Are you interested in an online casino that will give you $500 and an hour to play on that money? Well, if you are check out Mummy’s Gold Casino. This is a Microgaming Casino that’s certified by eCOGRA and also a member of the Palace Group of casinos. All that translates into — this is a reputable online casino, and if you enjoy playing online casinos for real money, worth checking out. And if you like playing online casinos for free, they do offer a free play mode that in the instant play version won’t even require you to register.

But Mummy’s Gold Casino is also offering to share a little of that gold by giving new players $500 and an hour to play on that money. All you need to do to take part is to download the software and register at the casino. Then you click the START YOUR FREE PLAY button and you’re off! Now, make sure you do all this when you have at least an hour of spare time on your hands because once you click that button, the clock is ticking. And don’t hold back on the betting either. You’ll have one hour to make at least 100 bets. That’s more than one bet a minute. But you only get to keep your winnings, not the original $500. So bet away. Spin the slot reels. (Easiest place to bet fast.) And give Mummy’s Gold a trial run.

After you’re done, you’ll need to deposit at least $50 into your account to claim your winnings but you can also claim a Mummy’s Gold Welcome Bonus of $50. All in all, a good way to start the day.

Now and then I’m tempted to check out the various table games based on poker hands. After all, I know the rankings of poker hands and the basic rules of poker, and the games are usually based on these. Which is what the casinos count on when they design the games. These poker-based games are popular at land based casinos as well as online casinos because they are fast and easy to learn and play. Some, like Caribbean Stud Poker, can trace their origins back to cruise ships where games were needed that moved quickly but were accessible to a large number of players. Having recently been on a cruise, I can tell you that the Texas Hold ‘Em table stayed full whenever the casino was open and had a line of players waiting for spots to open up. Texas Hold ‘Em can take some time to play out. But these poker hand based games move faster.

In Mulligan poker, you place a bet and then decide whether or not to place a bonus bet. The bonus bet is a bet that pays out very well if you draw a great hand. Once you’ve done that, you’re dealt a poker hand. You look at the hand and decide whether to keep it or take a Mulligan and be dealt another hand. Now this isn’t video poker where you hold the good cards and discard the bad. Nope, you either hold or discard the entire hand. If you discard the hand or “take a Mulligan” you lose your bonus bet and automatically raise your bet the amount that your ante was. After that, it’s just a matter of seeing if your hand beats the dealer’s hand. It’s a simple game. Which is its appeal. However it’s not a game where strategy really helps your odds. You’re waiting on luck in this game and sometimes luck is hard to find.

The British Columbia Information and Privacy Commissioner has announced the conclusion of the investigation the British Columbia Lottery Corporations online gambling site PlayNow. British Columbia took a different approach to licensing and regulating online casinos in their area. They granted permission to their government run lottery corporation to run their own online casino. The people of British Columbia seemed pleased about it because they felt that they could trust a government run site more than a site run by the average gambling corporation.

That trust may have been misplaced. The investigation into the BCLC and the PlayNow site discovered “inadequate user access controls and maliciouscode controls, unencrypted data transmission and gaps in BCLC’s privacy management framework.” In other words, the trustworthy, government run PlayNow site didn’t provide adequate protection for the personal information of their customers. The result was that on the first day the online casino launched, 134 “data crossovers” took place and exposed the personal data of players to others on the site. This is considered to be of extra concern for an online gambling site because these are the sorts of site that attract the attention of organized crime and other who may have malicious intent. People scream when Facebook exposes their info to advertising sites and others who want to gather information about them. But gambling sites aren’t social media sites. They are sites were people risk their money. And as such, need to be able to provide players with the strongest security possible. After the BCLC report, players might wonder if the PlayNow site is able to accomplish that.

The news is out that Donald Trump is selling off one of his casinos. No, not the iconic Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort that greets guests with a sign almost as large as Trump’s ego or the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. But rather the Trump Marina Hotel Casino, which is located blocks away from the main strip of casinos and the boardwalk. (I wonder if Atlantic City could get out of some of its financial difficulties by just offering to rename itself “Trump” and having The Donald pick up a few bills. Instead of elections, they could have a reality TV based show for politicians and Trump could deliver his famous “You’re fired! You’re hired!” lines.

