After the successful launch of Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk back in early October, on such casino - Casino Plex - has announced that it is introducing further casino games based on Marvel characters.

The release of these new games is accompanied by the the introduction of a Multi-level Mystery Jackpot that will link all the games in the Marvel Slots Series, giving casino players the chance to win one of four different types of jackpots awarded at random i.e. not caused by any symbol combination in the linked games and any bet of any size in the linked games can win the jackpot.

Other new games include video slots such as the 5-reel, 25 pay-line Cute & Fluffy and From Russia with Love, the 5-reel, 20 pay -line video Happy Bugs and the 5-reel 15-line Fairy Magic.

For table game fans there’s Lucky Blackjack, the newest addition to the Playtech BJ range, and roulette lovers can enjoy Multiplayer Roulette that will allow them to sit down at the same Roulette table with other players, have a chat and gamble on the wheel.

David’s good luck began just a month prior to his major brush with good fortune, when he made the seemingly trivial decision to click on an e-mail he received, advertising All Slots Casino’s Euro 5 000 casino bonus for online roulette, and join the online casino. Little did he know at the time that just a month later, that simple act would lead to winning a life-altering jackpot.

After just two minutes of playing on his truly lucky day, David made a Euro 4.50 bet that resulted in five “Pharaoh” symbols lining up on the ninth pay line of the progressive jackpot slot.

The lucky player’s casino balance instantly jumped Euro 131,076.71.

Despite a penchant for international travel, DavidR intends to use the windfall to put down some roots and buy a house.

The venue was very simple, a Q&A at a small college as a part of publicity, but this is the first time that Obama has really come out in plain English to state his intentions for the US gambling industry. The land gambling industry in the US is already pretty extensive, so his comments are particularly directed at the big debates right now to get online casinos regulated and legalized in the US. Obama’s very succinct comment on the issue was simply to answer “no” to a question from the audience about whether the presidenct would consider the legalization of certain victimless crimes, namely gambling, marijuana and prostitution. These three subjects were dismissed in one fell swoop, so it’s not like the president specifically spoke against the online casinos.

At the same time, there is a big movement in Congress to pass a bill that would counter the currently enforced UIGEA and instead legalize and regulate online casinos in the US market. Some supporters of the new bill fear that all of the work in Congress will be for naught if the president vetoes the efforts.

The trends show that as the children and grandchildren of seniors teach them how to use the internet, they are very willing and eager to use this newfound community to access the online casinos. And even a step further, many of the elderly are linking up through social media and networking. Gambling has long been a pastime adored by retirees and the older generations – they are now finding that the online casinos offer unprecedented levels of interconnectedness in addition to the fun of the game. This means access to slots and bingo games, and also access to friends and a community.

One of the most startling trends is the fact that computer skills classes for seniors are taking off; and once they learn the skills, the older gamblers are readily seeking out the online casinos and a whole range of information. In addition to chance gambling, slots, and the such, poker is popular, and even internet bingo according the Technologies for Aging Gracefully program at the University of Toronto.

Chat features at the online casinos are no longer enough – the internet gambling community wants to go a full leap beyond just chatting with other gamblers at their favorite gaming sites, they want to build an interactive community. The latest trend at the software development level is to design online casino games that specifically speak to this new demand, games that take into consideration the popularity of Facebook and Twitter. The new games allow gamblers to find socially networked games at their favorite gaming sites without hassle.

The new games in development are already near completion and will launch as slots and bingo games, along with card games and even poker. Among the first online casinos to get these new socially networked games are Ladbrokes, Will Hill, Paddy Power, and others. The nature of gambling is already sociable according to the CEO of Virture Fusion, so the release of new socially networked games will just take this aspect one important step further.

The largest problems that have crippled the financial viability of Gala Coral are the laws in the United Kingdom that put a huge tax on the online casino and gambling industries, in addition to the smoking ban in the UK. Gala is a land and internet based gambling group that has strong interests in both markets; and because the company operates fully out of the UK, all of the revenue has huge VAT and gambling specific taxes placed on it – so much so that Gala is not the first, or the last land and online casino gambling group to nearly go under from the high taxes. Bingo in particularly is treated very unfairly in the UK market and the high taxes on land bingo are essentially sinking Gala.

So what’s a company to do? Gala is now considering an offer from the Blackstone Group for a bid of GBP 300 million that will infuse the company with cash and give it a chance to restructure within both the land and online casinos to create a foundation for profitability in the future. Blackstone is incredibly well respected in the US market and there is a strong chance that this deal will progress through to completion within the coming weeks.

“‘In the first quarter of the financial year, our revenues grew by 4.4 per cent, with all three divisions contributing to growth,’ chief executive Elmer Funke Kupper will tell the online gambling company’s annual general meeting today.

“…According to speech text’s released before the meeting, Tabcorp says its variable contribution went up by less than revenues after absorbing the impact of new race fields fees in wagering and higher gambling taxes in Queensland.

“‘We expect conditions to remain challenging in the remainder of the year, with the economy in the early stages of a recovery, intensifying competition in the wagering market and a ramp up in construction activity at Star City,’ Mr Kupper said…”

The Analytics accreditation is proof of proficiency in using Google Analytics, and qualification remains current for 18 months. In order to receive the accreditation, individuals must complete the mandated Google training sessions and score 75% or higher in the Analytics exam. Receiving the Google Analytics accreditation means that Income Access is now qualified to set up Google Analytics for client casinos websites, offer in depth analysis of statistics and set up conversion tracking and goals on client websites.

The three individuals at Income Access who are now Analytics qualified are SEM manager Jamie Fortunaso, SEM specialist Olland Pallatz and Income Access marketing director Nicole Fortunaso.

