Finding reliable and trustworthy online casino has been difficult for US players since the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) came into play. It was that act that led to the Department of Justice seizing four top online poker rooms back in early 2011.  When the Department of Justice changed their stance on the Wire Act of 1961 to say that only applied to sports gambling, they pulled the teeth on the UIGEA for the most part. And that meant that states could actually bring in legal online gambling.

There’s only one little problem with that. States like Nevada have proven to be hesitant to grant licenses to those online poker rooms (they aren’t yet licensing online casinos) that aren’t following the laws of the land. So, those companies or networks who haven’t offered online gambling in the US since the UIGEA was signed into law by President George W. Bush are in better shape than those who are currently available to US players. We may be seeing some gambling networks pull out of the US in hopes of coming back in later in a legally recognized manner.

But this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any online casinos or poker rooms available to US players. Check out onlinecasinosuite.com for top online casinos as well as top news stories and analysis of the current market situation.

But New Jersey has been the off again on again state when it comes to online gambling. Last year Governor Christie vetoed a bill that would have allowed online gambling to be run out of Atlantic City. After the DOJ’s ruling on the Wire Act, he sent signs that he was willing to sign the bill if certain technical issues were addressed. Now he’s once again sending signs that he may not sign the bill Break out the flip flops, it’s summer.

The speculation I’m seeing on http://news.google.ca/ is that the reasons behind his change of heart are purely political. Christie could be the VP candidate on a GOP Romney Presidential ticket. So he needs to stay in good with the GOP machine. And one of the big donors to the GOP is a Vegas casino owner who doesn’t like online gambling. So, is Christie hedging his bets? Will he hold off on any action and keep sending mixed signals until he finds out if he’s on the ticket?  Will he do his party a favor and keep a donor happy as Atlantic City continues to struggle?  I don’t know. But I’m watching the news.

Which brings up the only question players have been asking for a year – will we get our money back?  And there’s been no real answer to the question except to say that Full Tilt was advertising for some contract support personnel in Ireland, so they except to be getting lots of calls on the subject.  I’m keeping up with the more international aspects of Full Tilt at http://news.google.ca/

Of course the question of money and paying out to players is one that needs to be addressed before Full Tilt’s license is reactivated and the poker room allowed to open for real money play again. I’m not sure if they could offer free rolls or other play to players before that point, but they’re going to need to have some sort of aggressive marketing strategy in place if they expect to win back the trust of players. Now, it’s true that Bernard Tapie weren’t involved in the mismanagement that caused the poker room to fail. So that may hold promise for the future. But still, there’s a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of players when it comes to Full Tilt.

The bad news for American players is that the company may be able to successfully claim that since the US authorities seized their domain name and assets, the responsibility for getting money back to US players, belongs to the authorizes in the US.  It may be that paying back the UK and EU players is all that is needed to get them up and running again. And if that happens, I doubt Tapie feels any responsibility for US players. Unless we could get legal online poker and tempt them with that. Because they’ll not make it back to the US market without paying what they owe.

Nevada is the first state out of the gate with legal and licensed online poker. Now, Nevada had their plans in place even before the change. They’d already passed legislation that would make online poker legal in the state as long as the laws changed at the federal level. Someone in Nevada must have a really good crystal ball. But Nevada right now is at the poker only stage.

New Jersey wants to be the first state out of the gate with fully online casino games including games like internetcasino-roulette.com.  Now New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed potential online casino legislation last year, so now the state is playing catch up. If Christie sticks to his promise to sign the legislation, they should have online casinos by the end of the year.

Everyone in California wants online poker. They’re screaming for it. But California is more interested in putting the state lottery online. You can keep up with California at ca.gov.

Two online poker efforts have been cancelled for lack of interest – that was Washington DC and Iowa. Both felt they didn’t have enough potential players to make the efforts worthwhile, even though DC had already legalized online poker. And two states have reacted to the changes by making online gambling illegal. That’s Hawaii, where all gambling is outlawed and Utah, where, well, conservative ideology rules.

Three months. A lot of changes. The rest of the year promises to be just as interesting.

So, what does all this translate to?  Well, in an investigation into Bodog.com that some say can be traced as far back as 2006, the state of Maryland has finally managed to shut down and unused domain name and press charges against a Canadian who they won’t bother arresting unless he decides to show up in the US and say hi.

Now there’s a very good chance Bodog knew what was going on. Mostly because this has been like the slowest game of chase ever played. Back in 2008, Maryland pressed charges against two online payment processors for Bodog. They didn’t move against the company back then, but Bodog must have known they’d be investigated. Then in 2011 the FBI shut down 4 online poker domain names, none of which were Bodog. But they now had warning about what could happen.  So, they arranged to shift domain names.  And when they got the UK license, they pulled out of the US, probably because they knew they were being investigated.  And two months after that, Maryland grabbed hold of the old domain and said “got ya!”

Meanwhile players at Bodog.eu and American players at Bovada.lv are playing as usual.

