Casino forum archive

The capital seems peaceful enough, even a little sleepy in the muggy September heat. But down in the nether regions of Tallahassee, out of public view, terrible mercenaries prepare for the coming battle.

Call it the clash of the silk suit titans.

Gambling interests, from South Florida, from Las Vegas, from around the globe, are hiring fearsome armies of lobbyists to shape or thwart gaming legislation percolating in the Legislature. Particularly, the twin bills sponsored by Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale and Rep. Erik Fresen of Miami that would permit three giant “destination casinos” in South Florida.

The Herald’s Mary Ellen Klas reported last week that famed Las Vegas gambling concerns like the Las Vegas Sands. Caesars Palace and Wynn resorts have swept into Tallahassee, hiring big lobbyists and writing big checks. State Sen. Dennis Jones of Seminole, chairman of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, told me Monday that the Vegas outfits weren’t even among the four largest gambling firms clamoring for an audience with his crucial committee.

He said the four huge foreign gaming corporations were also in the hunt for a “destination casino,” including Genting Malaysia Berhad, the same Malaysian gaming giant that just paid $236 million for the Miami Herald building and 13.9 acres on Biscayne Bay. Genting has reportedly hired three powerful lobbying firms, for an estimated $300,000, to convince lawmakers that a $3 billion hotel and casino resort in Miami would do great things for the Florida economy.

(What’s that you say? Surely you didn’t think that you common peons, without lobbyists, without a few hundred grand to spread around Tallahassee, would have a say in something this momentous?)

Sen. Jones insisted that destination casinos would bring thousands of new jobs to Florida. Certainly, the casino gambling proposal has already lifted the lobbying industry out of recession. The Sands, according to the Orlando Sentinel, has increased its stable of lobbyists from eight in 2010 to 11 in 2011.

For every action, as the physicists say, expect an equal reaction. Particularly when it comes to big money politics. The racinos in South Florida and the parimutuels across the state and the Seminole Indian casinos are hiring their own lobbyists and writing equally hefty checks in a desperate attempt to maintain the status quo. The Sentinel reported that the Seminoles have spent $140,000 on lobbyists to convince legislators to keep big competitors out . Broward racinos are spending even more.

If the Seminoles and their longtime enemies, the racinos, are feeling a little peculiar making a common cause, imagine the discomfit of their other ally in the great casino war. “Here’s an odd spectacle,” said Don Hepburn of the Florida Baptist Convention. “The Baptists and other concerns with the religious and moral perspective on gambling, are joined with existing gambling interests.”

The Baptists, just like the racinos and the Indians, want to keep the giant destination casinos out. But perhaps for different reasons :dirol

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Some days, it feels like you’re involved in a battle of you against the world but for Grace B. of FL, it was all about winning a battle against sultry vampires playing Reel Blood slots and outsmarting slick wizards from Witches and Wizards slots that ultimately led to her $50,285 win, making her our bravest Bodog Casino winner of the day.

While it was blood, sweat and tears for Grace, Lester A. of OH let his remarkable skills at the Blackjack tables do the talking, leading him to our second place spot for the day and a $17, 200 win.

Other big Bodog Casino winners over the weekend included:

George Duane R. of CA went to the track and won $14,789 playing Derby Dollars slots.
Jianwei Z. won $8,995 play Single Deck Blackjack.
David G.of MB won $7,799 playing Blackjack.
Steven H. of NV did great on the tables and won $5,750 playing Blackjack.

Congratulations to all of our winners for today who made their way to the top despite having had to battle those pesky vampires and witches here at Bodog Casino. Join us for our daily run of casino excitement with some of the most exciting casino games including dozens of slots and table games all available around the clock.

Join us for more and more daily casino action here at Bodog Casino. Find over 70 online casino games that pay out day after day. Make a name for yourself at Bodog Casino today.

Through a press release dated September 13 Casino Tropez has announced that all new players who sign up with the online casino during Oktoberfest will be treated to free beer in the form of a bonus. The Bavarian Oktoberfest celebrations will kick off on September 17 and will run till October 3. Players who are not members of Casino Tropez should sign up, open a real money account and make a minimum first deposit in order to claim their festive bonus.

