Mickey Richardson, CEO of BookMaker.com said this week that the acquisition will guarantee customers premium service, benefits and advantages.

“Maintaining our growth strategy is critical for us and we continue to achieve our goals by finding strong players in the industry that can complete our wide range of products, or by sharing our benefits with customers that have been playing with other companies through the acquisition,” he said.

Richardson vowed that the transition will be transparent to Las Palmas and Bet Canadian customers, who are being notified of the change with a planned communication strategy.

Las Palmas and its parent company Horizon20 have been a successful brand since 2001, although earlier in 2009 there were complaints of payout delays which are currently being resolved. Bookmaker.com told the sportsbetting information site Sports Book Review that it will keep the brands, which it now fully owns, and bring them to the level of service appropriate to a Bookmaker/BetCRIS product. SBR commented that Bookmaker has acquired many brands that have needed aid over the years.

Doris Stroud Renegar (56) was indicted on a charge of embezzlement and identity theft in U.S. District Court this week.

Court documents indicate Renegar stole customers’ identities to secure loans, and debited customers’ accounts. She is also accused of taking $112 000 from her parents’ certificates of deposit.

In total, federal prosecutors allege that she took more than $270 000 from both customers and her parents in order to pay online gambling debts incurred from May 2007 to June 2009.

Renegar was fired from the bank in June, court papers indicate.

Her attorney said Renegar regrets her actions and is planning to plead guilty. She faces a total of up to 32 years in prison on the charges.

In 2009 Microgaming was the first online gambling software provider to introduce a slot game with 243 paylines or ways to win. Arctic Fortune has 1024 ways to win. This is because this 5 reel video slot has four rows of symbols on the reels and all possible combinations of symbols across the reels work out to 1024. Even without this innovation Arctic Fortune has plenty to offer. It takes players back to the Viking era when the hardy race occupied a rugged landscape. This atmosphere is ably created by symbols like the longship, the husky dog and the Viking warriors themselves. The fortune part is symbolized by the treasure chest and the horn of plenty. The scatter treasure map leads to the free spins bonus round that offers up to 40 free spins at up to 6x multiplier.
Robbie the Robot Butler is better than Jeeves. Players can begin the New Year in the futuristic environment of this slot game with a butler that does everything you want but makes no demands on you. Robot Butler is a 5 reel 20 payline slot game with wild symbol, scatter symbol, free spins bonus round, bonus game on the second screen and gamble game. The soul of the slot lies in the bonus game on the second screen. The player asks Robbie to find his keys, pipe or newspaper. If Robbie succeeds then the payout can be up to 100x the triggering bet. If Robbie fails then he gets a second chance. If he fails again the player is at least assured of a consolation prize.
The last offering is a branded slot that brings the popular nineties comic book hero Hellboy to the reels. The other characters from this comic book series, like Prof. Trevor Bruttenholm, Johann Krause, Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman also find space on the reels. The stylizing of this slot game replicates the electrifying atmosphere of the comic book. Hellboy has a pulsating Underground Bonus feature. Players have to go through four levels of underground tunnels searching for friends and trying to avoid blockages that will bring a premature end to the feature. Players who complete all four levels reach the Chamber of Fire where greater rewards await them.

The normal welcome bonus is 100% of the first deposit up to a maximum of $100. This is obviously available during this promotion as well. New players who make their first deposit of $30 or more between December 13 and December 18 will be awarded an extra $50. Players wagering in other valid currencies will get the same extra bonus in their chosen currency. The extra bonus will not be credited automatically. Players have to contact customer support by e-mail after making the deposit with the subject line “New Member 50”. The customer staff will then credit the player’s account with the extra bonus. This bonus has a wagering requirement of 20 times the deposit and bonus. This bonus under the Your Best Bet of the Year promotion is for slot games only. Even progressive slots are not allowed. Players who wager on the forbidden games before meeting wagering requirements will have the bonus and the winnings from the bonus taken away.

The festive promotions continue at Omni Casino. On December 18 and December 19 the online casino offers 4X Comp Dollar rewards. Wagers on all slot games and blackjack games at Omni Casino during the promotion period will result in quadruple comp points. Normally Omni Casino offers 1 comp point for every $10 wagered. On these two days the online casino will offer 4 comp points for every $10 wagered. Players are reminded that on Sunday December 20 they can avail of the regular Sunday Bonus. This offers a bonus of 50% of the first deposit made on Sunday. The minimum deposit has to be $20 and the maximum bonus can be $100. Hence Omni Casino has ensured that its players will have a whale of a time wagering this weekend.