But perhaps more to the point was my question — who would buy a casino in Atlantic City right now? Business isn’t that great in the current economy. Though there is that tempting possibility that casinos in Atlantic City might be able to offer online gambling in the state of New Jersey. So, an organization without an Atlantic City casino might want one.

And it seems that the Trump Marina Hotel Casino has been purchased by Landry’s who will turn the casino into a Golden Nugget casino, drawing on the brand recognition that they Golden Nugget name has. But Landry’s has already stated that they will continue to honor Trump Marina customer points and rewards as part of the transition. After all, they don’t want to lose any existing loyal business that the casino already holds. Trump meanwhile will use money from the transaction to lower some of his debt. No news if any of the funds will go towards purchasing hair spray.

I’m coming across news about a casino scam that took place in land based, often tribal casinos, in the United States and Canada and reading about casino scams always has me fascinated. The scam involves the Tran Organization, an apparently criminal organization that was made up of Van Thu Tran, her hubby and various family members. Now, to make this scam work required an insider in the casino, but once the Tran Org had that in place, the scam was surprisingly easy for them to pull off. Though it would seem to me that working at the casino really would make it easier to scam or steal from them. After all, it puts you in a position of control. And that position of control worked well for the Trans.

Van Thu Tran and hubby both found jobs at Indian tribal casinos in the US and Canada as dealers. And they were good at dealing the cards. So good that they worked out a plan to use a false shuffle to track cards and help others win at card games. They started with Pai Gow, a popular Asian card game, but eventually moved to blackjack as well. But they didn’t do this alone. They needed others in their plan to bring in the money, and that made it more difficult for casinos to figure out what was taking place. In fact, before the operation was busted, the Tran Org took an estimated $7 million out of casinos.

The scam needed a crooked dealer and one or more players in on the action. When the players signaled, the dealer would create a slug or group of cards that always played in the same order. When the slug was being dealt, the players in the know could determine which cards they would be dealt and bet accordingly. The process is simple, yet difficult for casinos to track. It appears some of the casinos knew they were being cheated and called in investigators because they couldn’t find the problem themselves. But if the action got hot in one casino, the Trans could move to another casino. But eventually the ring was busted and at this point, 47 people have been indicted with 42 pleading guilty. And most of the wealth the Trans accumulated during their cheating days has been seized by the feds.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating and alleged scam artist and proven bad poker player named Jeremy Johnson in Utah. Johnson is accused of running companies, including IWorks and Elite Debit, that scammed customers out of $275 million by offering them free trial memberships for fake services and then charge their credit and debit cards for membership fees. If you’re every tempted to sign up for one of these “trial memberships” keep in mind that once the company has your credit card info, it can be a lengthy and painful process to make them stop charging you. Well, the feds know that it can be tricky to keep them from spending the money even after charged. So a US Court Judge issued a temporary restraining order to freeze Johnson’s assets in hopes of making restitution to his victims.

But as the feds were going through Johnson’s accounts, they discovered that he’d gambled away large and small fortunes both in Las Vegas and on online poker rooms such as Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. It seems that the con man can’t bluff the poker players considering he lost over a million and a half dollars on Full Tilt Poker alone, sometimes playing in poker tournaments with buy ins as high as $5,000. When Johnson ran out of his own money to gamble on, he used the money from his companies. Which, well, might have been illegal, except the companies are probably already illegal.

But poor (well, at least of the feds keep his money) Johnson wants us to believe that he may be a reformed man. That losing at all that money at poker cured his gambling addiction. But that hasn’t helped his case with the feds, who are still investigating his business practices.

Today is Valentine’s Day and tomorrow it will all be over, except for the candy sales at the local grocery stores. (Have I mentioned that I love the sales that take place after the chocolate holidays.) Most online casinos are going to be ending their Valentine’s Day promotions and getting ready for a President’s Day Weekend. But over at Villento Las Vegas, the Month of Love promotion is still going on and will until the end of the month. (Why does Love get the shortest month in the year.)

So, what’s happening over at Villento Las Vegas? Well, February 14^th through 16^th, Villento Las Vegas invites you to “Love Thyself” in a celebration of, umm, self-love. (Villento, we need to talk. Perhaps it’s because your Marketing team is British. Call me. I need to explain something about the phrasing you’re using.) Okay, focus. Back to the actual promo. Deposit at least $75 and wager to the selected slot games and you’ll be credited some free spins. The games are Secret Admirer, Burning Desire and Chocolate Factory.

