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London, 18 February 2008 - Starting March 19 this year, eCOGRA will be hosting the next training course in London, and eCOGRA accredited companies and other firms currently under review around the globe have already committed to the expense of sending managers to attend, registering over 40 delegates.

The two day course will commence with an address by a senior independent director of eCOGRA and former Chief Inspector of the UK Gaming Board, Bill Galston OBE followed by detailed practical tuition sessions on the clinical and social aspects of problem and underage gambling presented by expert professional speakers from GamCare.

The highly interactive programme has been designed to cover all aspects of responsible gambling awareness and the implementation of effective and practical measures to identify and exclude problem gamblers, with the emphasis on player protection, customer communication and providing players with helpful information. The managers attending will be coached on how best to ensure that staff is adequately and regularly trained to deal with responsible gambling issues, and that marketing initiatives are in compliance with the Responsible Gambling Code.

One of the key sessions will examine intervention and interaction; how to deal with problem gamblers and the fine line between intervention and interaction. With the UK code recommending that companies engage in “interaction” this aspect will be explored and guidelines given on how it can best be achieved, and where the operator’s responsibility ends.

In practical terms, eCOGRA and its partners have done more than most when it comes to the professional study of responsible gambling and the development of staff training aimed at reducing the possibility of underage or problem gambling.

The player protection organisation has partnered with leading international responsible gambling bodies to present two previous major training courses for operational managers, who then return to their home bases to implement measures and expand the training to other members of staff.

“Our previous courses have been well received as valuable guidance in complying with best practice standards for combating problem and underage gambling,” eCOGRA’s Fair Gaming Advocate Tex Rees said. “The next course has combined the expert professional knowledge of GamCare counsellors with the growing practical experience of top online gambling operators to produce what we believe is an effective and useful approach to a key industry problem.”

[via eCogra]

Guò nián! Step into the Chinese New Year with a brilliant game in sync with this important festival. The Happy New Year video slot marks the advent of the Year of the Rat with traditional symbols of loud fireworks, lanterns and knots, and emphasis on the lucky color red. The lucky Chinese Script is the wild in this game, and can build combinations that pay 2x or 4x for a winning line. Players can also bet for as little as 1.00 or as much as 125.00 for action-packed fun and generous rewards when Chúxì good fortune strikes! Bring in the New Year with Chinese vivacity and style!

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As all of may well know, Golden Riviera introduced the Cash Leader Board at the beginning of December 2007 for $1000, and so far it has been a huge success. It has been a very popular addition to Golden Riviera Poker, and we want to thank everyone for their positive feedback.

Due to its success, GR decided to boost the Cash Leader Board from $1000 to a whopping $6000! In addition, there will now be a total of 52 players who will receive their share of the prize money from the Cash leader Board. Previously, only the top 10 got a share of the prize.

All players will have to do to take part in this fantastic promotion is play their favourite poker game and follow their progress on the Cash Leader Board at Golden Riviera Poker.

There are many differences between online poker, casino poker, and home games. In a home game you might just play strictly with cash. It can make you stop and think before you call a $15 raise and have to physically put three more $5 bills into a pot just to see one card that may not even help your hand. In real life at the casino and sometimes at a home game, you usually have to buy chips with real hard cash. There is a certain shift that occurs when this happens.

It is psychologically easier to throw three $5 chips into a pot than three $5 bills. Chips make counting and stacking a lot easier but they also disassociate you from real hard cash. Real money can once again become clear for a brief time as soon as you have to buy more chips with real hard cash. It always makes you think when you have to reach into your pocket or purse and grab your wallet.

In an online casino, it’s usually just a matter of using a credit card or sending a money order/wire transfer to the online casino to get your virtual bankroll started. There are no real chips, just icons that represent chips, which are in fact virtual numbers. You must have an even greater discipline to respect your money in this scenario.

Time

In fact, you don’t even have to push the chips onto the table to make a bet, call a raise, etc. etc. All you do is click a mouse button and you’re done. It can be done so fast that if you don’t take a breath; it’s easy to have your judgment thrown off by emotion.

Your play is magnified on an internet casino. One main reason is that the cards and hands are played so much faster. There is very little physical movement, as all you have to do is point and click the mouse. It literally takes seconds. In real life there is the physical motion of picking chips up, counting chips, and placing them in the appropriate place.

This all takes additional time and fortunately can help you when having to make a decision. There is no real dealer in online poker other than an icon representing a dealer. That means no tipping. At a $1 or $2 tip per win, this can save your bankroll a lot of money.

The rake still exists and actually varies depending on the online casino you choose to play at. The rake should be considered because after all said and done if you break-even while playing, the rake would eventually take all of your money over time.

