Although there seems to be no movement in Washington DC to legalize online gambling or online poker, the situation is under great scrutiny and debate in individual states. In the United States, each state does have the ability to pass laws within its boundaries that may vary from federal law. Of course there are limits, but so far the federal government doesn’t seem to feel online gambling is such at threat that they want to tackle the states considering legalizing online gambling. And more than one state is doing so. Okay, first I have to mention Washington State for the opposition. Washington State is the one state where online poker is not questionable in its legality. It’s a federal offense. But other states haven’t gone to that extent and now we have two considering legalizing online poker and one looking at legalizing online gambling within state boundaries.

New Jersey is on the verge of passing legislation to allow online gambling in the state. The online sites would have to be run by existing casinos in Atlantic City and would only offer their services within the state. But the legislation is still waiting the governor’s signature and the delay has some players concerned. Meanwhile California is still working on legislation to allow online poker within the state. And meanwhile Florida has been steadily working towards legalizing online poker. The state legislature admits that players within the state are already playing online. But the state isn’t benefiting from funds that could be collected from the activity. And they aren’t able to offer players any protection from unethical online casinos. Legalizing online gambling would allow them to do both and they may have the process in place as soon as this summer. That could put them ahead of both California and New Jersey.

You know, there’s one thing that I miss by playing at online casinos. The thrill and excitement of casino robberies. They happen more often than you might think. Oh, most of it is minor theft. Someone grabs an untended purse or swipes a couple of chips from a player who isn’t paying attention. But there are other robberies. I’ve read reports of poker players robbed in the restroom or the parking garage when they walked away from the tables with their winnings. Remember, if you win, someone is going to notice. If you cash out at the cashier, someone is going to notice. Casinos are not the safest place on earth.

And last week the Rio had an armed robbery, which is a little more dramatic than most robberies. A 55 year old man named Steven Gao entered the casino wearing the fantastic disguise of a fake mustache (it didn’t work). He walked up to a dealer at a Pai Gow table and started taking chips from the rack and putting them in a bag he carried. Of course the dealer objected to this, but Gao pulled a gun on him. He left with $33,000 worth of chips and escaped in an escape cab driven by Hiroyuki Yamaguchi. The two went to a second casino where Gao used the chips to pay a gambling debt to Edward Land.

At this time, the police have both Yamaguchi and Land in custody but they are still looking for Gao. Nah, the mustache disguise didn’t work. They still know who he is. They just need to find him — a man in Las Vegas with a gambling problem.

Grande Vegas online casino is a US friendly casino that knows it’s almost time for March Madness. Now, I’ve already written about the March Madness slot tournament that will be taking place over at Vegas Technology casinos and if you haven’t read about it yet, you’ll want to check it out. The March Madness slot tournament is a month long tournament with a $100,000 prize pool and a $25,000 first prize for the winning player. But you won’t find actual basketball at the Vegas Technology tournament. That one is being played on the Butterflies slot game for a spring time theme.

But if you want in the Basketball or basketbull action for March, check out Grande Vegas Casino. They have the new Real Time Gaming basketball themed slot, Basketbull. Now, for non-basketball fans, the slot design is influenced by the Chicago Bulls basketball team. Basketbull is a five reel, twenty-five pay line slot game. The 9, 10, J, Q, K and A symbol form the base symbols of the game and are styled after basketball jerseys. This symbols are joined by a cheerleading cow, the bulldog coach, and a referee ram. And yes, the Basket Bull is there too. He’s the wild symbol and will also help you out during the free spin bonus.

The free spin bonus is triggered by landing three Basket symbols on the reels. Trigger that and your free spins will start. Now, if you land the Basket Bull on the reels during the free spins, he’ll take a shot at the basket. If he win, you win more free spins, which ain’t no Bull.

Want to enjoy the Basketbull action? All you need to do is head over to Grande Vegas and start the reels spinning.

Yesterday I checked out the big upcoming March Madness promotion at Vegas Technology casinos. But it seems most other casinos are still stuck in a February frame of mind and haven’t yet started announcing any big March promos, so I’m checking out some online casinos that I haven’t looked at before. Today is Crazy Slots.

