The US isn’t the only country trying unsuccessfully to stop foreign companies from offering Internet gaming to its citizens. The Czech republic is facing similar problems:
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Online gambling, Czech style
Britan’s brave new world
Parliament has published plans of Great Britain’s overhauled gambling bill. From BBC News, courtesy of David McDowell:
The new law, if approved by Parliament, will allow casinos with up to 1,250 slot machines and unlimited jackpots.It would ban slot machines from fast food outlets and minicab offices, restrict internet gaming and introduce a new industry regulator.
But opponents, including the Salvation Army, say the bill will lead to an explosion in problem gambling.
Some points of the bill:
- Casinos open 24 hours- Immediate access for public, no 24-hour joining period
- Unlimited jackpots in largest casinos
- Betting allowed on Good Friday and Christmas Day
- A new criminal offence of inviting, permitting or causing a child to gamble
- Compulsory age checks by gambling websites operating from the UK
- Mystery shopper surveys by the Gambling Commission to check rules followed
- Tighter restrictions on betting exchanges
- Allowing casinos to advertise for first time
Will Britain become the “Las Vegas of Europe?” Will more scholars follow Sir Professor Peter Hall’s example and read Suburban Xanadu to get some insight into the trajectory of the industry in the United States? Will anyone go to British casino buffets? Only time will tell.
Hold em more profitable than banking
Sometimes, I like to step back from things and consider them in historical context. We truly live in a fantastic world of wonders. I’ll explain after this story, from KeralaNext.com:
A mathematics graduate from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who snubbed a 40,000 pound a year banking job to earn a mere 4,500 a week playing internet poker, is all set to earn 234,000 pounds a year as earnings.According to The Sun, Lee-Anne Smyth began playing at university and in the process made so much money, that she refused a banking job
“Who needs a proper job when I can make what most people earn in a month in a couple of hours?” the paper quoted her as saying.
Lee who logs on to Ladbrokespoker.com and plays for five hours against other gamblers, betting by credit card says, that her 2.2 honours degree in pure and applied mathematics helps her to calculate the odds regarding the number of cards left in the pack.
Lee whose favourite variety happens to be the Texas Hold ‘Em, where players make up their hands from dealt cards and communal ones which are left face up, has reportedly won as much as 7,600 pounds on one single day.
Maybe she plays against Nicholas Leeson, the banker who single-handedly brought down Barings bank. In a Casino [ptz] post last month, I discussed his presence at celebpoker.com.
The dubious part of this story is the idea that gambling is an easy road to quick wealth, something that, a a historian of gambling (though not a gambling historian) I have to dispute. I’m glad that Lee-Anne is proficient at “the Texas Hold Em,” but I’d hardly recommend professional poker as a career path for most graduates.
The fantastic part of this story is something I never cease to wonder at; how borders have completely collpased. A guy in Las Vegas using the Internet to quote an Indian news article about an Irish woman who plays online poker is about as much proof of this as you need.