Once players have made their first deposit they should contact the friendly and efficient Casino Tropez customer support team by e-mail with the bonus code "Beer" in the subject line. The customer support will then credit the $5 Oktoberfest bonus to the players' accounts. Casino Tropez says, "While only beers brewed in Bavaria are welcome at the Munich celebrations, players who receive the Oktoberfest casino bonus can use the bonus money to purchase any beer of their choosing."

What the online casino actually means is that the complimentary Oktoberfest $5 beer bonus can be used to play any of the more than 300 casino games offered by Casino Tropez for further winnings. These include new online slot games such as Mr. Cashback and Tennis Stars. Casino Tropez has launched some amazing scratch cards based on the images of popular slots games like Iron Man 2 and Kong. Then there is a brand new scratch card game 3 Clowns in which players have to scratch a card and if three clowns are revealed in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line then the player can win up to 10,000 times the card value. All these games are included in this promotion.

The Oktoberfest bonus at Casino Tropez is not in replacement of the regular welcome bonus but in addition to it. The regular welcome bonus offers up to $3,000 spread out over a number of deposits. On the very first deposit players will be given a 100% match bonus up to $100. On the second deposit made by new players at Casino Tropez they will be given a 50% match bonus up to $200. Finally, every Sunday new players will be eligible to receive a 100% match bonus up to $100 per week for an incredible 27 weeks. That is a total of up to $3,000 in bonus money. The online casino says, "At Casino Tropez, it pays to be a High Roller and be rewarded instantly!" New players who make a first deposit of $1,000 or more and will instantly get a $500 bonus and will be considered for the exclusive VIP membership.

Casino Tropez is powered by software from Playtech and is licensed in the jurisdiction of Antigua and Barbuda. It is a Euro Partners brand.

You finally made it to Friday and in case you’ve been wondering all day if you made it onto our casino winners list…..here it is! Congratulations to Michael Z. of CA who won a grand total of $18,120 while playing a Bodog’s casino classic, Thri Card Poker, making him our top weekend winner.

Michael wasn’t the only player in the casino to make his mark because there plenty more players who walked away with thousands playing other Bodog casino favorites. Check out our full list of winners below.

Other big Bodog Casino winners from yesterday included:

Scott J. of VA, exhibited extraordinary poker skills playing Caribbean Stud Poker and winning $11,134.
David G. of TN had his dream come true by winning $9,825 playing Paradise Dreams.
Kevin L. of IL went wild in Bonus Deuces Wild with a jackpot of $8,940.
Colleen C. also won $5,493 while playing online blackjack.

Looking to make your way to the top playing your favorite casino games here at Bodog Casino? We’ve got dozens of Vegas style casino games available with the simple click of a mouse.

Play today at Bodog Casino and join the rest of our all-stars in winning some serious casino cash.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The historic Higbee Building in downtown Cleveland is being transformed in to the Horseshoe Casino.

It's still under construction, but is set to open in March and is looking to fill up to 1,600 jobs. Five hundred positions are currently posted on the casino's web site. The majority of those jobs are full-time and pay up to $22 dollars an hour.

Karen Kaminski, the Vice-President of Human Resources for Horseshoe Cleveland says, "The group we're looking for now is our dealer and supervisory positions in table games and poker, and that staff is going to be about 500 people."

Kaminski says so far 6,500 people have applied and on-line applications are being taken through the end of the month. "It's a rigorous screening process, but bring the right attitude and passion for customer service and you'll have a very good chance."

In fact, the Horseshoe Casino has committed to hiring 90-percent of it's staff from Northeast Ohio."

There are some very basic requirements for applicants, Kaminski says. "You must be at least 21 years of age or older, you can not have a felony on your record, you must have a high school diploma or a GED equivalent, and you need to be flexible when it comes to availability."

Anyone hired for the table games and poker positions will need to commit to hundreds of hours of training. Kaminski says that is why those positions are being hired first because they require 240 hours of dealer service training and that's going to be on your own time and not paid. But you will receive the skills in return.

If you want to apply for work at the Horseshoe Casino but need help with your resume TRI-C is offering a series of free workshops.

To find out more about the free workshops or to apply on-line log on to: Horseshoe Casino.

