There are two competing online gambling bills in the California legislature and now one of them has the formal support of a powerful tribal group. The California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) voted to endorse Senate Bill 40, which was proposed by Senator Lou Correa.

CNIGA was founded in 1988 and is a non-profit organization made up of more than two dozen federally recognized tribal governments. They hold considerable sway in California when it comes to gambling issues. Though their endorsement was not unanimous, CNIGA found that Senate Bill 40 is the better of the two bills.

The bill would legalize intrastate online poker, which proponents say is already being played in the state, with the revenue going to offshore operators. Only licensed poker rooms would be able to offer the services and only tribal casinos and pari-mutuel facilities in the state would be eligible for licenses. That certainly would help the California tribes, which is why they support Correa’s bill.

Senate Bill 45, introduced by Senator Rod Wright, does not have those protections. The bill would allow not only online poker, but also other casino games. In addition, businesses outside of California would be eligible for licenses, though it would still only be California residents who are able to gamble online, and only while physically present in the state. For those reasons, CNIGA decided to oppose Senate Bill 45. If Senate Bill 40 is rejected and Senate Bill 45 is still around, though, it will be interesting to see if they change their mind.

After much anticipation, Titan Poker’s French website went live today at 9:00 AM EST. The website, Titan.fr, is Titan Poker’s first venture into the French market. In addition to giving Titan a new market to tap, it gives French players another option for their online poker needs.

France had long been a closed market that only allowed online gambling through their state-run monopolies. However, recent rulings by the European Union have necessitated a liberalization of the market. As a result, Titan Poker was able to obtain a French online gambling license on November 18. They quickly launched a dedicated website for the French, though in the beginning it only had a landing page with some information on the upcoming online poker room.

This morning, the poker room opened for business. In order to become licensed in France, Titan Poker had to open a physical business within the country’s borders and be vetted by France’s gaming authority, ARJEL. After passing France’s stringent vetting and regulation process they should be safe place to play. How strict is gambling regulation in France? Some casino operators call it the worst market in Europe, due to its high taxes, low cap on the payout rate, and strict government oversight and control.

French citizens can now log onto Titan.fr and join the poker room for some online poker games. In addition to the poker license, Titan was also granted a sports betting license and the company hopes to launch an online betting website for the French market soon.

Recently PokerStars had to pull out of the market in the U.S. state of Washington. After that state’s Supreme Court upheld a law that bans all form of online gambling, including online poker, they had no choice but to no longer allow Washington residents to play on their website.

That was bad news for PokerStars. Though they’re the largest online poker room in the world, no one likes to lose business. What may soften the blow is the new business they obtained in Estonia. The Baltic nation only recently passed a law allowing overseas online gambling websites to obtain licenses to operate in the country. PokerStars is now one of the first to obtain a license from them.

The poker room has launched a new website dedicated to the Estonian market, Pokerstars.ee. PokerStars, located in the Isle of Man, has been working at expanding their European market for some time. Their most recent successes were obtaining online gambling licenses in Italy in 2008 and in France in June of this year.

For years, Party Poker was the largest online poker room in the world. However, when the U.S. government passed UIGEA in 2006, Party Poker got spooked and left the American market, banning all of their citizens. Losing America lost a large portion of their business, many of whom then went to PokerStars, since they remained in the U.S. market. With an aggressive European strategy to go along with that success, PokerStars seems poised to retain their status as the most popular online poker room for quite some time.

It is an interesting time for online gambling in the United States. As many people are aware, the Supreme Court of the state of Washington recently upheld a law banning all forms of online gambling, including poker. As a result, popular online poker website PokerStars pulled out of the state’s market and no longer allows Washington residents to play there. But why would they do that?

Understanding the situation requires understanding the U.S. Constitution, federal laws versus state laws, the American legal system and more. If you’re not familiar with all of that, here is kind of a crash course in what you need to know.

In 2006, the U.S. passed the federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) as part of the SAFE Port Act. When that happened, many online gambling operators pulled out of the U.S. market and stopped accepting American customers. That includes Party Poker, who at that time was the biggest online poker site worldwide and in America. PokerStars, however, remained in the market and clearly stated that they would continue to accept American customers.

