The much anticipated International Gaming Awards will be here soon! The gambling industry just loves award events, and the International Gaming Awards is the equivalent to the Oscars in the gambling industry. The International Gaming Awards is when the cream of the crop are rewarded. Awards are given away based on excellence in a variety of areas concerning gambling, from land based and online casino operations.

The next International Gaming Awards will be the fifth one, and with four previously successful events, the fifth one is certainly going to be even better.

The International Gaming Awards ceremony will be on January 23, 2012 in London, England at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel. People in the gambling industry from around the globe will be present, representing their companies, as well as using the opportunity to network and help great causes.

The 2012 awards show will not only be just for recognizing and awarding gambling operations, it will also be a charitable event. The two charities that the International Gaming Awards will be raising awareness for is CARE International and Children with Leukaemia.

Nominations are being accepted now, but time is running out. The deadline for nominations is October 8^th, and then judges still have to assess nominees and decide who will win what.

Just in time for Halloween, Microgaming is releasing a Halloween themed slot game called Lucky Witch in October, which is expected to go live the first week of the spooky month.

Summer days may be long gone, but that doesn’t not mean there aren’t cool games to look forward to, and thanks to Microgaming for proving that to us. It certainly is a treat to look forward, with Halloween fast approaching.

It may only be a month away, but now’s the time that Halloween stuff is making its appearance on store shelves and clothing racks. When it comes to original games, Microgaming always delivers, and Lucky Witch will be no exception.

This 5 reel 15 payline video slot game is no ordinary slot game! With a neat Hallowen theme, and a name like Lucky Witch, how can it be an ordinary game!? Players will enjoy the effects from this magical and mystical game, and because its choked full of features and bonuses, it’ll be hard to play anything else. With bonuses, rewards, free spins, scatters, and multipliers, despite having a unique theme, it still plays like a traditional video slot game.

Enjoy this treat of a slot game when it comes out!

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.

Betclic recently received the eCOGRA seal of approval. The online gambling company joins 146 other online gambling sites that have also been given the safe and fair seal of approval from eCOGRA.

Commenting on audit and review of Betclic, Bradley Khoury said “The cooperation and dedication of the Betclic compliance personnel accompanied by unrestricted access to knowledgeable staff and transparent information facilitated a highly comprehensive review. The organisation demonstrated strong resilience and noteworthy commitment to compliance.”

The eCOGRA chief executive commented that Betclic didn’t just get their seal of approval, they also made the standards of the European Gaming and Betting Association.

After Black Friday rocked the gambling industry back in April, transparency has become very important to players and those in the gambling industry.

Back in 2002, eCOGRA was formed by 888.com and Microgaming. It stands for e-Commerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance. The reason as to why 888.com and Microgaming formed eCOGRA was because players needed much more protection than was available in the market at the time, and a mediator for the online gambling industry was also needed to settle disputes. It was important to the founders that a list of standards and practices for the online gambling industry be created, and from this, the “Safe and Fair” seal came about, with the first one being awarded in 2004.

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!

Black Friday is a day that will not soon be forgotten, and as time has gone on, the effects of Black Friday continue to roll out the punches to the poker sites that were affected, as well as poker players everywhere who played online and offline. The United States Department of Justice cracked down hard on online poker sites operating in the United States, and as a result, domains were seized, and funds were frozen. Not only were financial bank accounts frozen, but so were player accounts, and with them, their funds.

Since Black Friday, only PokerStars have been able to be consistent, and pay their players back. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Full Tilt Poker, which has been standing in quicksand the last little while, sinking slowly.

More goods news that PokerStars can share is that they have managed to work out a deal with the United States Department of Justice, and will be able to retrieve some frozen funds very soon from one of their bank accounts.

The bank account that will be released from the freeze won’t actually get a full unfreeze. $5.5 million will remain frozen in the account, and it has not been disclosed how much is actually going to be released from the account itself. Either way, it’s a step in the right direction, which is better than nothing, and a lot better than what Full Tilt Poker has been able to do.

