Gambling

A good affiliate program can be the difference between making it in online affiliate marketing or not. Having been in the industry for over ten years, I’ve come across many pitfalls to watch out for.

The first thing to determine is the industry sector you want to promote. Without this you have no clear direction as to what to look for. The types of affiliate programs you will want to promote will depend on if you have existing access to markets and can therefore send business to related industries.

If you are starting from scratch you will need to do your homework. To start you off on the right foot you should pick an industry you are interested in. Just about all industries offer affiliate programs.

Finding affiliate programs is as easy as going to Google and typing in the subject of your selected industry, along with the term “Affiliate Program” as an example “Casino Affiliate Program”

Once you know your market sector and you have found a program you want to promote you will want to make sure the program is reputable.

The reputation of an affiliate program is paramount, with many thousands of programs available how do you choose the best programs for you? To avoid testing each and every program the best solution is to ask other affiliates just how they find the program you are considering promoting.

There are many affiliate forums that discuss these topics and even certification sites for programs.

In online casino, poker and bingo affiliate programs, Casino Affiliate Programs CAP is a leader in the field and lists only reputable programs. Programs that are listed on the CAP site go through a certification process and are continually evaluated by the forum members and CAP to ensure they meet a high standard.

If a program does not live up to the terms of an agreement or are seen to be not acting in the best interests of affiliates then members will post and debate the situation and more times than not, a resolution is found.

If you can’t find the information you are looking for regarding a program simply join the forum, it’s free and ask other members what they think or if they have had any experience with that program. Members are only too happy to help out.

Now that you know the program you want to promote is on the up and up you will want to contact the affiliate manager. An affiliate manager is a staff member from the program whose job it is to make sure you have every thing you need to promote their particular program.

In the first instance you can ask the affiliate manager for further information on their program or what offers they can provide exclusively for you to promote.

The longer you are in an industry, and your ability to send real traffic and business to a program will effect how well you can negotiate custom deals.

Once you have contacted the affiliate manger wait for the response. As much as you might want to work with that program if they are not going to support you on your affiliate journey then you will find it difficult to do business with them.

Now they have responded and you are happy with what is on offer, sign up to the program and get promoting.

Affiliate marketing is not an easy occupation but it can provide you with a great lifestyle and, if you stick at it, a great income too.

Message boards and websites are filled with quality poker information, but sometimes the authors use “poker shorthand” to describe the game situations. If you’re not familiar with the terms, you can’t take full advantage of the knowledge being shared. Reading through the Poker Shorthand Primer will help you understand what people are actually saying when they say, “YMTC, playing Kxs in LP”..

Poker comes with it’s own language, slang included. While anyone who has seen an episode of the World Poker Tour knows that pocket Queens can be called the “lovely ladies” or the “hilton sisters”, there is more to poker lingo than hand nicknames.

A lot of websites and message boards offer poker strategy and advice, and knowing the basic terms and how to read poker shorthand can unlock this world of information. First, let’s look at the shorthand that poker players use to describe the cards during a hand.

The ranks of the cards are given, followed by a letter indicating their suit. So the King of Clubs is written, Kc. The two of Hearts is written as 2h. Tens are written as the letter T. You may see a flop described as Ac 4d Th. The Ace of Clubs, Four of Diamonds, and Ten of Hearts.

When talking about starting hands, the letter s stands for suited. For instance, a starting hand with the Jack of Clubs and the Ten of Clubs is described as JTs. The opposite of suited, offsuit, is indicated with an o. Jack/Ten offsuit is written as JTo.

And the last of the card shorthand, x is used to describe a random small card in a starting hand. If a player likes to play an Ace and any other suited card, that starting hand is described as playing Axs. Ace/anything suited.

There may be times when playing Axs is a profitable play, or times when calling raises with KQo is not recommended. Either way, the shorthand used in describing texas holdem helps cut down on the time it takes to describe the cards in play.