Omni Casino is powered by software from Playtech. There is an excellent array of online slot games on which to wager the bonuses and also earn quadruple comp points. Some of the recently released slot games are extremely popular and highly recommended. These include La Chatte Rouge, Irish Luck, Cherry Love and Rome & Glory. The Marvel Movies branded slot games The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man are also drawing a lot of traffic. However the most popular game by far is the progressive jackpot online slot Beach Life, which is ticking away at over $4 million. Omni Casino is licensed in the gambling jurisdiction of Curacao and has its operations audited by Technical Systems Testing.

The major event of December 2009 at online casino is the Countdown to 2010 online tournaments. This consists of four weekly tournaments followed by a final showdown. The results of the first round are out and John V is the first place winner. His share of the prize pool is $10,000. Maxim B has won the second prize of $7,500. The third round has already begun on December 14 and is being played on the online slot game X Marks the Spot. The fourth round will begin on December 21 and the final showdown will take place from December 28 to December 31.

Casino offers a loyalty points reward program to its players. Players earn loyalty points at a specified rate as they place real money wagers at the casino. In December English Harbour is offering double points to players who wager on keno. The keno at English Harbour offers considerable flexibility in that it allows players to select up to 15 numbers, wager from $1 to $10 per game and purchase up to 10 games at a time. One if the advantages of winning double loyalty points at English Harbour online casino is that players will earn more tickets to the monthly lucky draw. In the December lucky draw the casino is offering five Kindle Readers. According to the promo “The hottest item this year has to be the Kindle, the library you can fit in your pocket”. The race for the loyalty points is on and no one would want to be left behind.

If all this was not enough English Harbour online casino has launched some new online slot games. Ja Man has the warm climate of Jamaica along with its cool attitude. Players can groove to the drumbeat and win up to $500,000. Beat the Bank surrounds players with safes full of money. There are bank guards and closed circuit cameras as well. But even if caught players get to keep the loot. The last new slot game is Tarot Treasure. The tryst with the gypsy fortuneteller could win more than a reading.

Players who are not members of English Harbour online casino have been offered a tremendous incentive to sign up. They are entitled to a 100% deposit bonus of up to $800 on their first four deposits. In addition they receive a free entry to the weekly Blackjack Classic tournament in which they can win up to $1,500 in cash.

English Harbour online casino is powered by software from Vegas Technology and is licensed in the online gaming jurisdiction of Antigua and Barbuda.

Beat the Bank is the first of these new online slots and this is what every casino player dreams of doing, though in a different sense. Beat the Bank has a bank heist theme with the reels set in the background of a bank vault. The symbols include Thief, Safe, Guard, Closed Circuit Camera and Bank Plans. There is the free spins feature with 15 free spins at tripled payouts. The bonus game on the second screen is the Beat the Bank feature. There are two safes with one of them having the cash. If the player guesses right the payout is doubled. The process repeats with the payout doubling each time till the player guesses wrong. This feature offers up to 1024 times the triggering bet. The slot game offers the highest jackpot of 5000 coins.
Tarot Treasure takes the players to the mysterious world of gypsies and fortune telling. The Gypsy is the wild symbol and the Tarot Wheel is the scatter symbol. Watch out for the Gypsy sending tarot cards flying all over. The Tarot Wheel starts spinning with a fluorescent glow setting the scene for a tarot reading. The Gypsy Wagon, Owl and Tarot Cards are some of the other symbols. The Gypsy Wagon pays out a massive jackpot of 10,000 coins. Tarot Treasure online slot game offers both a free spins feature and a bonus feature on the second screen.
Ja Man is based on a Caribbean theme. The reels are set in the background of the beach with golden sands and blue seas. The Man is the wild symbol and the Beach Hut is the scatter symbol. The atmosphere is created by symbols like Woman, Beach and Peace sign. Colorfully crafted high value cards also add festivity to the game. When making winning combinations the Man starts dancing and beating a drum, singing, “Ja Man”. The Beach Hut also adds to the singing and dancing. Ja Man offers only a free spins bonus round but the multiplier can go as high as 10x.
These three online slot games are already live at Vegas Technology online casinos.

In a staggering series of high stakes casino games the still unidentified high roller recouped some $3.1 million for his badly dented bankroll, doing so at the expense of Ilari Sahamies, Brian Townsend and Tom Dwan for casino bonuses.

MarketPulse reports that Isildur1 got down to work on the six-max $100/$200 Pot-Limit Omaha virtual tables, making an initial $87 000, about a quarter of it from Townsend, who had in previous sessions taken large chunks of the Swede’s bankroll. The duo then went at it heads up, with Isildur losing the money back to Townsend before they agreed to a heads up on the $300/$600 tables.

It was here that Isildur really made some serious money, taking almost $790 000 in 1 466 hands and sending Townsend home smarting.

