Police in Manila, Philippines have busted an illegal online gambling operation in which live dealers interacted with Internet players of casino games. Seven arrests – three Filipino women croupiers and four Koreans – were reported by the police, who raided a Manila video streaming apartment equipped with gambling tables and hi-tech streaming equipment which connected to mainly South Korean punters over the internet.

Bank wires were used to deposit and pay out winnings, the police chief inspector in charge of a special task force revealed to reporters.

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Veteran online gambling software provider Microgaming has announced the submission of three significant operator applications to the National Regulatory Authority of the French online gambling market the ARJEL, two of which are in collaboration with 888 Holdings plc.

Roger Raatgever, CEO, Microgaming said: “At Microgaming we stay ahead of the market and are delighted to announce that following the recent signing of a joint venture with 888, we have combined our efforts and successfully submitted operator license applications to the ARJEL.

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The Cereus online poker network, which includes UB.com and AbsolutePoker.com has quickly regained its number 6 position back after dropping for a brief time to number 9.  They even cracked the top 5 for a brief period over the weekend.  Their 7 day average was within 50 real cash players of Ongame in the number 5 position. 

The rebound occurred quickly after implementation of the SSL Client-Server encryption. 

Earlier this month Cereus experienced a security glitch that may have caused many players to stay away as a precaution until online poke room could address the issue.  They did so rather quickly.

"We can confirm that SSL is now being used everywhere for CEREUS. The

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Execs at PartyGaming received some pretty hefty bonuses in the form of stock options worth $78 million, this despite the fact that the share price value lost around 76 percent over the past year.

PartyGaming CEO Mitch Garber’s pay package comes to 18.5 million pounds. The cost of wages for the chief financial officer came to nearly 6 million pounds in 2006, Haaretz reports.

The company explained its decision to reward its top brass, despite the poor showing of its stock, on the dropping value of their pay package because of the share price’s slide.

Garber’s pay package, for example, was once worth $40 million pounds.

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In her continuing quest to save the world with a deck of cards, Team UB pro Annie Duke will be hosting a celebrity poker tournament on Thursday night in support of After-School All-Stars, a charity committed to keeping at-risk youth off the streets, out of gangs, and away from drugs, alcohol and other temptations. The tournament gets underway at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 20th at 7:30pm.

Slated to play in the charity poker tournament are a number of Hollywood celebrities including Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle, funnyman Brad Garrett, and David Zayas of Showtime’s Dexter.

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Leading online poker room FullTiltPoker.com has announced the addition of New York native Andrew ‘LuckyChewy’ Lichtenberger to its Red Pro team of sponsored professional players.

The 22-year-old has become the 135th Red Pro member after first appearing on the poker community’s radar at last year’s World Series Of Poker (WSOP) where he cashed in five events including a second-place finish in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em shoot-out for $215,403.

In addition, the East Northport resident also took home $500,557 after bowing out in 18th spot in the main event of 2009’s Las Vegas spectacular and received a large amount of coverage on ESPN.

“I became a FullTiltPoker.com Red Pro today so now I stand out in the chat box,” read a blog posted by Lichtenberger.

“Hopefully, I get both my avatar and first commercial soon.”

Following last year’s WSOP, Lichtenberger has continued to post impressive results including a tenth place finish during the North American Poker Tour’s Venetian main event for $44,195. Read the full post …

UB.net’s Poker2Nite returned last night at 11pm EDT on VERSUS with talk of Phil Ivey’s star status in the game, and Jason Mercier’s take on the Big Game.

Miami, FL (Marketwire) Friday, May 14, 2010 – Those who caught episode 11, Season 2 of UB.net’s leading poker news television series, Poker2Nite, last night on VERSUS were in for a sweet treat; 2007 Playmate of the Year Sara Underwood chatted with co-hosts, Joe Sebok and Scott Huff, who were also back with the headline making news from around the poker traps.

With the 2010 WSOP* literally only weeks away from Event # 1, Seebs and Huff kicked off the show with a look at their annual press conference, which announced two new sponsors, Red Bull and Nat Nash.

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The House Ways and Means Committee has confirmed earlier unofficial reports that it is to hold a hearing on May 19 to discuss the tax benefits of legalising and regulating online gambling in the United States.

Representative Jim McDermott’s HR 4976 internet gambling taxation proposal, a companion bill to Congressman Barney Frank’s HR 2267 bill to legalise online gambling, will be at the centre of the discussion and has attracted three co-sponsors.

The hearing will be chaired by Ways and Means Committee chairman Sander Levin, and interested parties have been invited to attend on submission of a written statement.

“The Committee will discuss the current tax laws and reporting requirements applicable to wagering in the United States …

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The final match of this season’s English Premier League takes place on Sunday afternoon with online bookmakers heavily backing Chelsea to win the title at the expense of reigning champions Manchester United.

Both teams have played 37 games so far this season but three-time consecutive English Premier League title holders Manchester United are only one point behind Chelsea. However, both sides are finishing this season’s calendar with home games against lesser opposition, which means the current one-point gap should remain intact.

Chelsea last won the English Premier League in 2006 under the stewardship of manager Jose Mourinho but new boss Carlo Ancelotti hoping to emulate his famous predecessor after only one season in charge of the London-based club. Read the full post …

The Caribbean Casino and Gaming Corporation, which owns the Sosua Bay land casino in the Dominican Republic, has announced that it plans to launch real money, live dealer operations online next (June) month after extensive testing of its Kenilworth Systems Corporation technical elements.

The online gambling action will be streamed from the Sosua Bay Grand Casino using Kenilworth technical expertise, and the offering will include roulette and sports betting. CCGC expects to quickly generate revenues of $250,000 a month, a spokesman said this week.

The casino is now the centerpiece in the Sosua Bay Resort at Puerto Plata.

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