We all know that in the United States the power in Washington often comes from the active presence of lobbies and lobbyist. We do the best we can to elect the politicians who we hope will represent our views and then they head off to Washington where the lobbyist go to work. So, sometimes the best answer to this is to find some lobbyist to represent your needs in Washington DC. And that’s currently what’s happening in the online casino industry.

A new online gambling lobby has formed under the name of FairPlayUSA. According to FairPlayUSA, their mission is to educate both the public and government on the need for reform for federal Internet gambling regulation. They aren’t against regulation or laws that will help protect consumers from unfair gambling practices and help prevent under-aged gambling. But they also want people to understand that this protection can happen without taking away the rights of adults to play at online casinos. Apparently they’ll start with online poker since that is probably the easiest part of online gambling to get support behind. Not just because it can be argued that poker is a game of skill as much as a game of chance but because poker players already tend to be organized and focused on promoting their game of choice.

There is currently a petition out on the FairPlayUSA site that asks Congress to tackle offshore gambling, take down illegal sites, and set up regulations for legal sites. Of course that still leaves us with the issue of figuring out what is an illegal since under the current UIGEA the answer is either all of them or none of them.

I don’t believe in those betting schemes that promise you’ll win big at the casino. Now, first I want to say that there’s a difference between a scheme and basic game strategy. Take video poker - the playing strategy varies by the game but is based on mathematical calculations done to determine what hands give you the best chance of winning in the long run. Or blackjack. The strategy there really is based on the simple concept of is the dealer likely to go bust before you do. If you learn these strategies, you really do stand a better chance of winning. But keep in mind, better doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to win. It just means you’re better playing with a strategy than relying on random chance.

But what about those games that actually do rely on random chance, such as roulette and slots games. You’ll find strategies or betting schemes out there that promise to help you win at those games. Some are offered for free on the internet and you’re welcome to give them a try, though I recommend playing at an online casino for free rather than risking your money. Other schemes are offered for sale. Hey, someone is going to win in that transaction — the guy selling the scheme.

So, why don’t I believe in them? Well, because I’ve taken a good, tough look at myself and asked myself — if I discovered the perfect way to win at roulette, what would I do? The answer is, I’d be hitting the roulette tables and winning as much as I could before the casinos caught on. I wouldn’t be selling my secret for a few bucks on the web. I’d be traveling and playing hard, staying in the best rooms and eating at the best restaurants. So, why does that guy want to sell you the secret to that world rather than living it himself?

It’s Thursday and time to start checking for some places to play for the weekend. And I found some great offers over at Lucky Red casino. Now, Lucky Red has everything I look for in casino bonuses, which means it has bonus for slots players and bonuses for players of other games. And an extra bonus for those of us who really like bonuses. So here’s the run down.

The first offer (also known as Offer 1) is a 110% bonus if you want to play slots, keno and scratch cards. Now you’ll have to deposit at least $100 and you can deposit up to $1000. You’ll want to use the coupon code MADNESS110 when you claim this bonus. But if you have $1000 to spend, keep in mind that if you claim this bonus 5 times, you’ll get a free $25 bonus from Lucky Red. Just use the MADNESS110 code for 5 bonus claims and send an email to promotions @ luckyredcasino.com

Now, if you don’t want to deposit the minimum $100 for OFFER1 but still play Slots, Keno and Scratch cards, you can still claim Offer 2 for a 65% bonus on those games. Just use the coupon code SLOTS65 when making your deposit. And yes, you can still get that $25 bonus for claiming the coupon 5 times.

So, you don’t play slots? Well, how about Offer 3 which will get you a 55% deposit bonus to play blackjack, video poker and table games. Just use the coupon code OTHERGAMES55. And yes, there is a $25 bonus if you claim this bonus 5 times.

Now these three bonuses are available beginning Friday, July 29^th through Monday, August 1^st. So Happy Weekend and enjoy playing!

Let’s take our weekly look at Full Tilt Poker. You know some companies would pay for attention like this — every blogger in the gambling world is forced to write at least once a week, if not more often, about Full Tilt Poker. Those new investors interested in Full Tilt Poker are getting their money’s worth when it comes to viral marketing. And they’ll get even more of a burst if they actually manage to pay back the players the site owes money to. But first Full Tilt has to get itself sold off to the investors so they can get out from under the trouble they’ve gotten themselves into.

