Yesterday Apple launched their newest product, the Apple iPad. This new tablet product can be placed in between a phone and a laptop. “The best web experience” acoording to Steve Jobs.

The iPad is about 1.5 pounds, runs at 1024×768 and is equiped with WIFI, 3G and bluetooth. This new tablet device is created to enhanche internet use like browsing, reading e-books and most likely online gaming.

Up to now being able to play online games and online casino’s was possible at your cell phone but not really comfortable. Most casino’s have difficulty’s bringing the complete blackjack tables to small phone screens. Also controls were often lacking, overall casino experience can’t compete with a regular laptop and dekstop.

With the Apple iPad online gaming and online gambling might see a new boost. When the iPad gaines popularity like the iPhone and the iPod did the iPad might convince software developers to create their casino software in such a way best playable on this iPad. They will also have to adapt their software to the full multi-touch Apple has put in the iPad.

Wheter or not this will be a succes remains to be seen but we are confident software operators are allready looking into all the possibilities. Before you know it you might be playing a game of blackjack at PartyCasino in the train home from work!

Industry leading watchdog Casinomeister has announced 32Red Online Casino to be the ‘Casino of the Decade’. The gambling operator was already crowned to casino of the year in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and2008, so the prize wasn’t a big surprise.

Casinomeister honored 32Red for their transparency and personal player support, two important things that every casino operator should strive for. Casino bonuses are a highly common thing in the industry, but they often carry thousands of complicated rules before a player is entitled to cash it out. 32Red has always been transparent about the bonus rules, making an example for some of its competitors.

32Red Online Casino has been in operation since 2000 and was founded by Ed Ware, who left Ladbrokers to start his own online casino. The casino offers a variety of table games and slot machines, including the famous Tomb Raider – The Secret of the Sword. The casino is part of 32Red Plc, listed at the London Stock Exchange.

CEO Ed Ware was happy to receive the award and mentioned that 32Red will strive to stay on top of the online casino industry.

From the 25th to 30th of January PartyPoker will be giving away 15 packages to the $200,000 WPT Celebrity Invitational, this poker tournament is part of the LA Poker Classic held at the Commerce Casino.

Like the name indicates this is an invitation only event, there is no possibility to buy-in. According to the PartyPoker spokesman many Hollywood celebrities are taking part in this tournament. The only way to qualify is by playing qualifiers and satellites at PartyPoker from January 25th to January 30th, you can use your PartyCasino account to play at PartyPoker as well! One day later, the 31st of January the actual qualifier will be played. The top15 players will win the $3,000 package including 4 nights accomodation and $2,250 spending money.

The WPT Celebrity Invitational 2010 tournament will be at the 20th and the 21st of february. With $200,000 in price money, a sure TV broadcasting and the possibility to knock out Paris Hilton, Ray Romano or some of the poker professionals this is a great opportunity!

Billionaire Carl Icahn has made the winning bid for the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a hotel-casino development project on the strip of Las Vegas. The bid was $106 million for the project with another $50 million to finance the bankruptcy.

The Fontainebleau Las Vegas is a development project which started as a $2.9 billion project what should become a 68 story building with almost 4,000 hotel rooms. The work on the project was stopped last year, it is now about 70% finished. In june 2009 the Fontainebleau Las Vegas company filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcy. Estimations are about $1.3 to $1.5 billion is still needed to complete the project.

What the billionaire investor Carl Icahn is going to do with the project remains unknown. He allready is in control on 9 other casino’s as part of the Tropicana Entertainment group. Investing big and getting the casino up and running might seem risky in a downfall economy, but on the other hand just sitting on it and waiting for better times might also not be the best plan.

Two weeks ago Carl Icahn was in the spotlights for showing interest in buying the Trump Casino’s. It seems he is on the move in times of financial crisis.

Las Vegas – Harrah’s entertainment aggreed to take over control of Planet Hollywood Resort’s hotel operations as of midnight tonight. This addition to the portfolio of Harrah’s means 2,496 more rooms are now in posession of Harrah’s.

This gives Harrah’s a total of 22,866 hotel rooms at the strip in Las Vegas. Other hotels belonging to Harrah’s are Caesars Palace, Rio, Harrah’s Las Vegas and the Flamingo Las Vegas. With 9 hotels in total and almost 23 thousands rooms on the strip Harrah’s is still far behind competitor MGM Mirage which is in control of almost 41,000 rooms at the strip.

