Last year, the hope returned for casinos in Nevada after August, September and October were all profitable months for the casinos after two years of negative revenue. Now it appears however, those hopes were short-lived, in November the hard reality came back and casinos saw another drop in revenue in November.

In recent years, it is not been good for casinos in Las Vegas, last year the revenue seemed to improve slightly, but in November the first earnings decline since three months has been reported. Revenue for the casino gambling state fell to $822 million, a decrease of 5.9 percent as compared to same period in 2009. It does not indicate that there is less gambling in the casinos of Nevada. More than 10 billion dollars was bet on table games and slot machines in Nevada in November. Only $2.2 billion of that amount was spent at the tables, an difference of approximately $171.1 million as compared to 2009. Gamblers also spent less on slot machines, with $8.5 billion wagered, which was $286 million less than what went through the slots in 2009.

US-based analysts blame a combination of factors, but the most popular reason is the luck of the player. In November, players had the advantage against the house. It is very likely that the figures for December show that players in that month were less fortunate than in November. Analysts think that 2011 will be a start for the reintegration of the gaming industry in the U.S., many states are amending their laws to allow online gambling. The revenues from this will be so much that most states could close the financial gap created by the financial crisis.

A study by H2 Gambling Capitals shows that while the global economy and in the UK have weakened considerably, the casino gambling industry continues to grow by 12.5 percent.

The total profit goes up with just under 19 million pounds and up comes primarily from sales of sports betting, but even if the profits of the World Cup would be pulled off, the profit would still be an impressive 11.5 percent. The sports betting sector was the most profitable with an income of 7.78 billion pounds, an increase of 10.8 percent. Second came online bingo with 1.72 billion pounds, an increase of 28.4 percent. Finally came the online casinos with a profit of 4.02 million pounds, an increase of 13.3 percent.

A weaker global economy, may have caused that the number of online casino gambling sites have been reduced to 2,400 online gambling sites since 2009. It was thought that poker would do well, but according to the survey, the popular game only had a small gain of 7.1% with a turnover of 3.26 million pounds. An important point that has played a part in the growth of the online gaming industry can be attributed to legislative changes within the EU, with more countries allowing competition from other country’s.

The smartphone market is currently very competitive and each operator tries to find the best ways to attract customers. The online casino gambling market is currently moving towards the mobile market and it seems that the major casino companies have their battle plans already on the table.

Apple is uncertain whether to enter the online gambling market with their iPhone and offer no real money casino games in their app store. Google’s Android platform, however, thinks otherwise and has begun mobile online casino gambling. The largest developer of online casino software, Microgaming has indicated that their games are now available for users of Android smartphone. Mike Hebden, chief of Microgaming casinos said: “The interest around Android v2.2 is massive, the Froyo user interface and experience is comparable to that of the iPhone and the platform is rapidly growing in popularity with developers and consumers. Android has more momentum than any other platform and is largely driving the increased sales of smartphones. A number of pad style devices will also soon be running Android v2.2″

The first Microgaming operator to launch a play money and real money online casino is Betway online casino. Betway is one of the best operators of Microgaming online casino software and the new mobile software is available from mobile.betway.com. Daniel Goss Betway CEO said: “Microgaming enables us to offer our customers the most dynamic and entertaining casino games on the market’s latest platforms. It’s a winning combination that has helped us grow our customer base and mobile casino business. A successful mobile casino business needs to support Android, and we are delighted to be able to meet this demand.” In the Betway mobile casino you can play the slot machines Thunderstruck, Tomb Raider, Mega Moolah and Mermaids Millions and play European Blackjack. In the future you can expect more games will be added.

The Chinese State Council Information Office is engaged in a massive attack against websites that violate cultural rules, including more than one hundred online casino sites. At least half of the operators is facing a prison sentence of at least 5 years.

Wang Chen, minister of the Information Bureau said the nationwide crackdown on illegal online gambling sites is done to protect the population against Internet crime including viruses, identity theft and money laundering. The minister also said that the increased crackdown will improve the cultural environment of the Internet in China. The online freedom in China is pretty much absent, several groups that advocate for Internet freedom call the restrictions on the internet the “Great Firewall of China.” Although casino gambling is allowed in the Chinese enclave of Macau, the government discourages internet casinos gambling by banning many websites, with high penalties if the prohibition is violated.

