Six women from a friends group who worked together at Galashiels factory has scooped almost half a million pounds in the National Lottery jackpot. The women matched five numbers and the bonus ball this Wednesday.

The six, Jean Bell, Irene Kirk, Janet McCall, Rosemary Thomson, Wilma Turnbull and Meggy Walker won between them 429.807 pounds, which comes at 71.634 for each of the women. The group was started gambling a decade ago at Sykes Global Services factory, despite the fact that Rosemary, Irene and Jean are all retired, the group never stopped playing twice a week together. Wilma (48) is the youngest of the group and had this to say: “We are all taking our time to decide how to spend the jackpot money. We started the syndicate when we all worked together at McQueen’s. There’s only three of us left at the factory but we’ve all stayed in touch and kept the syndicate going over the years. We have had a couple of smaller wins in the past, I think around 100 pounds was the most we have won, but nothing like this. It has taken a day or two to sink in.”

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Australia was recently in the news for the ban of over 2800 sites from their mayor ISP’s (internet Service Providers) in order to protect their people from damaging sites like child pornography and illegal gambling sites, but it turned out that did not work. Now the country’s Productivity Commission is considering turning legislation around in order to license and regulate the online gambling industry.

That plan is very much supported by Betfair,  they suggest the commission a regulated framework for licensed online casino sites, because every year over 300 million dollars leaves the country untaxed under the current laws. The Australian Interactive Gambling Act of 2001, established bans on internet casinos and poker sites, but proved to be unenforceable. They then tried to ban internet sites in order to prevent certain content such as online gaming and pornography. But the plan worked the opposite way, and was rejected by ISP’s and civilians alike. Betfair is urging the government to regulate gambling as fast as possible. Even sports betting needs to change, according to the company, betting during gameplay is possible, but if you don’t give the costumers the choice, will seek online gambling somewhere else.

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A plan to change gambling laws in Finland may prove to cause a political disagreement between two regions. Aland, the Swedish-speaking region in Finland that exists of thousands of islands in the Baltic Sea, is host to the only licensed online gambling operator in the country, which existence is unsure because of the draft legislation.

Aland is a region of Finland free from external control and constraint, and allows the PAF (Alandian gambling company) to run a monopoly on the online casino industry. Online gambling is against the law in mainland Finland, but the majority of customers are from mainland Finland, with several jurisdictional conflicts in the last years. Changes in the Finnish Lotteries Act may stop residents from going to online casinos run by PAF. Instead of just shutting down businesses, Aland has reacted by entering the idea that the region will establish itself as a licensing area for online casino operators. The plan seems to be attractive to EU officials, who want an open market for services and products, but it could also result in a political discussion between Aland and Finland.

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A Federal District judge has declined a Rohnert Park group lawsuit that foils the creation of an one billion dollar Indian Casino. The group, Stop the Casino 101 Coalition, the suit was not filed because it “failed to establish that they have suffered a procedural injury.” Judge Susan Illston ruled.

Last year June, when the lawsuit was filed, the Department of Interior’s action were challenged by the suit, for taking into trust 254 acres of land for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. Marilee Montgomery, the group’s spokeswoman, said that the judge ruled on a “technicality”, and that they will definitely challenge the decision. The group is also planning to challenge the sufficiency of an environmental impact report on the proposed casino, which would have 2,000 slot machines, and a 300-room hotel resort on the west side of Rohnert Park. Greg Sarris, the Graton Rancheria tribal chairman, said Wednesday: “The tribe was pleased with Illston’s ruling, and honours the opportunity for all members of the community to address their concerns regarding Graton Rancheria.” Gambling has a lot of challengers, but also a lot of supporters. Both land-based casinos and online casinos are seen as great revenue builders.

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A Casino Poker chip from Flamingo Hotel was recently sold on eBay for 4.900 dollar. It being one of the last remaining Vintage 5 dollar Casino Chips from the historic hotel in Vegas still in perfect condition. The auction attracted collectors and online auction onlookers alike.

The opening bid started earlier this month at 3.000 dollar, a week later the casino chip had 16 bids from the 5 participants in the auction. More than 800 people clicked on the rare poker chip to have a closer look. It is not to uncommon for certain vintage casino and poker chips to receive some major sell-prices. 10 other chips from different casinos received between the 800 and 3000 dollar in the last 90 days. But the Flamingo Hotel Casino chip is the most expensive. It goes to show that you do not have to gamble to increase the value of a chip.

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A couple from Luton UK, Martyn and Sandra White, were about to leave on an Easter Break to Italy, when they decided to check their lottery numbers online. All of their six numbers showed up, but they were unable to confirm the jackpot win with Camelot before they went on their Easter break.

