which depends on gambling revenue from Vegas and other gambling locations around the state.

So, what’s a Gaming Control Board to do? After all, if there’s less gambling, I can only think that there would be less of a need for gaming control people. Not to mention less income for Nevada. Well, the folks at the Nevada Gaming Control Board made a call to the folks at the Alderney Gambling Control Commission to ask for their advice on regulating online gambling.

Now, I’m seeing a couple of different developments potentially coming out of this arrangement. First, it sends signs that Nevada is open to considering legalizing and regulating online gambling within the state. Good news for those who live in Nevada but the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) will prevent them from offering online gambling elsewhere. But the other aspect of this is that it looks like Nevada, like Atlantic City, will want to require online gambling operations to be run from within the state. Which means the existing casinos in Nevada will be the first in line to open online casinos.

No, the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) hasn’t been reversed. Online gambling isn’t suddenly legally regulated and supported in the United States. Nothing that drastic changed over the weekend. Sure it would be nice if it had. But the change here happened back in November. Remember, back in November the United States had an election and the Republicans came back into power. Now, despite the efforts on one amusing gambling blogger I know to convince me that Democrats are the source of all evil, it seems most of the gambling world continues to feel that having Republicans in power isn’t going to help them.

In fact, they seem to consider the Republican control of Congress so damaging to the potential of legalizing online gambling that they all got together and founded the US Online Gaming Association or USOGA. So now we can speak in initials and ask “can the USOGA defeat the UIGEA?” Well, the USOGA certainly hopes to have an impact.

So, what are we looking at here? Well, online gambling operators in the United States are working to pool their resources and work towards the legalization and regulation of online gambling. But they seem to have given up on defeating or reversing the UIGEA and looking for a federal solution for online gambling. With recent movements to legalize online gaming in Nevada and online poker in Florida, the USOGA seems to feel that their best strategy is to gain approval for online gambling in individual states. This may be the best strategy because states stand to benefit financially for any changes in online gambling laws within their borders, so they are showing more flexibility than the federal government.

I haven’t taken a look over at Cherry Red Casino in a while, so I’m checking them out today. Now part of the reason I always seem to overlook them is because while they do have a great welcome bonus and great ongoing bonuses, they don’t seem to do many special promos with creative names. So what it really comes down to is that they are a consistent and dependable casino but they need to give writers something to write about. Then we’d feature them more often in our blogs.

But today I’m suggesting that you take a look at Cherry Red’s Weekend bonuses where you’ll receive a 150% match bonus worth up to $750 on your deposts. Now, here’s the good news on this — you can use the bonus to play slots (expected), keno and scratch cards (again, expected), but you can also play blackjack, video poker, or Texas Hold’em Bonus Poker for one third of their value toward the wagering requirements. Now this does mean that you’ll have to make more bets to meet the play through requirements on those games but since those games have better odds, your money might just last that long. To claim the bonus, use the coupon codes AURORA4.1, AURORA4.2, AURORA4.3, AURORA4.4, and AURORA4.5. Or make your deposit with USEMYWALLET or MONEYLINEWALLET and get an extra 25% bonus. Just use the coupon codes AURORAEW4.1, AURORAEW4.2, AURORAEW4.3, AURORAEW4.4, and AURORAEW4.5.

If you don’t make a deposit this weekend, Cherry Red Casino also offers Weekly Bonuses that you can claim during the week. As I said — they really do have dependable and steady bonus offers.

After checking out the $500 free play option over at Desert Nights Casino, I decided to check out another Rival gaming casino to see if they had the same offer. I found out that they do have a great promotion for first time players, it’s just that the promo is a little different than the one at Desert Nights. Over at Ruby Royal you have to be able to play very, very fast.

Okay, so the Desert Night Casino offer is $500 to play with and thirty minutes to play. So I figured, hmm, if I bet a dollar a spin on a slots game, I’d have to make 500 spins in 30 minutes. Okay, I’ll have to play fast but with games like slots, totally doable.

