By Samantha Williams

What is perhaps most notable about playing online casino games, is the fact that players who love a gamble, can indulge in their favourite games. They can play these games any time of the day or night, 365, and they can play them for free, for as little as a penny a pop, or even for high rolling wagers. Just about everyone likes taking a gamble …it is a universal pastime, with no one culture, not having a list of games they indulge with a flutter. Advanced technology has brought any and every gambling game known to man, into the convenience and comfort of our living rooms. Now we may even play casino online games wherever we go with the advancement of mobile gambling.

The British online gambling industry has fast advanced into massive demand, for a product which appears to be recession-proof, and now hosts a sophisticated audience. This is the epitome of the online gambling industry, where the world is sitting up, taking notice and emulating industry leading concepts. It is paradoxical in fact that the UK is leading the way, while the USA falls further behind by the day. This is not for want of trying, millions of US gamers across the board, from poker players to Pachinko, want these games online. The government however is at loss of how to control it sufficiently well to allow online gambling inside their borders. The scary thing is that in the land of the ‘free’, these are a series of games which residents are simply not free to play.

While it is fine for a US resident to purchase prescription drugs (without prescription) online and pay with their credits cards, they are not allowed to swipe their card in an attempt to bag a prize playing bingo. One of the softest gambling games known to man! This ‘banning’ of online gambling is in an attempt to ‘protect the public’ I ask you with tears in my eyes – does it not matter where the Viagra and even worse comes from? But a game of online poker for money is a criminal offence – something Joe Public cannot be trusted to spend his ‘own’ hard earned money on.

UK players who gamble at casino online games, do so under the protection of a regulated market; this also offers them the option to continue to pursue their faith in their favourite brands. While US players who are tempted (and many are) have to play with illegal brands; many which may not be above board. So, in the UK we have super choices and the country with one of the most massive choices in consumerism, has very little choice at all. There is no coin toss needed to see who has it better – the US or the UK? This massive ‘Superpower’ is going to find itself, hanging onto Britain’s red-coat-tails, if and when they ever legalize casino online games.

By Samantha Williams

It has been touch and go for years for some of the best online casinos in the world; what with the American market looking so exciting to operators, and yet it not really being legal to offer these games. Operators argued that UIGEA contained too many grey areas and this is how they justified continuing to accept US players. Bodog is just such a site, but how they escaped US Department of Justice notice, since this authority closed down PokerStars, FullTilt and other gambling sites in the US; I really don’t?!

These sites were closed for business after their domains were seized by the DoJ on the 15th April. Gambling operators and fans alike, have dubbed this day ‘Black Friday’. So far it does not seem as though the best online casinos were affect, but the best poker sites certainly were and now one of the last men standing is getting out of the game. Bodog Europe is a very well-known online brand, and a modicum of their notoriety is garnered by the fact that they still accept US players. Up until now these real money gamblers have not been considered persona non grata. From the end of 2011 however this will change and no longer will any players from this country be allowed to use their accounts. At least they have been given time to close accounts and withdraw funds, unlike member of Full Tilt, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. Bodog has also taken out a brand new license and been granted this by the UK Gambling Commission, and this is unusual in itself, as most operators choose to license offshore to escape the massive tax implications of running a gambling operation in the UK. But that is another story entirely.

Another implication for US players is – they will have to be extremely careful where they play, if they do. It could give rise to a spate of new charlatans coming online, in an attempt to part hard working Americans from their gambling money. Americans want to be able to gamble online, but the Government can’t see the woods for the trees and believe that they know better what residents should be allowed to partake of in the ‘land of the free’. Aaron Burr once said that freedom of speech in the USA was only as free as the politician they are allowed to repeat?!

Anyway – that all said and done, Bodog is on their way to concentrate completely on the UK and European market and US players are losing one of the last best online casinos – at least until these operations go legal, if this ever takes place.