RewardsAffiliates.com has just released a new incentive, claiming to pay a 60% commission on all new referrals for the upcoming month. This will be throughout all of its casinos. This is one of the highest rewards programs offered to date and RewardsAffiliates is really looking to bring players out of the woodworks.

By offering a program with such a high reward value, RewardsAffiliates has already seen a tremendous amount of activity amongst the online gambling community.

In a statement released by RewardsAffiliates.com, they stated: “In simplest terms, the casino affiliate programme functions with affiliates placing links and banners on their own sites to attract Internet users to follow these to the respective online casinos.”

This is a common method in todays technological world in order to pass the saving on to the consumers. The company itself will generate money for profits and revenues, and use the banner advertising to offer incentives to the online gamblers.

“Whether the player signs up, deposits, wins or loses, affiliates are rewarded accordingly without ever having to lift a finger. In a time of financial crisis, passive forms of income such as affiliate revenue are becoming more and more popular due to their simplicity of operation and minimal capital outlay.”

“Whether the player signs up, deposits, wins or loses, affiliates are rewarded accordingly without ever having to lift a finger. In a time of financial crisis, passive forms of income such as affiliate revenue are becoming more and more popular due to their simplicity of operation and minimal capital outlay.”

“With the reputation and popularity of Casino Rewards behind them, affiliates at RewardsAffiliates.com have a simple time attracting new players and profiting out of the exclusive 60 percent commission offer.”

RewardsAffiliates has recently added an online lotto to its already packed 18 multi-lingual online casino package. This incentive package most likely won’t last long, as it is already double of what their usual incentive affiliate package.

The official word has been revealed in the naming of a new board member for the International Game Technology. Patti Hart has been chosen as the president and chief executive officer thereby replacing 43 year old, TJ Mathews. Matthews will stay on as the chairman of the board but has resigned from his positions of president and Chief Executive Officer.

Hart is no stranger to the board as she has served the Board of Directors since mid-year 2006. According to plans and with the approval of the board heart will take over as early as April 1. “While the industry is facing challenging economic headwinds, I am eager to take on my duties as the CEO and help maintain IGT’s position as an industry innovator,” said Hart.

Matthews appears to be in support of the decision as he was quoted in a statement saying: “In Patti, the CEO search committee saw a unique combination of executive-level management expertise, an intimate knowledge of IGT through her years of service on our board.”

Hart has held several executive positions at Pinnacle Systems, Excite@Home, Telocity Inc. and Sprint Corp as well as holding the position as director for Korn/Ferry International Inc. and Lin TV Corp.

IGT is in a similar situation as many casinos and companies within the industry. The economy has shown a tremendous decrease in revenues and earnings. IDT profit alone declined 42% in one year and revenues fell 7%.

Analysts claim that the casinos should have used their money to reinvest in new equipment, thereby drawing in more players. Another reason analysts claim affected IGT was their lack of transition from server-based gaming technology. Although server-based gaming technology is slowly creeping into the market, IGT continues to exploit this technology in slot machines.

Also, IGT has faced in recent employee cuts due to the lack of revenue and profits. 10% of the company workforce has been reduced, thereby reducing the annual cost by $100 million.

The MGM Mirage has been in the news lately under great scrutiny concerning the CityCenter development. Dubai world recently filed a lawsuit claiming that the MGM Mirage mismanaged approximately $9.1 billion in the development of the CityCenter.

The MGM Mirage claims that Dubai world lawsuit was without merit, and they are continuing to stifle the reservations of shareholders.

The lawsuit was filed on Sunday in Delaware Chancery Court by Dubai world as they attempted to terminate their obligations concerning their 2007 joint venture agreement.

Alan Feldman, MGM Mirage Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, e-mailed a statement on Tuesday in an attempt to remove the theories created by Dubai World.

He stated: “Dubai World is well aware of our written commitment to meet our funding obligations and that MGM Mirage has available cash to satisfy those obligations.” He then followed up by saying, “MGM Mirage is ready, willing and able to fund its share of the costs to complete CityCenter, including a required payment this week.”

Feldman stated that their company is willing to work “with Dubai World to resolve any outstanding issues and complete this landmark project.”

A possible reason for Dubai world’s fears in his joint venture could possibly be that they themselves are running short in the area cash flow. According to Wall Street Journal story the United Arab Emirates loan Dubai $10 billion to cover outstanding debts.

One concern by gaming analyst, Andrew Zarnett, is that there building a CityCenter loaded with hotel rooms when I continue levels are at a low.

“(The) lawsuit … raises doubts over the completion of CityCenter,” Zarnett told investors. “We view a CityCenter postponement as a net positive for the overall Strip demand and supply dynamics, which is currently lopsided towards oversupply.”

Another gaming analyst Dennis Farrell Jr. stated that this particular lawsuit could cause MGM Mirage to file for Chapter 11. “Due to the size of MGM Mirage’s capital structure, we believe an out-of-court restructuring would be challenging,” Farrell said.

According to a press release from Stockholm Sweden, Jadestone Networks announced that their backgammon network and a soon-to-be launched will allow their partners the first crack at it.

