Casino News

One of the prestigious CasinoRewards.com group’s flagship operations, Captain Cook’s Casino is rapidly earning itself a reputation as one of Internet gambling’s top paying venues. Although it has now been operating for just a tad less than 10 years, the site still remains one of the network group’s most popular places to play, a trend that appears to stem from the fact that its progressive jackpot payouts are both generous and frequent.

Just over a week ago, Captain Cook’s set hearts racing once more with the announcement of another juicy jackpot payout. With the cumulative total pushing towards $3 million at the time, it was the “Treasure Nile” progressive game that, on this occasion, created all of the hype with a bumper payout of $46 918 to one lucky punter from Canada.

The Captain Cook Online Casino may be remembered by some as being the first ever to pay out a jackpot in excess of a million dollars. At that time, it was Microgaming’s Major Millions progressive slot game that, along with the casino, made the headlines when it enriched one deliriously happy player by a staggering $1 594 649.

Records, however, are made to be broken and sometime later in April 2008, the CasinoRewards.com group again captured the online gambling news.  This time, for a payout at another of its top rated member sites, Blackjack Ballroom. The accolade was earned when the group broke its previous record for an online jackpot win. Their popular venue paid out the staggering sum of $5.5 million to a player from Finland who, incidentally, turned out to be a complete newcomer to the realm of Internet casino gaming.

The games mentioned are just two of the lucrative and highly entertaining progressive jackpot games that may be found at casinoRewards.com outlets such as Captain Cook’s and, just at the moment, the site is offering new players a rather enticing welcome promotion. Upon registering a “real money” account and making a first deposit, player will be treated to a bonus of 500 British Pounds, Euros or US Dollars with which to enjoy a full hour of free play. The 60-minute session is timed from the moment that play begins and expires either when the hour is up or all of the free stakes money has been exhausted.

Any credits won over and above the initial 500 may be retained by the player for his or her future use upon expiry of the 60 minutes free play period.

In summary, there is much to be enjoyed when playing at the Captain Cook’s Online Casino as, indeed, is the case at any of the CasinoRewards.com network’s sites. The site’s cumulative progressive jackpot prize pool now stands at almost $3.2 million. Its regular payouts together with a winning welcome promotion are just two of the many good reasons to pay it a visit. Remember the sister site, Blackjack Ballroom; you may also want to add this great site to your list of things to do in cyberspace.

This exclusive casino has powered ahead of the rest since 1997 and is still the preferred online casino for so many online players. Since the casino’s inception it has maintained the highest standards in terms of service and selection. English Harbour is one of those rare casinos that would appeal to the more traditional player, the player that would find it hard to trust an online brand no matter who told them it was safe, the player that would prefer to spend their time in a land based casino, that kind of traditional player.

The reason for this is multifaceted. Firstly, English Harbour has maintained a solid brand strategy online which has given off the impression of stability. The traditional player would enjoy the idea of stability. If a site is still around after so many years, well then they must be doing something right. Another motivation would be the look and feel of the site, more importantly and to be more exact, the colour. The English Harbour website is coloured in a deep blue which according to online colour theorists is a colour which evokes trust in its users. All this, including the very classy brand name plus years of ironing out all the problems have positioned English Harbour in a favourable position amongst its rivals.

Over the last thirteen plus years, English Harbour Casino has offered online players some of the most exciting and generous series of slot tournaments. In January of 2010, one of their largest tournaments to date has been released. The prize pool stands at a guaranteed $100 000. The tournament is dubbed the Cool Winning’s slot tournament and ends on January 31^st. Not too long ago, quite recently in fact, English Harbour hosted a hotly contested $201, 000 dollar tournament. This massive prize-pool saw one player walk away with $20, 100. This tournament was just one of many promotions laid out by the team at English Harbour to welcome in the New Year, in style. English Harbour have committed themselves to keeping the buy-in for these slot tournaments low, so players can experience longer periods of play and enjoy themselves more.

The team at Yellow Pages Casinos would like to congratulate English Harbour on all their years of success and there are many more to come.