They could do that because, despite what the federal government may sometimes say, there is no federal ban on online gambling or online poker (some don’t consider poker to be gambling at all, since it’s a game of skill). UIGEA does not make anything illegal that was previously legal (that position was verified by the Supreme Court). UIGEA holds banks accountable for the transfer of funds from illegal online gambling, but does not actually make online gambling illegal. Since there was no previous federal law banning online gambling and UIGEA did not do that, the logical conclusion is that no such federal ban exists. For that reason, PokerStars felt free to continue accepting American customers.

While there is no federal law banning online gambling, there is a state law banning it in Washington. When the law was challenged in court, the state Supreme Court upheld the law, reaffirming that online gambling and online poker are not legal in the state of Washington. Under state law, the players and the online gambling companies can both be held accountable for violating the law, which can include jail time.

Since allowing Washington residents to gamble on their site would be in clear violation of state law, PokerStars placed a ban on those who live in the state. Other online casinos and poker rooms are likely to follow their lead. Currently Washington is the only state banned by PokerStars.

There’s another factor at play as well. It is likely that if the U.S. ever decides to regulate online gambling, they will not allow online casinos to obtain a license if they are guilty of illegally accepting U.S. customers. Such a provision is in the current bill in the House that would repeal UIGEA. If such a provision became law and PokerStars continued to accept players from Washington, they would be ineligible for a U.S. license. That alone is worth pulling out of the market.

Nederland may soon open up their online gambling industry and begin regulating private online casinos. Nederland (or the Netherlands) currently has a monopoly on online gambling, but the Justice Ministry Commission is now recommending that the nation allow several private companies to offer online poker.

Online poker is the most common form of online gambling in the world and it is popular pretty much everywhere, including Nederland. The Dutch right now are trying to get all of the online poker players in the country to visit one website, the online poker website run by the Dutch government. It isn’t working and players are spending money at overseas online casinos and poker rooms. Instead of taking the actions of Israel, Australia and some other countries and trying to block access to those websites, the Commission is recommending licensing a few online poker sites. If you can’t beat them, join them.

Currently the Commission is only recommending allowing private companies to offer online poker, not any other online gambling games, but it’s a start. I hope this is the beginning of a larger expanded online gambling sector largely free from government control, because it would give me another thing to love about Nederland. They have a thriving open economy, their language sounds cool and it’s the origin of Flapjacks, an awesome Holland lop rabbit.

Flapjacks is like most rabbits, I suppose, spending most of his time eating and pooping – sometimes simultaneously – but he has a lot of character and has remained upbeat despite the fact that his owners recently got a dog and don’t pay attention to him anymore. For that I commend him and for moving toward privatizing online poker, I praise Nederland. As you may have guessed, another think I like about the country is the word Nederland (which is why I don’t write “Netherlands”).

Word is that an online gambling operator is considering following the Chat Roulette model for social media. That is according to sources I’ve found online, so it must be true. Anyway, for those not in the know, Chat Roulette is a social media website where people turn on a webcam and then find a random person to chat with online. If they don’t want to chat with that person, they hit a button that brings them to another random person in the world. The website has been compared to a combination of speed dating and forum chat rooms.

According to some online sources, unknown online gambling operators are considering a similar model. In this model, one can assume that players log in and then play a game against a random person. Once the game is over, if they want to play against someone else, they can pick another player at random. The setup could be good for live head-to-head games.

Of course, the website would have to guard against underage members and players in areas where online gambling is illegal, but that is a problem with any online casino. Here, instead of playing against a computer program, players could be competing directly against other players. That would add a new level of interactivity to online gambling, which would be an exciting innovation for many.

So is this online casino coming soon? I don’t know. In fact, I don’t know if it’s ever coming. There is little information and it’s not coming from the most reliable of sources. It does have me thinking, though, that more interactivity with online casinos would be a good thing.

