Back in June when Full Tilt’s license was suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC), it set off a bit of chain reaction for the former online poker giant. The license that had been granted by the AGCC was Full Tilt’s primary license. And then it was suspended in order for the AGCC to conduct an investigation into their business practices; Full Tilt’s hearing to reinstate their license was suspended until September 15th in order for the company to work with potential investors in the deal to make the online poker site viable to hang on to its license and rebuild itself.

But the suspension of the Full Tilt primary license resulted in the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) suspending Full Tilt’s secondary license to operate within Kahnawake. According to Kahnawake state law, secondary online casino operator licenses can only be issued to an operator if they have a valid primary license. With the suspension of Full Tilt’s primary, AGCC issued license, the KGC assumed that meant that their primary license was no longer valid. Hence the suspension of the secondary license.

Recently the KGC spoke with the AGCC about Full Tilt’s primary license and their upcoming hearing. It was then that AGCC explained that even though the Full Tilt license is suspended, it is still valid. As a result the KGC reinstated Full Tilt’s secondary license; at this time Full Tilt is not offering any of its online casino services to players within Kahnawake. The KGC has stated that it will continue to closely monitor Full Tilt as it goes through its hearing.

The reinstatement of their secondary license is seen as a plus for Full Tilt. Currently they are trying to attract potential investors to purchase the company. Such a purchase would go a long way towards a positive outcome for Full Tilt’s hearing since a new investor could turn the company around and rebuild it.

Everyone, including pro and anti-gambling politicians, want to keep underage people off of the casino floor. Underage gambling is a major reason many people oppose gambling in the first place, and why some try to block casino expansion or regulation of online casino gambling. With the exception of underage people who want to gamble, and perhaps a few unscrupulous casino owners, everyone wants to stop the problem, but how?

A Pennsylvania politician thinks he has a solution. Currently in most jurisdictions the punishment is too small. The casino gets a fine and the gambler usually gets nothing. Representative Paul Costa (D-Turtle Creek) wants to make underage gambling in the state a criminal offense.

The current prohibition “is classified as a non-gaming summary offense, which is not a disincentive and nothing more than a slap on the wrist,” he said. Costa has some sway when it comes to the issue. He is a member of the Pennsylvania House Gaming Oversight Committee.

It is currently illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to gamble in Pennsylvania. Costa’s proposal would make the first offense for gambling underage carry a fine up to $2,000. A second and any subsequent offenses would be a third-degree misdemeanor, carrying a fine of up to $5,000. In addition, there would be increased penalties if the gambler used a fake ID to gain entry to the casino.

In addition to the fine and criminal record that gambling under the age of 21 would carry, Costa is considering requiring forfeiture of any gambling winnings and forcing the offender to be placed on an excluded gambler’s list.

The purpose of Costa’s proposal is clear. He wants to make the repercussions of underage gambling too bad for someone to risk getting caught. Costa says that his legislation would make sure minors know that “taking a chance at a casino” is going to have “lasing consequences.”

Poker players, especially those in France, have cause to be happy. Potentially. The French Criminal Court of First Instance in Toulouse has ruled that poker is a game of skill.

This ruling is the result of a trial against Jean-Pierre Gleizes. Gleizes is the manager of the French land casinos Les Coulisses and St. Tropez. He was accused of organizing private poker games in public venues without having a license to do so. Gleizes claims that poker is a game of skill and therefore not subject to French law that requires a license to run games of chance. Evidence was given by a professional poker player, a mathematics professor and national champions of chess and bridge to illustrate that poker is indeed a game of skill.

The ruling opens up a whole new stance on poker in France. For starters online poker would be exempt from the online gambling bill that recently passed in the French government. The purpose of the bill was to regulate any casino online that offers games of chance to French citizens. If online poker becomes exempt from the online casino bill, online gambling operators would then be able to avoid paying the French government licensing fees and taxes on revenue. However, prior to even to this French ruling, there was an effort underway to include games of skill in an enlargement of the online casino bill.

While many French poker players are happy to hear that their favorite casino game is now considered a game of skill, there are some repercussions that could impact them. If poker is officially declared to be a game of skill it then becomes a taxable skill. That would mean that French professional poker players would have to pay taxes on their income. But the ruling does give them the clout to say what they do for a living is not left to chance.

The only dark spot in this ruling is that the prosecution is seeking an appeal to overturn the FCCFI’s ruling and have poker—both online poker and casino poker—declared a game of chance. The decision will reside with the French Supreme Court.

The U.S. state of Florida has an odd relationship with gambling. Casinos are only allowed on native reservations. Online casino gaming, though not expressly prohibited, are not regulated or conducted in a manner that ensures compliance with state laws. Bingo is okay in some locations and horse and dog racing are allowed, but Internet gambling cafes are either illegal or exist due to a legal loophole. And then there is the lottery.

Voters approved of a state-run lottery via referendum 25 years ago. The government enthusiastically offered the games of chance, despite turning up their noses at casino games with better odds. While allowing blackjack, a game with excellent odds, at the tribal casinos took a lot of intense legislative fighting, few lawmakers oppose the Lottery. Now the only problem with the lottery, according to lawmakers, is that it is not popular enough.