There is more to poker conversation than just the cards though. You will find the following shorthand on message boards as well. When talking about position at the table, or pre-flop action the blinds are often referred to as sb and bb for small and big blinds.

I mention this because when talking about the amount of money players make BB is used to mean big bets. Someone who makes 4 BB an hour at a $3/$6 table is having $24 an hour sessions. Just as in English, the words in poker lingo depend on the context.

Other shorthands you will see include YMTC instead of You Make the Call, HH in place of Hand History, and MTT for Multi-table tournament.

Of course youll find other, creative abbreviations out there, but having read through the basics, it will be easier to understand poker situations as they are described online.

Handicapping the NCAA tournament isn’t an easy thing, of course. Everyone’s done the office pool, picked the wrong 12 over the 5, taken them to the Sweet 16, and gotten crushed in the bargain. When the NCAA’s roll around, we’ve got teams that would never normally play each other matching up, leading to chances to exploit the line – or get hammered by it. It’s tough to pick a certain winner between teams that don’t have a ton of experience against each other, especially if the experience was in the preseason.

Based on that logic, it seems that the conference tournaments would be easy pickins. These teams have seen each other during the season, and in many cases have played each other twice. So why do we so often see teams emerging at the top of the heap in their conference tourney that might not have gotten an at-large bid without a conference tournament?

There are a few reasons for this phenomenon.

Complacency is one of them. A lot of times, teams will daydream through the conference tourney if their season’s been successful. Sure, seeding is an important thing, but the players aren’t thinking about that. They’re thinking one step ahead to the Big Dance, and ignoring the little one right in front of them. And, very often, they haven’t been forced to make the adjustments over the course of the season that the lesser teams have.

Another component in the conference tournament Cinderella phenomenon is what I like to call the “kitchen sink” phenomenon. Teams that have been on the verge all season long have learned what has worked and what hasn’t worked. Their rotation has changed, excluding players who aren’t performing, and their schemes have been tinkered with. And they’ll often throw out their entire bag of tricks at another team: everything but the kitchen sink.

The NBA draft, of all things, also contributes to this. It used to be that a senior-laden team was a lock in the NCAAs as well as in their conference tourney. That’s not the case any more. Witness Kansas in 2005 as Exhibit A. The teams that are heavy with seniors often stagnate during the season, and old emotional wounds come to the surface as the seniors battle for supremacy. The teams that advance deep into the NCAA tournament, and the ones that make noise in the conference tourneys, are the younger teams. The reason: younger players have a steep learning curve, and can settle into a spot at the end of the season.

The conference tournaments, finally, are a coach’s paradise. A marginal coach usually doesn’t win with good players, but a good coach can win with marginal players. The battle of the guys in suits is as crucial to the game itself as the guys on the hardwood.

With all of that said, this time of year is the most exciting in college basketball – and maybe the most exciting in all of sports. The players will keep their eyes on the prize – and we’ll need to keep our eyes on the surprises.

Let us take two basic assumptions on which our society rests and see what happens when we mash them together violently. Are you up for this demented little social experiment? Excellent.

Okay, here is Assumption Number One: millions and millions of people love to spend a large percentage of their weekly leisure hours playing slots online. Any arguments? I didn’t think so. Time to move on to the next assumption. Let’s go, no stragglers.

Assumption Number Two… (drum roll, please): any respectable scientific survey conducted by an organization of renown would find that, of all those millions of online slots fans, exactly 100% of them would like to win a greater amount of dough each and every time they play. In fact, all of those folks would be absolutely delighted to double their money on each bet.

If you harbor some doubt about the two above assumptions, type or hand write (in legible block lettering, please) your concerns on an 8 x 10 white piece of paper, fold it three ways, put it in a self-addressed stamped envelope, and mail it to… I’ll have to get back to you on that mailing address. In the meantime, maybe you should give up being such a distrusting person and learn to go with the flow just a little bit more. “It’s always easier to ride the horse in the direction he’s going,” as the saying goes.