Jadestone Networks is a multiplayer gaming network that is known for GamArena and DiceArena, as well as their partnerships with bwin, NordicBet and Paf. These three partners will benefit by being the first to access the newly created backgammon network. These three networks had only been in partnership with Jadestone networks since November and December of 2008.

Jadestone continues to be in the news as it recently launched its newest game DiceArena. DiceArena will feature many dice games including a dice game poker players known as dice hold ‘em. Although this game may be challenging to new players they also offer easier and still entertaining alternatives such as Shoot-the-Moons.

Based on the success of DiceArena, the multiplayer game network is set to launch backgammon later in the spring. This game promises to be full-featured and allow many tournaments as well as heads up games.

Tobias Nissen, Business Development Director at Jadestone stated: “It’s our ambition to serve our partners with high quality content in a timely manner. Our new DiceArena platform lets us do that in a very cost-efficient and robust way. Backgammon is the first new game we deploy for our existing partners with a substantially reduced integration effort. It’s a win-win situation that also players will benefit from since they can keep their avatars and names across more games.”

By creating new games and new features yet allowing players to carry over their avatars, Jadestone has created an all-in-one entertainment to boost popularity in online casinos.

With support in over 25 languages the Backgammon Network will be familiar to many players that uses standard competition rules and common anti-fraud systems as other games on the network.

As end of the year financial statements are being released we are seeing a drop in many online casinos, and land-based casino networks. Chartwell Technology Incorporated has recently revealed a 21% drop in revenues down to $4.6 million.

In comparison with last year’s reports revenues dropped $1.2 million from the previous year’s $5.8 million. The reason stated for the decline of this Canadian-based company was that the competition continued to expand thus causing a decline in revenues which has seen both in the casinos and at the poker tables.

In attempt to keep pace with the competition Chartwell technology began to focus their expenses on software development and support. Along the same lines they had to increase their administrative and general charges in order to maintain its growing online gaming content.

On three separate levels Chartwell reported losses of significant dollar amount. Their net loss was $700,000 for the first quarter alone. This is staggering standing next to a $900,000 profit for the same exact period last year. Their pretax earnings taken a hit as it came in at a negative $400,000 in comparison with a positive $1.8 million last year. Lastly, cash flow slid from $1.4 million to a meager $100,000.

Chartwell continues to upgrade versions of their software. The recently released 7.0 version of the software allow them the ability to add new games as well as signing a deal with Paramount Digital entertainment international for a multi-title licensing agreement.

“The company started this fiscal year with challenges to revenue growth as a few of our clients introduced additional gaming products from other suppliers,” said Alan Richter, Chief Financial Officer for Chartwell.

“The increased competition intensifies our resolve to focus on the depth and breadth of our product and services offerings. We have increased our investment in product and service delivery and we are confident that our unique capabilities in these areas as well as our new sales opportunities should return the company to profitable growth in the near future.”

It is no surprise that mobile interactive games continue to lead the way as the demand for such games grows. Online players are cockily looking for a new entertainment game that simulates real-life games. Such is the case with Managed Gaming Solutions (MGS).

Managed gaming solutions PLC is based at the United Kingdom and is known for their mobile and interactive television gaming. They have many interactive gaming platforms, managed gaming solutions offers SMS television games, and many other lottery style games. Its subsidiary, JetBet Oy, currently holds the position of marketing mobile gaming solutions in Nordic countries.

Now, MGS has launched an interactive mobile lottery that is causing quite a buzz. The launch of this game has opened up the Caribbean market by setting up its base in Curacao.

This mobile lottery will be handled by a local licensed lottery provider, Sure Lottery, but is in fact a product of MGS Caribbean NV. “We are very pleased to announce another country launch in this exciting region and are confident of achieving soon similar user acceptance as in Surinam where, shortly after the roll-out, a large percentage of the whole population were playing our games,” said Tero Turunen, Chairman for MGS.

“We are now in a very good position for future business growth in this emerging market and are convinced that we are on the right track to becoming the fastest growing lottery related gaming provider in this region.”

As the number of mobile subscribers continues to grow the Caribbean claims to currently provide around 16 million. This number is expected to increase to 19 million by the year 2011.

With the expansion of mobile subscribers comes the expansion of mobile online gamblers. The draw of online gaming while on the go continues to be a trend not only in the Caribbean, but around the world.

Many of the drawbacks of online gambling in today’s world deals with the idea of different countries using different currencies. Some pay houses are developing ways and systems to accommodate players from foreign countries.

In an attempt to keep with the times many software providers are learning about the need for multicurrency solutions. One of these companies is Virtue Fusion Limited.

Recently Virtue Fusion has launched a version of bingo that will accommodate a variety of different currencies, expanding throughout Europe and many other countries. The benefit of this multicurrency system will allow players from different countries to engage in casino games, and to make available the same prices.

According to the plan of Virtue Fusion they will be able to incorporate the different currencies into the selected sites based upon the native language.

“This puts Virtue Fusion’s client base in good stead to compete with established bingo sites in countries like Spain, Sweden and Denmark,” said Bob McCulloch, Chief Executive Officer of Virtue Fusion.

