Microgaming has three new slot games coming out this month, according to a media advisory they released recently. One of the games is Lucky Witch, which some people might already have heard about, and the other two games are Victorian Villain and Hells Grannies. All three new games will be available on the QuickFire platform, and only Lucky Witch will make an exception and also be available on the Viper and Flash platforms.

Lucky Witch is coming out just in time to celebrate Halloween. With it’s Halloween theme, it’s the perfect slot game to play for those adults looking for a ‘treat’. The Lucky Witch functions as the wild in the game, and there’s also the Cauldron Scatter that triggers a bonus game.

The other two slot games coming out are being offered exclusively on the QuickFire platform, which Microgaming has been more focused on lately. Victorian Villain and Hells Grannies may not be Halloween themed, but they are fun! Victorian Villian features a female detective in search for a wanted murderer, and Hells Grannies features some hardcore grannies in a comic style slot game.

It’s nice to see some original slot games coming out, especially after a slew of so many superhero themed games.

Last week, Greece, The Netherlands and Italy made headlines in regards to online gambling. Significant changes are afoot, and the face of online gambling in Europe is quickly changing.

News from Greece about the looming deadline at the end of the month for the government to install measures is the latest development. One of the measures is to legalize online gambling, and award new gaming licenses, including extending OPAP’s monopoly beyond 2020. It is expected that OPAP pay the required license fees, which rings in at a staggering €950 million. A contract needs to be drawn up, and the Greek government will likely not see any of those fees before the end of September.

Another interesting tidbit is that the Greek government owns 34% of OPAP. There were plans to sell their stake at the end of the year, but now there is doubt that the government will do so, especially because politicians don’t want to let go of a cash generating organization.

In The Netherlands, members of parliament are divided over proposals to legalize online gambling.

Italy is enjoying the benefits of legalizing online gambling, and the number of gamblers rose 21.45%, which bring the worth of the industry to €41.9 billion. Hopefully Greece and The Netherlands will be reaping the rewards of legalizing online gambling soon, just like Italy has.

The International Gaming Awards 2012 has been announced! The International Gaming Awards(IGA) rewards excellence in all areas of the gaming industry, and covers both land based casino operations, as well as online gambling operations. The previous four International Gaming Awards ceremonies were very successful, and this will be the fifth year running for the International Gaming Awards.

This year’s International Gaming Awards will take place on January 23, 2012. The prestigious event will be held at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London, and will be full of industry professionals from all around the globe. The International Gaming Awards is not just an awards ceremony, but also a place for attendees to build their brands, and also network with fellow attendees that are also in the industry.

Nominations are being accepted now for various award categories, and the deadline to nominate is October 18, 2011. From there, nominees will be assessed by a panel of expert judges. With all of the changes online gambling has undergone this past year, it comes as no surprise that the award categories related to online gambling have been shown more interest than in previous years.

This year’s International Gaming Awards will certainly be interesting, that’s for sure!

This week, a much needed conference of the European Union (EU) parliamentarians and industry representatives happened, with the collective objective to find a way ahead for online gambling. Each member state decides their stance on online gambling, and unfortunately, there has been much fragmentation between each state, as well as complications. There are also court actions by online gambling companies against state owned monopolies which have also made things complicated.

Many representatives of member nations wanted harmonized legislation across the European Union, and then at the same time, went so far as to have it qualified with a rider that would serve individual member states, and allow them to enact rules to suit their national interests.

The European Parliament’s response to the Green Paper consultative initiative is being drawn up by German liberal MEP Creutzmann, He has voiced his opinion on online gambling regulation, saying that member states should be able to decide how they would like to regulate online gambling for theirselves. The only real benefit of having harmonized legislation across the European Union is that national regulators will keep each other informed on their policies, and incidents of fraud or revocation of licenses can be communicated.

Online gambling regulation is a big concern for many, especially with so many offshore online casino operators that are legal and illegal. One thing is for sure, online gambling regulation has many benefits all around, including player safety.

When it comes to online gambling, there is an industry favourite for online gambling software and supplies, and that’s Playtech. Playtech has been an industry leader in the online gambling community for a long time now, and they have built a strong reputation for their products and software. Playtech always seems to be coming out with new games, and in this industry, a new game is always wanted by online casino operators. It comes as no surprise that Playtech is the number one choice for many online gambling operators to go to when they want the best games, software, and supplies.

Playtech released a report on their financial results recently for the first half of 2011. They pulled out of the French online gambling market this year as well, which was an estimated $7 million loss. Despite this loss, Playtech still did very well, with their revenue registering an increase of 18% during the first 6 month period, ending June 2011. Overall, revenue was up 5%, from $72.9 million to $76.3 million.

Playtech acquired some great acquisitions so far this year. PT Turnkey Services, which Playtech acquired in July, has already shown its benefits. Mobile specialist, Mobenga was also a recent Playtech acquirement, and will really help Playtech going forward in the mobile gambling market. The last deal, and probably the best one they’ll make this year is a 10 year supply deal with Gala Coral. Playtech will launch their products on Gala Coral’s casino sites starting early 2012, and phase out Gala Coral’s current products and suppliers.

Facebook is the largest social networking platform in the world. It have become the communication staple in many ways, from connecting friends and family, to sharing personal things like photos and status update, to event planning, to chatting. Facebook is literally the online socializing hub. Besides connecting people, Facebook has also become a source of entertainment for many, with its ability to have chat, feeds from favourite brands, and games created by Zynga.