Anyway, now that we’ve discarded all you doubters out there, let’s look at how an average online slots player could make some moves in the direction of doubling his or her money on each bet. As you might suspect, it’s all a matter of strategy.

The basic objective of any slot machine-based game is to line up three or more of the most valuable symbols on the spinning reels. These are also called paylines. Once you strike identical symbols on the payline, you are paid according to the payout schedule of the particular slot machine you are playing. The key to racking up sizable winnings is to bump up your game to the world of progressive slots.

What is a progressive slot? Very simply, it is a constantly accumulating prize scheme, the value of which is displayed and constantly updated in many popular slot games. The progressive jackpot is almost always displayed as credits, not coins, which is an important distinction to remember. Therefore, if the progressive jackpot figure is 5,600, this refers to 5,600 credits that can be earned–not 5,600 coins. Your total dollar amount will be based on the value of each credit, which varies wildly from one slot to another.

Virtually all reputable online casinos take every possible precaution to ensure that the progressive value displayed in the game matches the value on the casino server. In other words, you will be paid exactly what you won based up on the established credit value rate. And guess what? By playing this style of slot action, you can double your money really quickly. Which is in fact what slot players are looking for from their online experience.

The Rakeback Revolution continues unabated - many poker players are jumping on the bandwagon and getting back some of the profits they help generate. This has given the Rakeback affiliates ammunition to agree better deals with the poker companies and pass even more back to the players.

There has never been a better time than now for online poker players to get themselves a Rakeback deal. The choice and quality of deals on offer just gets better and better.

A growing customer base, and excellent relationships with the major poker sites, have enabled affiliates to negotiate some fantastic Rakeback offers for their players. Some examples include…

· Rakeback Rooms Poker – brand new “rakeback friendly” poker site offering up to 40%

· William Hill Poker – increased to a maximum of 33%

· Interpoker – increased to a maximum of 30%

· Virgin Poker – increased to a maximum of 30%

· Totalbet Poker – new addition with up to 30% offered

· Littlewoods Poker – new addition with a flat rate of 30%

· Eurobet Poker – new site. Great deals – contact for full details.

These deals supplement an excellent range featuring some of the biggest names in online poker such as Full Tilt, UK Betting, Pokerplex, Caribbean Sun & Bet365.

Add to that an exclusive Members Area where stats can be checked daily and a fully flexible Member Referral Scheme, it is well worth investigating to see what is on offer.

Don’t delay, it pays to play – sign up for a Rakeback Deal today!

Grimsby Town

Odds: 14/1

Last Five Seasons

2005/06 – 4 (League Two), 2004/05 – 18 (League Two), 2003/04 – 21 (League One, Relegated), 2002/03 – 24 (Championship, Relegated), 2001/02 – 19 (Championship).

2005/06 Cup Progress

FA Cup First Round vs Bristol Rovers (h) – lost 2-1

Carling Cup Third Round vs Newcastle United (h) – lost 1-0.

Football League Trophy Northern Section First Round vs Morecambe – lost 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw after extra time.

Top Goal Scorer 2005/06: Gary Jones (striker) – 17 goals.

Players In

Isaiah Rankin (Brentford – Free), Phil Barnes (Sheffield United – Free), Gary Harkins (Blackburn Rovers – Free).

Players Out

Rob Jones (Hibernian – Free), Thomas Pinault (Brentford – Free), Steve Mildenhall (Yeovil Town – Free), Jean-Paul Kamudimba (Yeovil Town – Free), Andy Parkinson (Notts County – Free), Marc Goodfellow (Bury – Free),

Grimsby Town had one of their most exciting, if not heartbreaking, seasons in a long time during 2005/06. After stunning Champions League chasers Tottenham Hotspur by beating them 1-0 in the Carling Cup, the Mariners looked to clinch automatic promotion for much of the season. However, Russell Slade’s side hit an inconsistent patch of form during March, slipped out of the reckoning and suffered defeat in the play-off final against Cheltenham Town.