But then I looked at the Ruby Royal page. There the offer is 888 free bets in 30 minutes. Now in other ways this is similar to the Desert Nights’ offer. When you sign up for a new account, you have 30 minutes to play on the house’s dime and you get to keep what you win over your starting amount up to $100. You also have to make a $25 real money deposit if you want to claim your winnings. But at Ruby Royal this offer strikes me as a challenge. Can I make 888 bets in 30 minutes? Well, after a bit of experimentation, yes, I can. Now, you might want to have a plan in mind before you jump into this challenge because what I discovered was that the fastest games to play on are the classic three reel slots with no bonus games. With those you can easily bet over 1000 times in 30 minutes. But if you get involved in something like an iSlot, you may only be able to make 500 bets in the allotted time. Who know there would be time management research involved in playing slot games.

English Harbour wants to help you avoid the winter blues by giving you a chance to travel anywhere you want. Take a trip to a Caribbean Island to escape the winter snow. Go visit family members you haven’t seen in ages. Take that trip to Las Vegas and try your luck at the casinos there. Whatever you want to do.

Now to enter the sweepstakes, you’ll need to sign up for the VIP Plan at English Harbour casino to earn points on the reward program. You earn points for every game you play and you can redeem those points for a ticket in the sweepstakes or other prizes. Now the drawing for the Avoid the Winter Blues sweepstakes is January 31, which is just around the corner. But you can earn extra points by playing the game of the month which is the Winter Wonderland slot game. Each entry in Avoid the Winter Blues will cost you 500 points and you can enter as many times as you like (depending on the points you have).

English Harbour also as a Big Free Weekend slot tournament coming up that will run Friday through Sunday and be played on Fire Hawk. There is no fee to enter this tournament and the prize pool is $1000. English Harbour also offers free slot tournaments each day. That’s right, free - no entry fee and a $300 prize pool. Or check out Frozen Assets, a slot tournament with a $25,000 prize pool and a $10 entry fee. The tournament has been running since the beginning of January and ends on January 31^st.

There’s a new online casino in town and yes, it does accept players from the United States. Before I review a casino, that’s one little detail I like to check out. Desert Nights Casino includes a little US flag on the bottom so it’s easy to find the info. They also accept players from the UK, the EU and South Africa. But as always, gambling laws in your particular location may vary even if the site lets you play. But Desert Nights Casino is licensed by the government of the Netherland Antilles.

Desert Nights Casino is a new addition to the Rival Gaming casino family which means they have iSlots. So, if you’re a fan of iSlots, you’ll want to check them out. Though right now it looks like they have fewer islots than Box 24 or Ruby Royal, two of the other Rival Casinos I have an account with. Of course they have classic slots and progressive slots and video poker and other familiar casino games.

So, what are they going to do to convince you to play at Desert Nights Casino? Well, you’ll start out with the chance to earn up to $10,000 in welcome bonuses over the space of your first ten deposits. But there’s another tempting offer for new players — a $500 free play bonus. Here’s the trick with this one. You don’t keep the $500. All you have to do is make a deposit of at least $25 and the casino will give you $500 to play with for thirty minutes. So you have half an hour to spin the reels and make as much money as you can with that $500 start. At the end of your 30 minutes, you give back the $500 but you keep anything you’ve won up to 100 credits.

If you want to play at Desert Nights Casino, they have both a download and an instant play casino option. And you can always check out the practice play if you want to see what the games are like. If you haven’t tried an iSlot yet, I recommend giving one a spin.

It’s the middle of the week at that time when some of us need a little extra something to get us through to the end of the week. So I’m checking out Millionaire Casino and wondering if the mid week days would be more fun if I were a millionaire. They probably would be, but until then, I’ll have to settle for the bonuses over at Millionaire Casino.

First looking at the week day bonuses. Wait there’s no Wednesday bonus! No, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow and 50% Bonus Thursdays where I can get 50% back on my first deposit of the day. So if you like to play, you might want to plan to make a deposit tomorrow. Then take a break because the next daily bonus in the 100% Saturday Bonus where you will get 100% back on your first deposit of the day. But make it a good one because that’s going to have to hold you through until Tuesday when you’ll get a 75% bonus on your first deposit.

But what happens on Wednesdays? Well, Millionaire Casino celebrates Big Wednesday with progressive slots and double points on Win, Place or Show slots today from noon to 8pm. Then there’s Fruity Friday where you get double points on Cool Bananas slot from noon to 8pm. On Saturday you can play Lucky 7s slots for double points on 7 Reel Saturday from noon to 8pm. And on Super Sunday it’s double points for The Vegas Party slots. But don’t forget Monday which is Monster Monday where you can play Green Meanies slots for double points from noon to 8pm.

