The Task Force on Illegal Gambling is no more, thanks to an executive order signed by new governor Robert Bentley. The task force, which has been famous – or infamous, depending on your perspective – in the state of Alabama, has been disbanded in one of the first acts of the Bentley administration.

The Task Force on Illegal Gambling was created by then-governor Bob Riley to crack down on electronic bingo machines operating in the state. The task force conducted raids of businesses running bingo machines, shutting them down and bringing the shop owners up on criminal charges. Many residents thought the raids were overkill for something that doesn’t seem dangerous. In the gambling community, the task force stood as an example of the extreme anti-gambling opposition.

Governor Bentley is looking for ways to cut spending and create jobs, so ending the task force had more to do with fiscal responsibility than being sympathetic toward gamblers. Bentley simply said that the task force isn’t needed and that illegal gambling activities will be handled by the new state attorney general, Luther Strange.

Governor Bentley warned those who shut down their bingo operations due to fear of being raided that disbanding the task force wasn’t a signal to re-open. He stressed that he expects Strange to “enforce the law” and said that he would have no problem with the electronic bingo games is legislation passes that legalizes them, but he does expect people to obey the law.

There is a movement to liberalize the gambling laws in Alabama, which outlaw any card game and any game of chance except for the state lottery. It is not known how much support that movement has within the state legislature.

Poland is trying really hard to put an end to online gambling in their country, but so far it has been unsuccessful. Poland has a large number of brick and mortar casinos but in recent years those casinos have been losing a lot of business to the online sector. People who don’t live close to the casinos have been choosing to play online instead. As a result, a recent study showed that Polish citizens are spending 50% more money at internet casinos than at brick and mortar casinos.

Possibly in an attempt to protect those land-based casinos, in 2009 Poland passed a low outlawing online gambling. However, they only made it illegal for gambling websites to operate or advertise in Poland. The law then did nothing to keep overseas operators from continuing to allow Polish citizens to play with them. As a result, not only did the law do nothing to stop online gambling in the country, but internet wagering actually increased by 20% since the law passed.

Since that law has done nothing to curb the internet gambling in the country, Poland’s government now wants to amend the law. The plan is to make it illegal for players to place wagers online. Doing so would make it so authorities could arrest the Polish players for playing games at online casinos. If enough players became worried about arrest, the activity would stop, or such is the hope. In addition, the amendment seeks to place any online casinos that deal with Polish players into Polish jurisdiction. Doing so would allow the government to prosecute those gambling operators in Polish courts, even though they are located overseas. The two-pronged approach is aimed to make both the gambling provider and the player afraid to play casino games online.

A South Korean man was fired by a Singapore Court on Tuesday for not properly declaring his casino winnings when attempting to leave the country. Kim Woo Yeong, 28, was fined $30,000 Singapore dollars ($23,000 U.S. dollars) by the court for not having the correct paperwork.

That is how a great vacation can turn into a bad one. Things started out really well for Kim. He won $7 million Singapore dollars ($5.45 million USD) in a Singapore casino. Things quickly turned bad, though, when his uncle asked him to bring the money to him in Macau, where he works in the casino industry.

Kim Woo Yeong then headed to the airport to fly out of Singapore with only the money and a transaction slip from the casino. He had no other documentation, such as the certificate that Singapore requires for bringing money out of the country. Without having the proper paperwork to legally declare the casino winnings, the authorities seized the cash and arrested Kim.

On Tuesday, Kim was fined by the court and released. The casino winnings, minus the amount in fines, will be returned to him. Once he obtains the proper certificate, he is free to leave the country with the winnings.

Let this be a lesson to anyone who travels to another country and visits a casino, or even if you don’t do any gambling. The most important thing is to learn the local laws to make sure you are not in violation. Most countries have strict rules about bringing certain things – especially money – into or out of their country. If Kim had familiarized himself with Singapore’s laws, he could have left the country without being fined or arrested.

You will sometimes hear someone say that America is “a nation of laws.” That is usually said when trying to get someone to enforce laws that are currently on the books but not being enforced. To a certain extent, that is true. However, the bills are written by politicians, their staff, lobbyists, think tanks and more. The final result, once a bill is signed into law, is usually an unnecessarily convoluted text that is full of loopholes. Luckily for some entrepreneurs, such a loophole has lead to a newly popular possibly-legal online gambling business.

Gambling businesses can only be opened in the United States if tightly regulated by the government. Many states don’t allow any form of gambling, aside from the state-run lottery, of course. Some only allow gambling at tribal casinos. Online gambling is not directly addressed in most state gambling laws, but though there is no federal ban, the federal government has taken the general stance that it is not allowed ever since the passage of UIGEA in 2006. So that means any online gambling cafes in existence are illegal, right? Um…maybe.

Internet sweepstakes cafes have been popping up all over the place, particularly in poor areas. They are commonly located in strip malls. Like regular internet cafes, customers go in and pay to use the Internet on one of the café’s computers. They either pay by the minute after they’re done or use a pre-paid card. In this case, though, people aren’t logging onto the computers to check their email or buy something from Amazon.com. They are playing online poker, blackjack and slots at online gambling sites.

Since the businesses are not charging for the gambling, it can’t be called a gambling business. Customers are paying for access to the internet, rather than paying for wagers. There is no direct commerce between the customer and the online casinos. It may be a loophole, but that one degree of separation between the money being paid and the bet being made is enough to make the business legal, according to many experts. Not everyone agrees, though. Law enforcement authorities in several states have attempted to shut down the internet sweepstakes cafes.

While the legality of these internet sweepstakes cafés is questionable and will be decided at some point in court, this is another example that people will find a way to do things they want to do. The government can ban online gambling if they want, but that won’t stop people from paying to wager in the games.

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.”