Slade departed this summer to take over at Yeovil Town and took Spurs match winner Jean-Paul Kamudimba and goalkeeper Steve Mildenhall with him. New manager Graham Rodger, who enjoyed an unbeaten six match temporary spell in charge at Blundell Park in 2004, has been left to pick up the pieces.

Sheffield United’s former Blackpool goalkeeper Phil Barnes has been brought in to replace Mildenhall, while former Arsenal striker Isaiah Rankin has joined on a free transfer from Brentford, themselves play-off losers this season. This will be Rankin’s second spell with the club, having had a loan spell during the 2003/04 campaign in which he scored four goals in 12 appearances.

With Gary Jones, last season’s top goal scorer with 17 goals and former Sunderland striker Michael Reddy, second with 14, Rankin’s arrival adds additional firepower to the squad which will be expected to push for promotion again next season.

Rodger is also keeping faith with younger players at the club with four youngster offered new six month deals. Midielder Ben Higgins and striker Danny North, both18, midfielder Paul Ashton and striker Danny North, both 19, have all put pen to paper.

Verdict

Last season’s fourth placed finish proves Grimsby have one of the better teams at this level but it will be up to new manager Graham Rodger to push them that one step further than Russell Slade was able to do.

There are many ways to bet on a football match. Increased competition and the ability to lay bets on Betfair have made it possible to take the same bet at different prices depending on the market.

The most obvious one is the -0.5 Asian Handicap (AH) and the straight win on the 1X2 market. You are betting on exactly the same thing if you take these bets. As the margin is lower on the AH, its almost always best to take the AH. It baffles me why some bookmakers put the bets adjacent on a coupon with different prices.

A draw no bet is the same as an AH of +0. Again, the AH is usually the best. However, if one team is highly backed on the AH the odds may drop and betting on the draw no bet is better value.

Unders/ overs, goal line and total goals are sometimes the same. There’s one bookmaker I know that offers all three of these on the same coupon but sometimes at different prices. I’ve seen 3 or more goals on the total goals market priced better than the overs on a goal line of 2.5. They are exactly the same bet.

An X2 double chance is the same as laying the home win on Betfair. As Betfair operates with a margin of 2.5% (5% commission but you will on average lose half), its going to always be better to lay the bet on Betfair than taking the bet on X2. Some double chance bets are the same as the AH. Take the best odds.

A +1 European Handicap is exactly the same as a +0.5 Asian Handicap, which is exactly the same as laying the team on the 1X2 market. I’ve seen times when European Handicap has offered the best value. As this market is the smallest, the prices don’t move if a bookie gets in wrong. I once found an arbitrage that paid 10% using a European Handicap. The price didn’t move at all because not many people bet on it.

No first goal scorer is almost the same as 0-0. NFGS is slightly better as own goals do not count. It doesn’t happen often but as these markets pay the same odds, its best to go with the NFGS bet. Djimi Traore scored an own goal when Liverpool played Burnley in the 2004/2005 FA Cup. Liverpool lost the game 1-0. PSV scored an own goal and lost 1-0 to Arsenal in the Champions league the same season. Its rare but it does happen.

I could go on but I expect you to get the message now. Next time you are placing a bet on a soccer match it could pay to just check the odds on other markets.

There are so many online casinos out there today that the average player is often swamped by choice. It can be hard to determine which online casinos are best to play at and more importantly which ones won’t run off with your money the moment you deposit. In order to choose an online casino that is safe and right for you, we will look at a number of aspects including graphics, deposit methods, game play, payout percentages, withdrawal times and favourable reviews. Each topic is important and if an online casino tick all the boxes it is safe to say it is a good place to play at.

