On Fridays, people tend to spend more money than during the week. You spend money out on a date or at the movies, maybe going out to the clubs or local bars with your friends. In any case, cash is normally free flowing on Fridays, so it’s nice to have a cheap online slot tournament to play. Online Vegas Casino is offering just that.

Today, July 30, Online Vegas is holding the Frugal Friday slot tournament. The online slot tournament began at 9:00 AM and runs until 7:45 PM tonight. This frugal slot tournament costs only $1.99 to enter. That entry fee gets you 150 credits to play with. If you run out and want to continue, you can re-buy for an additional $1.99.

Most slot tournaments with low buy-ins have you play for the pot, but that is not the case here. Players in the Frugal Friday slot tournament compete for a $1,500 prize pool, which is pretty good considering the low entry fee.

The tournament is played on the Cleopatra’s Pyramid slot, an online slot with an Egyptian theme. That slot game is a 5-reel, 20-payline video slot.

If you feel like paying a little more for a slot tournament but still want to be frugal, there is the nightly (or morningly) Red-Eye Pot Percentage tournament. The next one is early Saturday morning at 12:30 AM and runs until 8:30 AM that same morning. This slot tournament has an entry fee of $2.99 and players compete for a share of the pot. That slot tournament is played on the Shaaark! game.

To take advantage of slot tournaments with low entry fees, visit Online Vegas this weekend.

A lot of people in the online gambling community seem to think that the United States is close to legalizing and regulating online gambling. Since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006, America has had a de facto ban on online gambling. Though there is no federal law outlawing online gambling, the government has treated the activity as though it is illegal.

This week, the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would repeal UIGEA and regulate and legalize online gambling in the United States. Clearing the committee, it is now set to be voted on by the full House of Representatives. The most obvious beneficiaries of a repeal of UIGEA are online casinos, online poker players, and anyone else who currently gambles at overseas online casinos. However, there is another major industry that would profit from the bill’s passage: Facebook apps.

With more than 500 million active members, Facebook is bigger than most countries, meaning they have a huge base of customers for social gaming applications. Aside from Farmville, the most popular Facebook app is Texas HoldEm Poker, a game designed by Zynga (who also makes Farmville).

Currently Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker game uses only play money. Players compete for stacks of digital cash that basically mean nothing. They are playing for fun, but many players wish they could wager and win real money. It is unknown whether Facebook would allow a gamble-for-money application, but even if the game left Facebook, the poker app would definitely still have a huge audience. Also, if they allowed real wagering, they would benefit from the rake.

Though Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker app is the most popular Facebook app for gambling, it’s not the only one. A World Series of Poker app, designed by Playdom, is also popular. Playdom was recently acquired by Disney, who may be looking to profit off of a repeal of UIGEA.

There are a large number of gambling applications out there on Facebook, MySpace, iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches, Androids and more. Allowing those games to offer a real-money version of the games should increase their fan base and increase their revenue while not losing any of their current customers. For the Facebook and social gaming apps, a repeal of UIGEA can’t come soon enough.

Another weekend approaches and it’s time again for me to tell you about upcoming casino tournaments. This weekend, Millionaire Casino has a few casino tournaments, giving you plenty of options. Depending on your taste, you should be able to find a tournament that fits you.

For online blackjack players, there is the Weekend Blackjack Classic tournament. It runs from Friday, July 30, through Sunday, August 1 and is played on the US Blackjack game. There is a $10 entry fee for this blackjack tournament and players compete for a $5,000 prize pool.

For online roulette players, there is The Wheel Deal tournament, which starts today, July 29, and runs through Thursday, August 5. This roulette tournament is played on the American Roulette game. The buy-in for this tournament is only $2 and players compete for a share of the pot, meaning the prize pool is larger the more people enter.

For video poker players, Millionaire Casino is holding the Weekend Deuces Wild Face-Off tournament. As you might imagine, it is played on the Deuces Wild game. The video poker tournament runs from Friday, July 30 through Sunday, August 1. The entry fee for the tournament is $5 and players compete for a share of the pot.

There are no online slot tournaments that take the whole weekend at Millionaire Casino, but there are many slot tournaments that you can play during that time. There is the Slottery tournament on the X Marks the Spot slot. That tournament began back on July 25 and it ends Sunday, August 1. Though it is half-over, there is still plenty of time to join. The slot tournament has a buy-in of $5 and players compete for a share of the pot.

There are also a few day-long slot tournaments that take place over the weekend. There are two different Play for the Pot slot tournaments, with one on Friday, July 30, and the other on Saturday, July 31. Both have a $3 entry fee and customers play for the pot. The first tournament is played on the 20,000 Leagues slot and the second is played on the Rocking Robin slot.

