Germany just lost a court battle with the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the highest court of the European Union. The ECJ ruled that German laws protecting their state-run gambling monopolies are “unjustifiable” and that they cannot prevent other EU countries from competing in their market.

The case in question regards online sports betting, though the ruling could easily be taken to apply to online casinos as well. German authorities claimed that they exclude foreign competition in order to protect its citizens, but the ECJ was unconvinced.  In the ruling, the European Court of Justice stated that “the public monopoly of the organization of sporting bets and lotteries in Germany does not pursue the objective of combating the dangers of gambling in a consistent and systematic manner.”

Studies estimate that approximately €7.8 billion are wagered at sports books – both online and in person – in Germany, but half of that is spent on unlicensed online bookmakers. With the country’s gambling monopoly shot down by the European Union’s high court, it is likely that Deutschland will move toward creating a licensing and relating organization.

The ECJ decision is being celebrated by online gambling operators and their unions. The European Gaming and Betting Association released a statement on the “landmark ruling,” stating that other EU states have opened their gambling markets to foreign competition and in doing so, have shown that “consumers can be better protected in a market that is both regulated and open to competition.”

Online gambling apps have been around since the smartphone app market because huge, but up until now they have all been made for the iPhone and iPad. Somehow, the people at American Wagering discovered that not everybody loves Apple and decided to try something new: they made an online gambling app for the Blackberry.

American Wagering released a new app called Leroy’s Sportsbook exclusively for the Blackberry. The app allows users anywhere in the state of Nevada to place bets on their Blackberrys. It only works within the borders of Nevada, which is the only place in the United States where sports betting is legal. The online gambling app requires players to sign up at one of American Wagering’s affiliated brick and mortar casinos located in Nevada. Doing so allows them to identify the customer’s age and identity and ensure that all laws are being followed.

John English, Senior Vice President at American Wagering, said that the app “provides a convenient way for our customers to place bets within the state, no matter where they are. They don’t have to be within a casino.” They do still have to be located within the state of Nevada, though, for the sports betting to be allowed.

The online betting app was created to improve convenience of sports betting, since visiting a casino isn’t always possible or convenient. It is the first smartphone online betting application approved by the state of Nevada. The Nevada Gaming Control Board closely examined the project before giving it the okay.

The Leroy’s Sportsbook app offers a wide range of sports bets, including straight bets, partlays, in-game betting, contests and more. The company plans to launch new applications soon for the iPhone, iPad and Android.

Leroy’s Sportsbook is available in over 60 casino locations in the state of Nevada and each location checks age and identity to ensure that all laws are followed. Once the player fills out the appropriate application at the brick and mortar casino, they can get a link off Leroys.com or have the link sent to their phone. From there, they can use the Blackberry gambling app to place bets as long as they are within Nevada.

If you’re like me, your favorite thing to do at an online casino is play in the tournaments. Online Vegas has some good tournaments going on, with the biggest one being the end of the Labor Day Week Long slot tournament.

The Labor Day slot tournament began last Friday, September 3, and ends in two days, Friday, September 10. The slot tournament is played on the California Gold game and has a massive prize pool of $100,000. It is a free slot tournament, so there is no entry fee, but upon joining you are only given 75 casino credits. Once those run out, you can re-buy for $12.99.

Once this tournament ends, there is another good tournament, though a smaller one. Online Vegas is running the $30,000 Guaranteed Weekend Madness tournament from Friday, September 10 to Tuesday, September 14. The tournament is played on the Bigfoot slot and has an entry fee of $10. You can re-buy for the same amount.

If you would rather play in smaller tournaments, Online Vegas is also running their regular daily tournaments. One such tournament is the Red-Eye Pot Percentage tournament, which runs from 12:30 AM to 8:30 AM every morning. The slot tournament has a $2.99 entry fee and players compete for a share of the pot.

Another daily tournament is the $8888 Guaranteed tournament, which runs every day from 10:30 PM to 10:30 PM the next night. The tournament has an entry fee of $6.99 and players compete for a prize pool that includes $4,444 in casino credits and $4,444 in bonus bucks.

To take part in any of these slot tournaments, visit Online Vegas.

In the United States, many people are back to work now after a three-day Labor Day weekend. In other parts of the world, people are happy to have their Monday over with, but Tuesdays aren’t a whole lot better. In any case, a good casino promotion is just what the doctor ordered for people who are bummed to be back to the daily grind. Millionaire Casino has just the thing with their month-long slot tournament.

The tournament is called the $lot$tember online tournament, but I can’t bring myself to type that again, so from now on we’ll call it the Slotstember tournament, okay? The online slot tournament began on September 1 and runs until October 1, giving players a full month to play. The slot tournament boasts a $100,000 prize pool, which is approximately 5 years’ salary for me.