Graphics are important when playing online casinos. On average a player will spend between 1 and 2 hours playing at an online casino and you want the casino to look the part. Graphics for computer games have come a long way since the 1990’s and you should expect the same for online gaming sites. There are 2 options when playing at an online casino; you can go for a download version or a non download version. The download version of online casino requires you to download a number of files to your computer. This generally results in better graphics and smoother game play; however the files can be as large as 90 megabytes so if you choose to go down this route make sure you have a fast connection (isdn or broadband).

The other route to go down is no download. No download casinos can be web based, flash or java. Before you begin you may need to download the relevant plug-ins but most sites will automatically direct you to them to save you from having to locate them for yourself. With no download casinos the game play can be a little jerky depending on your connection speed and the graphics are often not as smooth as with the download versions, however you do not need to wait for any large files to download. It is good to have the choice when deciding whether or not to go for a download version or non-download version of an online casino so look out for those casinos that offer both options.

Deposit methods should be varied giving players a wide choice. Due to gambling laws in the US online casinos will not accept paypal and some are a little funny about credit cards. This is because there have recently been a number of cases brought forward by the US government trying to force credit card companies to reveal those players depositing by credit card in the US, to my knowledge they have not been successful. The options you should look for are neteller (online wallet) debit card, credit card, cheque and wire transfer. Another thing to look out for is that the casino lets you withdraw your money by the same method with which you deposited it.

Game play is important. You should look for an online casino that offers a wide range of games including European and American versions. Many of the larger software providers such as microgaming and cryptologic offer great variation of games for players, so look for casinos that use these software brands.

When it comes to payout percentages, look for online casinos that are independently audited by the big financial establishments. Price waterhouse coopers do a lot of auditing for online gambling sites and those casinos that do use their services will often promote the fact prominently on their websites to build trust. Obviously the casinos with larger payout percentages are the ones to go for.

Withdrawal times are especially important when it comes to gaming at online casinos. A few casinos offer instant withdrawal times, but more often than not look for those casinos that offer withdrawal times of about 3 days. Any longer is poor customer service and over 7 days is simply unacceptable. After all they take the money instantly so you have the right to expect the same in return.

Look for customer reviews about online casinos before you deposit. They can be difficult to find, because of the way online casinos are marketed. Don’t believe what website owners write as they are often on a commission per signup they achieve. bewisebets is a good site for viewing customer reviews, whilst casinomeister is a good site for finding out which online casinos are blacklisted.

Overall make sure you do some research before depositing at any online casinos. Use this guide to check that it fulfils the criteria mentioned. If it does you can rest assured you will be gaining the maximum enjoyment from you online gaming experience

The subject of financial investment is such a wide and varied area. We all know (or should know), that investing surplus funds is a sound idea; nothing new there. If you make the decision to invest, what investment options do you have?

1. Property - unit, house, holiday house, commercial property, a managed property investment fund etc.

2. Shares - stock options, different stock investment sectors such as small capitalisation mining companies, international or local share funds etc.

3. Fixed Interest - bonds, convertible notes, fixed deposits etc

The above are your major investments categories in which you may be looking to invest.

These are the ‘traditional’ type of investments however there are other investment areas which are just as, or more profitable than your main ’stable’ of investment options. These alternative investment options include tree crops, vintage cars, wines, art, other collectables and also sports betting and horse racing!

As the majority of people do not understand the betting industry, they generally scoff at the idea of sports/horse race betting as a legitimate investment option. That is because they have only been exposed to one side of the business, the entertainment side. Of course gambling is generally painted in an ordinary light in the media where it is linked to family break downs and suicides. The perception among those who haven’t been enlightened is that if you bet often, you must have a gambling problem!

“If the truth be known many who play the stockmarket are the biggest gamblers around.”

They are never labelled gamblers, nor do they believe that they are gambling because their gambling vehicle is not horses but shares in companies. They like to think of their random and uneducated decisions as being an ‘investment’ rather than a bet. In this light, it is OK to lose money because ‘it is an investment’. Many are simply betting on the price of a share just the same as an uneducated sports bettor who makes a decision on the likely outcome of a game.