This accreditation comes in addition to Income Access’ team of Adwords qualified individuals, who were certified following the launch of Income Access’ SEM agency earlier this year. The SEM agency provides a suite of paid and organic search services to affiliates and operators. Included in the Income Access agency is access to paid and organic search experts.

“This addition to our suite of services illustrates our commitment to providing a quality and market-leading service to our affiliates and operators,” said Nicky Senyard, CEO of Income Access. “In addition to being known as affiliate software, network and affiliate management services provider, we are also now providing a complete set of SEM services.”

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Microgaming seized the innovation initiative with its new casinos multiplayer Wheel of Wealth: Special Edition which presciently combines the allure of social community interaction with rich-featured online slots in a range of player-choice virtual rooms. Judging by early player reactions, the new direction this game represents has proved popular and we could see further developments along these lines.

On the conventional gambling front, the Isle of Man provider also launched three new slots in late November titled Kings of Cash, Alaskan Fishing and Dance of the Masai, following these with a further four games in its bingo side games line of slots in time for Halloween titled Trick or Treat, Winning Wizards, Goblins Gold and Monster Mania. Alaskan Fishing was the second in the company’s innovative ‘243 ways to win’ format which replaces the more traditional pay-lines.

Late November as we went to press a further 4 games were due early December. These will apparently include a special Scrooge-based slot ‘A Christmas Carol’ themed on the famous Charles Dickens novel, along with Tribal Treasure, Buffet Bonanza and a new offering in the top quality Gold Series range of table games “Vegas 3 Card Rummy”.

888.com’s b2b subsidiary Dragonfish announced the launch of its X-Factor-themed slot as a side game for bingo players along with a promise that future plans include Spiderman, Cluedo, Fantastic Four, Monopoly and Cleopatra through deals with other platforms. The main parent company was also busy, launching Pirate Millions, a GBP 8.8 million progressive designed to capture the record for Internet progressive jackpots currently held by Microgaming. The launch was supported by television ads and a signup freebie of three free spins.

Pioneer online gambling software developer Cryptologic has continued to make a name for itself in the branded games sector with 50 line themed slots titled Batman and Wonderwoman, augmenting this with a range that has included the 25 liner Monkeys to Mars slot, Aces and Faces video poker, a table game called Triple Action Hold ‘em and updated versions of Let it Ride and Three Card Poker.

The Austrian site Win2Day went the Flash no download route with an entertaining new slot game developed by Rabcat called Pandacash, whilst the newly Gibraltar relocated online operations of UK gambling group William Hill launched a Deal or No Deal game developed through a Endemol-Virtue Fusion collaboration.

RealTime Gaming proved to be prolific not only in signing up new licensees, but also in releasing new games, launching two 5 reel progressives in Triple Twister with a farm and typhoon theme, and Shopping Spree 2, an update on a previously popular game. The Costa Rica-based company more recently released two festive season slots in the form of Santa Strikes Back and Naughty or Nice, both of which have been well received.

Rival Games came out with a new 20 line i-slot on a home improvement theme branded Fixer Upper, more recently following this with an intriguing and original time machine-themed, feature-rich slot with different time regions called A Switch In Time.

Scratchcard provider Neogames has been busy, too, coming out with its fiftieth game titled X+O following the earlier release on the Hopa.com and Scratch2Cash sites of a skill game The Fairy Tale and the entertaining ‘multi game’ Bingo-Keno.

The titles described the themes in slots titled Safari, Supermarket, Reel Deal and Winter Wonderland from Vegas Technology, which also released the Thai night-life themed Bangkok Nites and the romantic Love Bug, both big 5 reel 25 pay-line slots.

Clue Mystery Match is an online skill game version of the Hasbro US board game Clue which has been developed by World Winner.com. Players take part in 8 rounds, each covering one aspect of a murder case, and have to gather sufficient clues and evidence to solve the case.

GTechG2 - the consolidated brand for St Minver, Boss Media, Finsoft and Dynamite Idea - has launched a slew of recent offerings that includes Luxor Temple, Rockin’ Fruits, Hells Bells, Hot Pursuit, Spot of Luck video poker, Burning Ocean, Irish Magic and Aztec Keno as both a full and mini side game.

IGT-UK subsidiary Wagerworks explored the wild animal theme in its entertaining Super Hoot Loot, which is a 5 reel 40 payline slot with a free game bonus feature that can double winnings.

Virtue Fusion Alderney’s popular bingo games range was extended by the introduction of Bouncy Balls, Last Chance Saloon, Clover Countdown and the Snakes and Ladders Challenge feature.

No games roundup would be complete without a mention of the arrival on the scene at the EiG in late September of the electronic gaming giant Sega Games, which is collaborating with Playtech in bringing its unique and very popular games to the Internet gambling sector, notably Virtual Fighter, House of the Dead and Sonic the Hedgehog.

With festive season holidays still three weeks away, and the economic scene brightening, it’s likely we will see more releases before 2009 comes to a close, building on what must already be a record year for new game releases in the industry.

Illinois gamblers though are wondering just how the state is circumventing the US government’s very clear legislation that indicates that all US online casino gambling is illegal. Some states have begun to argue that gambling and betting within state borders is legal and not banned by the UIGEA or any federal level legislation. To that end, the state governor, Pat Quinn, signed the new bill that will allow horseracing tracks in the state to accept internet betting. Again, the online casinos do not play a part in this new legislation, it is just the horse racing industry in the state that are able to now offer internet betting.

The new legislation in effect in Illinois is also very careful to differentiate internet wagering from the online casinos. The state coined the term “advance deposit wagering” to indicate that all of the internet betting is merely an extension of the land betting and wagering that takes place at the horse racing tracks throughout the state.