Harrah’s Entertainment is really counting on the U.S. legalizing and regulating online gambling. In fact, they have a lot of money riding on that. A while back, the Las Vegas casino made headlines by partnering with 888.com to open their own online casino. Now they are upping the ante by putting advertising behind that investment.

Harrah’s Entertainment has had their online casino, which uses their “Caesars” name, for a while, but it does not currently accept American customers. They have been advertising online and in foreign markets while the casino has been open. Recently, though, the casino has started advertising in the United States.

A recent edition of USA Today, the popular nationwide newspaper, featured advertising for Harrah’s online casino. They are also advertising on television in the United States, most notably on ESPN during the World Series of Poker.

What does this all mean? Well, Harrah’s seems to be pretty confident that Congress will pass gambling legislation that repeals UIGEA this year, though the more time passes the more unlikely that seems. It’s a gamble. If the legislation currently in the House doesn’t pass and we have to wait until next year or later to get something done, then Harrah’s will have wasted a lot of money advertising to people who can’t buy their product. If, however, online gambling is legalized in the U.S. soon, Harrah’s would be in a unique situation to cash in. Harrah’s would already have a recognized brand and have a leg up on the competition.

Only time will tell whether the gamble pays off for Harrah’s. Here’s hoping it does.

Last week was a big week in the online gambling community. The biggest news – at least in the Western world – was that in the United States, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act passed the House Financial Services Committee, clearing the way for a full House vote.

There was another big piece of news in online gambling, though. PartyGaming and bwin accounced that they would merge. Since they are publicly traded companies, the merger has to be approved by shareholders, but if it goes through, that will make the resulting company the largest in the online gambling industry.

PartyGaming is an online casino and poker room based in the UK and bwin is an online bookmaker based in Austria. If the two merge, as has been in the works for approximately 6 months, they would offer virtually every imaginable type of game or activity for online betting. They would also have the largest revenue and most customers in the online gambling industry.

Many in the industry believe that more mergers are likely to come soon. Many also believe that the timing of this announcement, coming on the heels of the House Financial Services Committee vote, is no coincidence.

PartyGaming used to be the largest online poker room in the industry, but with approximately 70% of their customers coming from the United States, the passage of UIGEA in 2006, which amounted to a de facto ban on online gambling, they dropped to fourth-largest. One of the rules in the new American online gambling legislation is that online casinos who have violated existing U.S. laws will not be able to obtain licenses to operate in the States. For that reason, PartyGaming and other casinos need to continue to be careful when it comes to American customers, at least until the legislation is passed into law.

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.

The United States Congress likes to get together for hearings. They like discussing things, lecturing, sharing their opinion and watching themselves on C-SPAN. Right now, the House Financial Services Committee is holding a hearing on online gambling. Representative Barney Frank, a member of that committee, wants to legalize and regulate online gambling at a federal level, repealing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in the process.

Yesterday, Annie Duke testified before the House committee. Annie Duke is a well-known poker player, having won a World Series of Poker bracelet and earning the nickname of the “Duchess of Poker.” For that reason, it’s not surprising that she is an advocate of online poker in the United States.

Annie Duke told the House Financial Services Committee that Congress should legalize and regulate the online gambling industry. She said that the issue is “personal freedom, the right of individual Americans to do what they want in the privacy of their homes without the intrusion of the government.”

That argument about doing what you want in your own home should carry particular weight with Frank. According to the folks at Gambling Review, Frank has a history of running an illegal gay brothel out of his home. Frank echoed Duke’s statement, saying that “unwise choices are part of freedom.” While some worry that allowing online gambling would lead to illegal gambling by minors, Duke said that it should be the job of parents, not the government, to make sure their children are not participating in dangerous activities.

Next week, the House Financial Services Committee may meet to vote on Frank’s bill to regulate and license online gambling in America. Currently there is no federal ban on online gambling in the United States. The UIGEA tasks financial institutions with blocking transactions from “unlawful” internet gambling, without making online gambling unlawful or defining what types of gambling is unlawful. Some states do ban online gambling, though, and those state laws should still be in effect even if federal regulation is passed.