Cryptologic, a software provider to UK and worldwide online gambling casinos, has announced the signing of a three-year contract to provide online casino facilities to Gaming Media Group Limited, the owner of Europe’s biggest dedicated gambling TV station, The Poker Channel, and online poker site Poker Heaven.

The Poker Channel has become a huge force in the fight for TV poker viewers, reaching nearly one million different viewers every month, with a useful 65% of those viewers going on to visit an online gambling site every day.

The group’s poker site, PokerHeaven.com, has become one of the most recgonised and trusted online poker sites in the industry, with wide European support since the launch of the site in 2005.

CEO of Gaming Media Group, Crispin Nieboer, commented: “Our partnership with CryptoLogic provides us with a unique set of world-leading branded games that are perfectly suited to TV advertising, and various interactive TV gaming services we have planned,” “As we continue to expand our European presence, we will offer our viewers and our registered players the very best in online casino games – and drive the growth of our bottom line.”

The agreement means that Cryptologic will be providing the acclaimed UK online casinos games to gamblers around the world, in five different languages.

Ivobank has been launched recently, as one of the first independent online banks to be launched since 2001 and is the first to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

The new bank will allow users to make online payments and money transfers, which is critical to the online-gaming industry. Additionally, the bank offers a debit card that is virtual in nature and accepted anywhere MasterCard is accepted

“The online gaming industry has developed rapidly in recent years, but the financial services supporting it have not kept pace,” said Timothy Sawyer, managing director of Ivobank. “Many online busineses and customers have been ill-served to date, resulting in relatively high costs and relatively low levels of service. Ivobank aims to plug the gap by offering instant and highly secure online payment services, combined with competitive interest rates.”

The bank has primarily targeted people who like to gamble online, the bank can also be used to make purchases and execute money transactions online.

“Ivobank is perfect for anyone who wants to shop online, but doesn’t want to use a credit card,” Sawyer said.

The bank is backed by the Sampoerra family and plans to see a million customers in the next five years.

Slot machines are great for passing time by in the pub or casino. The jackpots aren’t huge but the speed of play and ability to make significant amounts of money make them one of the most popular forms of gaming on and offline.

Slots have been around for years, and ever since their creation have made a lot of people rich and happy, as well as depressed and poor! The first recorded invention of a gambling machine was in 1891. Sittman and Pitt in Brooklyn, New York developed a machine which be used as a framework for building thousands of slot machines in the future. Within years gambling machines were being installed and invented all over the US, with the first one armed bandit machine being design being the most popular.

The basic idea of Slot machines is to trying match symbols on three or more spinning reels. If players manage to match the symbols or patterns, determined by the games rules, they will win some form of money back or extra games.

Several variations of slot machines have now been designed, such as video slots, reel slots and games such as video poker or blackjack. The number of slot machines has steadily increased over the years and now large casinos are full of different themed slots for players to enjoy.

Let us know your favourite slot machines and the most amount you have won when playing one. Leave a comment below and we will get back to you soon!

Jackpot Capital.com has announced that one of its new players has won a large progressive jackpot without spending a single penny of her own!

The player ‘Kerri T’, from America, scooped a massive $14,593 progressive jackpot, whilst trying out the casino game Caribbean Stud for the first time. She has taken advantage of Jackpot Captial’s free new player bonus when she won the free money.

Commenting on the win, the lucky winner said: ‘I guess you’d have to call it beginner’s luck. I hadn’t even made a deposit to my account, all it had in it was the free $25 they’d given me to get started. Next thing I knew I was withdrawing nearly $15,000.”

The Cyprus-based online casino boasts over 300 games, with the Caribbean Stud game being one of the casino’s twelve progressive jackpots.

Chief Executive Officer for Jackpot Capital, Oliver Smith, said: ‘Most online casinos require you to wager many times the amount of your progressive jackpot winnings made from free bonus money before you can withdraw them but we don’t.’

‘We don’t let our players wait long for their winnings either. Like all our winners, this jackpot winner received her money immediately and we do not deduct the amount of the free bonus before payout, which is what you will find almost everywhere else.’

