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The following is a remunerated review of www.casino.de:

The first and most obvious thing you’re going to notice about Casino.de is that the site is in German. There is an American flag down in the bottom right of the page that takes you to a different site that is indeed in English, but that’s not the site I’ve been asked to review. First off, therefore, I’d point out that if you don’t speak German, this site is not going to be very helpful for you. Perhaps a portal that allows users to select their language of choice would be in order.

Casino.de bills itself as a ‘Guide to Online Casino and Poker’ websites, meaning it’s a portal for various different offshore gambling pages. To be honest, it looked a little sleazy at first, but if you scroll down through the page, it seems that the site is relatively legitimately just a resource to find online gambling. You can pick from various different play-for-money sites, but there are also links for those “Not Yet Ready for Real Playing” that point you to various sites where you can play online poker for free.

Also lending credibility to the site is an actual About page, complete with photos of the site’s proprietors that would seem to indicate that the site is a genuine endeavor. All in all, if you’re looking to find a resource for online poker playing and other types of internet gambling, this site isn’t a bad place to start. If you don’t speak German, though, I’d go to the sister-site from the link on the bottom right of their page.

Wired.com has an article on the state of affairs of online gambling in the United States. As you may know, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed back in September of 2006, making it illegal for Americans to gamble online. Most online poker players thought this sucked, and apparently still do. Also, not surprisingly, they’re getting past the blockade with the same old tricks, such as foreign pre-paid debit cards and Canadian addresses. If it weren’t so sickenly disturbing that we’re going through Prohibition all over again, it might even be funny.

In the interesting side note department, it seems the player interviewed in the Wired article, identified only as ‘Boy Wonder,’ graduated with me from Haverford in 2005.

The novice used to pay the rent for Boy Wonder, who started playing poker full-time after graduating from Haverford College in 2005. He earned around $1,000 a week playing in $1/2 and $2/4 limit games, which specify the amount a player can bet during rounds of play. But now the game is more trouble to him than it’s worth. “It’s unstable,” he says.

Soooo, who could it be? I have theories…

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Just out on Reuters.com–it seem the EU is a little (rightly) pissed off that the U.S. has taken a protectionist standpoint with regards to Internet gambling. Just another ‘bluff’ supposedly intended to protect us from gambling-addicted selves, which is in reality an attempt to screw us out of our money in real casinos, where they can charge us $7 a drink, too. Here’s the full article, also available at this page:

U.S. restrictions on online gambling may be challenged by the European Union, the bloc’s top financial regulator said Tuesday.

“In my view, it is probably a restrictive practice, and we might take it up in another” forum, EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy told the European Parliament.

The United States was protecting its own gambling industry by stopping foreign companies from entering the online betting sector, McCreevy said.

“It’s not my intention to bring forward a harmonized piece of legislation on gambling in the European Union,” McCreevy added.

The United States has introduced rules to stop card companies from dealing with foreigners for online bets, McCreevy said. He has launched legal actions against several EU countries to tackle obstacles to foreign competition.

I’m glad somebody ‘called’ the government on this one. Alright, enough with the poker puns.

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