Sales of lottery tickets are down in Florida, in part because of the economic recession and in part because there are much better gambling alternatives with much better odds. Even the worst casino game has better odds than the Lotto, so players would rather take a spin on the slots than buy a card at their local gas station. As a result, the fiscal year ending June 30 saw revenue at approximately $4 billion, which is an improvement over the last four years but still down 4% from 2007.

Governor Rick Scott has appointed Cynthia O’Connell to lead the Lottery. She is tasked with rebranding the product and making it more popular. Her biggest challenge is bringing in the younger demographics, since it is primarily older people who play the Lottery. Among the changes she is expected to make are redesigning the Lottery website and creating a social media presence. The goal is to make the Lottery cool for younger players.

It has been in international headlines the last couple of months that Greece is working a ways to solve the issues with its national debt. Currently they have obligations to the European Union and to the International Monetary Fund. While online gambling and online casinos will not entirely solve the Greek national debt issue, it can make a significant difference.

Currently the Greek government has a 34% stake in OPAP, the state run gambling monopoly. Under an agreement with the European Commission in the Greek proposal to help generate some revenue, the Greek government was supposed to sell their stake in OPAP. They are moving ahead with this, but they may not sell all of their stake, according to the Greek finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, in order to maintain management control. The reason for this, as given by Venizelos, is that, “OPAP’s value is not only its shares but also the value of exercising its management.” Maintaining management will allow the Greek government to collect revenue from OPAP operations and licenses.

If the Greek government did sell their stake in OPAP it would generate at least a minimum of €1.2 billion ($1.73 billion). The hope is that the sale would be to a strategic investor so that some degree of management could still be maintained since another €500 million ($719 million) in selling more online gambling and online casino licenses. Other options to bring in revenue from online gambling and online casinos is to extend OPAP’s license from the Greek government itself, which would add another €400 million ($575 million) towards Greece’s financial obligations to the European Union and International Monetary Fund for helping the country cover its national debt. Although amount of revenue has not been estimated yet, another option would be to give OPAP an exclusive license; this license would be to operate all of the video lottery machines in the country, which number at 35,000.

Those are only a handful of the options that the Greek government has. But it is their intention to raise €5 billion ($7.2 billion) by the end of the year. While the plan is on shaky ground with the EC, Greece intends to move forward with it, citing that it is a good plan for them to raise their end of the money agreed upon. Venizelos said, “We have a clear target to present €1.7 billion ($2.4 billion) from privatizations by the end of September and €5 billion ($7.2 billion) by the end of the year.” And all of this from online gambling and online casinos.

In the latest action against the online gambling industry by the U.S. federal government, a popular online bingo website was shut down over the weekend, with its domain seized. At this point, no indictments have been made public, but any customers who visit the old funtimebingo.com website will be greeted with a message eerily similar to the ones found on PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker on Black Friday.

Whereas the Black Friday domains were seized by the FBI, in this case it was seized by ICE. The website says that the domain name “has been seized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Homeland Security Investigations, Office of the Special Agent in Charge, Baltimore, MD.” According to the page, the online bingo domain was seized “in accordance with a warrant obtained with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.” The message also says that it is “unlawful to conduct an illegal gambling business in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1955(d).”

According to 18 U.S. Code – Section 1955, a business is considered an “illegal gambling business” if it is in “violation of the law of a state or political subdivision in which it is conducted.” There is no federal law prohibiting online bingo. Therefore, for FuntimeBingo’s business to be illegal, it must have operated in a state, city or county that banned bingo or online gambling. At this point, it is not known if that is the case.

When the .com domain was seized by the feds, FuntimeBingo responded by opening their website on a new domain. The new site can be found at funtimebingo.ag. The .ag domain is a domain associated with Antigua. FuntimeBingo says they are “the world’s number one online bingo” site.

In another example of why you need to constantly monitor your accounts and be careful what you put online and where, an online gambling website has warned of a data breach that has put some information in jeopardy. Bet24, an online casino, poker room and sports betting site licensed in Malta, is notifying customers that there was a security breach in December 2009.

At the time of the breach, the gambling company took the appropriate actions, it says, including resetting passwords. However, after a recent arrest of a suspect who was in possession of “unauthorized copies of personal customer information relating to various companies including Bet24,” the company decided to notify members.

According to Bet24, customer names, email addresses, home addresses, account IDs, passwords and credit card numbers have been stolen from the website. The stolen information is known to have been used to access a limited number of Bet24 accounts. In each case, the company has notified the members and fully reimbursed them for any money lost. The technique used to breach Bet24’s security as well as the identity of the hacker is unknown, but the online casino says it is working with authorities.

Bet24 is a casino with a good reputation, though it is not listed as one of the top sites here on OnlineCasinoSuite.com. Reputable online casinos are generally safe places to store your account information, at least as secure as your bank, but even banks get hacked sometimes. There is no sure thing, which is why it is important to monitor your accounts for unauthorized activity.