There are also various Quick Slots tournaments, which take place every Sunday, Monday and Friday, lasting only 45 minutes. Each Quick Slots tournament has a buy-in of $0.50 and players compete for a share of the pot. There are several games offered in those quick tournaments, including Cash Grab, Crazy Cherry, Monte Magic, Double Gold, Triple Gold, Wheel of Chance, Liberty 7s and more.

More information can be found on the tournaments page of the website. To take part in any of the weekend casino tournaments, visit Millionaire Casino.

Online gambling may be a thing of the past in Cyprus. The Cypriot government proposed an amendment to their gambling laws yesterday that would ban online gambling. In recent years, online gambling has become popular across all parts of the Mediterranean nation, but the government seeks to put an end to that.

Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis is no fan of online gambling, calling it a “social scourge” and claiming that online casinos have popped up on “every corner of Cyprus and anyone, young or old, can basically gambling in the same way it is done in casinos abroad.”

Instead of placing age restrictions and other regulations on the online gambling market, the government of Cyprus wants to eliminate it. The proposed gambling amendment would outlaw online poker, roulette, slots and all table games.

However, online sports betting would still be allowed and will be licensed by the government. The new legislation would set up a government board to regulate sports betting operations. A tax that is estimated at 10% would be levied on online betting sites. Stavrakis seems excited about the added revenue from sports betting, saying that with the banning of online casino games, you can assume that those who want to wager money online “will go to internet or other betting.” Stavrakis, it seems, doesn’t see sports betting as a “scourge.”

With online casino gambling to be banned in Cyprus, the nation can expect to see illegal gambling on overseas casinos. Time and again, history has shown that such restrictions do little to keep people from gambling online.

If you enjoy the game of online blackjack but miss the interaction of having your cards dealt by a real person, I suggest trying the live dealer blackjack games at Casino Tropez. This is especially true if you prefer to have your cards dealt by a beautiful woman.

This weekend, the online casino is holding a blackjack tournament on their live dealer games. Players who log in and play the live dealer blackjack games will accumulate points and at the end of the promotion, those with the most points will share prize money. The live dealer blackjack tournament has an $8,000 prize pool.

The online blackjack tournament runs through Sunday, August 1. Players earn points for all money wagered on the live dealer blackjack games during that time and the tournament follows a leader board format. Prizes will be awarded to the top 73 players in the tournament (I know, kind of a strange number to pick). On Sunday, players will split the prizes. The top player will come away with $1,000 and the players who finish second through seventh place will win $500 each. Players who finish eighth to 21^st will win $100 each. Finally, the 22^nd through 73^rd place players will win $50 each.

For more information, visit Casino Tropez, where additional details can be found. Casino Tropez is a popular PlayTech casino and, in addition to the live dealer blackjack games, has a good variety of online slots, regular blackjack games, and other table games.

Almost half of the online gambling market is in Europe, according to a new study. That Europe has such a large share of the market shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, there is a de facto ban on online gambling in the United States and Canada, which makes up 2/3 (and the largest two countries) of North America. Asia’s largest country (also the largest in the world), China, also bans online gambling in the mainland.

The main problem China, the United States and Canada have with online gambling is a concern for the social problems – such as problem gambling – that they believe it will cause. Meanwhile, for most of Europe, the only problem is that they want to protect their own state-run monopolies on the online casino industry.

As Europe copes with the fact that people will continue to gamble at their favorite online casinos regardless of your intentions for them, their share in the market continues to grow. So far in 2010, the online casino industry has brought in approximately $29.3 billion in total revenue, with Europe accounting for $12.5 billion of that amount.

Europe took its first major step forward in the industry in 2005, when the UK was the first major European country to regulate the online gambling market. Other countries, such as France, Italy and Denmark, quickly followed suit. Greece, Germany, Spain and Switzerland are considering following the same path. The European Union supports a free online gambling market, where protectionism and state-run monopolies are discouraged. Meanwhile, the United States has operated on a de facto ban since the passage of UIGEA in 2006.

If you’re like me, you get bored playing the same games over and over and want some variety. New games added to a favorite online casino are always welcomed. Luckily, Casino Tropez is delivering, with 15 new games recently added to their lineup, including slots, roulette and other table games.

The most exciting new games for many are online slots, due to the endless possibilities of their themes and different gameplay. Casino Tropez has several new online slots, such as a Pink Panther slot, based on the popular children’s cartoon based on the Peter Sellers movie. The Pink Panther slot features the bumbling Inspector Clouseau and the titular pink panther and features the classic movie theme song.

