New Casinos Online

It’s been already two years since the signing of the William Hill and Playtech joint venture agreement. According to this, William Hill Plc received access to Playtech’s famous casino, poker, bingo and sports betting software. Playtech on the other hand got 29% of William Hill’s shares. The thriving collaboration was disrupted this week by a litigation of William Hill against its business partner.

The exact nature of this move has not yet been officially announced. But several gambling experts agree that it might have something to do with Playtech’s recent bid to acquire Ladbrokes. The later being a major competitor of William Hill.

William Hill executives announced several weeks ago they don’t agree with a possible merger. They said they would do anything necessary to protect their special and exclusive relationship with Playtech.

According to the current agreement between the two companies, Playtech may not supply its software brand to any third party provider besides Will Hill. Last week the company tried to discuss possible amendments to this agreement, which would allow them to do so. William Hill’s recently initiated legal action is highly likely to be aimed exactly to disrupt this move.

It’s speculated the deal between Playtech and Ladbrokes might be around £2.2 billion. Considering this, it’s unlikely the company will give up pushing to achieve the possible merger.

Norwegian culture minister Anniken Huitfeldt is said to be actively considering the blocking of online casinos with foreign ISPs. This move is believed to be a measure against the increase in popularity of foreign online gambling ventures. These sites are taxed in the country of their provenience. Therefore, they aren’t contributing with any income to the Norwegian treasury.

A survey made by Norsk Tipping reports that around 4% of people over the age of 18 are actively gambling at foreign online casinos. The study has also been forwarded to the culture minister, who claims that unregulated online gambling needs to be eliminated from the country.

“We want to consider using filtering IP addresses against gambling companies that are undesirable in Norway. Such measures have been successfully used in Italy, Estonia and France, and the concept has found favour in Denmark” Anniken Huitfeldt explained.

On the other hand, many online gambling supporters and liberal media trusts agree that blocking foreign online casinos is impossible. People will always find methods to go around ISP blocks. They believe that a measure like this would be similar to internet censorship.

Liberal publication Liberalen commented that “The proposal breaks completely with the liberal values that should be bipartisan consensus in Norway”. Liberal politician Ove Vanebo criticized the proposal, saying that similar measures always failed in other countries.

Online gambling software provider Real Time Gaming launches an unusually themed slot the next week. The game Basketbull – also based on its name – features basketball inspired images and gameplay.

The new 5 reel, 25 variable pay-line slots comes with nicely designed graphics representing basketball games and popular themes from this sport. The game offers several features, like wilds, scatters and re-triggering free throws. It also offers the chance to play a 96-free-game interactive bonus round, where any successful throw will double the amount of free games won, and triple the prizes.

It is also possible to trigger several types of jackpots, like the minor jackpots ($250) or major jackpots ($1,000). The biggest award in the game provides 50 000x of the bet per line.

The name of the game is inspired from famous US organization Basketbull. Its goal is to organize basketball events and games all over the country, bringing players together from all social backgrounds.

Real Time Gaming is a major online casino software provider. Many online casinos operate on the RTG software and many of them are the best on the market. The casinos OnlineCasinoAdvice.com recommends are: Cherry Red Casino, Aladdins Gold Casino, Doyles Casino, Pure Vegas Casino and All Star Slots. These casinos are the best which will soon offer the new amazing Basketbull game, and each is also available for American players.

The fight for online gambling legalization continues in California, as state senator Lou Correia points out the $25 billion budget deficit the state is fighting against. He argues, if online gambling would be regulated, the state’s financial situation would considerably improve during the next ten years.

The bill supposed to legalize online gambling is already on the debating table. Senator Correia explained the bill would also set up high security standard requirements for online casinos:

“This will ensure players are protected from fraud or theft, which occur frequently at illegal, offshore poker sites. The bill also includes safeguards to prevent minors from being able to gamble online, protecting California’s children.”

According to him, about 2 million Californians gamble online in the state, which spend about $13 billion every year at unregulated sites. Unfortunately none of this money is taxed in California. If the infamous bill called SB40 will be accepted, it would significantly increase tax revenue, but also create needed jobs for the residents.

He quotes Finance Dept. Director Timothy L. Gage, who points out in a report that online gambling legalization would bring in one billion dollars annually to the state treasury. Among other things mentioned in the report was the fact that 66% of Californian residents are pro legalization.

Several economics experts and analysts agree that California is in a very deep and severe debt crisis. If this will determine state legislators to finally approve the bill remains to be seen. Spirits are high nonetheless.