Last weekend, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a bill that would allow three new casinos and slot machines at two existing racetracks. Governor Deval Patrick (D), however, rejected the bill and sent an amended version of the bill back to the Massachusetts General Court.

Though Patrick originally considered a compromise that would allow one slot parlour instead of two, he has reneged on that idea and instead sent the bill down. With the bill struck down by the governor, it goes back to the General Court, the state legislature made of two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Before members of either chamber of the Court can decide on compromising and rewriting any portions of the bill, they must have a 2/3 vote from both chambers to move forward. Proponents of the gambling bill may not have enough support for that. Though the House passed the bill with more than the 2/3 majority, the Senate passed the bill two votes shy of that 2/3 margin. It’s possible that the Senate could convince two senators to change their mind, but there is another problem.

With mid-term elections around the corner and the state lawmakers currently on recess, it’s unlikely that the General Court will get a chance to vote on the bill again. Therese Murray (D), President of the Massachusetts Senate, has said that she will not call Senate members back for a special session. That indicates that the bill may soon die in the court without a re-vote.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D), a supporter of the gambling bill, has indicated that there will be no re-vote and said that Governor Patrick’s decision to send the bill back down amounts to a veto and a disregard of the will of the people elected to represent Massachusetts.

China has vowed to crack down on World Cup betting this year. Considering that China’s communist government is one of the most controlling and oppressive in the world, when they say they’re going to crack down on something, they mean business. For that reason, I cannot advocate that anyone in China bet on the World Cup or engage in any gambling activity. Anyone who does is risking imprisonment.

All forms of gambling have been banned in the Chinese mainland since the communist government took power in 1949. Despite that, the underground gambling industry has thrived in the Middle Kingdom. It is estimated that in 2006 – the year of the last World Cup – approximately ¥500 billion (equivalent to $73 billion) were wagered in online gambling transactions.

Things changed this year, though, when Nan Yong, the head of the Chinese Football Association was arrested for corruption. Also this year, three Chinese World Cup referees – including Lu Jun were arrested for allegedly accepting bribes and fixing matches. The Chinese government has called sports betting a “cancer” and has vowed to eliminate it from the sport of football.

Sports betting may be the top priority, but the Chinese are going after all forms of gambling. Their police have arrested 344 suspects for gambling charges so far this year and have frozen approximately ¥50 million in gambling funds.

China’s national team did not qualify for the World Cup this year, but that doesn’t alleviate concerns among the government that sports betting will be rampant for the next month.

If you live somewhere other than China, though, there are a lot of good places for online casino gambling and sports betting. Check with your local laws to make sure you aren’t doing anything illegal and if it’s okay, find a good online casino or sports book and enjoy the summer and the World Cup!

There are rumors within the online gambling community that Microgaming casinos will pull out of the United States market entirely. The federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), passed in 2006, is scheduled to take effect June 1. Though the law doesn’t ban online gambling, it does allow the government to go after financial institutions involved in transactions related to “unlawful” internet gambling. The law doesn’t define what types of internet gambling are unlawful, though, and that vagueness worries many online casinos, thinking that it could result in them not getting paid by those financial institutions.

As a result of the upcoming UIGEA implementation, Microgaming had already stopped taking new customers in the United States. Existing U.S. customers could continue to play on their sites, though. With June 1 rapidly approaching, though, the rumor is that Microgaming will pull out of the U.S. entirely, meaning that even the existing customers won’t be able to use their software. The result would be an inability for players in the United States to play at any online casino that uses Microgaming’s software, which includes the popular All Slots Casino, among others.

The gambling situation in Florida keeps getting more and more clustered and confusing. Now state senator Ellyn Bogdanoff, who represents the Ft. Lauderdale area, wants to bring full-scale casinos to the state. This is significant because until now she has always had an anti-gambling stance. She has recently made an about-face, though, and has proposed the Florida Gaming Equalization Act.

The thinking behind this act, according to some experts, is that the Seminole tribe has controlled the gambling market in the state of Florida and passing this bill would even the playing field, allowing the state to take hold of the industry and bring in more revenue for a state that, like the rest of the country, is struggling. Proponents of the bill say that it would create over 7,000 jobs, make millions in revenue for the state, and provide a boost for the tourism industry.

This comes on the heels of the state House rejected Governor Charlie Crist’s second attempt to reach an agreement that would allow the Seminole to carry blackjack and other table games at their casinos. The same day as that vote, a separate bill was approved that helps the main competition of the Seminole, the pari-mutuels. If Bogdanoff’s bill passes, the Seminoles would then have two major competitors, with one having the unfair advantage of government subsidies.

Governor Crist, who is serving his last year in that job and is running for the Senate, has said that he is willing to try a third time to reach a deal with the Seminoles that the state legislature would approve. Though he said he is not familiar with the specifics of Bogdanoff’s bill, he stated that it could be a good idea and he is open to the possibility of a full-scale casino expansion in the state.

The city of Chicago is considering lifting their ban on video gambling machines. Currently, no such machines are allowed within the city. However, Mayor Richard Daley is considering changing all of that, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

It has been reported that Daley’s former campaign manager, Greg Goldner, is leading a campaign to legalize the machines. If he successfully gets the City Council to lift the ban, the plan is to have 15,715 video gambling machines put into bards and businesses that sell alcohol. That would be more than the 10,321 currently operating in the nine casino located elsewhere in the state.

As is often the case, especially right now, money is a driving factor. The city would take 5% of the money gambled and the state would take 25%, with the rest divided among the liquor-license holders and machine owners. Goldner estimates that lifting the ban would bring in approximately $30 per year to the city that is deep in debt and struggling to fund anything at the moment.

If Goldner is successful, the city would allow video poker, video blackjack, slots and other video games in restaurants, bars and other establishments.