Another week, another banking scandal: on Friday, a day after the Swiss bank UBS announced it had lost the staggering sum of £1.3bn, one of its star traders appeared in court charged with fraud and false accounting. The hugely embarrassing announcement from UBS came three years to the day since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, suggesting not much has changed in the high-risk world of casino capitalism.

Initial reports concentrated on Kweku Adoboli's lifestyle, which sounded par for the course for a young man with a well-paid City job – long hours, flat in fashionable Stepney, parties. For once, though, the narrative of an abrupt fall from grace rang hollow. It isn't as though the big banks disapprove of the kind of casino capitalism its traders get involved in; on the contrary, they seek out and encourage risk-takers, rewarding them handsomely as long as they make huge profits. The people who work on "delta one" desks at big banks bet on the direction of share prices and other assets. It's what Jerome Kerviel did at Société Générale in Paris in 2008, eventually losing the bank an eye-watering £4bn. But if he'd made that amount no one would have batted an eyelid. These young men (they mostly are men) don't make anything useful and they don't improve the lot of humanity one jot; they're gamblers, pure and simple.

Three years into the world banking crisis, there's still a tendency to hate "bankers" in general while having a fascination for the high-octane lifestyle of City traders. That's why people buy books like The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort, a broker who ended up in prison, with its front-cover boast that "I partied like a rock star and lived like a king". Labour's former City minister Lord Myners had a different author in mind when he made a speech in the House of Lords about banking last week, quoting Hunter S Thompson's assessment of the music business as a "shallow money trench ... where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs". Myners added drily: "As he is claimed to have said, it also has a negative side."

That negative side includes destroying jobs among people employed in the banking sector and beyond, and reducing the value of pension funds. UBS had to be bailed out by the Swiss government in 2008, and only last month it announced 3,500 job cuts. Last week's loss is expected to lead to more job cuts, while a drop in the value of UBS shares is likely to affect pensioners whose funds are invested in the company.

It's shocking to most people that the decisions of a handful of traders can have massive effects on their lives yet the Government endlessly delays regulation; only last week, following publication of the Vickers report, the banks were given an astonishing eight years to ring-fence their high street functions from their riskier investment operations.

The language of morality comes easily to David Cameron when he's talking about young people breaking into Comet, but it's different when financial institutions encourage reckless behaviour. How many reminders does the PM need that the culture of risk among City traders is one of our most urgent moral problems? Riots destroy property and lives in a limited area, but this white-collar vandalism threatens entire financial systems.

Before former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi was felled on federal corruption charges, he exhibited the power of his high office, and the loyalty commanded by it, by engineering the defeat of casino gambling in Massachusetts. This past week, state representatives offered fresh evidence of how strongly they still heed the speaker’s wish.

The 123-to-32 vote Wednesday in favor of adding three casinos and one slot parlor in Massachusetts was propelled by nearly 50 lawmakers who flip-flopped from a 2008 vote against a similar proposal.

One possible difference? DiMasi opposed casinos when he was speaker, but the man who succeeded him, Winthrop Democrat Robert A. DeLeo, favors them.

At least now he does.

On March 20, 2008, DeLeo - then a top DiMasi lieutenant - was among the majority in a 108-to-46 vote against expanded gambling. So was his top deputy today, House majority leader Ronald Mariano of Quincy.

Yet like DeLeo, while Mariano voted against casinos in 2008, he voted in favor of them last week.

DeLeo spoke for many members and fellow Democrats when he defended his change of heart, saying the Great Recession that took root in fall 2008 underscored the need to use any means to create jobs in Massachusetts. Casinos, he says, will create 15,000 of them.

That said, the ranks of fellow flip-floppers ran the course of the House alphabet, from Atkins and Ehrlich to Miceli, Story, and Wagner, according to roll calls of each vote.

The ideological, if not political, consistency award goes to the House Republican caucus.

Of the caucus members who were in the House both in 2008 and this past week, all voted the same way, either for or against expanded gambling, each time.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where debate is scheduled to begin Sept. 26.

Councilors stymie another court pick
The inaugural “Political Intelligence’’ column focused on the growing problem Governor Deval Patrick has had getting some of his judicial nominees past the Governor’s Council.

Little more than two months later, councilors have stymied another one.

William Rosen, who the governor tapped to fill the top administrative post at the Hampshire County Probate and Family Court, withdrew after councilors questioned his experience in the court system, his work as a lobbyist, and whether politics played a role in his selection as register.

