The ever expanding Facebook could possibly be expanding into the booming online gambling industry. Facebook seems to be seriously considering this, and by entering into the online gambling industry, they stand to bring in millions in revenue, especially if people would be able to play with real money.

Facebook played dinner host last week in London for industry representatives, and that’s when Facebook unveiled their latest plans. Shortly after that dinner, many Facebook users found out about their plans, and there has been a lot of backlash, especially in the United Kingdom.

The Daily Mail published an article that highlighted some of many negative reactions to the news that Facebook may start offering real money online gambling on the social networking site.

More than anything, it seems that in The Daily Mail article, there was a huge concern over underage gambling. In the United Kingdom, there are over 3 million users on Facebook that are between the ages of 13 to 17. On top of that, there’s an unaccounted number of users that have lied about their age in order to be able to have a Facebook user account, because the age limit is set at 13 years old.

Online gambling has been expanding around the globe at a rapid pace, but to bring real money online gambling to a social networking site like Facebook may perhaps be too soon. It has not been reported whether or not Facebook would also be attempting to enter the North American online gambling market.

April 15, 2011 sounds like any other day, but it was not. This was the day the online gambling industry was shook to its core, and is now referred to as Black Friday. Black Friday was the day the U.S. Department of Justice cracked down on online poker sites that were illegally operating in the country. One of these poker sites just happened to be Full Tilt Poker. Besides illegal operations, the U.S. Department of Justice also came down on poker sites for other criminal activities, including money laundering, and bank fraud.

Since Black Friday, Full Tilt Poker has suffered blow after blow, and it is surprising that they have even made it this far, considering everything they have had to go through. From their site being seized, to losing their licenses, to being in some serious financial problems, to multiple lawsuits from players, Full Tilt Poker has been through the wringer. To add to their problems, they searched for an investor for months, but there was very little interest, after all, they were a train wreck still in motion.

It looks like the dust has finally settled on Full Tilt Poker, and French investors have come to an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. With just a little over four months before the one year anniversary of Black Friday, will Full Tilt Poker be up and running properly before then, or will there be more delays?

At this point, anything is possible!

Some awesome news today for European web surfers. Web surfers can access pirate sites now, because ISPs can not be forced to monitor or block users! Internet freedom organizations are extremely delighted by this news.

This awesome news is thanks to the European Court of Justice, which ruled today that content owners can no longer instruct user’s broadband companies to track or block them. The ruling from the European Court of Justice is as follows: “EU law precludes the imposition of an injunction by a national court which requires an Internet service provider to install a filtering system with a view to preventing the illegal downloading of files.”

For those that don’t get quite how significant this actually is, here’s the best way to understand. Sometimes, when a web user downloads something, they get half way, and then somehow, they get cut off from the web. In this case, that is likely to be an ISP that has been monitoring what you’ve been up to online. If ISPs spot web users downloading or illegally downloading copyrighted material, there’s a chance they’ll kick you off the Internet.

Thanks to the European Court of Justice, ISPs can no longer do this! Rejoice! No more download interruptions, no more getting kicked off the Internet, and no more worrying about ISPs.

Members of the European Parlament have approved a non-binding resolution that calls for greater cooperation between European Union member states on online gambling. The resolution was lead by German MEP Jürgen Creutzmann, and is the follow up to the European Commission’s March 2011 Online Gambling Green Paper. The resolution by German MEP Jürgen Creutzmann was approved by a show of hands, and asked the European Council to end unnecessary licensing duplication, administrative burdens, and take action against European Union treaty violations. Many MEP’s want the European Council to conduct a study on creating an operator blacklist as well as blocking transactions between financial institutions and blacklisted operators.

One MEP voiced her opinion on the resolution, and expressed she was less than impressed, because she felt that the resolution was for the most part, a vote to maintain gambling monopolies that are currently in place in member states. These gambling monopolies are very lucrative, so that also is a factor in why Ashley Fox, MEP for South West England and Gibraltar wasn’t impressed. Ashley Fox referred to online gambling as “a reality that will not stop at national boundaries,” and labeled the resolution “a missed opportunity … Protectionism has won over common sense.”

After facing many obstacles with them, Playtech has finally parted way with their broker, Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank resigned its position as Playtech’s broker, and because of this, Playtech will be unable to join London’s main stock market.

As a result of this move, Playtech’s stock took a big hit, and knocked down to 13p at 239p. While Playtech tries to regain their bearings, they have released a statement that says “with immediate effect Collins Stewart Europe Limited is the Company’s sole broker and NOMAD.” It looks like Playtech is trying to send out the message that they are in control, and they aren’t lost without their former broker.

Roger Withers, Chairman at Deutsche Bank, said there was no fight, and the big issue was that Playtech and Deutsche Bank grew apart. This was likely due to the fact that when Mumtaz Naseem left in the summer, relations went south.

Despite this setback, Playtech is still in top form, and has regularly been releasing new games, making deals, creating partnerships, and making games that online casino operators and players love. Players can still enjoy Playtech’s great games, and they will soon be out with new games for players to enjoy for the next little while.

