Today the online gambling world was shook when news broke that the Bodog Entertainment Group was indicted. Calvin Ayre and three other Canadians (James Phillip, David Ferguson & Derrick Maloney) were also indicted. The four Canadian men have been indicted on two separate charges including Conducting an Illegal Gambling Business and Money Laundering Conspiracy.

Prosecutors stated in the indictment that Bodog Entertainment Group allegedly paid out over $100M in winnings to US bettors and also allegedly hired an unnamed media company to advertise to US bettors. The Bodog.com domain has also been seized and if you visit the domain you’ll notice that the US DoJ has placed their trademark stamp on the homepage.

None of the individuals charged in the indictment have been arrested yet and all four of the men are in Canada. The indictment stated that undercover agents signed up with Bodog.com and placed bets from Maryland. The agents then withdraw money through Western Union or Checks. The indictment states that Bodog Entertainment Group was running an illegal gambling business from 2006 – 2012.

The indictment also states that a former employee of Bodog was working with the US as a confidential informant. The CI was able to name the directors of Bodog and gave the US DoJ an inside look at how Bodog operated. The CI was working with law enforcement in July 2010 and helped piece together the case against Bodog and the four individuals.

Calvin Ayre has already responded with a brief statement on his blog. Ayre expressed that he seen this indictment as an abuse of the US criminal justice system. This story is just beginning to develop, but it should be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks. Prosecutors in Baltimore, Maryland have been working on multiple online gambling related investigations and this recent indictment might be a sign of more indictments in the future.

The US is going to continue attacking online gambling sites on US domains that accept US bettors. It’s only a matter of time before other domains are seized in this ongoing battle between the US DoJ and offshore online gambling companies. Any sites operating in the US market should switch to a non-US domain before the inevitable happens. None of the other Bodog sites have been affected by Bodog.com being seized, but this can’t be good for the overall health of the company.

Bovada wasn’t seized in the indictment and is still operating in the United States. The Morris Mohawk Gaming Group used to use the Bodog.com brand to operate in the USA and now operate using the Bovada brand. Bovada Poker is still operating smoothly and this indictment doesn’t involve Bovada or the MMGG. Calvin Ayre has taunted the US government in the past and I’m sure he’s ready to fight the two charges that he’s facing.

It was only a matter of time before California jumped on board with online poker. Over the weekend SB 1463 was introduced and if the bill is passed online poker would become legal in the State of California. The bill has been introduced as an emergency bill and that means if the bill is passed (2/3rd Votes) online poker would become legal immediately. Normally in the State of California new laws don’t be take effect until January 1st of the following year, but emergency bills can become law instantly after being passed.

Initially only online poker would be legalized in the State of California, but the bill states that other internet gambling games could be approved in the future as long as the game is already legal under land-based gaming laws in California. Poker players will need to sign-up for an account and have their ID verified before they can start playing real money poker. Players would need to be located within California in order to be allowed to play and every player has to be 21 years of age or older.

Players would need to fund their account by using a credit card or debit card, as cash and money orders won’t be accepted. It will also become illegal to play with unlicensed poker rooms in the State of California if the bill is approved. Online gaming companies that want to offer online poker in California would need to apply for a license if the bill is passed. The requirements to apply for a license are pretty steep, as each licensee would need to put $30M in the California Internet Gambling Fund.

The $30M that needs to be paid into the fund would cover the licensee’s fees for ten years. However, I don’t think there are going to be many operators looking to invest $30M in California until they know the market is going to work. This means that poker players in the State of California will most likely have limited legal options initially. The good news is that the bill will allow poker operators to operate in other legal jurisdictions and the player pools don’t need to be segregated.

There are many legislators supporting the bill in California and many expect that the bill could earn $200M in tax revenue the 1st year. California needs money and they’re ready to do almost anything to start bringing in more tax revenues. I think the bills will be passed in California quickly and we could see legalized online poker in California before most US States. The bill would also create jobs in California, as each licensed operator will need to have most employees located within the State of California.

I have a feeling that a lot of states in the USA are going to introduce online gaming bills this year. Mississippi is the latest state to enter the fray, as Bobby Moak filed a new bill called the Mississippi Lawful Internet Gaming Act of 2012.Mississippi’s online gaming bill will legalize online poker and other forms of gaming. Most US states have only been introducing bills that regulate online poker, but it appears that all forms of gaming will be legalized in Mississippi if this new bill is passed.

The online gaming bill would create jobs and earn much needed revenue for the state of Mississippi. Online poker operators that want a permit from the Mississippi Gaming Commission (MGC) will need to pay a minimum of $200,000. Permits will be valid for a period of 1 – 5 years and once the permit expires the operator would be required to renew the permit immediately. Renewals will cost the operator $100,000 each time they need to renew their permit.