Since November 2010 the Chinese government has closed more than 60,000 websites and removed 350 million photos. 785 million websites were examined to determine which sites contain illegal content. The authorities also investigated 13,000 illegal advertisements, 800 illegal audiovisual websites and over 150 online casino gambling sites. Many of the sites under investigation have a location in China and specialize in sports betting. Some sites offer casino gambling software with slot machines, card games and other games popular in the region.

A Spanish lottery player nearly lost 9 million Euro in a lottery jackpot after his ticket was lost in the garbage was lost only to later discover that they are the winners of the jackpot.

Ignacio Gonzalez, a lottery vendor in the north of the country was crushed when he learned on Friday that the numbers which he had played with 14 friends, 48104 had been drawn as the winning lottery number for a charity raffle for ONCE, a Spanish organization for the blind. The euphoria of Gonzalez, however, was short-lived when he found out that he could not find his lottery ticket. After a desperate search through his house and with his hopes shattered, he went outside to the neighbourhood bin. Without thinking about it, he dumped the container on its side and began to search among the contents. In the middle of the rubbish Gonzalez finally found his winning ticket, which would make him and all his friends just over 600,000 Euro richer.

Gonzales said: “The New Year was off to a very good start, with a shower of millions. I was lucky that this happened to me, and one minute later I realized that I had lost my ticket. I went to the dumpster and found it there.” The good spirited casino gambling winner admitted he was afraid his friends would lynch him if he would had lost the winning lottery ticket for the jackpot forever.

Singapore’s economy grew by 14.7 percent last year, probably the second highest rise after Qatar, the improvement of the economy is partly due to the two giant new casino resorts: Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa.

The two major casino resorts in Singapore, cost more than 7.5 billion to build, and are the crown jewels of a decade-long effort to diversify the island economy. The country is now focusing on services such as tourism and finance, and tries to reduce the dependency on the manufacturing industry. The casinos have delivered more than 20,000 jobs, helped attract a record number of visitors and contributed to the 14.7 percent economic growth from last year. Singapore, which in recent decades lost many of its low-wage production to emerging regional economies such as China and Vietnam, focuses on the export of more value added products such as semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. Production rose 28 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, while services rose 8.8 percent and construction fell to 1.2 percent, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

This year, the gambling resorts should contribute around 1.7 percent to the gross domestic product growth, which is expected to go slow but will still grow at a healthy 7 percent. The government predicts economic growth of between 4 percent and 6 percent for 2011 in Singapore. In an attempt to lure Chinese visitors, the casino gambling resorts incorporated Feng Shui principles and other Chinese beliefs into their casino design and operation. Resorts World opened its casino on February 14th at 08:28, while Marina Bay Sands opened on March 27 at 15:18 because eight is considered as a lucky number in Chinese culture, and luck is something useful in a casino. To discourage social problems like gambling addiction, the government has set up an entrance fee for the casinos for the local population of 50 pounds for a 24-hour visit or 1.000 pounds for one year. The government took more than 50 million pounds last year from casino entrance, suggesting that many Singaporeans do not bother to pay to enter the casino.

The Weather Lottery (TWL) has announced that they are in the acquisition process of online poker business Devilfish Poker for an amount of £330,000. The conditional agreement is part of the strategy of the company to create an additional casino gaming division to complement their existing lottery offerings.

Under the terms of the agreement, TWL will pay £40,000 in cash and the outstanding amount of £290,000 will be completed by the issuance of up to 30,000,000 ordinary shares of TWL, bringing total compensation up to £330,000. Devilfish Gaming announced last month that they have agreed to sell its online gambling company after months of uncertainty about the future of the company. The casino gaming company was founded by professional poker player David “Devilfish” Ulliott and was listed on the London PLUS stock exchange in 2008 with a market value of £3.2 million. Despite the strong brand name of the Internet casino business, the company suffered a number of problems, including problems with the casino gambling license of the business which caused they could no longer advertise in the UK, a major player in the online casino market.

