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Thanks to extensive media coverage of the world’s largest high stakes tournaments, over the last few years poker has become something of a public sport, and (despite all odds) pro poker players have become instant celebrities. You can follow their blogs, read their books, even catch them competing on reality TV. So if millions of screaming tweens can vote on their favorite dancers, singers, and models then why can’t adult poker fans vote on their favorite pros? Now they can.

This week the people at WSOP kicked off their 40th Annual World Series of Poker with a few special announcements. The instant gratification offered by online poker and online poker news has spoiled the at-home crowd, and they’ll no doubt be pleased to hear that this year they’ll even get a say in the Poker Hall of Fame nominations. And who better to decide which names deserve the honor than millions of adoring amateurs and stats stalkers?

If you want to play your part in writing poker history, then you have from the time you read this article until July 2 to nominate a player. If you feel the need to validate your fandom, the form also allows for a 250-word essay. To ensure worthy nominees, the WSOP has released the following criteria:

• Players must have competed against other top players. • Players must compete at the high stakes level. • Players must have a good reputation and a history of wins. • All nominees should be long-term members of the poker community. • Non-player nominations must have made influential changes of long-term significance in the industry.

The Top 10 nominees will be revealed during this year’s Main Event, and the two winners will be announced in a special ceremony at the final table of the Main Event in November.

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OnlineVegas.com, a US friendly online casino is offering a guaranteed $150,000 prize pool for their two-week May Flowers slots tournament. The tournament begins today and already has over 25,000 competitors.  

The prize pool is large and lucrative for the winner of the $150,000 May Flowers Guaranteed Freeroll tournament. The winner will take home $65,000 and with a field approaching 27,000 people for free, competition will be stiff for the grand prize. Second and third place isn’t all that bad either, second will walk away with $19,50011,750.  
while third will take home $

The tournament officially begins tonight at eight pm Eastern Time and concludes May 19th at the same time. Not to worry if you don’t come first, second or third; the first 500 competitors will receive a cash prize as they battle through the five-reel 25-payline slot game Cherry Blossoms.  

If you want to increase your odds of winnings, players have the option to rebuy in for $20. Players are required to have a balance of $125 in order to play in the tournament.  

So come visit OnlineVegas.com today and try your luck at $65,000!

Paddy Power, the bookmakers, online casino and online poker room, are well known for being a company for sports fans, by sports fans. As well as their excellent sportsbetting site, their online casino is offering 10% cashback on many online casino games.

However, the big news for football fans is that Paddy Power are giving you a chance to watch the Champions’ League final in style this year. For every £10 you spend at the site, you will be entered into a draw to win:

•55′ LCD TV with surround sound capability

•The ultimate lazy boy reclining chair

•£/€1,000 FREE BET for the game

•All the beer and food you need for the perfect party

•Your very own waitress to serve you drinks and food

 

Australia’s notoriously strict Office of Film and Literature Classification Board has denied yet another new game title.

Gameloft’s racy Sexy Poker game is slated for release on the Wii platform later this year, but poker fans may never legally see a copy of the game down under. The concept of the game is nothing new; a stripping-incentive format has been used in fun-only arcade and poker games for years. So what’s the hold up?

The OFLC’s highest rating is MA15+, and the Board cites a longstanding anti-nudity rule from the official Guidelines for the Classification of Films and Computer Games as the basis for the ban. This rule prohibits the use of reward-based nudity in approved games—a concept that’s central to Sexy Poker.

As anyone that has played strip poker knows, clothes are the only betting currency. The same is true in Sexy Poker where players are pitted against six increasingly less clothed female opponents over several rounds of draw poker.

Because “nudity as an incentive” is Sexy Poker’s main selling point, it seems unlikely that Gameloft will be able to alter the game enough to meet the OFLC’s MA15+ standards. Fortunately for gamers eager to try the skin-to-win title, the game has already received the thumbs up for distribution in parts of Europe, and North America’s classification board is expected to follow suit.

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Before the weekend, legendary gambling franchise Harrah’s Entertainment announced that they will be expanding their online brand through a new business venture working under the title of “Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment.”

HIE has been charged with the maintenance, promotion and expansion of the already wildly popular World Series of Poker. As most poker fanatics already know the WSOP has been growing at an amazing rate, quadrupling their event participation in less than five years. The WSOP Main Event held in Las Vegas every year has long offered one of the largest—if not THE largest—cash tournament prizes in the poker industry. Just two years ago the WSOP added a European branch to the brand and true to the trends WSOP Europe has also experienced significant early success.

It was the keen interest of an international audience that inspired the formation of Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment. Heading the new group is none other than Party Poker alum and former Party Gaming CEO Mitch Garber. Jeffrey Pollack, already a familiar face in WSOP operations, will now step in as President of the new organization and pull double duty while retaining his position as WSOP Commissioner through 2009.

With the introduction of such a net-savvy staff, the online poker boards are buzzing with rumors that Harrah’s will soon expand their interests to online gambling. We can only hope!

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A retired Australian grandmother residing in the New South Wales province had the last laugh on a doubting husband when she decided to check out a four year old Powerball ticket the couple found in a drawer during a clean-out.