So, today’s update, which will hopefully hold us offer for a bit. Full Tilt finally had a hearing with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission regarding their license. The hearing was held in private so as not to endanger that deal with investors that may save Full Tilt and get US players their money back. So we don’t really know what went down in the hearing. Though we do know that Alderney has promised to get back with their findings no later than September 15^th. Though they could report back earlier.

And it really looks like Full Tilt can’t move to another licensing country without paying back on the customers that they currently owe money too. No one else would want to take on an online poker room that owes money because it would place that gambling governing board in question. So, with Full Tilt the poker world waits…and waits.

It’s one of those good news / bad news situations. Except I live in the US, which makes it bad news. But it’s not catastrophic. It just takes some research to find the good news under the bad news.

So Bodog applied for and was granted a UK license for its online casino, online poker room, online sports and online horses. This is good news for Bodog and the folks in the UK. But the bad news for Americans is that there’s a very negative perception on the side of the UK gambling boards regarding sites that provide gambling in the United States. And, well, the shutdown of Pokerstars, Full Tilt, UB.com and Absolute Poker by the feds and the problems still haunting three of those poker rooms don’t help the situation. So in order to stay in the UK’s good graces, Bodog has announced that it will be leaving the US at the end of 2011.

Now there’s no need for US players to panic. The announcement gives everyone time to decide where to move their money and their play. But also, the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, which licenses Bodog has indicated that it will launch its own branded poker room in 2012. Current players on Bodog will have an opportunity to switch to the new brand, whether their European or American. So Americans will continue to have a place to play and those European players who want to remain active in poker battles with those in the US will be able to move to the new MMGG online poker room.

I’ll provide more coverage on both of these as we move closer to the end of the year.

t would put every other license they issue into question and potentially send reputable casinos scrambling to look elsewhere. So this Full Tilt Poker debate isn’t just about Full Tilt or poker. It’s put online gambling under scrutiny. Alderney needs to do the right thing here because the world is watching.

What happens in Vegas… Really sometimes we think it’s just a marketing slogan. Then Vegas proves to us that what happens in Vegas is indeed different from what happens elsewhere. For example, in Las Vegas a dead man can work successfully as a bookie. At least 72 year old Arthur Gerald Jones managed to hold down a job as a Las Vegas bookie despite the fact that he was legally deceased. Now it seems Mr. Jones had not achieved zombie status or joined the undead as a vampire bookie (now that would be a great book idea), instead he’d thwarted the legal system by disappearing 25 years ago.

It seems that Arthur Gerald Jones disappeared back in 1979 after losing his job and facing some problems with gambling debts. In 1986 he was declared legally dead since no one was able to provide any evidence that he was still among the living. But apparently, he was just in Vegas. And was staying there. But things have now changed.

The late, late Arthur Gerald Jones has been arrested and several charges made against him. I’m not sure what all those are, but come on, the guy is 72. And if he vanished 25 years ago, the statute of limitations has to have run out on most potential charges. And I’m not sure that “working while dead” is in any way illegal. Is it?

a gambling license. Full Tilt’s reputation is already struggling not to go into full tilt and no gambling control board is going to want to follow them if they do. It would put every other license they issue into question and potentially send reputable casinos scrambling to look elsewhere. So this Full Tilt Poker debate isn’t just about Full Tilt or poker. It’s put online gambling under scrutiny. Alderney needs to do the right thing here because the world is watching.

Studies are showing that online gambling creates a syndrome not unlike kids at Christmas. Or me on a cruise with one of those unlimited buffets. Now I know everyone says that they gain weight on a cruise because of the food and the buffets, but I actually found myself losing weight. The first day, all that food was exciting and I wanted to explore everything they offered. But after a couple of days, the excitement wore off. Oh, I didn’t stop eating. It was just that I knew I could head to the buffet whenever I felt a little puckish so there was no reason to load up on food or stuff myself at any one meal.

Well, it turns out that a study out of Harvard has shown that a similar thing happens when people discover online gambling. First there’s a rush of excitement and people spend a great deal of time on their favorite online gambling site. But then, the study showed that surprisingly, after a couple of weeks, their gambling went down. They still visited the online casinos, just not as often. Instead their gambling time stabilized after a couple of weeks.

Now, this is an important study for those fighting for regulated online gambling because the biggest obstacle to online gambling is the claim that it creates an increase in problem gambling because it makes gambling more accessible. But the Harvard study actually showed a decrease in problem gambling in recent years, despite the increased access to online gambling. While online gambling may make gambling more accessible, it doesn’t result in an increase in gambling problems.