It remains unknown what amounts of money are involved with this deal. In september 2009 Planet Hollywood reported a debt of $869.9 million. Sheraton Operating Corp, who is in control of current management is still owed $3.7 million. Even though Harrah’s might be a very large gambling company, it also reported a serious debt of $19.3 billion in 2009. I am looking forward to seeing how Harrah’s will use Planet Hollywood to turn this around.

Remember the days of the Sega Megadrive 16-bit? It was still in the early days of game consoles when we got introduced to games like Sonic, Virtua Fighter and Earthworm Jim. Although Sega now completely abandoned the game console market, is still produces games for PlayStation and other consoles. The strategic choice to no longer produce the consoles themselves was a smart one in my opinion, as Sega got miles behind their rivals in the late nineties.

Sega’s latest strategic move surprises me a bit however. The gaming company announced to get involved in the online gambling market, and wants to take it by storm. They partnered with Playtech and will soon launch their SegaCasino.com and SegaPoker.com. By partnering a strong name in gaming with a strong brand in gambling, I’m expecting to see some radical innovations in the online gambling world soon. I’m looking forward to it!

A 30-year old Chinese man was arrested by the Australian police, accusing him of laundering half a million dollar in the casino. The man withdrew the cash in Sydney and immediately took the plane to Melbourne, ending up in the Crown casino.

The cash was withdrawn with a bank cheque that was made out to the estate of a woman that had recently died. The cheque had been reported stolen. The man had mixed the money up with other funds and cashed in and later withdrew the money in an attempt to confuse the origin of the funds. At the end of the night, he walked out of the casino with over one million in chips and cash.

Police is still looking for another Chinese man that is alleged to have helped the man commiting the crime. The two men are probably part of an international organization involved with fraud. The organised criminal enterprises steal cheques from private mailboxes and then try to alter and launder them through false bank accounts opened by runners.

More information at the Sydney Morning Herald

The Las Vegas casino’s finally see an end of the 22-month slide of gaming revenue. For the first time sice 2007 there is an increase in gaming win for the casino’s on the strip in Las Vegas, the strip faced an 8.2 % increase in november 2009.

The last increase of gaming win reported by strip casino’s dated back in december 2007.  The revenue from the casino’s on the strip accounts for half of Vegas’ total gaming revenue.

Casino stocks react different to this news with both shares of the Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands a bit down while MGM MIRAGE shares went up almost 7% to $11.65. Statewide Nevada reported an increase in casino win of over 4%.

Another indicator of the ending of the economic downfall for Vegas is the incline of the number of visitors heading to Vegas. In November Vegas saw an increase for the 3rd month in a row, 3% more in November. One year ago the number of visitors was down almost 10%, this was at the peak of the economic crisis. This was reported by the review journal.

Read the full story on Nevada Gaming Revenue at Marketwatch.com

Estonia annouces it is legalizing online casino and gambling. This small European country next to Russia is taking a hard hit in the recession and is now using online gambling as an extra stream of tax revenues. In 2010 only Estonia based gambling operators (Playtech in cooperation with Olympic Casino Group) will be allowed. But from 2011 Estonia is planning on opening the market completely to all European operators.

The small country’s economy was hit hard, estimations say 36% down in 2009, this is an excellent way for them to generate extra income. Estonia is a very small country with just 1.3 million citizens. It joined the EU in 2004, after it had regained indepencancy from Russia in 1991. Plans were for Estonia to adapt the EURO as currency in 2013, however to be able to do so the economy should be stable, with a 36% downfall this is unlikely. Maybe gambling can come to the rescue for Estonia.

Steve Wynn, the 468th richest man in the world in 2009 according to Forbes magazine, reached a $741 million settlement with his wife Elaine Wynn. They both agreed to split the stock worth of Wynn Resorts, the company that refurbished or built some of the most famous casinos in Las Vegas such as the Golden Nugget, the Mirage, and the Bellagio.

Steve and Elaine married in 1963 and divorced for the first time in 1986. After a remarriage in 1991, things went wrong again in March 2009 when they filed for their second divorce. The Wynns have two daughters, Kevin and Gillian, both adults.

Elaine Wynn is a well known charity figure in Vegas, once called ‘the unofficial queen of Las Vegas’ by Vogue Magazine. She currently is positioned as the chairwoman of the national nonprofit organization ‘Communities in School’. Although not together anymore, the couple decided to donate a $1 million cheque to the project in the beginning of this year.