This just goes to show that you can partake in gambling online without spending money at the online casinos and still win. Some players look to find these free online casino bonuses before choosing which one to play at, whilst some will stick at their favourite casino out of loyalty. Keep an eye on the site for future reviews of online casinos, including those giving away free casino cash bonuses.

The Gambling Commission conducts a quarterly study on the prevalence of remote gambling in the UK. The summary of four quarterly surveys on remote gambling participation shows that 8.8% of the total 8,000 adults surveyed have participated in at least one remote gambling activity (note: this data covers the quarterly surveys beginning June 2007 to March 20008). If the number of people who participated solely in remote National Lottery games is to be excluded, results show that 5.1% of the survey respondents have engaged in other forms of remote gambling.

More to the point, online gambling is the most popular type of remote gambling, according to the survey. Specifically, 3.9% of those surveyed have admitted that they have used their laptop, PDA and desktop computers to gamble online – and that’s not counting those who gambled online using WAP technology on their mobile phones.

The survey also touched on the specific forms of remote gambling. The survey shows that 1% played casino type games, 1.4% played poker, 0.8% played slots, and 0.5% played Keno and other virtual games. All these game forms can be found and played in most UK online casinos.

It is clear then that online gambling is a fully accepted form of gambling in the UK. Online casinos are also getting their fair share of traffic from remote gamblers in the UK. However, online casino gaming in the UK is not as popular as it is in the United States. This could change, however, if online casinos in the UK persist in their efforts to promote their services to UK consumers. Local marketing has become especially vital since the passing of the UIGEA.

The Gambling Commission regulates gambling activities in the UK; it has actually taken over these duties from the Gaming Board for Great Britain. With the formation of the Gambling Commission and the Gambling Act of 20005 came many great changes in the gambling environment of and gambling options in the UK.

The Gambling Act of 2005

Nothing summarizes the gambling options in UK better than the Gambling Act of 2005, which supersedes all other Acts of Parliament on gambling, including the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act of 1963, The Gaming Act of 1968 as well as the Lotteries and Amusements Act of 1976.

The Gambling Act of 2005 was given royal approval on the 7th of April, year 2005 and became operational on the 1st of September, year 2007. In it is set forth the ways by which gambling in the United Kingdom will be conducted and regulated by the licensing authorities. It also indicates that this regulation of gambling licenses is being done for three main objectives: to ensure fairness and openness in the gambling industry; to protect vulnerable sectors (e.g. children) from the harm and exploitation that gambling may bring; and to prevent crime and disorder that may arise from, that may be associated with or that may be supported by gambling.

UK Gambling Options

What are your gambling options according to the Gambling Act of 2005? Gambling is gaming, betting and participating in lotteries. Gaming refers to participating in games of chance in order to win a corresponding prize. As the term indicates, there must be an element of luck – or chance – in winning the games for participation in them to be called “gaming” under the Act. However, gaming also requires an element of skill and even games where a player’s excellent skills can altogether eliminate the influence of chance on the game’s outcome qualify as games of chance.

Examples of “games of chance” are casino games and equal chance games. Casino games, strictly speaking, are unequal chance games because your chance of winning is determined by the odds provided by the casino and the game; in a sense, you play against the house or the casino when you play casino games. Equal chance games, on the other hand, include those games where you don’t play against the casino and have equal chance of winning with the rest of the game players; a good example is poker and other similarly structured card games. Gaming, however, does not include playing sports.

Betting refers to accepting or placing a bet on the outcome, likelihood or truth of certain events including race, sporting events, competitions, and others. There are four specific types of betting activities: general betting, spread betting, prize competition betting, and pool betting. Spread betting, however, includes betting activities on the outcomes, likelihood or truth of a regulated activity (e.g. market movements on commodities) – in which case it falls under the purview of the Financial Services Authority.

Participating in lottery refers to paying for an entry into an arrangement where winning prizes is determined wholly by chance. There are two types of lotteries: the simple lottery and the complex lottery. The complex lottery differs from the simple lottery only in the fact that the former determines the recipient of prizes through a series of processes instead of a single process; the first of the aforementioned series of processes, however, should still rely wholly on chance. An example is the National Lottery; this is, however, not regulated by the Gambling Commission but by the National Lottery Commission.