Blame Washington State.  Well, blame Everleaf too. It was their business to understand the poker laws where they offer the game and it wasn’t like anyone following online poker over the last couple of years didn’t have ample opportunity to see that Washington State was a different state altogether when it came to poker.

Here’s the difference. Most states don’t have specific laws regarding online poker. This doesn’t necessarily make the game legal in those states, it’s just that they’ve let the Feds handle the situation. This doesn’t apply to Washington State. There is actually a law on the books there that makes online poker a felony offense. And they have shown every indication that they plan to continue enforcing that law.

Now the good news is that they haven’t actually been arresting poker players.  Throwing someone’s granddad or grandma into prison for play penny poker online would probably make for very, very bad press.  Instead, Washington State goes after the payment processor and seizes their funds. The processors usually forfeit the funds in exchange for not being prosecuted and thrown in jail. You might say Washington State holds the high card in these cases.

Well, Everleaf Poker was accepting players from Washington State, and one of their payment processors had funds seized. As a result, the site is no longer accepting US players and they have been shut out of their account. All US players, not just those from Washington.  We don’t know where the situation will go from there, and everyone is waiting for statements from the poker room.  If you are a US player with funds tied up in Everleaf Poker, I recommend that you do a google search on Everleaf under the news section. This will let you set up an alert for Everleaf that will drop news directly into your email. Because if they do allow players back in to cash out, you want to be notified right away.

But now Microgaming is going to take on the challenge of bring a live experience to the online player.  They are introducing new Diamond Edition versions of their existing live dealer games.  These Diamond Editions will use new state-of-the-art technology to make players feel like they’re right there in a casino.

Now, Microgaming already offers live dealer options for games like blackjack, but the new Diamond Edition will allow for a more intense multi-player experience. One that the company believes players are longing for.  The company says that the current live dealer play has been well received by the 16 Microgaming casinos that offer it, and the Diamond Edition is predicted to be a huge hit with players. Who knows, it may even keep me at the virtual roulette table longer.

The anonymity factor is one that appeals to many players in a casino. When you play blackjack, you sit at a table with other players and where people can watch you play. This arrangement appeals to social players and blackjack experts learn to deal with it. It’s like becoming a pro at anything. But it can be unnerving sitting next to the pros when you’re a casual player. Which I suspect is what draws some players to slots. So, in that respect, video poker is like slots with strategy.

Video poker is easy to learn because it’s based on basic poker hands, and many players already have a working knowledge of poker hands. So you can actually start playing video poker right away, though it does help to have a basic understanding of video poker strategy.

Odds that work for the player are a big draw to any game. If you play video poker using the recommended strategy, you’ll be playing a game where you and the casino are pretty evenly matched as far as odds go.  I’ll chat more about video poker in upcoming posts, but you can check out Video Poker365 for some great information on strategy and pay tables.

But while it is perhaps excusable to play at a less than optimal game while trapped on a cruise ship, there’s no excuse for doing so on a online casino.  Now, I thought it would be difficult to play at an online casino with really bad payouts because for the most part, online casinos have to compete against one another. You can easily play at only the top casinos. Unless the other casinos find another way to draw players in.

For Christmas a certain online casino gave me $20 to play with at their casino. Hey, it was a free $20 so I figured I might as well give them a try. So, I decided to play some Jacks or Better. Now at most online casinos, you can bet the maximum coins in Jacks or Better game and the jackpot for a royal flush is somewhere around 4000 in the payout chart – that’s what Silver Oak offers. However on this casino, the games are organized differently and the maximum payout if I hit a royal flush is 250. Considerably less than at other online casinos.

How does this online casino get away with the bad payouts?  Because they aim their business at new gamblers who don’t know the pay out charts. Learn what a good payout chart should look like for your favorite games, and you won’t be taken advantage of when you have a choice to play elsewhere.

Now, I can pretend to be completely caught by surprise. I knew Bodog was leaving the US and had fair warning about that. In order to play nice with the UK, Bodog agreed to leave the US market behind when they were granted their UK license.  Since their license with Morris Mohawk Gaming Group was ending on December 31^st it seemed like a good opportunity for both groups. Bodog would leave the US and MMGG would launch their own casino brand. Of course we all thought we had until December 31^st to decide if we wanted to switch our accounts to the new MMGG brand.

Surprise! They launched early. As of yesterday if you went to your Bodog account, you found yourself redirected to Bovada Casino, the new MMGG casino.  Now if you were a fan of Bodog, you’ll find that not much has changed over at Bovada. This is because they’re running on the same casino software as Bodog Casino.  They also share the same online poker room software, which seems to include the much debated and hated anonymous poker tables.  I’m not sure how that will work out for Bovada or for Bodog considering the hate mail on the internet over those tables. They may roll back to the old “see who you play against” tables. It doesn’t do much good to protect players from data mining sites if they don’t want to play at all.

So, if you had a Bodog account, check out Bovada. Hmm, do we qualify for that new player online casino bonus?