“We don’t need to build a customer base from scratch as we are able to show large player numbers and prize pools from launch also eliminating the need to expose ourselves to large marketing liabilities.”

Virtue Fusion has already begun to put this system in place and draw in the Sterling and the Euro as well as the Swedish and Danish Krona. Previous methods Virtue Fusion will be able to share liquidity across currencies from various countries.

With this new system will also offer the opportunity for operators to link into the system creating a larger prize similar to that of the EuroMillions. This will enable players across Europe compete for the same jackpot.

Virtue Fusion is continuing to expand to existing online gaming operators, bookmakers, land-based operators and media companies therefore increasing their market for online casino gambling.

The dealers at the Las Vegas, Wynn Casino are in negotiations and are bringing to the table just cause and discussion of employees being fired.

Attorney Greg Kamer, who represents the Wynn Las Vegas stated: “When it comes to a gaming employee at a high-end property who is making decisions and actions potentially at $300,000 a hand, if the decision is wrong, is the dealer making a mistake or are they in cahoots with the player,” Kamer said. “We have a pretty good sense of when people are making mistakes, or when they are acting improperly.”

The union that represents the dealers is fighting the idea of “just cause”and saying that the casino is using it as a tactic to slow down negotiations.

The director for the Union, Joseph Carbon replied: “Just cause doesn’t mean we support people stealing. If you can prove that somebody’s doing something of that nature then you prove it and it will stick. The way they want to operate is they want to have complete control over their employees.”

The idea of “just cause”centers around a disciplinary action, including the right to fire an employee, to be reviewed by an impartial third party. These clauses are not uncommon when dealing with unions. In fact according to associate professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Jeff Waddoups, this is a standard practice in the United States when dealing with labor agreements.

“That is a huge benefit for most workers,” Waddoups said. “If you don’t have a just-cause agreement in your contract, then you’re essentially an at-will employee, so you can be fired for anything.”

In a response surrounding this ordeal, senior vice president of communication and government relations, Jan Jones stated: “We’ve been meeting with [the unions] regularly. In any negotiation there will be areas you need to iron out. That is the art of negotiation.”

Authorities are beginning to crack down on illegal gambling activity in the United States. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Gwinnett County police raided a Tucker bar and arrested 14 people for alleged illegal gambling” this past Monday.

Since online gambling and private party casinos are illegal in the United States, many restaurants and bars discovered around this law and hold her own contained event. Such was the case at Pufferbelly’s Saloon & Eatery.

According to the article patrons of Pufferbelly’s Saloon & Eatery or wagering money at Texas hold ‘em poker games. Other patrons were engaged in video poker machines. According to the police these patrons were engaged in illegal activity and doing so in plain view of the public.

This did not come as a shock to the police department as the department spokesman Cpl. David Schiralli stated: “The Gwinnett police vice unit began investigating the establishment in January after they received an anonymous tip about people gambling there”

Clearly this establishment was unaware of the tipoff and resume their gambling activities for over three months. This allowed for enough time for the police to do a thorough investigation.

The owner of Pufferbelly’s Saloon & Eatery located at 4880 Lawrenceville Highway was 44 year old Mi Sook Kim. Kim, a resident of Tucker, Georgia as well as 13 other patrons were arrested on Saturday and charged with allegedly taking or placing bets.

“Kim was charged with commercial gambling, gambling and possessing a gambling device,” said Police. To add insult to injury, along with the gambling charge, the Police also seized $7,000 in cash, a handgun and several Georgia Skill video poker machines.

In the United States today there are many laws governing the illegal activity of placing and receiving bets, especially by public establishments. It is bans such as these that are driving players to the online casino market, which still is in negotiation in the United States.

The Norwich bulletin, in Hartford Connecticut, recently revealed: “The state House Public Health Committee released a bill Monday that would ban smoking in the state’s two American Indian-owned casinos by 2011. The process is in its infancy, but with a full Senate approval last year, advocates are hopeful of its passage and implementation.”

In accordance with this bill, these two casinos will begin to fall under the same category as many casinos around the United States. Although there are many patrons who are advocates of the ban, there are many players who currently engaged in the activity of smoking and may seek out other casinos.

With the implementation of this plan as well as other rules and regulations that are currently governing casinos in the United States today, many casino players are beginning to look towards other avenues of casino play. One of these avenues is finding a way to succeed in gambling in online casinos.

Although some patrons would like to see smoking or main legal in the casinos, they taste great opposition in going against the American Cancer Society. The Connecticut director of government relations and advocacy for the American Cancer Society, Bryte Johnson, spoke out against smoking and casinos. “We’d love to have it banned immediately. This is a workers health issue and a customer health issue. But given the current economic environment, we can support 2011,” said Johnson.
The two casinos in question are the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino. The owners of both of these resort casinos are outspokenly opposed to the ban.

“On behalf of the Mohegan Tribal Nation, I am truly disappointed to see that the Public Health committee is moving forward with a bill that infringes on our sovereign rights,” said Bruce ‘Two Dogs’ Bozsum, chairman of the Mohegan Tribal Council. “Our objection is not about issues related to secondhand smoke. We are proud of the steps we have taken to mitigate smoke on reservation lands.”