In the Powerball draw that was held on Wednesday, there were no jackpot winners. So the jackpot is now heading for the $100 million mark. The jackpot has touched the $87 million mark for the draw to be held on Saturday. If someone had won the jackpot held on Wednesday, they would have won the sum of $64 million. Players matching all five numbers and the Powerball would have won or shared the $75.4 million jackpot.

In the draw held on Wednesday, five players hailing from Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon and Wisconsin had two winners walk away with $200,000 each. The winning numbers for Wednesday night were 3-25-45-51-55, and the bonus was 13. The winning numbers have been elusive so far this year for both multi-state lotteries, the Powerball and Mega Millions.

In other news, a Powerball ticket that won a prize of $200,000 almost a year ago and was purchased from northeast Kansas is yet to be cashed. According to lottery officials, if the winner does not claim the money by Friday evening, the ticket will lapse. According to the rules of the Kansas Lottery a winning ticket needs to be claimed within a year.

The winning numbers for that draw were 9-16-23-51-52, and the bonus was 12. The lucky ticket matched the first five Powerball numbers in the draw that was held on Aug. 1, 2007. The Lottery spokesperson refused to name the business that sold the winning ticket or its location. She accepted that the lottery’s security division knew the time and place where the ticket was sold.

Players interested in betting on sports events online will have a number of promotions to look out for as the UK-based Internet betting firm Betfair has launched its Together We Make Summer Better advertising campaign. The campaign was designed and developed by the direct advertising agency Flourish. The campaign is set to target players whose membership has ended and encourage them to return to the site and bet on sporting events over the summer.

The aim of the campaign is to make up for lost earnings caused by the failure of the home nations to qualify for the Euro 2008 soccer tournament that recently ended in Austria and Switzerland. The campaign will showcase some of the UK’s other sporting events that players can take advantage of this summer. These sporting events include key horseracing events such as Glorious Goodwood alongside the Ryder Cup and the England Rugby tour.

Rich Gundry, Account Director for Flourish, said “The advertising campaign is designed to celebrate this summer’s sports events leaving behind the disappointment of not participating at the Euro Championships. ”

The agency official further revealed, “The campaign will highlight Betfair’s key unique selling points by focusing on the better value Internet users can get from the website’s peer-to-peer betting scheme. “

The online casino AC Coin & Slot has announced that three of its games have continued to be successful for the past 100 days.

These three games are: Big Game Show Gold Edition Bonus; Chef’s Daily Special; and When in Rome. This success has come at a time when other online casino operators are facing new challenges, the casino has been successful in producing three unique bonus games which are entertaining enough to keep slot game enthusiasts returning again and again to their favorite casinos.

Online casino operators are now getting very active in adding to their mix of slot games so that they can give players a variety of the most popular and proven slots games.  AC Coin & Slot has introduced its summer series of owned bonus games, the casino continues to double and triple house averages in all locations.

Triple Star, is a five-reel, 25-line pay table of Big Game Show Gold Edition Bonus and Double Diamond, is a five-reel, 30-line pay table of Chef’s Daily Special and When in Rome. AC Coin & Slot is moving away from the old 9-line pay table in favor of these more competitive tables.

Jerry Seelig, the AC Coin & Slot Executive Vice President and General Manager, stated, “In the current scenario, 25- and 30-line pay tables really appeal to players. These tables give players more ways to win.”

The number of professional poker players who are heading to take part in this years Macau leg of the Asian Poker Tour has just got longer. David Saab who is the 2008 APT Philippines champion and has already placed 46th at the World Series of Poker has confirmed his participation for the main event of APT Macau.

There are now four big-name poker professionals of Asian lineage that have been added to the list of players looking for a chance to win big at the upcoming tournament in late August. Theses four players are J.C. Tran, Nam Le, Quinn Do, and Steve Sung. The last three names are returning to the tour to win a tournament after being unable to win the APT Philippines main event.