The purpose of this article is to show that gambling can be a serious and profitable business as well as a fun pastime. I decided to write this article after speaking with a good mate of mine who happens to be financial advisor to ‘high net worth’ clients. You may be surprised and interested to note that he sees sports betting as playing a very important role in his investment portfolio. He knows very little about sports but he sees it as a very serious business and he follows our selections ‘to the letter’. (Not that he would tell his clients that he invests in sport as I am sure they just wouldn’t ‘get it’.)

The similarities between the more ‘traditional’ type investments and gambling are many. We are all playing the same game, which is to . . .

beat the market and optimize our total wealth.

Financial markets such as the stockmarket are generally efficient and represent the general view of the aggregate of those that invest into the market. Investing in any financial market (including the sports betting market) raises financial questions involving decision making under uncertainty. Many of those that play such markets simply do not understand just what they are up against.

People go to financial advisors for advice on how to best invest their money. They are thought to be the experts. They have been to University and have completed courses through the Australian Securities Institute to become an advisor. It is the same with other specialised services, such as doctors and solicitors. People recognise the specialised knowledge that these guys have and understand the value of paying such experts for their opinions.

I believe the reason to why more aren’t successful in gambling is that the majority of punters have no idea what they are up against. They believe that they can beat the game with no specific specialised knowledge. There is a price you have to pay to gain the knowledge and experience required to become successful.

This is very similar for both traditional investment advisors and also in the gambling field. Some advisors are better than others, as are some investments and some investment funds are better than others. Some investment funds make excellent returns for their clients however, on the other hand, the majority can’t even beat the average based on the returns of the ‘All Ords’ index!

I can see myself starting to get off track here.

Professional gambling is not for everyone, however I truly believe that it is within reach of everyone. Now there are two ways in which you can make a living out of gambling.

1. You can spend years studying mathematics and learn the ins and the outs of your chosen betting field to hopefully build the skills necessary to make consistent profits

2. You can pay those that have trodden the path above for their specialised knowledge and skill and then focus your attention on becoming an astute gambling portfolio manager.

Both methods will provide very similar betting results. Gambling is like any other profession. You simply cannot become successful without truly applying yourself and spending the time (and the money), to learn and become proficient. (Contrary to what most ‘retail’ punters would suggest). It is no different to a financial advisor who studies commerce at university and then completes a Diploma of Financial Markets at the Securities Institute. They have paid the necessary price (both in time and money), to obtain the required information to pursue a career in their chosen field of endeavour.

The thing with sports/horse racing is that punters expect wealth and success to come to them while they are doing nothing to improve their skills. I believe this is largely due to the fact that they do not understand what they are up against and how tough it is for your average casual punter these days to turn a profit.

Anyway, back to the purpose of this article. It is well and truly possible for anyone to become a successful and highly profitable gambler.

As we saw above, there are two choices that you could make. One requires years of study to develop the required specialised knowledge to allow you to become successful; the second option can be thought of as being the easier path.

Just as you may well pay a financial advisor for their advice, you have the option to pay an expert in gambling for their betting advice. Doing so will leave you as purely a manager of your investments.

If you have ever been to a financial advisor, you will realise that they love their pie charts and love to talk about diversification and asset allocation. They split your total investment wealth up into different areas with the aim of reducing risk.

Well consider doing something similar with gambling. There are a number of excellent sports/racing services which show high returns and have been showing high returns for a good period. You may like to build a portfolio of gambling investment options based around the good services. How you allocate your resources for the different services you may use is up to you. For example your gambling portfolio may comprise of two horse racing approaches, two tennis approaches, one AFL, one NRL and one Super12’s for example.