Anyway, players can enter the slot tournament by paying a $10 buy-in, which starts you with a stack of $75 in casino credits. Players are offered up to 1,000 re-buys for $10 each. The first-place finisher in the slot tournament will win $50,000. The second-place finisher will win $20,000 and the player who finishes third will win $7,500. In total, the $100,000 prize pool will by split by the top 275 players.

The Slotstember tournament is played on the Beat the Bank slot, which is a 5-reel, 15-payline online slot with a bank heist theme. The slot has multiple bonuses and can be played for amounts from $0.01 to $1 per payline.

To play in the slot tournament and take a shot at the $100,000 prize pool, visit Millionaire Casino.

Labor Day weekend is finally here, if you’re in the United States anyway. It’s a time of grilling, of being thankful that you have a job (if you do) and being thankful that on Monday you get paid to do nothing. While you’re enjoying the three-day weekend, it’s a good time to get in on some casino tournament action and Online Vegas Casino has some good tournaments for you.

The featured tournament this weekend is the Labor Day Week Long $100,000 Guaranteed slot tournament, which starts tonight at 10:00 PM and turns through Friday, September 10. The slot tournament is played on the California Gold slot and there is no entry fee. Upon entering, with no buy-in, you are given a stake of 75 credits. Once those run out, you can re-buy for a price of $12.99. As you might have guessed from the name of this slot tournament, the prize pool is $100,000 in casino credits.

If you want a slot tournament with lower stakes and a lower prize pool, there is also the Frugal Friday slot tournament today. It started at 9:00 this morning and runs until 7:45 PM. It is played on the Terrot Treasure slot and the entry fee of $1.99 earns you a stake of 150 credits. You can re-buy for another $1.99 and the prize pool for the tournament is $1,500.

Those aren’t the only tournaments available to you. There is a slot tournament for bonus bucks on Saturday and Sunday. It’s played on the 20,000 Leagues slot and has a prize pool of $2,500 in bonus bucks. The tournament is free to enter and has a re-buy of $1.99.

There is also the Beat the Bank slot tournament on Sunday, September 5 and Monday, September 6. In that slot tournament, players compete for a share of the pot. There is a $2.50 entry fee, which buys you 250 credits.

Another good tournament at Online Vegas over the Labor Day weekend is the $8,888 Guaranteed slot tournament. It runs on Monday, September 6 through Tuesday, September 7 and is played on the Ja Man slot, a game with a Jamaican theme. There is a $6.99 entry fee for the slot tournament, which buys you 250 credits. The tournament has a prize pool that is $4,444 in casino credits and $4,444 in bonus bucks.

To take part in the various casino tournaments available during Labor Day weekend, visit Online Vegas Casino.

Online betting is illegal in the U.S. state of Washington. Betcha.com is an online bookmaker based in Seattle, Washington. Yesterday, in a unanimous ruling, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that Betcha.com’s business is illegal and must cease and desist. Sounds obvious, right? As usual, it’s a little more complicated than that.

Betcha.com says that the state’s gambling laws don’t apply to them because they make it optional for the losing bettors to pay off the wagers. Why anyone would bet with a bookie that doesn’t require the loser to pay is another question. According to the Supreme Court, though, the website qualifies as an illegal bookie because it arranges bets and takes a percentage as a fee.

According to Betcha.com, because payment was optional, the users of their website are not engaged in online gambling. According to Justice Tom Chambers, though, “under the statutory definition of bookmaking, it is immaterial whether or not Betcha users were engaged in gambling activity.”

Though Washington state does allow some forms of gambling, including card rooms that offer poker and blackjack, bookmaking and online gambling are specifically outlawed. An online gambling website for bookmaking, therefore, would definitely not be allowed, if that’s what Betcha is. According to Betcha.com founder Nicholas Jenkins, it’s not.

On Betcha, players can bet on basically anything, including sports, politics and virtually any event, such as “whether the moon would be full on a given night.” Anyone who wants to offer or accept a bet transfers money from their bank account to an escrow account held by Betcha. Once the event takes place and there is a clear winner, the loser has 72 hours to either pay up or opt out of the bet. The website keeps track of how often a losing bettor pays up and gives them an “honor rating.” Bettors who routinely renege on bets get a low rating and earn a reputation of someone you don’t want to bet with.

With the court ruling against Betcha, the website will have to shut down or else risk prosecution for operating an illegal online gambling company and transmitting gambling information and funds over the internet.

Now that the August slot tournaments are over, it’s time to move on to the September slot tournaments. What, you didn’t think you’d be tournament-less, did you? Starting Friday, September 3, Go Casino is running the weeklong Labor Day tournament. Oh, did I mention that this is a free slot tournament?