TWL can add the acquisition to the existing development of its FCBetz.com sports betting brand and its Weather Lottery and the new FC Lotto brand. Lord Razzall, CEO of TWL said, “Devil Fish Poker (DFP) has an established brand name in a sector which is complimentary to the existing gambling operations of TWL. We have a growing database of users in both FCBetz.com and FC Lotto some of whom will we believe wish to take advantage of the DFP products. The Board considers its acquisition at a time when there is still considerable untapped potential for development fits in with our gaming strategy.” TWL said the acquisition of Devilfish Poker enables the company to take advantage of what they think is an undeveloped potential brand, and they can focus specifically on active Devilfish poker players but also thousands of inactive accounts. TWL added that they can benefit from the cross-selling of FCBetz.com and Devilfish Poker products.

As almost everyone knows, Bwin and PartyGaming will merge to create the largest online gambling company in the world withtheir combined customer base and revenues to provide an almost unbeatable casino company. In a press release, the company gives some more information about the upcoming merger.

The future largest publicly listed gambling company has indicated that the merger between the two casino companies is on schedule and they even announced the name for the combined companies. The new name is unfortunately not as original as the idea of Bodog director Patrik Selin to rename the company as Pwin, the creative minds at the company has come up with the name bwin.party digital entertainment plc or bwin.party in brief. Under the terms of the agreement bwin shareholders will keep 51.7% of the company, while PartyGaming will hold the other 48.3%.

The Co-CEO for Bwin, Norbert Teufelberger said: “Our products and target markets complement one another perfectly, and we can continue to expand our technology lead in all key product segments: sports betting, poker, casino, bingo and table games.” The company has also indicated that the combined headquarters of bwin.party will be located in Gibraltar and that the company will be listed on the London Stock Exchange. Norbert added: “Our many years of online know-how, healthy balance sheet, and one of the largest pools of poker liquidity in any regulated market will make us an attractive business partner.” The merger will officially go in effect in the first quarter of 2011.

The Cyprus Ministry of Finance has indicated that the legislation that would ban Internet gambling in the country has been postponed with three months, after it became clear that the decision of the EU will not take place until March.

The communist government of the Mediterranean island wants a complete ban on online poker, slots and other casino games online. The online gambling turnover for the country is estimated to be around 2.5 billion pounds per year. It is not intended that online sports betting will be banned. There are no casinos in Cyprus, but gamblers have exploited a loophole by allowing you to gamble at online gambling operators from other countries, meaning that online casino gambling is virtually unregulated in Cyprus. Police and government officials have described online casino gambling as a plague that encourages crime.

According to sources, a draft bill calls for the establishment of a licensing authority that issues permits and regulates the several forms of gambling, it would be a little order in the chaos of the online casino gambling market. The Cypriot government has sent the proposed gambling bill to the EC for review, but will not receive an opinion until March 2011, rather than the hoped-for December months this year. The government is against any form of casinos, but residents only need to cross the border to Northern Cyprus where dozens of casinos are available.

The founder of online casino operator PartyGaming, Anurag Dikshit avoided a jail sentence despite his guilty plea on online gambling charges in 2008 under the Federal Wire Act, a law used to prosecute online gambling in the US.

Anurag Dikshit could have been convicted to two years in jail, but a court in New York decided to give him one year probation instead. Dikshit was able to avoid a prison sentence thanks to an agreement he struck with the U.S. Department of Justice. Under the terms of the agreement, he paid 193 million GBP in order not to be prosecuted for his role in the activities of Internet casino operator PartyGaming in the U.S. before the introduction of the UIGEA in 2006. The presiding judge Jed Rakoff, asked the prosecutors to explain the fact that neither of the two other founders of PartyGaming, Ruth Parasol DeLeon and Russell DeLeon, were indicted despite both being U.S. citizens, while Dikshit is Indian without U.S. citizenship.

The PartyGaming online casino software developer left the company in January this year after he sold his last shares for 120.9 million GBP in 2009. The money from the sale of his shares in the online casino company is used for his charitable company, The Kusuma Trust, which offers financial support to humanitarian and school projects in Gibraltar and India. PartyGaming followed Dikshit with an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2009 in which they paid 67.6 million GBP. Online gambling operator Sportingbet followed not much later and paid 21.1 million GBP to the U.S. government after three years of negotiations. Jim Ryan, CEO of PartyGaming said that a probity agreement with the main shareholders, DeLeon and Parasol was included in the merger agreement with Bwin, which requires them to sell their shares if their position would cancel the opportunity for the casino operator to acquire a license in the U.S..