There are multiple other fees that the poker rooms would need to pay plus there would also be taxes on revenues. The bill has a lot of details about the way the state will regulate the market and it’ll provide a safe environment for poker players. The poker room would be required to make sure every player is over 21 years old by having the player send in two pieces of ID. Every player would also need to complete an Internet Wagering Account Agreement plus sign a Penalty of Perjury Statement.

The regulations are steep, but it will ensure that the poker players in the state of Mississippi are completely safe. There would be a few ways to fund your account including Credit Cards and Cash at the licensee’s casino. Being able to walk into a casino to fund and withdraw funds from your online poker account would be great for poker players in Mississippi. The new online gaming bill was just introduced on Wednesday, so I’m sure it will take some time before we hear about whether or not the bill will be passed.

One of the rules that’s currently on the bill that I think should be changed is as followed. Poker players that have inactive accounts for 12 months will have any funds in their account donated with 50% of the money going to the MGC Fund. Most players wouldn’t leave inactive accounts for over a year, but there are certain circumstances where that could happen and players shouldn’t need to worry about having their money donated for being inactive in the online poker room.

Mississippi and Iowa are now two more states looking to regulate online poker at the state level. I’m sure we’ll see more states jump on board in the coming weeks, so make sure you tune back to our blog to find out when your state introduced an online poker bill.

There wasn’t too much news in the world of online poker this weekend, so we figured we’d tell our readers about the upcoming promotions being offered at Party Poker. Over the next couple months there are going to be plenty of great promotions that poker players will be able to participate in at Party Poker. Not only can you participate in the great promotions, but Party Poker has one of the leading VIP deals that can earn you the equivalent of 50% rakeback.

Party Poker Gladiator Promotion

Party Poker is going to host the Gladiator promotion again from March 1^st – March 31^st 2012. All you have to do is opt-in and start earning as many Party Points as possible throughout the month of March. Players will be able to earn up to $4000 cash and entry into a freeroll with a $25,000 prize pool.

Party Poker is also offering everyone a chance to win a WPT or WSOP prize package. During the promotion there are two special levels that will reward players with a live tournament prize package if achieved. Only full-time poker players will be able to meet the requirements needed to win one of the two tournament prize packages, but if you play a lot you might as well give it a shot.

• In order to win the $8000 WPT prize package (Or $5K Cash) you need to earn 1200 Party Points everyday for 30 days in the month of March.

• In order to win the $15,000 WSOP prize package (Or $10K Cash) you need to earn 1500 Party Points every single day for 40 days between the dates of March 1^st – April 15^th 2012.

Party Poker Spring Million

Party Poker just announced that they’ll be hosting a Spring Million tournament on May 6^th 2012 at 13:30 ET. The tournament is still quite a few weeks away, but Party Poker has started running qualifiers this week starting at only $1. Your best bet is to try and win a seat in the Spring Million by playing in the inexpensive $1 satellites. The winner of the Spring Million tournament will earn at least $200,000 and the total prize pool is guaranteed to be at least $1,000,000.

Party Poker Premier League V

The Party Poker Premier League V promotion has been running for a couple weeks now, but the promotion doesn’t end until March 18^th 2012. This gives players plenty of time to try and win one of the prize packages worth $13,000 to play in a live playoff with the rest of the qualifiers. The top two players from the live playoff qualifier will win a $125,000 seat into the Premier League V where you’ll get to play against the best poker players in the world for your chance to win cash and other prizes. Plus you can also earn party poker rakeback which will reward you no matter what.

Bet24 Poker is a Scandinavian based poker room although Bet24 is popular throughout all of Europe. US poker players can’t play online poker at Bet24, but almost every other country is welcome to join including Canadians. Bet24 has been a huge player in the mobile poker industry and the company announced yesterday that they’ve launched their mobile poker iOS app in 14 countries.

A couple months ago (December 2011) Bet24 Poker released an iOS and Android poker app. Poker players in the United Kingdom, France and Austria were able to play mobile poker at Bet24 initially. Now 14 more countries are allowed to play mobile poker at Bet24 Poker for real money and we’ve listed the countries below.

• Bet24 Mobile Poker is now available in the UK, France, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Denmark, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Netherlands, Slovakia, Romania, Switzerland, Sweden and Slovenia.

PokerStars may have released real money mobile poker in the UK this week, but Bet24 Poker decided to one up PokerStars and release their iOS mobile poker client in 14 new countries this week. Bet24 Poker only released the iOS mobile client in the new countries listed above and not the Android app yet.

Lars Kollind is the Poker Manager at Bet24 and he was interviewed yesterday. Kollind stated that the mobile poker client has been downloaded thousands of times already in the UK, Austria and France. Bet24 Poker is excited to see how many poker players join the mobile poker room now that it’s available in over 50% of Europe.