Gaming software giant, Microgaming has struck a big software deal with Ladbrokes, and they will now be providing their casinos and poker software to Ladbroke’s Danish and Spanish markets.

Ladbrokes is one of the largest gaming groups in the gambling industry, and offer players a variety of games, as well sports betting services. They have online operations in Gibraltar, and other operations in the United Kingdom.

Andy Clucas, Head of Business Development at Microgaming, commented about the deal, saying “We have had a long and successful relationship with Ladbrokes and are delighted to be entering these two exciting markets with them. Once granted a licence, Ladbrokes will be able to offer the most competitive range of products.”

Ladbrokes Spanish site, as well as Danish site is expected to go live with the new Microgaming software by January 2012, once licensing has been granted for both markets. Microgaming has over hundreds of games under their umbrella, and the sites will have Flash and download games available to Ladbrokes players.

Microgaming is known for their excellent poker software, and Ladbrokes expects that Spanish and Danish players will really enjoy the opportunity to play poker in games and tournaments when the time comes.

It seemed like the perfect match. The big European gambling website, and the giant gambling software supplier. William Hill and Playtech. They probably thought the same thing too, back in 2008 when they formed a partnership.

At the time, it made sense to make this deal. William Hill is a gambling website that needs gambling software, and Playtech develops gambling software. Besides the financial benefit, there was also the partnership that must have appealed to both the companies at the time. In exchange for gaming software, William Hill gave Playtech a 29 percent share of the company.

The first two years were blissful, but then somehow in the third year, things have just gotten worse. The latest bump in the road is the William Hill and Probability deal that was supposed to go down. William hill was looking to expand into the mobile gambling arena, and Probability was there way to do that. Playtech was having none of that, and since they have a 29 percent share, they actually get a say. Unfortunately, it looks like William Hill has missed out on a great business venture, and Playtech has just made things even more unbearable for William Hill. At this point, to say the relationship is souring is being nice. Judging by all of the actions taken against one another, it looks more like the relationship has soured considerably. It’ll take a miracle to fix the mess these two great companies are in.

Microgaming seems to never disappoint players every month, with new and exciting games for them to play. This month, Microgaming has released three brand new games, all slot games.

The first game is called Throne of Egypt. This a 5 reel, 25 payline video slot game has a regal Egyptian theme, and is amazing just to look at and play. With rich colours, and amazing graphics, it’s the kind of game that players who love great visuals really appreciate. Symbols include falcons, cobras, laterns, and of course jewels. There are free spins, wilds, scatters, bonus scatters, and multi level bonus games in this video slot game. There are 3 different bonuses offered, and a variety of winning combinations. Players can win as much as 50,000, and double that with free spins and bonuses if they are lucky.

The second game is Dr.Love, which is a 20 line, 5 reel video slot game. Like many love game shows of the past, this game has a retro vibe to it, with cartoon graphics, and funny sounds. Players will see symbols like crutches, ambulances, medical charts, flowers and even the charming Dr.Love. The max jackpot is set at $10,000, but that can change if a player gets a multiplier.

The third game release is Crocodopolis, another  Egyptian-themed game. This a 5 reel, 25 payline video slot game, with $30,000 up for the taking.

Check out these new games today!

William Hill has been having an interesting time lately, with lots of highs and lows and rumours all around. The latest news is that they will not be making an offer on Probability, a mobile specialist. The news was revealed earlier, and its not surprising that many have speculated that the reason being for this latest outcome is the online joint venture with Playtech, which is William Hill Online.

A statement to the stock exchange revealed very little information, and stated that William Hill did not intend to make an offer. Since then, there has been no other comments on their latest move.

The joint venture that Playtech has seems to be the culprit as to why this deal did not go down. Playtech owns a mobile specialist already, called Mobenga. Because of this, William Hill will have to seek a partnership with another mobile specialist, or they can wait for their partnership with Playtech to end. From there, William Hill will be able to make a deal with Probability.

Mobile gambling has really taken off this year. With the number of smartphone users continually increasing, being able to offer mobile gambling has become a top priority to many online casino operators.

The latest news from the Full Tilt Poker front is that they have a buyer. Apparently French business tycoon, Bernard Tapie agreed to buying the company last Friday. Despite all the legal issues, financial problems, and overall problems that have plagued Full Tilt Poker, it is a miracle that they have a buyer.

Full Tilt Poker’s descent into the abyss started back in April, on a special day now referred to as ‘Black Friday’. It got to the point where player accounts were frozen, players as well as pro players starting suing, Full Tilt Poker lost their licensing along with many loyal players, and things were looking very bleak for the online poker site.

The French buyer has agreed to buy the poker site company on the condition that they settle their legal problems with the U.S, and do so in good standing. That’s where it gets tricky.

If Full Tilt Poker can pull off Tapie’s demands, then the deal will go through. Once the deal goes through, that’s when players can really rejoice, because a plan will be put into action to pay back all the players that were stiffed out of their player accounts because of Black Friday. Hopefully Full Tilt Poker’s luck is changing, because for the first time in months, they have good news.