Among the four players, J.C. Tran may be the most well known at this time. He is a Vietnamese-American by descent who is living in Sacramento. He is currently the top-ranked player on the Bluff Magazine/ESPN power rankings. He started his poker career by playing in the local card rooms. He has topped various poker tournaments and has total winnings of more than $6.7 million to date. He won Event #49 of the 39th World Series of Poker 2008 and walked away with $631,170.

The 25 year old Vietnamese-American Nam Le is considered to be quite a good poker player at live tournaments. He will be out for to avenge his early exit at the APT Philippines main event. He has won a number of tournaments and his total amount won stands at $4.3 million.

Quinn Do, did much better in APT Philippines by finishing 20th overall and won $7,500 in prize money. His confidence will be high since winning first place at APT Macau. He decided to play poker full time in 2004 after his time at the University of Washington. His total amount won is close to $2 million.

The Macau leg of the Asian Poker Tour, will be held at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino in Asia from August 27 to 31, 2008. The Asian Poker Tour is home to Asia’s largest guaranteed prize pool with $1,500,000 in cash. The winner of APT Macau is guaranteed at least $500,000, which is sure to attract the top poker players from all over the world.

Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet are pleased to announce the launch of ‘Cereus’, a new poker platform.

While both Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet will be joining the platform, they will still keep their unique assets and maintain their individual status. At the same time both the sites will be able to share the players, see more action in the form of tournaments and be able to introduce more features and promotions.

The Chief Operations Officer of Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, Paul Leggett, said, “I am happy to be able to announce the launch of Cereus our new poker network. I am sure that the players on both sides will be excited by the new launch and we are looking forward to welcoming new players from other parts of the world.”

Leggett added, “The platform will not only give players the best poker experience, but will enable us to improve operations and deliver better service to our players.”

Leggett went on to say, “We aim to provide poker players with the best online experience. The launch of this platform is a major step for us in achieving our goal.”

More information about the platform will be divulged by the two sites as soon as the action from the World Series of Poker starts to cool down.

GamesAndCasino.com, which is one of the oldest and most extensive online gambling information sites, announced it’s sponsorship of the OnlinePlayersUnion.com. The announcement ends a year of speculation on various online message boards about the venture.

The CEO of GamesandCasino.com, Dominique, said, “The site had decided that it needed to provide players a place where they could exchange their experiences and help others with their game play. After taking a good long at the OnlinePlayersUnion.com/forum/, we found that it was the name we wanted to create.”

The CEO added, “A number of websites forget their most important clients are the visitors. We have always kept the interests of our players in mind so we are providing them a place where they can exchange views and experiences.”

The OnlinePlayersUnion is where players get a space to discuss strategies for all forms of gambling, that start with online casino games to skill games, bingo, poker and fantasy sports. So whether a player likes chess or slots, Texas Hold’em or exotic bingo patterns, the Union is the place for players to exchange strategies, experiences at online casinos and ideas.

The new site has been updated to include social networking software, so in addition to using the forums, players can form private groups that concentrate on particular favorite games or online casinos.

GamesAndCasino.com has just celebrated its “Lucky 7s anniversary”, having been online for 7 years and 7 months. It has been a home for online players of all types for many years, for it provided them with all kinds of information about every type of gambling possible.

The online casino website BodogLife.com, which is based in Antigua, has became the first online casino to award seats to next year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.

The seats were awarded by the casino through its Mini Series promotion. This mini series comprised of 25 tournaments through its poker sub-site that were the same as the hold ’em events that were taking place at the WSOP 2008. 

The last in the series of tournaments was an invitational tournament that took place after the Mini Series’ Main Event and the tournament awarded three seats for next year’s World Series of Poker that will be held in Las Vegas.

These three seats were worth $12,000 each. Three online players, ‘pokerfanx789’, ‘dudix’ and ‘Boswan’, beat 24 other online players to win the VIP prize packages, that included their $10,000 Main Event entry fee along with travel and accommodation expenses.