The couple thought it was victim of a gambling prank and decided to not spend the money on their holiday. Mr White said: “We did not know for sure until we got back from holiday. We didn’t splash out because we thought we were the victims of a scam. I thought someone was scamming me so we went off on holiday with our friends. We kept our feet on the ground and thought we have not got the money yet so we are not going to spend it. Whilst looking, I saw there was an email from the National Lottery saying I was a winner, but I assumed we had won a tenner again. It took me ages to spot the amount and even then I thought the email was wrong. £10.7million was the jackpot prize, but how much have I won? Next I checked the winning numbers and recognised them all. It began to dawn on me that it wasn’t a mistake and that we really had won.”

They plan to improve their house in Luton, Mr White want to buy a BMW or a Mercedes, Mrs White has given up her job as a carer at a school. They also plan to spend some of the cash on their three children. Lotteries are becoming more popular, with online lotteries on online casinos getting more players daily.

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888 is one of the worlds biggest online casino software developers and companies in the world, with more and more people login in to online casino sites, it gets harder to check whether a player is over 18 and legitimate to gamble. 888 has now signed a deal with ID verification company 192 Business to ensure the protection for users.

The sign-up of 192Business allows 888 to verify the age of a user at an internet casino and ensure the transfers are legitimate. The director of responsible gaming at 888, Ruth Tanami stated: “Player verification enables us to go into new casino markets safely and responsibly. It not only minimises paper-based player identity checking, that impairs the customer experience, but maintains our commitment to being a socially responsible operator by preventing under-age players accessing our game sites.” Responsible gambling is very important in the current industry, as the online casino industry is always under presure. The 192 Business system is used by several operators wich include PartyGaming and PKR.

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This week, the results of 2 independent researches were announced, Both researches state that more online gambling on online casinos does not cause more addiction, but even shows that online gamblers use more restraint and control than players in land-based casinos.

The 2 researches, one by Harvard Medical School’s Division of Addictions in the US, the other by the National Responsible Gambling Program of South Africa, are almost identical and both state despite expectations of ‘common sence’ that online gambling would drive problem gambling numbers up, the results of the studies show otherwise. Dr. Shaffer, from Harvard, studied internet gambling patterns, with a scientific study and the first thing he noticed, was that the overwhelming majority of gamblers online, gamble in a very moderate and mild way. Predicted was a raise in problem gambling if online gambling numbers would rise, but in fact the study shows a slight decline from the 70’s until now, from 0.7 to 0.6 percent.

Professor Dan Ross of the National Responsible Gambling Program of South Africa, made exactly the same findings about online casino gambling and the related ‘problems’. Typical is that both researches where released exactly the same day. Ross however, states that the real danger for problem gamblers is the ease of attaining credit beyond their means. Ross believes regulating online casinos and restricting accounts to maximum gambling amounts is the best way to combat problem gambling on the Internet.

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PartyGaming has announced the release of a new Rambo themed slot machine at one of the biggest online casinos in the world, Partycasino.com. PartyGaming has an exclusive contract, which let them use the biggest names in Hollywood for their casino games.

Partygaming is one of the best online casino software developers. Rambo is a 20 line, 5 reel online slot machine based on the legendary films of ‘John Rambo’ the one man army. The game features heavy artillery, guns, grenades exploding helicopters, everything the film is known for. Hit the Rambo icon 3 times and get to the casino bonus round, which multiplies your points, and you receive a free-spin when you get a Rambo icon. This can cause a chain of points which accumulates in a lot of money.

They also released other themed slot machines, first Monopoly is a 9 line, 5 reel online slot machine based on one of the most popular board games ever. Second Cluedo, another machine based on a board game, this is a 15 line, 5 reel slot machine. Matador is a 20 line 5 reel machine, with a bullfighting theme, bonus with 3 matadors. Gone with the Wind is based on the film of 1939 and is a 20 line 5 reel online slot machine with a casino bonus feature where you can win up to 100 free spins. Last but not least there are new live games available.

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The British Open is the UKs biggest single day event in golf and is becoming pretty popular with gamblers. Showing a hype of big golf events becoming popular with gamblers. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are the big names that draw in gamblers. But also unknown underdogs such as Angel Cabrera from Argentina who gone on to win and became amazingly popular.

An outsider at 60 to 1 who then goes on to win the tournament, has caught the attention of many gamblers who wants to profit from golf. This makes the 2009 US Masters extremely popular with gamblers. A lot of  online casino sites are paying, if Tiger Woods wins, 150 dollar for every 100 dollar bet. Also a lot of bets are made on how many Major Tournaments Tiger Woods will win in 2009. For Woods to win four majors, a 100 dollar bet will turn into 2000 dollar. With all attention going to Tiger Woods it can be easy to ignore other favourites which include: Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Sergio Garcia. If you take these factors into consideration it is not hard to see why golf can be a perfect sport to gamble on.

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