Despite the husband telling her it was a waste of time trying to check such an old ticket, the 73-year-old went for it anyway and was rewarded with a A$2 million prize.

Recalling her lucrative brush with good fortune, the winner said: “We decided to have a clean up and go through everything and throw out any old stuff. I was cleaning out a drawer and the Powerball ticket was in an envelope with a few other lottery tickets.

“That was about two weeks ago; I left it for a while and I wasn’t going to worry about it,” she said, but on the spur of the moment she decided to go to the local retail outlet and check out the old tickets.

“They put me on the phone to someone from NSW Lotteries who told me it was worth $2 million,” she said. “I just went limp in the shop. My husband was with me but I couldn’t tell him what was happening.

“When we got outside I told him how much we’d won and he said it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person!”

Despite her sudden windfall, the winner has no plans for a spending spree.

“There’s nothing I need. When you get to my age, you’re trying to give things away,” she joked.

One of Australian online sportsbetting group Centrebet’s prime acquisition targets for the past few months, International All Sports, is off the list following Paddy Power’s successful bid to gain a major interest in the company through Sportsbet, and Centrebet is now looking elsewhere, the company announced this week.

The announcement draws a line under the determined attempts, which included a hostile takeover bid, made by Centrebet to gain a strong foothold in its IAS rival.

The company feels that there are good alternative possibilities in the market in the wake of the privatisation of agencies and licenses planned by state governments in New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria.

Luke Brill, Centrebet’s marketing chief, says: “We’re continually looking for acquisitions. We’ve got a strong name in the Australian marketplace and we are increasing our marketing spend and registrations.”

The Australian gambling market is a vibrant and therefore attractive one, and Centrebet could face competition on the acquisition trail from European rivals following Paddy Power’s lead in entering the Aussie sector with its Sportsbet move and reported follow-on expansion plans.

Ladbrokes has already shown interest in the Victoria state gaming licence, and in the Tote Tasmania betting agency, and Betfair has a well-established Australian arm.

Casino Rewards, long been regarded as the leader among European online casinos, is set to launch yet another stellar and pristine online casino. Sanctioned by the Malta Gamming Commission ensuring safety, fair gaming and dependable payouts; CasinoAction.com is currently offering a limited time free sign up bonus of $1250 and one free hour of play to all new sign-ups.  

Players are flocking to CasinoAction.com unsurprisingly, as the current progressive jackpot sits at a record breaking $7.7 million and growing. Growing most of its prize from Mega Moolah, whose jackpot never goes below seven figures. Just last year Klaus E won a cool $5.5 million at BlackjackBallroom.com and the game was automatically reset with a $1 million prize!  

CasinoAction.com may be new but they sure aren’t acting that. Offering new players a welcome bonus of $1250 and one free hour of play on any game of their choice is a smart and classic move offered by all the popular and lucrative online casinos. In addition, whatever the player wins during the free play is theirs to keep, just a little more help on your way to winning close to $8 million from CasinoAction.com.  

The black and gold colour mix is a classic design for Microgaming sites. The lobby is easy to navigate and players can select the game of their choice from within the lobby. CasinoAction.com prides themselves on having fast and friendly customer service agents available 24/7 for whatever needs to may have. 

Reports in The Times over the weekend confirm rumours that both Party Gaming and 888 are among the final bidders for Internet bingo company Cashcade, which owns FoxyBingo and GetMinted among other websites. The company achieved gross gaming revenues of £45 million last year, generating EBITDA of £12.3 million.

Part-owned (some 17%) by Independent News and Media, the online bingo company is expected to fetch between £70 million and £100 million, providing a valuable lifeline to Independent News, which last week secured a standstill agreement with its lenders, and a massive windfall for the group’s directors and staff, who own around half the shares, reports The Times.

There is apparently at least one other major bidder for Cashcade, with analysts speculating that it could be Paddy Power.

Jim Ryan, the CEO of Party Gaming, said last month that the company was considering a number of possible acquisition targets, and there have been persistent rumours that the group is involved in negotiations with Everest Poker owner GigaMedia in Taiwan.

888 execs have been equally consistent in statements indicating that the Gibraltar-based company was on the acquisition trail with the wherewithal to snap up targets where and when available.

HVS International reports that Macau’s casino revenues recorded approximately $1 billion in April 2009, or a 9% decline from a year ago and 13% decline from March 2009. The numbers represent the fifth consecutive month in which casino revenues on the Asian offshore gambling island have declined.

Media reports from the area have previously indicated that Chinese government constraints on the numbers of people visiting Macau have contributed to the decline, as has the impact of the global recession on travel organisations.

Macau’s Statistics and Census Service has posted statistics indicating that the average hotel occupancy rate fell by 3.1% points year-on-year to 72.6% in March 2009 with the four-star hotels leading occupancy rate at 86.4% during this period.

Approximately 596,000 guests stayed in local hotels and similar establishments in March 2009, with 55.7% of guests from mainland China and 18.7% from Hong Kong. Average length of stay of hotel guests declined to 1.3 nights in March 2009.

Last year the Chinese authorities began limiting the number of people permitted to cross into the enclave. Visitors from China dropped by about 13% and revenues in the first quarter of this year are down $3.3 billion on the same period last year.