The tournament runs from September 3, which begins Labor Day weekend, and runs through September 10. The slot tournament is played on the California Gold slot, which I guess is fitting because some of the most abused workers were those who flocked to California during the Great Gold Rush and labor unions are supposed to be able preventing that sort of thing.

Anyway, the slot tournament is a freeroll, so there is no entry fee. Players who join the tournament are given a stake of 75 casino credits to play with. If you run out, you can re-buy for $12.99. The slot tournament has a prize pool of $100,000 so even though the re-buy is a little expensive, the prize money makes it well worth it, in the eyes of many.

If the re-buy in that free slot tournament is a little too pricey for you, there is also the regular Frugal Friday slot tournament held the same day. It is played on the Tarrot Treasure slot and has an entry fee and re-buy of $1.99. The prize pool for that slot tournament is $1,500 and the tournament runs on Friday from 9:00 AM until 7:45 PM.

To take part in the free slot tournament on Labor Day weekend, visit Go Casino.

A recent study suggests that a legalized and regulated online gambling industry in Latin America could generate $150 billion in revenue. During a global recession in which every country is looking for extra sources of income, gambling has been a common remedy. The Latin American region, which is made up of 33 countries in three continents, for the most part encourages foreign trade and direct foreign investments. Therefore, adding online gambling makes sense.

A recent study by Research and Markets looked into the current legal and illegal gambling activity taking place in Latin America. The report, however, focused on only the nine major countries in the region. The report estimates that Latin Americans spend approximately $10 billion (in U.S. dollars) each year on gambling and that on average, each person spends approximately $250 per year on gambling. Considering the low incomes in many Latin American countries, that’s no small number.

The biggest markets for online gambling in Latin America, according to the report, are Costa Rica, which has a $14.5 billion market, followed by Brazil, which generates approximately $7 billion on the legal lottery and illegal slots and bingo. Argentina has a gambling industry that generates $4.5 billion every year, followed by Colombia with $2 billion, Panama with $1.17 billion, Venezuela with $1 billion and Chile with $600 million.

Keeping in mind the difficulty of gauging how much money people are illegally spending on offshore online gambling sites, the real numbers could easily be higher than that. In any case, taking all of that into account, Research and Markets concluded that if all online gambling is legalized in Latin America, the industry could generate a total of $150 billion in revenue.

I like loyalty points because they make me feel appreciated. It’s the online casino saying “hey you, I’m glad you decided to visit our website today and play some of our games. We won’t forget that. In fact, here are some points as a token of our appreciation.” When you don’t have many points, they don’t really mean much other than that, but all of that changes when you get enough loyalty points to cash out for a casino bonus. Then it’s the casino saying “hey, you’ve been here a lot lately. Why don’t you have some free cash to play with? Go ahead, take it. It’s on the house, as a token of our appreciation for your business.”

Other businesses do that kind of thing as well. I love delis that punch your card whenever you get a sandwich and eventually you earn a free lunch. The place where I get my hair cut is the same way. Anyway, Villento Casino offers loyalty points for all wagers that you make and when you have enough, you can cash out. Right now, though, they are sweetening the deal with a special casino promotion.

The promotion is the Triple Play-Triple Pay deal. Starting yesterday, August 30 and running until Thursday, September 2, the online casino will give you triple loyalty points on a select group of online slots. Those featured online slots are Loaded, Lumber Cats, Mayan Princess, Polar Bash, Pure Platinum, Scoop the Cash and the popular Thunderstruck II. Players who are Silver, Gold or Platinum members receive triple loyalty points during the promotion.

To take advantage of the deal and receive triple loyalty points from playing any of the above online slots, visit Villento Casino.

I’m not really surprised. Last week, the North Gauteng High Court ruled in favor of a ban on online gambling throughout the nation of South Africa. With the new legal decision on their side, the Gauteng Gambling Board (GGB) vowed to combat online gambling operations in the country and prosecute any that remain in operation.

As a result, most online gambling operators based in the country have shut down. One, however, Piggs Peak, said that they would not back down. Stating that they are challenging the ban in court, they said that they would not shut down “until the appeal has been heard and the outcome determined.” It was tough talk, but when threatened with jail time, you can’t blame a company for giving in. On midnight August 28, the online casino stopped operating, though they are still appealing the online gambling ban.

Piggs Peak is based in Swaziland, South Africa and operates legal brick and mortar casinos in the country as well as online casinos that are now deemed illegal. Though their initial response sounded like defiance, the Operations Director, Lew Saul Koor, now says that it was a misunderstanding. He says that he was under the impression that Piggs Peak would be allowed to operate the business as usual during the appeal process. When informed that the online casino must be shut down immediately, he complied.

He then issued a statement saying that the online casino is shut down “until our application for appeal has been heard and the outcome is announced, which we feel should take no more than a week or so.” By contacting customer service at the website, existing customers are able to withdraw money from their account if they wish to do so.