The push to bring expanded gambling to the U.S. state of Maine just got more organized. A special interest group has launched in order to campaign for bringing table games to a Bangor, Maine slot casino. Voters will have the final say on the matter.

On Monday, Prenobscot County for Table Games and Jobs Coalition held a press conference announced the launch of their campaign. The group said that it wants to bring blackjack, roulette, craps and other table games to Hollywood Slots casino. During the press conference, the group said that adding table games to the casino would create jobs and increase revenue for the city and state, both of which are in debt and needing more funds.

Currently table games are prohibited from casinos by state law. However, earlier this month Governor Paul LePage (R) signed a bill into law that would allow table games at the casino if voters in Penobscot County approve of the change. The referendum will be placed on the November ballot and if voters choose expanded gambling, the law will be amended to allow it.

The newly formed Prenobscot County for Table Games and Jobs Coalition has not yet said what the exact impact of expanded gambling would be. John Osborne, the general manager of Hollywood Slots, has provided numbers. He predicts that allowing table games at his casino would create 100 new jobs worth $4 million annually in salary and benefits. More salary and more casino revenue also means more tax revenue for the governments.

If you think that Black Friday was the first salvo by the U.S. Department of Justice against the online gambling community, you are mistaken. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out today, the attack on the legitimate entertainment industry has been going on as early as 2003. At that time, the main focus of the Justice Department was on advertising and their main target was television networks.

Back in 2003, PartyPoker.com began advertising on World Poker Tour, which was at the time televised on the Travel Channel. As a result, traffic spiked and the company became one of the largest online poker rooms in the world. It was then that the industry learned how important television advertising was to setting them apart from their competition. However, the Department of Justice also noticed.

In June of 2003, they sent a letter to various television networks and other media companies warning them not to accept advertisements from online gambling companies. The letter they sent was recently obtained by the Journal. In it, the Justice Department told media companies that they should “know the illegality of offshore sportsbook and Internet gambling operations since, presumably, they would not run advertisements for illegal narcotics sales, prostitution, child pornography or other prohibited activities.”

It’s always nice when the people charged with enforcing U.S. law compare playing a card game with child pornography, isn’t it? That condescending threat to media companies isn’t accurate, though. It is true that offshore sportsbooks are illegal and were so back in 2003. But by what statute did the Justice Department think that online poker was illegal?

To this day, there is no federal law banning online poker or any type of online gambling activity other than sports betting. However, the Justice Department incorrectly seems to think that UIGEA constitutes a ban. That law was passed in 2006. So how, three years earlier, did they think the activity was banned? The Wire Act, which is the other federal anti-online gambling law, only prohibits sports betting.

Despite the lack of legal authority to do so, the government went on the attack. In 2004, the FBI seized $6 million from Discovery Communications Inc., which at the time owned the Travel Channel. That money was made from the World Poker Tour ads and was deemed illegal by the FBI.

In response to the tactics of the prohibitionist government, online casino websites began launching free tutorial versions of the websites. Those were differentiated from the pay sites by the fact that they had a .net domain. Online poker rooms then started advertising with .net domains on a variety of shows. The Justice Department decided that it would be too difficult to prove any guilt in court so they decided to let the .net ads run.

Just over three months from the first indictment against online casinos operated from overseas, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Jon Kyl have sent a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder. The letter is meant to inquire as to how the Department of Justice enforces the US’s laws pertaining to online gambling.

In other words Reid and Kyl would like to know why Holder and the DoJ never acted before to enforce the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), waiting for years to go past since the law’s passage in 2006. They would also like for Holder and the DoJ to reiterate what their stance on online gambling is. It is unclear if another letter was or will be sent to the US Attorney General in Baltimore who headed up the Blue Monday indictments.

Here is an excerpt from the letter to Holder from Reid and Kyl, dated July 14th:

“This lack of activity by law enforcement led to a significant and growing perception that operating Internet poker and other Internet gambling did not violate US laws, or at least that the Department of Justice thought that the case was uncertain enough that it choose not to pursue enforcement actions.”

On one hand it seems that this letter could be taking the tone of why did they wait to act if not to lure online casino operators into a false sense of security. I am sure that many online casino patrons and online poker players are wondering it this is the case.

However it might be worth remembering that Kyl was not entirely on board with regulated online gambling, but he is working with Reid which shows a shift in opinion on regulated online casinos. Reid did have a change of heart and tried to pass a law that would allow for federally regulated; the bill failed to pass in the lame duck session of last year, but Reid is trying again to pass legislation that would allow for regulated online poker in the US. It seems this letter to Holder could be a request as to why he waited so long to pursue enforcement of the UIGEA, why something was not done sooner and what Holder and the DoJ’s stance on enforcing online gambling is.

At this point in time a response from Holder has not appeared. It is interesting to see Reid and Kyl, who were once definitively against online gambling and online casinos, stand up for them, which is what we here at onlinecasinosuite.com hope is happening. It is a curious question and one that many online poker players in the US have asked—why did so much time pass before legal action was taken?