Another question focused on why Patrick was using his appointment power to fill the post when it will be up for public election in November 2012.

The job has been filled on an interim basis since Register David Sullivan was sworn in as Northwestern district attorney in early January.

O’Reilly will host show from Boston
Fox News Channel personality Bill O’Reilly is coming back to Boston.

“The O’Reilly Factor’’ will broadcast its unique political take from Faneuil Hall on Oct. 11, helping mark the network’s 15th anniversary.

O’Reilly studied at Boston University and Harvard.

He also worked in local television before finding network fame.

Free tickets for the 5 p.m. show will be available online, starting at 9 a.m. tomorrow at O'Reilly Anniversary Show.

Patrick can sway chancellor choice
The governor’s decision to consolidate his control over the University of Massachusetts board of directors with seven new appointments earlier this month should also give him greater influence over the selection of a new chancellor for the system’s flagship campus, UMass Amherst.

The board has final sign off on any of the recommendations made by the search committee, which has started work and is expected to present finalists to UMass President Robert Caret in six to nine months.

All told, the governor has now appointed or reappointed all 17 gubernatorial appointees to the board.

Of the five additional student members, only two have voting power.

The current chancellor, Robert Holub, announced earlier this year that he will step down in July 2012, after a four-year tenure in which he was accused of poor communication and relationship-building skills.

A past favorite of Patrick’s has been MIT’s former chancellor, Phillip Clay, an unsuccessful applicant for the UMass Amherst job when Holub was selected in 2008, as well as an unsuccessful applicant for the system presidency given to Caret earlier this year.

Yesterday, we had one grand winner score a total of $32K playing two of Bodog Casino’s hot new slots, Reel Blood and Hydro Heat! Way to go Grace!

Congratulations to Grace who was our first place winner for the day among a few others who seemed to be on top of their game. Check out our full list of casino winners below and with many more to come:

Nandit M. of PA won $25,158 playing Outta This World and Crystal Waters slots.
David G. of TN won $12,120 playing Crystal Waters slots.

This is just a few of the many more casino winners who scored thousands playing their favorite casino games. Join us for more casino action with Bodog Casino’s wide selection of instantly playable flash and downloadable casino games.

Looking for something new? Bodog Casino has introduced a new customizable lobby where you can select your favorite games and organize them at your discretion. It’s your game, play it any way you like it.

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Craig F. of CA claimed the top spot yesterday after winning a grand total of $15,730 while playing Bodog Casino’s ever popular card game, online Blackjack. Congratulations to Craig who scored bigtime cash along with a few other casino players who also made their way to the top.

Congratulations to all of our winners for today and check out our complete list of casino winners all listed below who earned a nice chunk of change playing their favorite casino slots.

Other big Bodog Casino winners from yesterday included:

Karl H. of Bavaria played Aztec’s Treasure and took home a grand total of $15,730.
Grace B. of FL worked her magic and won $6,223 playing Witches and Wizards.
Hollye R. of LA was granted her wish as she won $5,823 playing Aladdin’s Wishes.
Nandit M. of PA was truly victorious as he won $5,399 playing Victory online slots.

Want to join the rest of our casino winners? Here at Bodog Casino you can access a wide selection of casino games including classic slot machine favorites, Blackjack, Roulette, Craps among many others.

Once again, congratulations to all of today’s awesome casino winners!!

Join us for more and more daily casino action here at Bodog Casino. Find over 70 online casino games that pay out day after day. Make a name for yourself at Bodog Casino today.

Craig F. of CA claimed the top spot yesterday after winning a grand total of $15,730 while playing Bodog Casino’s ever popular card game, online Blackjack. Congratulations to Craig who scored bigtime cash along with a few other casino players who also made their way to the top.

Congratulations to all of our winners for today and check out our complete list of casino winners all listed below who earned a nice chunk of change playing their favorite casino slots.

Other big Bodog Casino winners from yesterday included:

Karl H. of Bavaria played Aztec’s Treasure and took home a grand total of $15,730.
Grace B. of FL worked her magic and won $6,223 playing Witches and Wizards.
Hollye R. of LA was granted her wish as she won $5,823 playing Aladdin’s Wishes.
Nandit M. of PA was truly victorious as he won $5,399 playing Victory online slots.