Now, I think there might be a simple explanation behind this. The claim that online gambling will result in an increase in problem gambling only works if you assume that people with gambling problems currently don’t gamble because they don’t have access to gambling venues. Or if you assume that somehow normal people will turn in to problem gamblers the moment they hit that first online slot machine. But while online gambling is struggling for legalization in the US, many states offer land-based casinos. Those who suffer from problems with gambling addictions aren’t sitting around waiting for online gambling legislation before acting on their addiction. They’re already out at the casinos. See, the problem gamblers will drive hours to reach a casino to play at. It’s the casual gamblers who’ll shrug and wait to see what happens with legislation. So the only people being prevented from gambling by the legislative debate are the casual players who don’t have a gambling problem.

I’m sometimes amused by the idea of practice play for slots. Can you really practice a slot game when the basic idea is that you hit a button and the reels spin. After all, we can’t influence the reels so what are we supposed to be practicing?

Well, what I’ve discovered after perhaps too much time spent spinning the slots reels is that practice play can tell me a lot about a slot game. Does it pay out lots of small amounts or seldom pay out but give me a great win when it does? This can help me decide what I want to do with my money. A slot that pays out small amounts more often often means I can play longer but probably won’t win big in the end. So if I’m just after some fun time spinning the reels, this might be a good slot to play. But I also want to know - does the slot offer a bonus game and if so, what sort and how often is it likely to hit? Because a free spin bonus may mean I want to risk a bit more on each spin since that will mean larger wins if I hit the free spin bonus. But if the bonus is an internal game of some sort, I can use the practice round to discover how much I’m likely to benefit if I bet more.

So, while practicing won’t help me spin better, it can help me decide how much I want to bet when I do play. Or it may help me decide that a game just isn’t paying out enough or interesting enough to play. So, a lot can be discovered in that practice play mode.

ull Tilt accounts. Right now the only answer I can give you is a non-committal French shrug.

Are you a former player from Full Tilt Poker wondering when you’ll get your money back? I know there are a bunch of players out there because, well, none of the American players have gotten their funds back since the Black Friday Poker Shutdown. Now, the hesitation (or inability) on the part of Full Tilt Poker to pay the US players who can no long play on the site hasn’t won them any friends or done the company much good. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission suspended their license and will be holding a review of the online poker room next week. And there has also been talk of a potential purchase of the poker room by European investors who may be able to pay back the US players as part of their purchase agreement.

But that might not be enough for some players. Apparently it wasn’t enough for the guy who bought the domain name for and created the creatively named web site www.fulltiltscrewed.me. No, not .com. The site takes advantage of the .me domain extension. The site has a petition players can sign and … um a petition players can sign. Oh, you can like it on Facebook too. Because, I guess that’ll get you your money back.

And it isn’t just Americans who are wondering where their Full Tilt Poker money has gone. I’ve heard that since Alderney pulled the license on July 26^th, even European players haven’t seen the money the site should be paying them. It’s a shame to see what was once a great poker room go this way. But it may help other poker rooms in the future. At least that’s my positive outlook on the situation.

Not long ago Atlantic City changed some rules and made it easier for casinos to eliminate positions like pit bosses but now the news out of Las Vegas is showing a growing trend in cutting down on live people on the floor. Oh, not gamblers of course. Casinos want as many of them on the floor as they can fit. But as a gambler, you need to be aware that they don’t want to pay for as many casino employees to be on the floor. As least not the management type of employees who aren’t dealing the games or making tips delivering drinks.

Casinos (real world ones, not online ones) employ floor supervisors and pit bosses who serve a number of functions. They watch the action of the players and take note of who might be worth some extra comps from the casino to keep them playing. They also keep an eye out for cheaters and thieves who might rob the casino or other players. As a player you want the pit bosses and floor supervisors to be there when you play.

But casinos are turning more and more of their operation over to electronics and computers. Player cards are handling some of the comp action, though you’ll still see the live people at the high roller tables where they can help keep the big money happy.. Security is being taken over by the “eye in the sky” cameras and a room full of security specialists who watch the action. But temptation is perhaps a little nearer when there’s no sign of the security being in place and cameras can’t catch everything.

This change is saving casinos money and right now they need to save money. But is it really the best thing for the casino’s patrons? Those people gambling on the floor? Or at some point does gambling in a real casino become so dependent on electronics and computers that you might was well gamble online.