For those not into comedy, there is also a Rocky slot, featuring Sylvester Stallone’s downtrodden boxer who rises to fame due to the fact that he can get punched in the head a lot and remain standing. The Rocky slot features actual photo images of Stallone, Mr. T, that Russian guy and more. Does it feature all of that inspirational cheesy music that plays while Rocky runs the steps in the movie? You’ll have to play it to find out.

Other new online slots include Top Trumps Football Legends – a soccer (or football)-themed game – and Top Trumps World Football Stars. For those not into slots, Casino Tropez also has new online roulette games, such as Premium Roulette Pro and Premium American Roulette.

With 15 new games to choose from, it should be easy to find a game that you want to play. More information about the new games can be found at Casino Tropez.

The gambling debacle that was British Columbia’s attempt at an online casino is well-known in the gambling world. It appears that Ontario hasn’t been phased, though. The Canadian province still plans to launch their own online casino. Here’s hoping they learn from British Columbia’s mistakes.

Ontario is facing a deficit of $20 billion and is eager to add revenue. Launching an online casino is seen as a logical way of making a dent in that. Unlike a brick and mortar casino, which would require huge costs in construction and payroll, an online casino has few costs, other than paying developers and a small staff to maintain the site. It is not known at this time whether they want to have the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission run the website.

British Columbia put their online casino in the hands of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, to disastrous effect. A glitch in the software caused a security breach in which players logged onto the accounts of others and had access to sensitive information. The online casino was then shut down and will not be re-launched until they are sure such a security breach can’t happen again.

Some jurisdictions opt to legalize online gambling and let existing online casinos operate in their country. In exchange, the country makes money from taxing the casino, taxing the players and charging fees to the casino to operate in their jurisdiction. British Columbia and Ontario want to make more money but cutting out the middle man and running the casino themselves. That way, all of the casino profits go to the province, rather than just a small percentage.

More information about Ontario’s casino plans will come out as the plans get closer to fruition. I hope they learned from B.C.’s mistakes, but we can only wait and see.

I don’t know about you, but I like surprises. I was never one of those kids who would sneak a peek at the Christmas presents hiding in my parents’ closet because I liked the mystery. When I get dressed in the morning, I close my eyes, reach in the closet and grab clothes. Sometimes the results are bad, but they’re always surprising. I also love grab bags and fortune cookies for the same reason. Therefore, I’m a fan of the Monday Madness surprise casino bonus at Villento Las Vegas.

Today, Monday, July 26, Villento Las Vegas is holding the Monday Madness promotion. I’m not sure how mad this promotion is, but it has all of the tension and drama of a good surprise. Here’s how it works: If you play the Gift Rap slot, you can win big. Throughout the day, the online casino will randomly reward people who are playing that particular game at a particular time. You will have no way of knowing when it will be, but if you are playing at the right time, you will be credited with up to 100 free spins. During those free spins, you can keep any money that you win.

The Gift Rap slot is a unique online slot that combines children’s toys with music. For example, it shows bears beating on drums and monkeys playing the symbols. It also shows an elf singing into a microphone and a Jack-in-the-box that is wearing clothes from a 1980’s rap video. With its unique theme, the Gift Rap online slot is a fun game to play anyway. If you happen to be playing it today at the right time, you could get an extra 100 spins.

If you are selected for free spins in this promotion, Villento Las Vegas will send you a notification via email. To play the Gift Rap slot and take part in the Monday Madness promotion, visit Villento Las Vegas.

They’re back. PayPal, the popular online money transfer company, is back in the online casino market. PayPal is one of the most popular businesses of its kind on the Web, but last year they pulled out of the online gambling industry. Citing concerns over hostile legislation, particularly in the United States, the e-commerce business decided to break from the industry entirely.

That split left a lot of people wondering how to transfer funds to and from online casinos, especially when the two popular credit card companies, Visa and MasterCard, both started blocking transactions involving online casinos. Though other alternatives, such as prepaid gift cards and e-wallet sites, have become available, nothing is big as PayPal has emerged as an alternative.

Now PayPal is rejoining the online casino industry, albeit slowly and cautiously. Ladbrokes and 32Red are the first two online casinos to sign deals with the payment transfer company. It has also been accounted that they have reached a deal with Virgin Casino, meaning their customers will soon be able to use PayPal to make deposits and withdraw their winnings.

Bringing PayPal back into the mix is good for online gamblers, because they are the largest, most popular and most trusted online payment and transfer processor on the internet. When it comes to financial transactions, using a name that you trust is very important. Now that they have dipped their toes into the waters of online gambling, here’s hoping they’ll jump right in.