The reason Bet24 Poker has been focusing exclusively on developing their iOS mobile poker app is because Bet24 has noticed that the spending by mobile users on the iOS far outweighs the spending of Android or other mobile OS users. More Androids have been sold in Europe than devices running the iOS, so I don’t think it will be long before Bet24 develops their Android app further.

2012 is going to be the year that mobile poker takes off in regulated markets around the world. Bet24 Poker has done a great job positioning themselves to take advantage of the mobile poker market this year. Poker players in the countries listed above can download the real money poker app from the Bet24 Mobile Poker site or from the iTunes Store if you’re running the iOS.

The mobile poker app only supports Texas Holdem cash games, but the table design looks identical to the desktop poker tables at Bet24 Poker. Overall the app is great if you want to play Holdem cash games, but if you want to play in tournaments on your mobile device you may want to check out the PokerStars Mobile app (UK & Italian Poker Players Only).

PokerStars applied for a license from the Lotteries & Gaming Authority in Malta and the license application was approved last week by the LGA in Malta. The reason PokerStars applied for the license was so that they could open PokerStars.eu. There are multiple reasons why PokerStars wanted to launch the new poker room that we’ll explain below.

Why Did PokerStars Launch PokerStars.eu?

• One of the reasons PokerStars opened PokerStars.eu with a license from Malta is so that players in Europe don’t have to worry about paying taxes on winnings. Poker players in some European countries need to pay taxes on winnings from poker sites that are licensed outside of the European Union.

• Eventually PokerStars also wants to operate a single poker room in Europe without segregated player pools. A single EU poker room is far from happening, but in the future segregated player pools may open up to the rest of the EU.

Who Can Play on PokerStars.eu?

PokerStars.eu is only available to poker players in Finland and Sweden right now. Finnish and Swedish poker players currently need to pay taxes on winnings at PokerStars.com because the site is licensed by the Isle of Man. PokerStars have said that they plan on allowing other EU countries to play on PokerStars.eu in the future. The player pool isn’t segregated on PokerStars.eu, so players will still be able to play the same great games that they could play on PokerStars.com.

The software and everything else is exactly the same. The only difference is that the new domain is PokerStars.eu and there is also a new logo in the lobby with PokerStars.eu instead of PokerStars.com. Finnish and Swedish players will be able to upgrade to the new software when they try signing into their accounts at PokerStars. Once you upgrade to the new platform your balance, FPP’s and everything else will be migrated to the new poker room instantly.

PokerStars has done a great job becoming regulated in markets throughout Europe. PokerStars already operates segregated poker rooms in Italy and France plus Spain is supposed to open later this year. PokerStars also operates licensed poker rooms in Belgium, Estonia and Denmark although these poker rooms are connected to the PokerStars.com player pool. Regulation in the online poker industry is happening rapidly around the world and PokerStars is always at the forefront of the emerging markets.

Players on the PokerStars.eu room will still be able to participate in the VIP program. If you live in Sweden or Finland and don’t have an account yet at PokerStars now is the perfect time to sign-up. PokerStars is comparable to the rest of the online poker networks licensed in the EU now and poker players in Europe no longer need to worry about paying taxed on their winnings.  You will still be able to get pokerstars rakeback on this new site.

888 Poker has one of the best online poker software suites already and now they’ve released an Android poker app in beta. If you have an 888 Poker account you may have received an email from 888 Poker, but if not you can sign-up for an account easily. The new Android poker app can be downloaded instantly on your Android mobile device by visiting the link below.

• Download 888 Poker Android Poker App

Currently the 888 Poker Android app is in beta mode only and there will be some bugs to work through I’m sure. Players will only be able to play cash games on the poker app for real money right now and tournaments may be available in the future. There are only certain stakes supported on the app as well right now, but the mobile player pool isn’t segregated from the online player pool.

Once you download and install the Android poker app from 888 Poker you need to make sure you allow non-market apps or else the app won’t work when you try to open it. The poker lobby is very basic and allows you to play on beginner cash tables or you can use the quick seat feature to find a seat at the stakes you want to play.

On the beginner tables players will be able to play NL Holdem at $.01/$.02, $.03/$.06 and $.05/$.10 stakes. If you use the quick seat feature you can find games with higher stakes, but during beta mode the stakes are limited. The table features are very limited, but that’s expected when you’re playing on a mobile device.

In fact, 888 Poker may need to trim the poker tables a bit more in order to make them more suitable for mobile devices. The avatars take up a lot of space and aren’t needed on the mobile app. I like the bet slider on the right of the table that you can use to quickly size out your bets before clicking on the bet button at the bottom of your screen.

