Online gambling is apparently high on the agenda of Eastern European nations Romania and Moldova, primarily to generate tax revenues for the state, reports the publication Mediafax.

In Romania, Finance Ministry secretary of state Bogdan Dragoi, told Mediafax that online gambling might be regulated and authorised as a way to attract considerable sums of money to the national budget. The Finance Minister indicated that he wants to have an investigation carried out in a market where it is estimated that Romanians wager up to €500 million on online gambling sites.

The minister revealed that last year Romania amended the law regulating traditional gambling and increased gambling authorisation taxes, which triggered revenues totaling 550 million lei (€1=RON4.1756), compared to 120 million in 2008.

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12 hours and just over 4 levels of play concluded Day 1B of the $10,000 buy-in Main Event at the 41st World Series of Poker Tuesday night.

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Monday afternoon saw the start of the first heat of the 41st World Series of Poker Main Event kick off as 1,125 entrants for Day 1a action assembled at the Rio in Las Vegas. There will be three other Day 1′s as the field is reduced through to two Day 2′s and then the survivors are consolidated into one highly competitive field in Day 3.

Former WSOP Main Event champ Greg Raymer was given the honour of making the first ‘shuffle up and deal’ call, which he did with minimum fuss, saying simply: “We’re not gonna waste any time here. Let’s shuffle up and deal!”

Famous face spotters reported seeing a slew of big names around the tables on this first day of event 57, among them former WSOP main event champion Chris Moneymaker, Scott Seiver, Greg Mueller, Lee Watkinson, Chino Rheem.

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Thailand has joined other Asian states such as China, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia in cracking down hard on the rising tide of internet betting as the football World Cup in South Africa reaches the final eight teams.

Police spokesmen report that more than 1,100 punters in Bangkok have been arrested in a series of drives against illegal football gambling since the World Cup began on June 11.

Over three weeks, police have also arrested 27 illegal bookmakers and 29 punt runners in addition to 1,156 punters, who made bets totalling Bt 3,434,960.

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USA Loses To Ghana It was supposed to be a joyous day for online sports gamblers who predicted the US would beat Ghana and move on to the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup. Instead, these bettors ended up disappointed.

When Asamoah Gyan scored the golden goal in the first overtime of the USA vs. Ghana match, millions of dollars went down the drain for those who bet on the US. The Americans were favored at sports books around the world, but they were unable to deliver a win.

The US, for the fourth straight World Cup match, fell behind in the early stages of the game. Read the full post …

The world’s largest online poker website, PokerStars, has signed a 12-month sponsorship agreement with the Spanish Basketball Federation, just a few months before the 2010 FIBA World Championship scheduled to take place in Turkey in August this year.

PokerStars branding will be seen throughout Spain’s preparation for the world championships and during the upcoming competition, and promotions will see players given the opportunity to win tickets to warm-up games and the championship tournament through various tournaments on the online poker site.

“Our client PokerStars is very proud to become a sponsor of the Federación Española de Baloncesto,” said Juanjo Marquez, a spokesman for the company in Spain.

“Being a global brand, this is a significant opportunity to join a leading sport. P

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England’s poor performance has resulted in huge revenues for the English bookmakers.

Simon English of the London Evening Standard: "Here’s the usual plot for the World Cup: England get hugely hyped by the press, fans and players before they go on to perform indifferently in all but one game, which they still contrive to lose. They crash out amid tears from everyone – except the betting industry, which tries hard not to cry with laughter."

England was heavily bet on to beat the USA in their first 2010 World Cup game.  That one ended in a draw.  And certainly the British were not going to lose to Algeria following the initial draw.  Well, the England-Algeria game ended – not just with another draw – but with a scoreless draw.

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Virgin Casino has announced the launch of the City of Gold which is a new slot game from NextGen Gaming. The ancient Aztec themed game featured five reels with twenty paylines with access to wild and scatter symbols in addition to a bonus feature.

Players will be able to take in extra winnings through the wiles and scatter symbols and free spins bonus feature. The wild symbol is the temple which will substitute all other symbols with the exception of the scatter to complete winning combinations. A great free game feature is triggered when three or more scattered archways appear. 15 free games are awarded where all prizes are tripled!

In addition to this, another new game that’s launching this week is Reel Grand Prix by Dynamite idea. T

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Lexus Only 500 of the new Lexus sports cars will be produced, and that has gamblers hoping they can get their hands on one of the priceless automobiles. With the new car already sold out, it will take some maneuvering to gain control of one of these cars.

The new two-seat LFA has been touted by Lexus as being a sports car of the future. It pushes the envelope for a brand that has led the way in luxury automobiles, but even though it is different than the normal Lexus, it comes with some of the same safety and comfort features that buyers seek.

The majority of the 500 cars that were sold were done so in Europe. Read the full post …

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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