Want to join the rest of our casino winners? Here at Bodog Casino you can access a wide selection of casino games including classic slot machine favorites, Blackjack, Roulette, Craps among many others.

Once again, congratulations to all of today’s awesome casino winners!!

Join us for more and more daily casino action here at Bodog Casino. Find over 70 online casino games that pay out day after day. Make a name for yourself at Bodog Casino today.

Great, thanks 😁

It was quite the weekend for Carl F. of WA who made his way to the top playing Enchanted Garden slots after walking away with a grand total of $77,541!

Way to go Carl and we’d also like to congratulate Victoria S. of CA who while playing Tiger Treasures slots took the second place spot and walked away with $72,320.

Other big Bodog Casino winners over the weekend included:

Sok U. of MA played Let Em’ Ride card game and won $34,750.
Nandit M. of PA won $29,158 playing Crystal Waters slots.
Karen N. of NY played Blackjack and won a grand total of $21,000.
Larry W. of TX also got lucky and won $20,000 playing Tri-card Poker.
David S. of CO won $18,710 playing Bonus Deuces Wild Video Poker game
Kevin L. of IL went wild on Joker Poker and won $18,430.
James S. of NY won a grand total of $14,784 while playing Blackjack.
Grace B. of won $13,872 while playing the pulse pounding Reel Blood slots.

Congratulations to all of our players who scored thousands in cash over the weekend playing their favorite casino games.

Join us for more and more daily casino action here at Bodog Casino. Find over 70 online casino games that pay out day after day. Make a name for yourself at Bodog Casino today!

WHEN we visit our favourite online casinos, it's easy to believe that gambling is a modern-day invention, perhaps dating back a mere century, associated with wartime jazz clubs and smoky boozers.

The truth, however, is very different; many of the games we enjoy today, such as online blackjack, poker and roulette have origins that date back further than many would expect.

Before the activity became to be known as gambling, societies believed that the act of predicting fortune was associated with psychic ability and was connected to a religious force determining outcomes. The activities of this time were far more basic than today's games and resembled a simple toss of luck, as we would toss a coin to decide fate.

Within many ancient cultures fortune and luck were associated with religion; both the Egyptians and the Greeks, for example, had gods that they believed governed gambling and chance. Just as today, in modern societies, we wish people luck, the ancient Egyptians would call upon their god Thoth.

As religions slowly moved away from the endorsement of gambling, the faith in supernatural influence on luck and chance began to diminish and groups started to enjoy gaming as a competitive sport. This meant that the two-sided object of fate, be it a stone, a stick or a bone, was replaced by objects we still use today, such as dice and coins.

By the 1400s playing cards were taking over the gaming scene. Playing cards opened the doors to a world of gambling opportunities. Baccarat was one of the first card games to be invented, dating from the mid-15th Century, while blackjack (the most widely-played played casino game today) dates to around 1700.

As this new recreational activity took the world by storm, and players began to wager money or goods to give the game an additional attraction, more concepts and gaming ideas were developing to feed the demand. Roulette, invented in late 18th Century France, was an innovative way of gambling. Rather than playing cards strategically, Roulette brought the aspect of luck and fortune back to the fore, adding yet another alluring quality to the past time.

Although the Chinese are said to have had a form of casino dating as far back as 2000 BC, and there were gambling houses in Venice in the 17th Century, the first recognisable modern casinos began to emerge in the 19th and 20th Centuries, when the term 'casino' came to be associated with public buildings where gaming and sports take place.

There are now casinos all over the world, situated in some of the most stunning hotels, offering the most impressive standard of service and excellent facilities. Given their popularity, it's not surprising that casinos were quick to make the transition to cyberspace.

The first online casino took to our browsers in 1994. Since then online casinos have gone on to offer more and more services and games. A standard casino now offers online blackjack, poker, roulette and slots, as well as other games such as bingo.

As demand has grown the games have developed, and there are now Internet games based on popular TV shows and board games. Online casinos continue to be extremely popular and over 15 years later there is no sign of the craze dying down.

In today’s casino winners report, it was Victoria S. from CA who blew all the others out of the water by playing two of her favorite slot machines Aztec’s Treasure and Crystal Waters where she managed to rack up a grand total of $16,960, making her today’s top winner.