When there is a rake involved in poker it is your responsibility to find and play with players that you are better than. A home game is the only exception as there typically is no rake. If you’re in a heads up game online and your opponent is almost equal to you in playing ability, then you are both going to break even most of the time with each other, and find your bankroll slipping away to the houses rake.

On average, an online poker game will move three times as fast as a real casino. That means your weaknesses will be magnified three times. That means the rake is three times as much. Of course you’re still getting three times as many hands for your money. For some players however, this can be catastrophic. What seems like hours for someone to call a raise may in reality only take seconds in online poker.

It’s so easy to get used to this faster type of play, that you can easily lose perspective on the real amount of time passed. To go to a real casino takes planning. For some of you it might entail a flight, for others a lengthy drive. The time that it takes to get to the casino can be very helpful for your mindset because it psychologically forces to give you time to prepare.

In an online casino, you can play it right in your own home. What might take an hour or so to get to the local casino or a day or so for some of you, others can get into a Hold’em game online for real money in one minute or less. You don’t have to shower and shave or change your clothes. You simply have to click a few buttons and you’re ready to play. There may be no transition of mind set at all.

If you’re in a bad mood or good mood, happy or sad, you will most likely stay in that mood while you are playing until you have time to adjust. If it’s a mood problem, it might cost you an arm and a leg during that transition.

In essence it’s a good idea to pump and psyche yourself up. It’s one way many successful players mentally prepare for poker. Personal problems will definitely affects your game and not in a good way.

Stay tuned for more proven poker tips in this multi-part article series. You too can become a very successful online poker player.

[via:  http://www.a1-articledirectory.com]

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As everyone knows, slotmachines are games of chance, that’s why there is not a  real strategy to play.  But, even if nobody has the winning recipe, maybe some good informations about slots can help players increase their consciousness.

The first step can be understanding winning odds in slot machines:

 Most slot players just put in their money and hope. Other slot players put in their money and pray. Generally people think they’ll ultimately win if they keeps playing, and that’ why they continue play time and again.
Anothe common scene is when you pull the handle or you push the little button and what happens? You get a cherry another cherry and a lemon. So close to the win but you didn’t.

A good way to win playing slots is become a little educated about the machines.

In online casino slots, the resulting symbol combinations are dictated by a computer software.
This software is determined by another device - the random number generator (RNG). 

Computers run this world and they also run the slot machines. With RNG, numbers run through every slot machine every day constantly whether they are being played or not. The fact that you have been playing the machine for hours for free, or betting tons of coins,  make no difference for our RNG.  

And this is the first key phrase: No matters how long we are playing , we have always the same chances to win.

Another important facts is that most slot machines are programmed to return only a percentage of the money played in them. Online slot machines return from 85 to 98 percent of the money played in them. These percentages are programmed in the machine. They can’t be changed by luck, skill, or prayer, but anyone can see these payout rates.

Payout rates are reviewed by independent corporations whose aim is protect gamblers and guarantee fair play.

Learn more about payout percentages and players odds

Read a Casino Payout Percentages List

An important aspect of choosing an online casino is the  Casino Payout Percentage.

Most online casinos publish their payout percentages in their homepage, but it’s important that these rate are verified by indipendent auditors such as eCogra or Technical Systems Testing (TST).

The Payout Percentage indicates how much money are payed back in winnings by casinos; for example: With a payback percentage of 98,5% the casino will pay $985 for each $1000 played and will keep only $15.  
With any payback percentage under a 100 (and they’re all under 100), the casino wins over time. 
So , how many gambling odds we have?
Players, by virtue of the randomness of games, have good odds, Online casinos however, will generally have better odds than their land-based counterparts: Land-based casino slot machines generally pay out abot 75%, against the 95% minimum of an online slot.

Of course casinos lavish winnings randomly, so they could have paid out some large jackpots over that month, making the percentages seem very good. Thats why it is better to look at payout percentages averaged over 6 months.

View Online Casino Payout Rate List

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A list of Online casinos payout percentages:

The figures reflect the percentage of total player unit winnings to the total unit amount wagered by players for 6 months.

The data were independently evaluated and verified by third party source code testing, certificating fairness and security.

eCOGRA’s suspends seals pending further investigation.

The audit revealed failures in compliance with eCOGRA’s Generally Accepted Practices for the following casinos:

Challenge   
Golden Reef   
I Big Casino 
Music Hall   
Nostalgia  
UK Casino Club 

The Management of these casinos have been advised of this action and requested to comment on the findings of the audit review. Further information will be provided once these investigations are concluded.

[via eCogra]