Charleston is Playing the Café Game

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Jo

It would appear that Charleston is playing the café game much like many other states are right now. By café of course we mean the Internet or sweepstakes cafés as they call themselves where they say that people are simply playing sweepstakes games or purchasing time on a phone card to play or use the internet. Of course what they are really doing is nothing short of online gaming, and these cafés that offer it appear to be popping up all over the country.

There are plenty of great online casinos out there, and you can find them by looking at http://www.gamblingreviews.com/uk-euro-casinos/ but that does not change the fact that many residents feel that online gambling has come to their neighborhood and they want these video poker webs shut down so that they can take back their streets so to speak. They feel that these cafés, with their popping up all over the place, are simply going to bring in crime, etc. with their presence and they want the police to shut them down. The governments of these states are also concerned for there is no form of regulation going on, and there is no one making sure that these places are not ripping off their players.

Charlestonis simply the latest one to crack down on the video poker and to put their web of police around them. They know that they claim that they are actually gambling for free, but they aren’t for they are purchasing the time online. The Charleston City Council is stepping it up this week and working to try and get rid of the ones that are already in town and keep more from coming in.

Addiction is a Powerful Enemy

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Jo

There is something to be said for the way that addictions get treated in our country. If you have an addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc. quite often you will find that you will go to jail for breaking the law and feeding that addiction. Now, if someone is irreparably hurt or killed, then yes, jail time is in order. But if you are the only victim, or restitution can be made for the crime committed, then jail time is not the solution. Treatment centers for the various types of addiction are the only way that these people can get better. There is no reason to think that there is any other way to treat these people than in an environment that will help them.

Then there are those cases that show that our legal system is seriously lacking in judgment. The case of Patricia Mancuso Janowski, a 62 year old cancer patient who has an addition to video poker machines. Janowski stole more than $1.7 million from her employer over eight years to feed her video poker addiction. Her attorney says that she has been suffering from depression and developed an addiction to the video poker machines which is where she spent the money. Now, this is a whole heck of a lot of money, but Janowski plead guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the crime.

First of all, this woman is going to die in prison so this is a death sentence. She did not kill anyone – she stole money to feed an addiction and now she is going to die in prison for it. This is a fate normally relegated to mass murderers – and even often times they don’t suffer the same fate. The prosecutor, obviously trying to make a career for herself felt that the woman’s fate was justified for after all money is more important than a woman’s life. Instead, perhaps they should have steered her towards http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ where she could have gotten the help she obviously needed.

Guinness Book of World Records Has New Entry

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Jo

So, when you are looking on CNN.com for information about online poker, you might be surprised to find an entry for Guinness Book of World Records. The two do not seem as though they would go together, yet here they are in the same listing. So what on earth would one have to do with the other? It all comes down to Poker Stars and a previous record that they set as to the number of people who logged into their site. They had already set a record of 149,196 player who all logged into the site at the same time and were playing simultaneously. However, there had been recent talk that the online poker site was trying to figure out a way of breaking that record so that they could get back in the news again – and lo, and behold, it would appear that they were successful.

On Sunday, 200,000 players actually logged in at the same time and more than surpassed the previous record set by the video poker company. The company used incentives to play – like buy ins that were $1 in an attempt to draw people into the site. The tournament was capped at 200,000 players though, which means that they hit the cap for what they could allow in. This means that the number of people could have been substantially higher if the site had just allowed the people to log in. The tournament champion was a Russian player by the handle of “sokoluk1991” and many were wondering if his sign in was his age – which would make him 20. it also makes him $50K richer for his win.

Money Could Be On Its Way

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Jo

For those that have been waiting with baited breath to see what might come of the Full Tilt Poker debacle, there is some hope on the horizon. There is a German company that is looking to possibly purchase the company and take it out of the country and run it there. But in order for this to happen there are steps that must be taken first and this would open them up to the possibility of paying back their player for the amount of their accounts. One of the biggest problems is that the government released $150 million to the poker site and they were to pay back their players with it. However, this never happened and you have a lot of players out a lot of money.

The agreement that they are looking at would allow Groupe Bernard Tapie to purchase the company for $80 million. The current owners of the company would need to admit to wrongdoing and this would allow players to come after them through the Department of Justice to get their money back. However, Full Tilt has still not admitted wrong doing which is what is holding them back from being able to pursue this option. There is no guarantee that the players would get their money back, but it would open the door to seeing this happen.

The new investors will take the company and run it outside US borders, thus avoiding any problems that might be creating conflicts with the US government over offering any form of online slots game or poker options. However, some want to know why this would be allowed at all without the players being reimbursed first. They say that this has to happen first and then they can look to purchasing it and moving it.