In second place was Verona K. from NV who had a great day at the races after scoring $9,929 playing Derby Dollars online slot machine.

Our big Bodog Casino winners from yesterday included:

Ted B. from ID won $9,241 while playing Cleopatra’s Gold slots.
Nicole G. from FL won $6,106 while playing Bonus Deuces Wild video poker.
Eric H. from PA won $5,795 while playing Derby Dollars slots.
Nathaniel R. from IL won $4,450 while playing Double Double Jackpot video poker.

It was a great day for many of our casino players who had a great day playing some of Bodog Casino’s best slot machines. If you’re looking to follow in the footsteps of some of our top winners, we’ve got plenty of exciting games to guide you along the road to casino greatness which are all available from the comfort of home.

Join us for more and more daily casino action here at Bodog Casino. Find over 70 online casino games that pay out day after day. Make a name for yourself at Bodog Casino today!

It was another exciting day in the casino for Nandit M. of PA who scored a grand total of $13,825 playing Outta This World slot machine here at Bodog Casino, making him our top winner for the day.

Way to go Nandit, but he wasn’t the only superstar of the day because Justin R. of NV scored a grand total of $12,420 playing a few very special rounds of online Blackjack which earned him the second place spot.

Other big Bodog Casino winners from today included:

Roseann B. of AL won $5,691 playing Tri-Card Poker.
Terry T. of TX won $7,257 playing Lions Lair online slots.
Jennifer S. of FL won $6,588 playing Mister Money online slots.
Mike D. of RI won $6,521 playing Single Deck Blackjack.

Congratulations to all of our casino winners for today that scored bigtime playing some of Bodog’s favorite slot machines and card games. Looking to master the art of casino play? Check out our Bodog Casino School section where you can learn the ins and outs of some of our hottest casino games.

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Nandit M. of PA became our top winner here at Bodog Casino after scoring a grand total of $22,078 while diving for riches and uncovering a his own sweet little pile of gold playing Sunken Treasure slots.

A great job by Nandit who was our top winner yesterday as well! In second place was Terry M. of FL who won $13,979 playing Rain Dance and Mister Money online slots.

Other Bodog casino winners include:

Lester A. of OH won $8,900 playing online Blackjack.
Robin M. of FL made his way through the jungle to find his own Aztec’s Treasure worth $8, 016.
Brad. N. of MI won $7,416.00 playing Let ‘Em Ride.
Hollye R. struck gold playing Cleopatra’s Gold slots and winning $5,550.

It was another great day at the casino for Nandit and so many of our other casino players who beefed up their bankroll playing their favorite casino games which are all available around the clock here at Bodog.

Join us here for more casino card games, slots and specialty games all available at your fingertips here at Bodog Casino.

Congratulations to all of today’s awesome casino winners and we hope to see your name in our next list of casino winners.

Join us for more and more daily casino action here at Bodog Casino. Find over 70 online casino games that pay out day after day. Make a name for yourself at Bodog Casino today!

It was one of the longer and much followed legal cases concerning online gambling in recent years. One party was the Microgaming powered well known online casino Piggs Peak belonging to Casino Enterprises, a Swaziland-based company. The other party was the state of South Africa represented by its National Gambling Board. The final battle was fought in the Appeal Court in Bloemfontein, after Piggs Peak online casino had lost in the lower courts.

The appeal of Piggs Peak online casino was rejected by the Appeal Court ending with finality the long drawn litigation. A statement from Casino Enterprises read, "With immediate effect Casino Enterprises (Pty) Limited trading as Piggs Peak Casino, Piggs Peak Poker, Piggs Peak Bingo and Volcanic Gold Casino will no longer accept bets from any players in South Africa. Should you have a positive balance in your Piggs Peak Casino account, please make a withdrawal. Please note: Our casino will only be accessible by players outside the borders of South Africa."

