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!

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.

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.

It really doesn’t matter what you’re selling, everyone knows that having an attractive woman promote your product works wonders and that’s just what online poker site Carbon Poker has done by signing Tina Wallman.

The official spokes model for Carbon Poker is known as the Queen of Hearts and the 30-year-old is no stranger to using her good looks and charm to promoting goods and services. This looker hails from the Land Down Under and her photos have appeared in a different magazines and other venues before she embarked on her online gambling promotion career.

Part of the 30-year-old’s job will be to help promote the site which hopes to attract American visitors who are restricted from playing online poker games because of the UIGEA ruling. She has had an interesting career in promotions including the above-mentioned accolades as well as a stint as Zoo Beach Weeklys Girl of the Year in 2007.

Wallman also has a cheeky side she demonstrated in an interview recently. When asked how online poker and sex are related she replied bluffing was very similar to faking it, and comments like that have industry insiders predicting she’ll have a great career promoting online gambling.

The poker room online casino Feltstars.com is happy to let players know that they will be one of those poker rooms that are giving players a chance of a lifetime to get to the WSOP event this coming summer for FREE!! That is right, you can have the chance to play with all the poker pros and amateurs for free and on top of it all if you do well you will be able to win some serious cash!
 
The tournament will be held in the month of May and the winner of the tourney will be happy to announce that they hold the chance to make it big at the main event of this year’s WSOP! The Tournament will be completely free and will take place on the second of May at 6pm eastern standard time!
 
It’s easy to play in this tournament because all you have to do is become a member of the Merge Gaming Network online casino and deposit a minimum of $25 dollars to your account between now and the last day in April. Players can spend the deposited money as they like but once they have made the deposit they will be automatically eligible for this great tournament should they wish to play in it!
 
This is surely something to be excited about as players will do anything to be in this tournament and a free entry trumps all else! This is a great tournament and while there are many WSOP promotions happening at online casinos right now this is surely one of the best ones that is available on the net!

There has been talk in the news about several legal bills in the UK and the US that are government versus online casino operations against companies such as Full Tilt and other popular online gambling organizations. So what are these companies doing wrong to gain this bad reputation? Well the funny answer is that they aren’t really doing anything at all… at least anything different from the way that they have been operating for years now.
 
There are several government bodies that seem to want to put a stop to online gambling of any sort altogether. Many have their own reasons. Some are for the sole purposes of taxation. Others say that it is a corrupt industry altogether and some cities and countries simply have an issue of the money leaving their comfy abode and going to destinations unknown.
 
So what is the Verdict? Well it seems that this online gambling issue and issues have been a wild chase for quite some time now. Every time that something changes in the law a new unruly issue arises and there is similar huff and puff surrounding the new issue as there was the time before.
 
Many people (which we should mention are the ones spending their hard earned money) are in favour of online gambling. Many people work for these companies and online casinos are the reason that they pay their bills at the end of the day and those people should get a say as well. So if you ask us, we think that online casinos will be around for quite some time but I guess all we can really do is wait and see!

The very popular online poker room Titanpoker.com is celebrating the online poker scene at the movies. The online poker room is having a special promo this week that will focus on the new movie that is starring John Travolta and is called From Paris With Love.
    
Titanpoker.com will be giving players everything that they are looking for! They are holding a special tournament in honour of the movie that will be giving away a total of 5000 dollars in prize money and above that will also give players the chance to win some cool movie merchandise as well as passes to see the movie. The tournament will have different levels and many prizes will be available throughout these levels.!
 
The reason that Titanpoker.com is backing this movie in such a strong way is that the movie does feature the online poker room and does give the site a great deal of promoting value. The action movie is filled with many great moments and is sure to be a success at the theatres!

 
The movie is live in the US and other parts of North America already but opens this month in the UK and France which is the reason for this promotion on Titanpoker.com. The movie is not about online gambling but the part that does see Travolta doing some online gambling Titanpoker.com is the site that is highlighted and featured in the film! Either way its a great time to take advantage of the promotion as well as a great time to see the movie as well!

There are many once in a lifetime opportunities , but one that amateur poker players won’t want to miss is the opportunity that Bluff Europe is offering by starting yet another session of their live tutorials from their Poker Academy. Players have an opportunity to learn from the absolute best in the industry through this great and inspirational experience.

During the poker academy offering last year, amateur players were lucky enough to experience the expertise training and advice of such players as Phil Laak, Paul Jackson, Ian Frazer, Donnacha O’Dee and Phil Laak who advised players as they played in tournament and live games in poker tournaments and games all around the world including locations such as London, Dublin, Manchester and Birmingham.

There was much customer feedback that said the first tour was such a success that players all over would love to have this experience and opportunity to go through it themselves and would travel far and wide to do so.

The offering this time will also include some one- on –one mentoring as well as special play analysis to help improve the game of the students that are excited to learn from the experts. This year the experts that will be involved so far are Nik Persaud, Alex Rousso, and Neil Channing. If you are interested in more details about this academy as well as other Bluff Europe events please feel free to visit the website at BluffEurope.com/PokerAcademy.

Perhaps you are a great poker player! And perhaps you have always dreamed about the WSOP, - well there’s a current promotion that will see a player just like yourself land themselves one of five seats that is available up for grabs into this year’s upcoming WSOP competition. The WSOP is yet to be the talk of the town this year because it is still a little far away but one online casino has already launched their first promotion that will be giving away five seats in this year’s main event!

The WSOP main event competition will be held in Las Vegas. This particular promotion is a challenge from Titanpoker.com that will see players from around the world participate in a challenge where the top 200 players that are left standing will play for a total of five seats on the final tournament day of May 16th 2010.

There will be many chances to get into this final 200 as there will be two round of tourneys per week with players from all around the world. There will be a leader board in place so that players can see how they are doing and track their play and stats.

Players will then compete May 16th for their chance at a prize package worth over 10K which will take them to the main event for a chance to play with thousands of other poker players that are all fighting to get to the final table which will be aired on TV and the players at this table are likely to win in excess of millions of dollars! This is a great tourney for anyone that’s ever dreamed of playing in the name event!

There’s good news yet for UK casino operators who are looking to expand: the state of California may lead the way in regulating legalized online gambling. The US government has been going back and forth with the idea because some are strongly against it and some are just as strongly in favor of it.

The state’s government has said they are looking to increase revenue and see great potential in online poker. Online casino operators are raking in money since they offer private, relaxed gambling in the comfort of your own home. Countries who have regulated online gambling enjoy a significant economy boost since the money players are spending goes right back into the country’s pockets.

They are looking to start with online poker and then see how the state and the rest of the country reacts, If all goes well, Californians at least can expect to be able to gamble on local online casinos and enjoy the promotions and bonuses that are intended especially for them.

Right now, it is estimated that more than a million California citizens are participating in online poker games but have to open an account with an offshore casino to do so. Currency conversions would be simple and players would have more choice as there are currently very few online casinos that will accept US players.

Those who support online gambling hope that this will strengthen the argument against the UIGEA and help them move forward with this change.