The bonus games change from week to week to give you something different to play so keep an eye on Millionaire Casino for some fun each week.

Gambling laws in the United States vary from state to state and many people don’t realize that the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) really deals more with the transfer of money rather than specifically making gambling illegal. But there is one state where the laws are clear. In Washington State it is an actual felony to play poker online. Not just illegal. A felony. The PPA (Poker Players Association) tried to get the law thrown out but the Washington State Supreme Court upheld the right for the state to create and uphold such a law. And since then online poker rooms have been leaving the state and leaving poker players with no place to play.

The first online poker room to leave the state was Poker Stars. They left not long after the ruling was handed down after sending players a letter asking them to withdraw funds from their account. They did say that the players could keep inactive accounts so that they can reactivate with the same screen named if they move to another location. Then Full Tilt announced that it would no longer allow play from Washington State but that players in the state could keep their accounts and play when they were in other states.

Now Matchbook has asked poker players in Washington State to stop making deposits from their current address and says it is ceasing operation within the state. And VIP Sports is also pulling out of the state. I’m only surprised that there are still online poker rooms still trying to operate within the state. Which the law in Washington State hasn’t gone after any individual poker players, they have gone after payment processing firm and seized money in their accounts. So the ruling has been lucrative for state law enforcement, if not for players.

If you haven’t checked out Silver Oak Casino lately, the good news is that they offer a free web play option that doesn’t require registration or a login if you want to play for free. This gives you a chance to check out the games before you sign up. But you’ll want to sign up for an account at Silver Oak because they go crazy every day of the week with their Crazy Days promotions. So, what happens on the Crazy Days?

Monday is Happy Hour where you can get a 150% extra on any bonus between 5pm and 7pm. All you have to do is make a deposit and claim the regular bonus offer. Then contact Silver Oak and ask for your 150% extra bonus.

Do you play blackjack? Then you’ll want to check out Terrific Tuesdays on Silver Oak where you’ll earn double the comp points on all blackjack games. So place your bets and deal the cards.

Wednesday is Triple Treat day on the site. But you have to act in advance for this hump day treat. Make a deposit on Monday and Tuesday. Then on Wednesday make the third deposit and give the Silver Oak live help line a call and they’ll give you a $50 free chip to play with.

Next we have the Thursday Thriller. All you have to do for a thrill on this day is deposit $25 to your account and Silver Oak will give you $55 for free. Just use the code THRILLER when you make your deposit.

Friday Freebie is when Silver Oak celebrates its newest games. Just wager $50 on any of the new games and you’ll get a $10 credit just for trying them out.

Super Saturdays let you score double comp points for playing the sports-themed games. Whether it’s slots or scratch cards, there’s always something exciting to play.

And we end the week with Sweet Sunday where you get a little something back on everything you deposited during the week. You’ll need to make a deposit on Sunday to qualify but then every deposit for that week will add up to determine your bonus amount.

I’ve always been fascinated by people playing Keno in casinos. Keno just reminds me too much of the state lottery games for me to really get into it. Look, we all know that state lotteries make tons of money and the odds are against the player. There’s nothing wrong with playing a dollar every week for a chance to win millions. But what people don’t understand is that the odds on lotteries are so bad that playing 100 numbers really doesn’t increase your chances much more than that one dollar did. Play a dollar and you’ll probably lose a dollar. Play one hundred dollars and you’ll lose $90 to $100 dollars. Okay, I am allowing for a possible three number match in those 100 tickets. But that match won’t really pay enough to pay off the $100 you bet.

And that’s what Keno feels like to me. And it looks like Lotto too. Which I think is why it attracts so many players. It’s familiar. You have a card with numbers on it that looks like a lotto card and a spinner with numbered balls, just like lotto. And you can play your lucky numbers. Gamblers always have lucky numbers. Yes even me. Mine is 13.

But here’s the lure of Keno - it’s easy to play and it requires no thought. Just pick the numbers and let the ball do its thing. Play enough numbers and you’ll probably hit on one or two, which may not pay out much. But should you somehow against all odds match something like 15 numbers, you can win a fortune. The question is — do you really, really know how bad those odds are?