It has recently been announced that the United Kingdom is expressing some interest in the licensing of overseas-based online gaming outlets that would include Internet poker rooms, sports betting outlets, bingo parlours and full service casinos. The suggestion comes from the nations Department for Culture, Media and Sports and, if it should be enacted into the countries gaming laws, it could offer widespread benefits both for European gaming and for the industry as a whole.

The motivation for the department’s proposal seems to have arisen in response to complaints from operators of UK based online gambling companies that they face greater restrictions than their offshore competitors and that the playing field may need to be leveled.

Any foreign-based online gambling outlet seeking registration with the UK’s national gaming authority would be required to first satisfy a number of stringent conditions, designed to protect both service providers and punters alike, in order to qualify for a license. Among the most important of the requirements are those concerning the protection of juveniles and of players who may exhibit the symptoms of problem gambling. In addition, the gaming outlets would have to agree to keep the regulatory body informed of any unusual or suspicious betting patterns associated with any of their gambling activities and with sports betting in particular.

Not everyone sees this latest move from the government as an act of support to its local gaming industry. Among the proposal’s detractors would appear to be David Trunkfield who is currently the head of the gaming division of Price Waterhouse Coopers. Trunkfield denied any intentional cynicism when pointing out that the implementation of this new piece of legislation wouold inevitably lead to a not inconsiderable improvement in the overall value of government taxes.

Among those who view the proposed bill more favourably and has openly offered its backing, is the online organization, Right2Bet. The organization has long been a crusader for the right of all citizens to enjoy a free gaming market throughout the nations that now comprise the growing European Union.

The British Minister of Sport, Gerry Suttcliffe, stated in a press release made earlier this week that he believed the protection provided by the stringent regulatory framework of the country’s current gambling act to be the best in Europe and his assertion received the prompt support of Right2Bet. He gave as his reason for this belief that, since the act allowed for open competition between online service providers, it provided the industry’s consumers with the guarantee of the best value for money as well as the greatest possible freedom of choice.

To me, it seems that what has proved to be good for the Caribbean Isles should be equally good for the British Isles.

A recent survey conducted by the UK online competition site, Winmonkey, and directed at the behaviour of Britain’s stay-at-home moms, has revealed some unexpected facts concerning their current choice of daytime entertainment. It would appear that they have begun to forsake the endless succession of soap operas and reality shows spewed out by daytime TV in favour of the more interactive and stimulating experience offered by the internet.

The results of the poll revealed that more than 80% of the nation’s non-working mothers venture into the virtual world at least once a day. The main reasons for their daily excursions along the information superhighway include news gathering, online shopping, socializing via one or more of the popular social networking sites and enjoying a bit of a flutter at one of the country’s numerous online casinos.

In fact, almost a quarter of the moms polled admitted to spending in excess of two hours a day in cyberspace as well as to devoting, at least, a portion of that to gambling at online gaming sites. The largest portion of their online time, however, appears to be spent in chatting with friends and absentee family members or seeking out casual new relationships via sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

To some extent, the migration from the more traditional pastime of watching the box seems to be the result of a widespread attraction to the greater scope and flexibility offered by the constantly evolving internet technology. Recent advances in PC and internet capabilities have served to highlight the limitations of television and broadcasters are likely to need more than bigger and flatter screens and high definition displays if they are going to stay the distance in a digital world.

As always, the serial alarmists and internet watchdogs have expressed some concern regarding the poll’s findings that reveal what they consider to be a potentially dangerous trend. Their fear is that, as the scope of the internet broadens and the facility becomes increasingly seductive, the home-based moms could begin shirking their parental and domestic responsibilities in favour of spending even more time at their keyboards. There were further fears that regular exposure to online gambling could result in addictive behaviour; this despite copious scientific evidence to suggest that only a tiny, pre-disposed proportion of players are likely to be so affected.

Siobahn Freegard of Netmums.com, a UK organization that offers online parenting advice, advised moms moderate the time they spent online and to beware of any telltale signs that their initially harmless Bingo fun may be developing into something more serious. She also advised that they should not hesitate to seek professional advice if they suspected an emerging problem.