The previous draft of Greece’s online gambling legislation included the requirement for a black period. This would have meant that all operators that wish to obtain a license in the country’s online gambling industry would have to cease all operation during the application process. Many critics voiced their disapproval of this regulation and the government has decided to remove it from its more recent draft of the gambling bill.

However, the government did so quietly. Normally, when amendments are made to online gambling bills, they are done so publically. However, politicians in Greece simply removed the black period regulation from the legislation hoping that no one would notice.

The new legislation also presents lower financial requirements for all operators hoping to enter the Greek online gambling market. This means that all types of operators can apply for licenses, including local operators. A former concern was that the old requirements would cut out smaller, local operators, but the new legislation seems to include everyone. This will create a much more healthy environment when it comes to competition, as bigger operators are not favoured over local companies.

The gambling industry is not surprised that countries are now using ISP blocking as a tactic towards the fight against online gambling. Many Europeans believe that ISP blocking is the way to go moving forward to make sure regulation is going on the way they like.

Many countries have been cashing in on the online gambling cash cow, but it looks like Norway is one country that is not interested in that. They are one country that is considering ISP blocking, and are looking to completely stop online gambling altogether, at least in their country.

Last year, Norway started making waves in the online gambling industry when it’s government enacted the Norwegian Payment Act. The Norwegian Payment Act is an offence for sites to process unauthorized online payments. Online gambling sites didn’t take this law very seriously, and continue to take payments from Norwegians anyhow.

Norway is still pushing the law, but the online gambling industry doesn’t care much.

It is reported by The Norwegian media that Culture Minister, Anniken Huitfeldt is considering the ISP blocking tactic as a new way to attempt to drive away foreign online gambling sites once and for all. She thinks that this is the way to go against the fight against foreign gambling companies.

Over the course of 2010, 12% of the online gambling industry has grown. At almost $30 billion dollars, the online gambling industry has been doing well and showing improvement. 12% in this case, is a small number, but substantial, especially considering it’s only a year’s worth of growth.

A new report published by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants states this growth of 2010’s online gambling industry at 12%. The numbers being reported by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants are not proof of the financial figures that support their 12% gain in the online gambling industry. For the past 2 years, the online gambling industry has shown signs of improvement in all areas of the industry, which may have contributed to this 12% gain that is being reported.

The online gambling industry is now worth $29.3 billion, according to the new report by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants. Areas like sportsbetting, online casino, online poker and online bingo were assessed for this report. Sportsbetting accounts for 41%, while online casinos and online poker websites account for 46%. Online bingo contributed a surprising $1.3 billion towards that $29.3 billion in 2010.

It is predicted that over the next three years, the online gambling industry is going to continually generate billions, hitting the $40 billion mark within that period of time.

2010 saw many countries start regulating their online gambling markets and also lifting bans, which may have contributed to this %12 gain. So far this year, this trend has continued.

Regulated online gambling is growing by leaps and bounds in many countries. For example, Manx Telecom plans a £20 million investment to expand its market share on the Isle of Man. Tabcorp plans to invest $20 million in upgrades to its Internet gaming sites in Australia where online gambling is currently unregulated but also unrestricted and open for business. Not to be surpassed, Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second-largest poker website, plans to introduce 100 new jobs in Ireland.

Denmark has sided in favor of regulating online gambling while France and Italy have legislation in place regulating certain types of online gambling sites. Greece hopes to confirm a bill regulating and legalizing online gambling by the end of 2011. Conferences aimed at reviewing arguments to legalize online gambling and standards to regulate the industry are also scheduled to take place in Spain and Russia in the not too distant future.

The common thread for these countries is a progressive outlook on the future of online gambling at home and internationally. A regulated industry can offer remedies to their distinct economies toughened by a worldwide recession by providing lucrative tax revenues and job creation as well as providing safe and secure online gambling sites for all players.