February 17^th is the Big Heart Promo with surprises bonuses from those spotted spinning the reels on The Great Galaxy Grab (I do like this game). And February 18^th is Chocolate Treats where players are encouraged to login to their accounts to see if they’ve been awarded free spins. And February 19^th is Summer Love (apparently they haven’t checked the calendar) where player can earn double loyalty points by playing Summertime. And February 20^th is devoted to True Love where Villento Vegas wants you to prove you love them and win their affection so the ten top wagering players on Burning Desire will receive additional loyalty points. (I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you love Villento Vegas that much.)

I just got a love letter from Millionaire Casino in my email box and I’m going to pass the love along to you. In honor of Valentine’s Day (hence the love letter, that really does look like a kid’s valentine card), Millionaire Casino is offering a 50% bonus coupon that can be used multiple times between February 11^th and February 14^th. You need to make a minimum deposit of $25 and use the code XOXOXO when you make your deposit.

And while you’re over at Millionaire Casino, don’t forget to check out the Slots of Love tournament going on now through February 18^th on Cupid’s Arrow. The tournament only requires a $10 registration fee and the prize pool is $25,000. Plenty to win in the name of love.

Millionaire Casino also offers a selection of weekly bonuses displayed in a nearly impossible to read calendar format on their site. Watch the shifting images and try to click to get information on the bonus you want. I’d like to suggest to Millionaire Casino that a plain old list of bonuses in addition to the pretty but fairly useless picture calendar. But it looks like something called March Madness is coming up at Millionaire Casino. Yes, I know about that March Madness, and I imagine that the upcoming promotion is related. But when I click on it, I get information on the regular weekly deposit bonuses. Still, I’ll have March Madness to report on later. For now, head over to Millionaire Casino for a little Valentine’s Day love.

There is some interesting news from the World Series of Poker Europe. For the last four years the World Series of Poker Europe has taken place in London, England. A great location for poker, London has been putting on some major poker events in the last year. But it seems the agreement between the WSOPE and the Casino of the Empire in London has come to an end. Which meant that the WSOPE had a chance to seek out other possible hosting locations. And the news is that the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe will take place October 7^th through October 21^st at the Casino Barriere de Cannes Croisette and the Hotel Majestic Barriere in Cannes, France.

The new location brings a great advantage to the WSOPE because it is able to accommodate twice the players that the Casino of the Empire could handle. This means that the 2011 tournament will have 75 tables of poker and two extra WSOPE bracelets. A great change for players interested in attending the event. Also, the WSOPE team is getting together with Lucien Barriere Hotels and Casinos to host a series of poker tournaments throughout France. The French poker tour will kick off in April at Toulouse then move to Nice, Lille, Dinard, Enghien, Trouville and Bordeaux. It will then return to Cannes, bringing the tour home for the final stop.

And the WSOPE will also have a real money poker internet presence in France as it offers WSOP.fr as part of the existing BarrierePoker.fr. All this will give the WSOPE a distinctively French attitude.

The news today is that Senator Jon Kyl (who needs to buy a vowel) has stated that he will not seek re-election to the senate in 2012. Of course, this does mean we might have to hope that he isn’t planning on running for president. But then, what Republican isn’t planning on throwing his hat into the presidential race for the next election. Well, perhaps Representative Chris Lee will sit it out since he just resigned after a lackluster sex scandal involving a shirtless photo sent in answer to a Craig’s list ad for a woman seeking a man. Congressman, you are a Republican. You have to do better than that in the scandal department.

But back to Senator Kyl and why gamblers should be happy about his announcement. Sen. Kyl was one of the forces behind the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Having trouble making deposits to your favorite online casino? Wish you could play at a casino like Virgin Games? Tired of finding out that casinos you like don’t accept players from the United States. Well, Sen. Jon Kyl is one of the men you have to thank for that. And he’s been a one of the major holdbacks to passing legislation in the United States that would regulate and license online gambling.

But before we celebrate too much. The Senator is from Arizona, a state that traditionally votes Republican. So he’s likely to be replaced by another Republican and Republican are invariably conservative when it comes to gambling issues. But apparently more liberal when it comes to emailing shirtless photos of themselves.