Crazy Slots is another of the Vegas Technology group of casinos, so you’ll find all your favorite Vegas Tech slot games there. But I think I tend to overlook Crazy Slots because the splash screen when I pull it up is appropriately crazy. The background is dark blue, which seems like it would be subtle enough, but in this case, it serves a framework for lots of yellow and spinning lights, and flashing slot games and moving text. Many online casinos seemed to be designed to simulate a busy Las Vegas environment. Ironically this means that if you spend time looking at online casino on a regular basis, you find yourself yearning for someplace with a quiet design. That is not Crazy Slots

But that’s not what you as a player want to know. You need to important details. Crazy Slots runs on Vegas Technology and is CFC (Certified Fair Gaming) certified. The site offers downloadable free software for your computer or an instant play option. The instant play option does require registration so that they have your email on file even if you play for free. (I’ve grown fond of the sites where I can check out the games quickly without registering.)

Crazy Slots also offers a crazy welcome bonus of $12,500 free spread out over you first 15 deposits, plus 4 free entries into the slot tournament of your choice. And right now they have weekly online surprise bonuses for players. I’d tell you what they are, but they’re a surprise.

February is nearing its end, which always comes a bit earlier than any other month, and that means the Valentine’s Days loved themed promotions are finally drawing to a close. Which is good because I really can only take so much hearts and candy themed slots games. But this means that online casinos need a new promotion to take us into March. It’s not like there’s much of February left to worry about. But anyone who lives in the US knows that March is famous for one thing March Madness. Now usually this involves basketball not butterflies, but I’m willing to work with the butterflies theme.

From March 1^st through March 31^st, Vegas Technology Casinos will be running a March Madness slot tournament with a huge $100,000 prize pool and a$25,000 first prize. With a prize pool that large, this is sure to pull in slot players from everywhere. Which is what the Vegas Technology Casinos are hoping because if you don’t have an account at one of the many Vegas Technology online casinos like Go Casino, Millionaire Casino or Super Slots, you may want to sign up for one to play in this tournament. The buy in is just $10 for a chance at the prizes. Rebuys are also available and the slot game you’ll be playing is Butterflies slots. But I’ve also heard rumors that some of the casinos will be running Free roll slot tournaments with prize pools that include free entry into the March Madness madness. So if you love slots tournaments, this is for you. And if you’ve never played a slot tournament, March could be the month to start.

The gaming world has been waiting to see if Governor Chris Christie will sign and pass the New Jersey online gambling legislation, veto the legislation or simply do nothing and let the bill become law by default. Now the big debate over this is because Chris Christie is a potential Republican candidate for president. The Republican party has traditionally taken a conservative stance on gambling issues. And over the last decade or so, the Republican party has become even more conservative in approach. Which means that if Chris Christie signs the bill, he could endanger his potential as a presidential candidate. If he doesn’t sign it, well, New Jersey is going to suffer because the state needs the potential income from the bill.

So what’s a politician to do? A friend believes that Christie will simply do nothing and let the bill become a law on the grounds that Republicans are like T-REX and can’t see what a presidential candidate does if he doesn’t move. In politics, this could potentially be true, though from what I remember of Jurassic Park, you don’t want to try it with dinosaurs. But the 45 day deadline after which the bill would automatically become a law is fast approaching and the news now out of New Jersey is that Chris Christie is going to delay his decision and reveal it in March. Meanwhile the lobbying continues in the state of New Jersey where no news is pretty much no news. I wonder if Las Vegas is taking bets on what Chris Christie will do.

I like this game. Now I reserve the right to say that liking a game doesn’t necessarily mean it has the best odds in the casino. It just means that it’s fun to play. After all, there are some slot games I like because of the bonus games or graphics, but you’ll probably lose money on them.  But Poker Pursuit is a little like video poker.  But different.  I know, that makes no sense. I’ll explain. 

In video poker, you place your bet and are dealt a five card poker hand. You then decided which cards to hold and draw new cards for the others in hopes of making a winning poker hand.  In Poker Pursuit, you’re also playing with a poker hand, but this game is a little more like Texas Hold ‘em poker than Five Card Draw poker.  In Poker Pursuit you are dealt three cards.  Now, you must decide to call or raise your bet based on your odds of the next two cards turning over to reveal a winning hand.  A winning hand starts at tens or better with a royal flush being the highest paying hand.  But in this game, you can increase your winnings during the hand through raises. 

So, let’s take my hand right now. I’m looking at a 2, 7, 4 all unsuited. My chances on this hand aren’t good.  But I could potentially turn over 2 aces or still make 2 pair or three of a kind. But the straight, flush, full house, four of a kind and Royal are all out of the running.  So, with a hand like this, I probably want to just call and not raise.  Which this time, is the right decision. 