Next in line was Tom Dwan, always up for a big game, who accepted the Isildur1 challenge to some $300/$600 NLHE action that stretched for 3 228 hands and saw Dwan emerge as the victor to the tune of $77 000. Perhaps Dwan should have called it a night right there, but instead he agreed to a session of $500/$1 000 PLO, where he lost $615 000 in only 300 hands to the Swede.

Ilari Sahamies was up next for some Swedish punishment, which Isildur1 was happy to hand out, going heads up $300/$600 PLO and claiming $252 000 from the Finn in under a hundred hands. Isildur1 again repeated his challenge to move up to the $500/$1 000 tables, and Sahamies obliged.

It was a costly decision for the Finnish pro, because over the following 945 hands Isildur1 thoroughly wrecked him, claiming all five of the largest pots of the day, and ending up over $1.6 million.

When Isildur finally logged off he had recovered $3.1 million overnight.

Addressing the subject of problem casino gambling, Twaits said: ”I think what we as an industry need to do is to provide the safest platform that we possibly can. Having the right sort of safeguards in terms of loss limits and deposit limits is the best way of preventing problem internet gambling.”

Twaits was upfront with the Commission, saying that while he supported a liberalisation of online gaming laws, ”I can’t sit here and tell you there won’t be more problem gamblers created through online gaming or online wagering.”

The Commission is tasked by the Australian government with investigating gambling in the country, and in October this year made headlines by recommending that the federal government ”initiate a process for the managed liberalisation of online gaming”.

”Whilst it is probable that this ban [on internet gambling operators] reduced the growth of online gaming, it is clear that international sites are being increasingly accessed and the Australian ban has limited utility,” the commission’s draft report found.

It is not illegal for consumers to access and use internet casino gaming products in Australia, but it is illegal for an operator to offer them to Australian customers. Online wagering on horse races and sports betting is not restricted.

It has been estimated that Australians already spend A$790 million a year on overseas gaming sites.

”Clearly the vast majority of consumers want to engage, or they are engaging, in poker in pubs and clubs … this [Internet gambling] is just another channel of distribution,” said Twaits.

Benton, a 32-year-old personnel consultant, said that he played on the Internet and in casino games, but had liked poker so much that he decided to take it to the higher tournament levels.

To secure the win, Benton faced a final table that comprised: Ernst Hermans, Leo Boxell, Wayne Carlson, Tom Grigg, Andrew Hiscox, Barry Forrester, David Formosa and Thomas Slifka.

The final heads up was between Benton and another online qualifier, Ernst Hermans from Holland, who was beaten in the contest but still took home a useful A$381 000.

This was the third consecutive year that this competition has been won by a local player.

In the month of November English Harbour online casino is holding a $10,000 Jackpot Sweepstakes Giveaway. Ten lucky winners will be randomly chosen to win a prize of $1,000 each. Each entry to the sweepstakes costs 500 Rewards Points. Players can buy as many entries to the sweepstakes as they want. The draw will be held on November 30. There is plenty of time and players can wager their fill at English Harbour online casino to accumulate maximum Rewards Points and buy maximum entries to the sweepstakes. Players residing in the United States are only eligible for this promotion at English Harbour online casino. There is another eligibility criterion. Players have had to make a deposit at the casino in the last 90 days.

Apart from this jackpot $10,000 sweepstakes there are a number of smaller sweepstakes on offer at English Harbour online casino. There is a weekly draw for a $50 sweepstakes. Every ticket for this draw costs 250 reward points. Players can buy as many tickets as they want. The next draw for this sweepstakes will be held on November 14. English Harbour online casino will also hold a $500 sweepstakes, the draw for which will be held on November 30. The price of a ticket for this sweepstakes is 500 Reward Points.

Apart from buying entries to the sweepstakes the Rewards Points at English Harbour online casino can be used for other purposes as well. 1000 Rewards Points can be redeemed for $1 credited in the casino account. The redemption is in multiples specified in the VIP Plan. If no wagers have been placed within the last 30 days, the redeemed cash will have to be wagered 3 times before a withdrawal can be made. Rewards Points can also be exchanged for a variety of merchandise. The merchandise includes T-shirts, television sets, barbeque sets and Amazon gift vouchers.

Rewards points are earned by placing wagers on the various online casino games offered at English Harbour online casino. The number of Rewards Points earned for every $10 wagered depends on the category of the game and the VIP level of the player. At the lowest Amber level players earn 5 Rewards Points for blackjack games and 20 Reward Points for specialty games. At the highest Diamond level players earn 10 Rewards Points for blackjack games and 38 Reward Points for specialty games.

English Harbour online casino is powered by Vegas Technology and licensed in the gaming jurisdiction of Antigua and Barbuda.