Alwyn Morris, Chief Executive Officer of Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, said, “Our players had an excellent run at this year’s event. We are already planning for the next year’s event by offering players seats.”

He added, “These three winners will experience Vegas like no other player has ever seen. This will help them compete for a shot at poker stardom and millions of dollars.”

The online bingo provider, Platinum Play Bingo, has launched its newest offering, Bingo Ball for Life.

The new launch is an exciting, world-first for bingo players. The game allows players to own their very own lucky bingo number and even customize their own bingo ball with a chance of winning a massive 50,000 GBP in cash.

The players registered on the site can choose their lucky bingo number by either selecting it themselves or by completing a ‘Bingology’ quiz. The number they get by this process will then become their permanent Bingo-Ball-for-Life number.

The site is offering all players who complete a Full-House on their lucky number, a chance to win up to 50,000 GBP cash.

The Jackpot will start at 1,000 GBP on week one, and if the jackpot is not won, a thousand pounds will be added to the pool. A player can win up to 50,000 GBP, and should it get to 50,000 GBP without being won, it will be paid out to the player that comes the closest to winning and then start over.

Once a player has chosen their lucky number, the next step would be to customize their very-own bingo ball. The player can personalize everything from hands, eyes, hairstyles, shoes and accessories.

Once all that is done the player can launch the bingo software and start playing. The more players play, the higher their chances of hitting this rolling progressive jackpot on their Bingo-Ball-for-Life number.

The new 3D online casino WinADay.com has added a number of real money slot machines to its roster of free games.

There is a new slot machine which is called the Lucky-Go-Round which is available in both free and real-money Games Halls. There will be animated customer service attendants available to help players get started. New players will be eligible for a welcome bonus of 100% up to $250.

Martin Smith, the Pit Boss at WinADay.com said, “In our 3D casino environment we have animated customer service attendants and free games available for our players.”

He added, “We are now ready to celebrate the launch of our real-money slot machines. Most players would stick to their favorite slot games but there are some new ones that I’m sure most will want to try.”

A casino player who chose to remain unidentified speaking about the new game said, “It is different. When one enters the casino lobby and the animated attendant calls you by your name it feels like you’re in a real casino.”

WinADay’s games are based on the latest instant-play, no-download Flash technology. This technology allows its designers to incorporate the rich media content that today’s online game players expect. The casino is full with crisp graphics, fancy animations, cool sounds effects and background music.

Some other games recently launched are “Wheeler Dealer” which is a 3 reel, 8 payline slot machines and “Jack’s Show” which is a video poker game based on the popular Jacks or Better video poker game. All three games are linked to the WinADay.com progressive jackpot.

Age has never been a deterrent for winners and its been proved by 21-year old amateur poker player Michael Schwaiger who has defied the odds to prove that one does need to be a veteran of the tables to win big with Titan Poker.

Michael achieved his dream of becoming a poker professional when he won last Sunday’s $250,000 Guaranteed Prize tournament.

The 21 year old player was introduced to the world of online poker and Titan Poker through the ‘Refer a Friend’ program. He played well to better his online poker game and was able to achieve the Titan Poker VIP status.

His win can be attributed to his combination of skill, perseverance and hope, and he is now able to celebrate over $52,500 in prize money less than a year and a half after joining the online poker world.

Here’s what he had to say about his win, “I would surely use the money to buy some things, but will leave enough cash in my poker site accounts so that I can take part in other live tournaments. I would love to qualify for a live tournament like the Irish Open or the EPT Madrid, and finally pursue my dream of becoming a Poker Professional.”

The site Titan Poker has just announced its Sun City Million Dollar Poker Tournament prize packages, which offer players a chance at the $1,500,000 Guaranteed prize pool tournament in South Africa for satellite entry fees as low as $1.5 $0.15. Winners will also be treated to a week’s Spa entry, a round of Golf, Safari game drives, hot-air balloon rides and rock concert tickets.