After sourcing your betting information from a service, you have the task of managing your portfolio to maximise the rate of growth of your bank and to minimise your risk. For those that take the time to look at the possibilities of sports betting investment, you can understand why it makes a lot of sense from an investment angle. You invest your money for a whole year in say the stockmarket hoping for a standard 10% return. You can make that on every single dollar that you outlay in some sports!

Investing in a conservative manner can easily see you double your original investment capital within one year. Returns unheard of in other ‘traditional’ methods of investment and yet contrary to what most believe it is unbelievably safe if you find a reliable source to purchase your advice from.

In sports betting you can use mathematics to calculate very accurately worst case scenarios and no, that is not generally a total loss of starting capital. We have a simulation program available on the website which you can access from the following link Punting Ace Simulation Program which will give you an excellent idea of what you can expect to achieve based on certain criteria.

We also have programs which will simulate your projected performance based on certain bankroll settings. To simulate a year of our tennis package, select the following link Punting Ace Tennis Simulation or to simulate a year of our AFL betting package, select the following link Punting Ace AFL Simulation.

Summary

If you are not happy “putting all your eggs in one basket”, why not consider sports betting as an “alternative investment” similar to tree crop investments or hedge funds. Any prudent financial planner will explain to you the benefits of diversifying across a number of different markets and investment products. Indeed, investment products such as options and instalment warrants (and to some extent margin lending), are designed to “enhance” your overall portfolio returns and as such, traditional investment advisers may allocate a “percentage” of your overall portfolio to these products.

With risk adjusted returns far in excess of “main stream” investment products, why wouldn’t you apply a percentage of your portfolio to sports betting? As your financial adviser will agree, sports betting is not correlated with any main stream investment markets, and indeed given the disappointing recent performance of the stock market (with the exception of last years return of approx 25%) the current investment markets are awash with products that are non-correlated to the stockmarket. For example, hedge funds, tree investments, caravan park property trusts and chicken farms (yes that last one is actually true). Therefore sports betting should at least be considered as part of a prudent “diversified” investment portfolio.

Sport Betting Investment Steps

1. Decide from day one that you have the discipline to follow your plan through and that you will operate in a business like fashion and will keep records and the like.

2. Find a reputable information provider for your selections. Remember the goal is for you to be only the portfolio manager. You don’t want to have to come up with the selections; leave that to those that have proven track records and are experts in their fields. You may wish to start by looking at www.puntingace.com

3. Decide on how you will divide up your total starting capital over the information provider(s)/sport(s) which you have gathered.

4. Now follow through with your plan setting aside time for constant reflection and self evaluation in an attempt to maximise your returns whilst minimising your risk.

Disclaimer - this article is not meant to be taken as offering financial advice. The author is not a qualified financial advisor and as such, cannot give such advice. We at www.puntingace.com advise you to seek independent advice from a qualified advisor before committing any funds.

The topic of the USA struggle against on-line gambling industry disturbs the gambling community. There is the old Wire Act (1961) in force in the USA which prohibits to stake with the help of the phone, telegraph and other wire communication facilities outside the bounds of one’s own state. Gamblers consider that this ban does not apply to the Internet, whereas the official establishment has another opinion. American DOJ has forbidden advertising of casinos in search systems and on television, bank deposits in online casinos (not even forbade, rather than recommended very insistently, but it was a proposal which was not to be refused from). At the same time Antigua through the court of WTO reached a decision according to which the USA either has to forbid its citizens to play in any on-line casinos by law or push aside all obstacles with regard to gambling. Several years ago a try to adopt a prohibitive law failed in the parliament of the USA still at the level of the House of Representatives.