888 Poker has also implemented a chat feature on the mobile app, so you can still chat with the rest of the table. Trying to chat with other players while playing poker on your Android isn’t that easy and you may not want to worry about trying to chat. You can even earn 888 rakeback through our partner site.

You can download the new Android app at the link above and start playing for real money today. Keep in mind there may be some bugs that need to be worked through initially. 888 Poker is actually looking for all the help they can from beta testers, so if you see a bug or problem with the Android app you can email 888 Poker at [email protected].

With many markets regulating online poker around the world it may not seem like the most opportune time to launch a new poker network, but B3W Group doesn’t seem to care. In August 2011, B3W Group launched the Yachting Poker room using a brand new software suite that had never been seen before. When Yachting Poker launched last year the poker room was operating by itself, but now there are three more skins on the network and B3W Group decided to finally name the poker network.

What is the Poker Pack Network?

B3W Group is well-known in the online gaming industry, but not the poker industry. B3W Group has been operating online casinos since 1998 and has several brands under their name. The online casinos that operate under the B3W Group include Yachting Casino, Casino Broceliande and Bet in Paris. B3W Group decided last year that they wanted to enter the online poker industry.

Rather than open a poker room on an established poker network B3W Group decided to develop in-house software. The new poker platform is actually pretty well designed, but the only problem right now is the network has no traffic. The hardest part of growing a new online poker network is having a big enough player base to get the action running 24/7 at the micro/low stake tables.

The Poker Pack Network started out with just Yachting Poker, but now three other poker skins have joined the network. The three news skins on the network are The Poker Barrel, Black Stack Poker and B4 Poker. Traffic on the network is still immensely small and only averages about 40-50 real money players at any given time.

The new software is better than a lot of the small networks software and I believe that the Poker Pack Network will be able to grow into a top 20 poker network if they can continue growing. One unique feature about the new poker network is that players instantly receive 30% rakeback from the network without having to join any 3^rd party providers or anything.

B3W Group won’t be accepting American poker players on the new network, but most other countries are welcome to join. B3W is a company based out of Malta and the network is licensed in Malta by the Lotteries & Gaming Authority. The poker games that you can play on the network include Holdem, Omaha and Seven Card Stud with Hi/Lo variations also being played.

Right now there are still better poker networks to earn 30% rakeback, but the Poker Pack Network is a new player in the rakeback industry and has a great software platform to work off of. When traffic at the network is big enough to support full ring games 24/7 it’ll be a great poker room for rakeback players, but in the meantime you should pick one of our more popular rakeback deals.

At the end of 2011 we talked about PokerStars switching to the weighted contributed rake model. With the new rake model a lot of players at PokerStars were upset because they were going to earn fewer rewards from the VIP program. PokerStars was going to make an extra 1.5% on ring table games with the changes, but players at PokerStars weren’t happy with those changes.

Initially at the time when the rake model was switched, PokerStars were also going to change the rake structure and fees. After it was clear that players weren’t happy with the rake changes PokerStars cancelled the changes at the time. Several poker reps from the 2+2 Poker forum were chosen to meet with PokerStars to figure out a new rake structure that was suitable for everyone. These changes do effect pokerstars rakeback rates so please take a look at the new vip table.

The meetings were just finished up last week and the new rake changes are beneficial for most players. Micro limit and low limit players at PokerStars will pay less rake now, but high stakes players are going to pay more rake. PokerStars have increased the rake on tables at the $25/$50 NL, $25/$50 PL and $15/$30 FL levels.

Overall PokerStars has reduced the rake that they’ll make by just under 3%, but not everyone will see a decrease. PokerStars feel that the higher limit tables need to pay a slightly higher rake because they take more resources to monitor. The rake increase won’t go into the pockets of PokerStars, but it will go towards lowering the rake on the micro/low limit tables.

PokerStars implemented the rake change on February 1^st 2012, so you may have noticed the difference this week. PokerStars will also be releasing poker tables at the $.03/$.06 and $.08/$.16 levels. Several changes were also made to the VIP program in order to try and keep some of the grinders happy.

Now players only need to earn the required monthly VPP’s for the Supernova and Supernova Elite VIP levels 10 months of the year, as players are allowed to miss the monthly target two months each year. Players that earned Supernova and Supernova Elite last year will be able to maintain their VIP level by earning 50% of the required VPP’s until 2013 to make up for the rake changes.

Many players are still upset about the rake changes on poker forums, but overall the changes will benefit a lot of players. Unless you play high staked poker you should see a small decrease in the rake you pay while playing. The decreased rake will make up for the fact that many players will earn less VIP rewards.

The new WC model rewards active players that play a lot of pots instead of simply rewarding players that play a lot of volume. I’m sure PokerStars is going to lose some players over these changes, but only at the higher staked tables. Micro and low limit players will actually be able to make more with the new rake changes.