The thing about slots is that everyone knows the likelihood of winning is relatively low as compared to other casino games. When you do win though, it’s usually a lot bigger than with other games. This is especially true of progressive jackpots. The simple fact is, someone’s going to win it eventually.


That’s exactly what happened for Canadian Sylvia P, who hit the Playtech progressive jackpot on Beach Life back in 2008. Sylvia had never had a lot of extra money, spending what little she made on providing for her children and saving up to buy a home. She had signed up with Joyland Casino only 3 weeks before this memorable hit. Her jackpot was for over $4 mil.


Though smaller jackpots were hit between 2008 and now, Beach Life hadn’t paid out that much to another player since. That is, until this past week. Some lucky player hit the progressive on Beach Life just 2 days before Valentine’s Day for $8,211,488.That amounts to an awful lot of stuffed teddy bears and chocolates. No word yet on who the new millionaire is or which online casino he or she was playing in.


For everyone else, the Beach Life jackpot has dropped back to a decent $50,000. The average length of time between jackpots is around 160 days (so now you can figure out when to start playing, right?). All you have to do is get 5 sun symbols on the 20th payline. If I weren’t so tight for funds right now and relegated to free slots, I know I’d be trolling the internet looking for the highest progressive jackpots. It’s Springtime after all- Maybe luck is in the air!

The events of Black Friday and the ensuing legal struggles of the companies involved has been a favorite subject of rants and blogs in the online gambling world since April, 2010. It seems the players of Full Tilt Poker are going to end up with no reimbursement of their funds, let alone any payments on winnings held in their accounts prior to the DOJ’s seizure of the company and its online casino domain. However, Poker Stars.com was also in hot water last year, and yet seems at least to have been trying to make amends for the errors of their previous ways. For this reason, PokerStars remains one of the largest online poker sites on the web, despite the pending legal implications surrounding the CEOs.


Unfortunately for the company, it appears they’re in hot water again- just when things were starting to calm down. At the beginning of this year, Pokerstars decided to rearrange its rake back and rewards point system. There was immediate public response and many members tried to show their disapproval of the site by organizing a virtual protest against the site. PokerStars dealt summarily with the issue by banning the disgruntled players from the casino. However, a panel was assembled in order to discuss the issue. Pokerstars does not seem averse to negotiating an alternative reward program that is more beneficial to its users.


PokerStars is at least 6 times larger than any other poker site online right now, but there has been a notable decline in the number of active players since the new benefit package was announced. The casino/poker company will have to work with its players and address their concerns, if it expects to maintain its lead in the industry.

Betfair has found themselves in the midst of controversy this week with the Woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle horse race in Leopardstown. The favorite to win was Colm Murphy’s mare, Voler La Vedette, ridden by Andrew Lynch. Voler was given 28 to 1 odds mid-race, which caused a rapid succession of wagering totaling a match on Voler of over £1,600,000. When the horse rode in to clench the victory, literally thousands of betters expected a huge payout. CNN reports that this payout would have cost an estimated £600 million.
Unfortunately for them, Betfair voided the wagers and suspended the market, allegedly to investigate what is said to have been a technical error. The official comment they sent to customers read, “’An investigation has revealed that this was due to an obvious technical failure which allowed a customer to exceed their exposure limit.
‘In accordance with our terms and conditions, all in running bets on this race, both win and place, will be made void.”

They also said that they ‘fully appreciated the dissatisfaction’ this would cause and apologized for the poor betting experience.

One commenter on the proceedings exclaimed that the amount should be paid anyway, as a customer who accidentally placed a bet online in excess of what they meant to place would be forced to pay regardless. To this, one Dave Leeds responded: “Really ! so if you advertise your car in the paper, but accidentally put £200 as the asking price instead of £2000 – can I have it for £200 ?” Such correspondences and debate have been rampant since the race.

What few people seem to take into account is that Betfair is not the one responsible for paying the winnings. They actually take a cut off the winnings so this exchange would have been very profitable for them. What has happened is that a better lay a wager at 29-1 odds and others took them up on the bet. But there should have been an exposure limit set. An exposure limit is the total amount a person can afford to lose. Once that is reached, no more bets can be laid. In this case, the computer systems ignored the exposure limit and bets were made in excess of what the better could afford. As this was due to a mistake on the part of Betfair’s system, it’s only right that the bets be voided in this case.

Some people will argue about everything.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was enacted back in 2006, but it was only this Monday that the first individuals to break this law were finally convicted by federal prosecutors. A jury found Daniel Eremian and Todd Lyons guilty of racketeering, wire security offences, and of operating an illegal gambling business. The operation was a sports betting site based in Antigua, though not licensed there. Lyons was also found guilty of “acceptance of financial instruments for unlawful internet gambling” . The two criminals are expected to be sentenced March 8^th. The maximum sentence for their crimes is 27 years (20 for racketeering, 2 for Wire Act charges, and 5 for illegal gambling). As Lyons has been found guilty of additional charges, he may face 28 more years than Eremian (20 for money laundering, 5 for interstate travel related to the racketeering, and 3 for filing false tax returns). Unsurprisingly, there are also huge fines that will go along with the jail time.

The two were allowed to leave the courthouse unmolested but are barred from leaving the state and will likely be detained until their sentence hearing, due to the expected flight risk. Two others that were involved in the illegal gambling and sports betting operation are still on the loose. The US Attorney’s office maintains that it is still seeking their whereabouts. This event happened the exact same day that an 85 year old woman’s house was raided on suspicions of running an underground football betting ring in Corpus Christi, Texas. Unlike Lyons and Eremian, she was not considered a flight risk, though police did confiscate 2 handguns, $10k in cash, and it is believed that the woman had hundreds of customers.

While the debate about the legality of gambling and poker online rages on, it would appear that some investigators are cracking down on gambling when and where they can, making the entire issue an increasingly hot topic in the news.