The London Olympics are expected to be the busiest games to date. As such, the International Olympics Committee is expecting there to be a great deal of suspicious gambling activity. In order to fight the possibility of match-fixing, the IOC has announced that it will be teaming up with operators like Betfair to crack down on the crime.

As part of their agreement, Betfair will provide the Olympics Committee with any information on suspicious gambling activity. The company’s team of integrity experts will keep a close eye on all wagers being placed on the games. If they notice anything suspicious, they will be able to alert the IOC.

During the 2008 Beijing Games, Betfair also worked with the IOC. The two parties worked together to crack down on illegal betting, and saw a great deal of success.

Betfair anticipates that criminals will attempt to take part in betting crimes this year, as most bookmakers are offing odds on every gold medal event. This creates plenty of opportunity for crime to take place, but the company is positive that its strategy for fighting match-fixing will be effective during the 2012 London Olympic Games.

It seems like gambling operators are doing whatever they can to keep up with the times. Victor Chandler, one of the most established names in the UK’s gambling market, has decided to give itself a little 21st Century makeover with a new name, BetVictor.

The company decided to undergo a rebranding in order to appeal across the entire European Gambling market. While ‘Victor Chandler’ is a recognizable name in the UK market, it does not appeal to players across the continent. The operator feels that this name would ensure consistency across the market.

“As a company we are always innovating and moving forward, as well as extending our brand across new territories”, says CEO Victor Chandler.

BetVictor’s rebranding also comes with a makeover of its website. The new BetVictor.com offers up an improved user experience, allowing players to quickly and easily access the information that they are looking for. The design has also been updated with a more modernized look.

PartyGaming is negotiating to band together with leading land-based casino companies, Boyd Gaming, Las Vegas Sands, MGM and Caesars in an effort to reintroduce itself to the American online gambling market.

Many international online companies were forced to retreat from competing in the American market with the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006. PartyGaming was specifically targeted with a lawsuit in the State of Kentucky for providing its online games to players in that region.

Recent online gambling bills in states such as New Jersey will make it illegal for players to access gaming sites that are not based in Atlantic City. Efforts by American gaming associations to focus their energies on regulating and legalizing online gambling at the state level may force other states to adopt legislation similar to that of New Jersey.

In order to avoid violating federal gambling laws in the meantime, international companies may be forced to join forces with American land-based companies as the only way to legitimately re-enter the market.

Given that the U.S. online gambling market is cited as second only to the UK and estimated to be worth billions of dollars annually, this may be incentive enough for PartyGaming, the world’s major online gaming company, to join the club.

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.

According to the Independent Study for Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), approximately one million people in Britain regularly gamble online. This statistic represents almost one third of the entire European population and of this estimate, women represent a growing percentage of the gambling population estimating up to 30% of hits to UK gambling sites during the World Cup matches alone.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell seems to be picking up on this trend. She recently entered the fray by calling the UK the hallmark for standards for online gambling and saying that she hoped more companies considered the move to that nation to set up shop. Although she did concede there would be some benefits to the governments regulating online gambling games, Jowell insisted the fundamental driver behind the new government push was protection of the public from unscrupulous behavior from offshore online gambling casinos.

Under the proposed government regulations, online gambling websites would not be allowed to target children with their advertising and customers would need to be informed on a constant basis about how much money they had spent on any of the games including online poker and online slots.

Other government ministers have conceded that the project is both ambitious and complicated but the government has presented a united front that regulating online gambling in this way will be well worth it and in the best interest of the public in the end.

The newest online slots game from Microgaming puts an interesting new spin on traditional video slots. Planet Exotica, a five-reel 15-payline game, is based in a very unique setting: a strip club located in outerspace.

On the reels, some strange characters are lurking as symbols, including purple strippers (which resemble characters from The Fifth Element) and green Cyclops-like bartenders. The exotic dancers are all scantily-clad in leather and lace outfits that look like they have been plucked right out of Showgirls.

Planet Exotica features some interesting bonus games, including the Select a Smooch bonus, in which players can win up to 1 million coins. After revealing three to five lips on the reels, the player must choose a pair in order to obtain a bonus multiplier or a number of free spins.

There is also the Sneak A Peek bonus, which is triggered when the Sneak a Peek symbol appears on the first reel. When the player is transferred to the actual bonus game, the player is required to sneak a peek of one of the dancer’s without any of the bouncers taking notice. The prize for this round could reward players up to 12 000 coins.

Last year, Greece was one of the few European countries to ban online gambling, but it seems now that the country’s government is changing its tune. Seeing how profitable online gambling legislation has been for other countries in the European Union, Greece has now drafted its own bill that would legalize and regulate the online gambling industry in the country.

Currently, residents of Greece spend more than $4 billion each year at online gambling websites that are running illegally in the country. With the new bill, the government hopes to recover some of that lost income, using it to help recover from its current financial situation.

Despite having been bailed out last year and avoiding bankruptcy, Greece is still having a hard time repaying its loans. So, the prospect of regulating an activity that its citizens already take part in seems more than fair, as well as being a beneficial solution to the problem.

The draft bill that has been drawn up for the legislation states that 15 to 50 operators will received licenses to operate within the country. There has been no word yet on whether or not it will be passed.

The online gambling industry is still a bit rocky, as operators continue to struggle to recover from the global economic crisis. PlayTech is one of the few operators that is seeing improved profits in the online gambling sector, thanks to the company’s expansion into the American online gambling market.

According to a recent report, PlayTech saw an impressive profit increase over the last quarter of 2010, as revenue increased from 14% to 21%. The biggest contributors to this growth seemed to be PlayTech’s online poker and online bingo divisions. These two markets have become increasingly popular over the past year, and PlayTech is certainly taking advantage of the plentiful opportunities within them.

PlayTech’s profits seem to have also been helped by its expansion into the American market. The company has been careful not to violate any current laws in the country, but it has managed to maintain a profitable presence by helping run state lotteries.

Because of this, PlayTech is likely to be favoured when the American online gambling market is legalized (which many politicians are hoping will happen this year). Once this happens, PlayTech will continue on its financial upswing into 2012 and beyond.

Reports state that with the phenomenal growth of online bingo recently in the Atlantic and the UK, online poker and other online games in the United States are following a distant second and can learn a few things from meteoric rise of this particular game.

There are some interesting findings for online casinos in general and online poker specifically in a recent article about online bingo. For example the article states that one of the most important aspects of any online bingo casino is the kind of promotions that they do to make sure they attract the target audience.

As well any online gambling site hopes to satisfy numerous player’s needs by having excellent promotions and good security for the player’s money. Of course the article also states that it’s important to have a section that deals with the news when it comes to online poker and other online games as they do in online bingo promotions websites.

There’s a phenomenal interest in United States in online poker and although many bills do not pass pertaining to this form of recreation, it’s clear there is a demand among the public that needs to be satisfied.

888 online casino is one of the biggest names in the online gambling industry. For years, the operator has remained one of the top players in the game, a reputation that has been helped by the casino’s willingness to offer players amazing promotions and bonuses.

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