Online Poker News

Ireland is well positioned to take advantage of the wave of legal online gambling about to sweep through Europe and the US and many pundits are asking the question, “will Ireland take advantage of this opportunity and grab some taxes from this lucrative online pastime”?

There is no doubt that the liberalisation the potentially lucrative US online gambling market is now firmly on the agenda. In Europe, too, there is a rush to legalise online gambling in order to help governments pay down their deficits. If Ireland plays its cards right, could its “smart economy” strategy benefit from these twin developments? Time will, of course, tell and we would be surprised if the Irish did not take advantage of this situation.

Roulette is one of the world’s most popular casino games. Ever glamorous, ever sophisticated it is played by millionaires in the elite gambling Mecca of Monte Carlo, and super-cool fictional heroes such as James Bond.

The game of roulette was first devised in France in the 18th century and is the combination of a number of contemporary games from France, Great Britain and Italy.  The name roulette comes from the French meaning ‘a little wheel’.

Traditionally, the most famous places for casinos, and thus roulette, were Monte Carlo in Europe and Las Vegas in the US, but in the last few decades casinos have spread across the world, taking the game of roulette with them.

Two different versions of roulette developed in Las Vegas and Monte Carlo, with the US preferring the double zero wheel and Europe the traditional single zero French wheel.  The American double zero wheel can also be found in casinos in the Caribbean and South America as well as the United States.

The basic rules of roulette are that the player bets on the colour black or red, a single number or a multiple of numbers and whether the number is even or odd.  Once all the bets have been taken a croupier, or dealer, spins the wheel one way and a ball in the opposite direction around the edge of the wheel.  The ball spins around the wheel until it stops and falls into one of the coloured and numbered pockets; 37 in the European version of roulette, and 38 in the American version.

Nothing quite beats the excitement of playing slot machines.  But it can sometimes be difficult to find a good selection of them when you go out and about.  Unless you happen to have a casino or another similar venue nearby, your choice of games could be very limited indeed.

Luckily you can now go online to play slots as well.  This is actually quite beneficial because there are literally hundreds of games you can choose from, simply by logging on and surfing the internet.

There are slots games you can play for free as well as playing for money, which is good if you want to try them out first.  You can also play a different game every single day and not repeat yourself at any point.

The nature of online slots games can differ from some of those you will find in real life casinos.  For example there are the regular three reel fruit machines that look very much like the traditional one armed bandit machines.  But you can also play games which have five or more reels and as many as thirty or more pay lines.  These give you more options when it comes to placing a bet.

There are also some great penny machines online where you can bet as little as one penny on each line you play.  These are ideal if you want to play with a small budget, because it will still last for a very long time.

The gaming industry is buzzing with excitement after PartyGaming made an announcement that they will merge with Austrian online gambling powerhouse Bwin. Maybe it was only a coincidence that the merger was made public just one day after the passage of the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, which seems like the first step towards the repeal of the United States’ federal ban on online gambling that was imposed in 2006 forcing most English bookmakers out of the market as well. That ban had forced PartyGaming out of their share of the U.S. market when 70% of their customers resided within the United States.

Both of these companies have been in serious discussions about this potential merger for nearly 6 months. Many experts are suggesting that this only the beginning and most English bookmakers agree. The Gibraltar-based 888 Holdings in the past has traditionally tried to duplicate what PartyGaming has done, which includes entering into negotiations with U.S. law enforcement agencies.

Littlewoods Gaming was established in the UK in 1923. The company was originally associated with the Littlewoods Football Pools game. Since then, Littlewoods has diversified into an online casino venture, as well as continuing with its original football pools betting.

Littlewoods online casino has over 100 games on offer. New players are given £100 as a joining bonus. Its most popular and well-known online casino games include roulette, blackjack, online slots, craps, video poker, Keno, Spiderman and Bejeweled.

Littlewoods online casino roulette can be played at a much easier level than would normally be the case in real life, high street casinos. The online version has simpler rules, allowing for faster play, and Littlewoods runs a single-zero version of the game, which offers players the best winning odds. In addition, Littlewoods offers new players a 100 per cent welcome bonus up to £100, and games can be played at private, public or group tables. The roulette game has a 98.5 per cent payout average.

Online casino tournaments run by Littlewoods can include video poker tournaments, in which the top 55 players will win a bonus prize, and a two day roulette tournament. Another popular type of promotion is the Happy Hour event, in which the online casino gives players an extra 10 per cent up to £50 for every £50 deposited. Happy Hours is run the last day of each month between 19:00 – 21:00 GMT.

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