At the beginning of 2006 there was no considerable progress on the front of struggle with on-line gambling in the USA, but in the course of the current year there are a number of serious causes to talk about stronger measures against on-line casinos. It all began with a new bill on prohibition of gambling games in the Internet. The same senators Kyl, Leach and Goodlatte who joined them proposed another draft (known now as HR4777) on prohibition for the citizens of the USA of on-line gambling games (all the types of gambling, including stakes on sport, casinos, poker, except for horse racing stakes and fantasy sport). In accordance with this law banks are to fully block any opportunity for gamblers to make deposits in casinos, and gamblers themselves are under threat of a large fine or a sentence up to 10 years in prison. Despite the fact that numerous polls show that the majority of the population in the USA does not support the given law, it was adopted by the House of Representatives of the USA Congress by the majority of 3/4 of votes. It was planned that it would be considered by the Senate, after which it would be passed for signature of George Bush who, as it is known, does not feel any sympathy towards games of chance. Fortunately, there appeared some difficulties with the bill in the Senate; hearings were transferred to the autumn session. There appeared the information that the bill may not pass the Senate from the first, in this case there will be created a conciliation commission of the two Houses of the Congress that will at the minimum delay adoption of the law for a considerable term.

Successful passing of the bill in the lower House of the Congress was, evidently, promoted by a scandal around a quite famous lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He was accused of non-payment of taxes and fraud with the money of real casinos. It was his active position that in many aspects contributed to failure of the previous anti-on-line bill, but at the same time after the scandal a lot of legislators are trying to distance themselves from it supporting a new bill.

Struggle against gambling in the USA is carried out not only on the level of the country on the whole, as well as in individual states. The first signs appeared in the state of Washington (not to confuse with the capital of the USA, the city of Washington which was the first to pass its own anti-on-line legislation as an extension of Wire Act. From now on gambling through the Internet or other communication facilities (mobile phones, palms are meant here and etc) threaten the inhabitants of the state of Washington with a fine up to 10 000 dollars and (or) prison for a term up to five years. Also, any sites informing of on-line games are banned. The Law took effect on the 7th of June, 2006, though, there have been no cases of its application for two months.

One more blow was delivered by the USA DOJ. On the 20th of July David Carruthers was arrested, Chief Executive of one of the biggest on-line gambling companies BetonSports, at that it happened in the airport of Dallas where David was taken from the transit flight from England to Costa-Rica. He was presented a number of accusations, including racket and non-payment of taxes, he was refused to be let out on bail. This case also concerns several people, including one of the owners of the company Gary Kaplan. Interestingly, but David himself is a citizen of Great Britain, and the company is registered in Costa-Rica. By the way, the authorities of Costa-Rica have refused to cooperate with Americans with regard to this case, having explained that David and BetonSports have not broken the laws of their country. BetonSports itself ceased work till the 14th of August, and dismissed David Carruthers trying to distance itself from the scandal.

On the whole, the situation around BetonSports is rather controversial. However, this arrest has brought down the market of gambling shares which went down in price by 20-40% in the course of one day, though now the shares are repairing an omission. Apart from that, a large marketing conference was canceled in Las Vegas which had been planned by another big online bookmaker BoDog. All in all, it is not recommended for a manager of gambling sites to come to the USA. Just in case. Several gambling sites after the arrest of David refused access for the citizens of the USA. Thus, the accounts of Americans are closed in the poker network B2B, in the casino/bookmaker/poker Coral/Eurobet and Victor Chandler, though, all these are the companies oriented to Europe, and Americans’ share is not high among their clients.

A few prognoses at the end. Hopefully, the Senate will not approve the bill in its current form, and it will be sent for a long revision at the minimum. Though, Americans have to hurry up with their final decision, for they are affected by the decision of WTO, and Antigua has already repeatedly applied to the organization with a request to control the USA actions. If the prohibition is not introduced or a decision will be made to permit on-line games in the USA, the gambling community will certainly breathe with relief, but no particular changes will take place. It will be much more interesting if the law is passed for all that. For at present up to 50% of all the money on-line is presented by players from the USA. Certainly, not all the Americans will leave online casinos, but outflow of customers will painfully hit the majority of gambling companies. Surely, the situation will worsen on the market of poker where it is the USA that is the main supplier of “fish”.

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