The issue at stake was where the online gambling takes place. Piggs Peak online casino maintained that the online gambling takes place on the servers of the operator and not on the hardware of the player. Since the servers were located in Swaziland, where online gambling is legal, Piggs Peak maintained that the legal position of online gambling in South Africa becomes immaterial. Justice Jonathan Heher of the Appeal Court ruled that the online gambling takes place where the player is, and not where the casino's servers are located. Justice Heher gave several reasons in support of his decision. The player takes and activates the crucial decision to gamble at his place of residence; the online casino intrudes upon the field of licensed operators at the player's place of residence and it does so without payment of dues to the country where the player resides. Therefore the gambling in this case has taken place in South Africa. Justice Heher added, "If gambling takes place in South Africa it is of no consequence what means are employed to facilitate it and whether those means are employed outside the country."

The South African National Gambling Board had made its intent clear. Once it had a final court ruling in its favor it would proceed with the prosecution of both operators and players. Now that the ruling has come, online players in South Africa can only hope for the Gambling Act to be amended. As the matter stands now, the Gambling Review Commission has recommended that online gambling be made legal. However, government is still considering the recommendations. After the government accepts the recommendations, there is a long legalization process to be undertaken. Experts are not willing to set a date, but the count will be in years. Till then online gambling is illegal in South Africa no matter where the servers of the operator are located.

There’s no actual award in place for such things but if we come across a top earner here at Bodog Casino, we’ll be sure to recognize their efforts and this weekend it was Jody C. of OH who took the top spot after scoring an amazing grand total of $115,550 playing Triple Toucan online slot machine.

Jody’s awesome win may have been tough to beat but it was James D. of IL who came in a close second with his total of $69,133 playing his own special combo of slot machines including Ronin slots.

Other big Bodog Casino winners over the weekend included:

Michael G. of MO became the second big winner while playing the game Baccarat when he won $13,081.
Kenneth B. of NH won $11,249 playing Bonus Deuces Wild.
Terry T. of TX scored while playing Caesar’s Empire and won $21,000.
David M. of IN also got lucky and won $9,745 playing Casino Hold’em Poker.
Brad N. of MI got paid out by the Let Em’ Ride card game and won $9,710.
David B. of GA turned up the heat in Hydro Heat winning $9,640.
Joe T. of PA also got lucky while playing Blackjack and won $8,903.

There were lots of big wins over the weekend with Jody and James being the top two winners in the group. Congratulations to all of our top weekend winners who scored thousands playing their favorite casino games.

Join us for more and more daily casino action here at Bodog Casino. Find over 70 online casino games that pay out day after day. Make a name for yourself at Bodog Casino today!

Maryland Live! Casino, a new gaming and entertainment destination set to open in the U.S state of Maryland next year, is to launch a fully-branded play-for-fun online casino following the signing of a major systems contract with Aristocrat Technologies Inc, a subsidiary of Australia’s Aristocrat Leisure Limited.

Maryland's newest $500m gaming and entertainment destination will include more than 4,750 slot machines and electronic table games, and is scheduled to open in June 2012, pending final approval from the Maryland State Lottery Agency.

Aristocrat will provide the casino with a complete suite of the company’s Oasis 360 systems products, as well as its new online play-for-fun solution.

Maryland Live! will be the first property to integrate Aristocrat's innovative online solution, nLive. Powered by the new Aristocrat online platform, the casino will launch a fully-branded play-for-fun online casino in March 2012 ahead of the property's grand opening in June 2012.

The online casino will provide customers with a poker, slots and skill-based games offering, and will allow Maryland Live! to build its brand and establish customer relationships ahead of its opening.

Oasis 360's nLive Link will also enable Maryland Live! to integrate players' online and land-based profiles.

“We are creating the most unique casino gaming experience on the East Coast, right in the heart of one of the most populous regions in the country,” said Maryland Live! Casino president and general manager Rob Norton. “We only want the very best for our customers in every aspect of the property, and after carefully considering everything on the marketplace, we decided Aristocrat and Oasis were the partners we needed to open strongly and position us for success far into the future.”

The Oasis 360 system, currently monitoring devices at more than 265 casinos across North America, will cover all 4,750 devices within the Maryland Live! Casino, enhanced with Aristocrat’s nCompass media window and displays, including access to a range of advanced offerings, including the bonus engine nRich, Ricochet Rewards and Splashdown Countdown.

“We are very excited to be selected by Maryland Live! Casino to be their casino system and online solutions provider,” said Aristocrat Americas president Nick Khin. “Aristocrat's recent investments in systems have allowed us to provide a range of advanced solutions that will power the largest casino opening of the year.”