But now I’m looking at 2 jacks and a three.  The pair of jacks means I already have a winning hand.  So I’m going to raise.  An easy call, right.  Okay, so now I’ve got a 7, 8 and a 10, unsuited.  So not a winning hand but it could win if I flop a ten. Or even two pair. Or a 6 and a 9 for a straight.  Or I could flop a 2 and a 4 and get nothing.  That’s where the gamble comes in.  This time, I raised and landed 2 tens.   But the next deal was Q, 8, 3 and I flopped 5 and 7 which gave me nothing.

And that’s what poker pursuit is about. Pursuing the elusive winning poker hand.

We all know what gambling is, right? Really, it’s often one of those “I know it when I see it” things. If you risk something at a chance to get either something of greater value but where the other option is that you’ll lose what you risked, then you’ve gambled. Now, we know what an auction is. That’s when you bid against other people on an item you want with the item going to the highest bidder. But in an auction, while you might lose the bidding, you don’t lose the actual money you were bidding. Or at least that’s what most of us think.

Which is where the world of penny auctions is coming under debate. Are penny auctions really just gambling in disguise. To me, it sure sounds like it. And since penny auctions are online, they’re online gambling. Except when I sit down to play a slot machine or a game of video poker, I know I’m gambling. When someone is lured into a penny auction, they usually don’t realize the full scoop of what’s going on.

Here’s how a penny auction works. An item is put up for bid and everyone puts money on it starting with a bid fee. Each bid goes up a set amount, say a penny. Often, the auction can go on as long as the site wants it to and some sites even use a shill process to raise the bidding amount and keep people bidding. The difference between this and say an ebay auction is that in penny auctions, the auction house is collecting money from everyone who bids, not just money from the final winner. So, bidders are risking money with a chance of walking away with nothing. Which sounds like gambling. And lawmakers are beginning to question that also.

Happy President’s Day!  Okay, for many in the United States this is a minor holiday that passes without notice, except the banks are closed.  This isn’t a chocolate holiday or even one of the “grill out in the backyard” holidays.  It’s the wrong time of the year for that — too cold. So President’s Day has become what the British refer to as a bank holiday — a holiday where the banks are closed.  But for online casinos it’s a great opportunity to offer specials to players or even potential players.  And English Harbour online casino is doing just that.

February 18^th though February 20^th English Harbour Casino is offer new players a chance to triple their first deposit when they sign up for a new account on the US friendly casino.  This offer will help you triple your bankroll and give you more money to play on.  All you have to do is sign up for an account at the casino and use the coupon 200S-011 when you make your first deposit up to $500.  The casino will then add a 200% deposit bonus to your account.  Of course, you want to check the terms and conditions and make sure you’re comfortable with the play through requirements for the deposit. Also, remember that which games you can play using the deposit may be restricted.  Though slots are generally a safe bet, so to speak.  Meaning they’ll safely help you with your play through requirements because odds-wise, they favor the casino. 

Happy President’s Day and Happy Playing!

I’ve decided to check out Cyberstud Poker over at Mummy’s Gold Casino because, well, I can’t resist the name Cyberstud. Though perhaps I should based on the direction my luck has taken. Oh, the casino assures me that Cyberstud Poker is a game of skill and chance. Mostly chance. Apparently any game that involves poker hands is now a game of skill because poker is a game of skill. But poker is a game of skill because it’s played by making skillful decisions that can affect the outcome of the game. Even video poker lends itself to strategic decisions. But Cyberpoker is a game more along the lines of Caribbean Stud Poker, a game is closely resembles.

To play Cyberstud poker you place your ante at the table. Keep in mind that your bet will be twice your ante, so plan accordingly. Then you are dealt five cards. Now it the moment of skill and strategy. You get to decide whether to play the cards or fold. So it’s sort of like a poker training game where the point is simply to recognize if a hand is good or not. Now, in Caribbean stud poker, you’d also have to decide whether or not to place an additional dollar bet on a progressive jackpot. In Cyberstud poker, there is no progressive jackpot and hands pay out according to the payout schedule provide you have a better hand than the dealer and the dealer has at least an Ace King or higher hand. Play the game for a while and you’ll understand why the odds on this game are firmly in the casino’s favor.