User accounts at Facebook are free, so how has Facebook managed to make so much money? Like many other sites out there, Facebook sells advertising space, and makes revenue off of that. They have Ad Guidelines that say who can advertise with them, and what they can advertise.

Facebook wants to open up its advertising doors more to other industries, and have changed their Ad Guidelines to do so. With Facebook, the “reach” would be millions, so there is a lot of appeal for corporations to advertise with them. With the policy change for the Ad Guidelines, online and offline gambling companies are also included in the mix.

It seems like it would be simple enough to include online gambling companies in the roster, but it’s actually not. Many countries say gambling is illegal, while many other countries say its legal. Facebook will have to tread very carefully when advertising online gambling. They’ll have to follow local laws, get specific authorization, as well as consent, and be wary of the area in which they are advertising.

Expanding into online gambling advertising will likely be very lucrative for Facebook, so as long as they are careful, they stand to make quite a bit of revenue.

It’s been a rough ride for Full Tilt Poker these past few months. It all started on Black Friday, and since then, it’s just been one thing after another. Lawsuits, licenses, financial issues, and legal issues have plagued Full Tilt Poker, and it’s not over yet.

Full Tilt Poker released a statement this week to clear a few things up about what’s going on with them. The rumours of investment from a group of European investors has been laid to rest, with the statement saying “While Pocket Kings Ltd. plans to continue discussions with its current investor, the company has now begun negotiations with additional potential investors to conclude the sale/partnership of the Full Tilt Poker brand and its assets.”

It looks like a deal with the group of European investors is not going to happen anytime soon. That isn’t very surprising news though, because Full Tilt Poker is still not at the point it needs to be at for investors to feel confident in the brand.  It is stipulated in contract that any investor(s) that do buy Full Tilt Poker have to pay $150 million to U.S. players that are still owed their funds. That’s got to be a huge drawback for many, and most likely a deterrent.

As of late, Full Tilt Poker has really slacked on their communications to their players, and they realize that it has been a problem. In their statement, they apologized for their lack of clear communication, and explained themselves. “Full Tilt Poker apologizes for its lack of communication with its customers over the last month and a half, but it has been grappling with unexpected and complex legal and financial issues arising from Black Friday and its aftermath. In addition, the company has had to be circumspect about disclosing the progress of negotiations with potential investors because there is often a requirement of strict confidentiality.” The statement continued on with “To the extent that it can do so without jeopardizing future opportunities, Full Tilt Poker will strive to have better communication with its customers going forward. Full Tilt Poker’s number one priority remains the same: to secure an infusion of capital to repay all of its worldwide customers.”

The Interhero promotion at InterCasino started way back in May. Since then, there have been a few promotions within the InterHero promotion. With an end date of August 25th, there’s still plenty of time for players to get in on the InterHero action. This is definitely the InterCasino promotion that players should go for, seeing as there is a total prize pool of $250,000 being given away. With amazing prizes like trips, cash, bonuses, and cool stuff, you’d be crazy to miss out!

The ultimate InterHero promotion going on now is the InterHero Walk On prize. The grand prize of this promotion is a walk on part in a Hollywood movie. The winner gets flown out with a guest of their choosing to the U.S.A, accommodations at a four star hotel, and of course, $20,000! If you don’t win first place, it’s not too bad being in second place, especially since you get $6,000! Even third place doesn’t suck too much either, with a nice prize of $3,000.

For players that want a different prize, there’s the $40,000 Marvel Slots Challenge. The grand prize is pretty awesome, as it’s a trip to Montreal to go to Comiccon with Stan Lee!

Check out InterCasino today to learn more about the InterHero promotions. With so many cool prizes up for grabs, players should try and get in on the InterHero action while they still can.

Online gambling can get tricky, with the payments, and payouts, the hassle of those two things alone can often be a huge turn off. With credit card fraud also being one of those big annoyances, many people avoid online gambling simply for that reason.

Now it doesn’t have to be such a pain! Thanks to UKash, a payment solution designed to allow people to use cash to send money over the internet. The super handy thing about UKash is that you don’t need a bank account or credit card. All you need is to have some money. This means that for whatever reason, you can keep your information private as you don’t have to provide any financial information.

UKash sells vouchers all over the UK and Europe at various retailers. With such easy access, its no wonder online players are using UKash more and more often.

With the release of Ukash’s new Mastercard, the UKashOut Mastercard, players can easily transfer their casino winnings to their card and withdraw their funds at an ATM machine that accepts Mastercard.

Sign up for the new UKashOut Mastercard, and get a chance to win a seat at this year’s European Poker Tour in London, England.

Can you guess? Here’s a few hints…

Hint 1: Back in 2009, Microgaming launched it’s Great Galaxy Grab online slot, which was developed using three-dimensional rendered graphics.

Hint 2: Microgaming announced in January that they were working on a new online video slot game.

Hint 3: It’s called 3D Sterling Silver.

You guessed it! It’s a 3D slot game, and it’s coming your way this June! The long wait will soon be over in a few days time.

Microgaming has revealed that the new 3D Sterling Silver slot game will be released in various casinos, including Jackpot City Online Casino.

Jackpot City Online Casino was one of the first casinos to announce that they would carry the new 3D Sterling Silver slot game. They also already issued a press release, saying that would be providing their customers with the appropriate eyewear needed to enjoy the 3D aspect of this online casino gaming experience. No mention of how and when Jackpot City will do this, but it’s likely that once customers register to play the game, they will be sent the 3D glasses.

That’s pretty good news! Hopefully other online casinos will follow Jackpot City’s example, and also send out glasses when customers register to play. At least players won’t have to rush out and buy a new monitor for the graphics.