Security experts are warning of a phishing attack targeting gamblers on the PartyPoker website.

Emails were spammed out last night purporting to come form the gaming site, which is the largest online poker site in the world. The spam warns of news about ‘legislation’ affecting online poker players, and asks users to log-in using a compromised link.

‘Dear poker player, Information for US and all over the World based customers on the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. On September 30, 2006, the United States Congress passed The Safe Port Act,’ reads the email.

‘That measure also contained certain provisions known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. On October 2, 2006, Party Gaming made an announcement regarding the impact the act would have on business when, as expected, it is signed into law.’

The email includes a link which leads to a well designed fake PartyPoker log-in page which is then used to harvest account details. This would allow the phishers either to gamble using account holders’ money or possibly transfer funds to other accounts. thanks to pcmag.co.uk

Play online pokerPoker enthusiasts will be looking forward to the third season of Full Tilt’s online poker Series (FTOPS) following the announcement this week that the series will commence on February 9.

With $3.4 million in total guaranteed prize pools, spread over 10 events, and $1.5 million assured for the no-limit hold’em main event on February 18, that’s a lot of action, excitement and reward to anticipate.

Last year’s event took place in November 2006 with a million less in guaranteed prize money but still attracted the big guns, and it therefore appears that the 2007 series will have plenty of pulling power despite the pall of the UIGEA in the United States and DoJ activities against prominent e-cash processors.

Last year’s FTOPS leader-board winner was Gary “GB2005″ Bodganski, who will probably be competing again this year, as will the 2006 FTOPS main event winner, “Spiked”, who won $224 000 last November.

The schedule of events announced by Full Tilt looks like this:

Friday, February 9 at 9 p.m. – No-limit hold’em $200+$16 – $200 000 guarantee
Saturday, February 10 at 6 p.m. – H.O.R.S.E. $200+$16 – $100 000 guarantee
Sunday, February 11 at 6 p.m. – No-limit hold’em $300+$22 – $750 000 guarantee
Monday, February 12 at 9 p.m. – Pot-limit Omaha with Rebuys $100+$9 – $50,000 guarantee
Tuesday, February 13 at 9 p.m. – No-limit hold’em sixhanded $200+$16 – $350,000 guarantee
Wednesday, February 14 at 9:00 p.m. – Pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better $200+$16 – $75,000 guarantee
Thursday, February 15 at 9:00 p.m. – No-limit hold’em with rebuys $200+$16 – $100,000 guarantee
Friday, February 16 at 9:00 p.m. – Pot-limit hold’em $200+$16 – $125,000 guarantee
Saturday, February 17 at 4:00 p.m. – Pot-limit hold’em/Omaha (H.A.) $300+$22 – $150,000 guarantee
Sunday, February 18 at 6:00 p.m. – No-limit hold’em main event $500+$35 – $1,500,000

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online gambling is going through a tough time but “offline” the business is booming. Are you looking for employment? Take a look at this.

The Meadows Racetrack & Casino has begun recruiting employees to fill some 400 new jobs at its temporary slots parlor, which is slated to open in May.

Starting Feb. 26, applicants can show up in person at the facility’s employment center in the Adios Room, next to the racetrack grandstand.

In the meantime, officials said yesterday, applications for cashiers, clerks, security workers, food and beverage staff and other positions are being taken via the Internet at www.meadowsgaming.com.

Mike Graninger, general manager of The Meadows, encouraged people to apply online “to avoid possible long wait times at the employment center.” The Meadows will also recruit possible employees at the NAACP Diversity Job Fair, to be held Feb. 22 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. post-gazette.com

An Ottawa graduate student climbed out from under his $30,000 debt yesterday after winning $1 million U.S. in a poker tournament in the Bahamas.

After winning the 16-hour tournament, Mr. Nagel turned down the prize package option that included an Aston Martin DB9, opting for more cash. Mr. Nagel became one of 27 players to earn entry to the tournament, qualifying from a field of 800,000 playing poker online. He went to the tournament with his wife, Lisa. Their three-month-old daughter, Audrey, is in Toronto with Mr. Nagel’s mother-in-law.

“You’ve got a girl above your head and you’re walking and you’re the only people on stage and something goes awry. I mean, what do you do? You have to be able to make very quick and proper decisions — and poker is all a game of decisions. Whoever makes the best decisions and the least mistakes usually wins.” he said after the game. Mr. Nagel is actually scheduled to defend his master’s thesis next week at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.

The fourth-place finisher, Steve Bazzo, was a 21-year-old who made sandwiches at a Subway franchise in Michigan. According to the tournament website, he plans to use his $118,000 winnings to move to Las Vegas with friends and become a professional. Good Luck to them!

Cryptologic has launched re-designed and improved online poker software developed by subsidiary Wagerlogic, with improved navigation, new choices and more information.

“From fast action to hot competition the new software delivers what today’s sophisticated players demand,” said Andy Goetsch, CryptoLogic’s Vice President of Poker Software Development. “It all stems from the core principle that drives CryptoLogic’s poker strategy: knowing the heart of the online player.”

“This is an exciting day for CryptoLogic, because we’re taking our award-winning poker software to a new level that offers players more simplicity, selection and statistics!” said Lewis Rose, CryptoLogic’s President and CEO. “CryptoLogic’s redesigned poker software demonstrates our continued commitment to provide the best entertainment experience available on the Internet - to benefit our customers, their players and our business.”

The appealing new design includes enhancements to the main lobby, game tables and tournament lobby - players can launch a game of blackjack or - for the first time in the industry - any casino game directly from a poker table or lobby without missing a moment of the action.

According to the BBC a group of 24 poker players is attempting to set a new world record for the longest uninterrupted poker game.

The first hand was dealt at 2100 GMT at the Basement Jacks club in Greenwich - south east London - and the game was expected to continue until 1600 on Sunday.

After 37 hours, player Sarah Lawrence said:”We’ve been up all night and the only break you’re allowed is to go to the toilet or get something to eat. We’ve been through all the emotions. We started off just really high and really happy about being record breakers but went through vague tiredness and it is getting harder but We’re going for 43 hours or maybe more”.

Each entrant has put £20 in the pot, with the winner taking half of the money and the rest going to charity. The BBC has yet to confirm whether the game lasted more than 37 hours.

There are still plenty of US players continuing to play online, perfectly legally.

Using E-wallets like Neteller and Firepay negates the need to fund player accounts using US financial institutions, making it perfectly legal to play. Two months on from the ban lots of poker sites, such as full tilt, still welcome americans.

We hope that with help from players worldwide the new power in the government will legalise Gambling online once and for all, making sure that the revenue is kept in the US as well. Meanwhile, keep playing!

What do you think about it? Well you will be soon able to voice your opinion in our gambling forum.

We haven’t really liked what Golden Palace have been doing after the approval of the UIGEA. First the kept accepting american players for 30 days then closed all the accounts and moved them to Golden Casino which currently accepts US players. This move wasn’t really appreciated by people who helped promote the brand after the infamous anti-gambling law.

Having said that GoldenPalace.com is still one of our favourites when it comes to outrageous advertising campaigns. Well, yes, opps they did it again. Reporter Aaron Todd won 60 cents in a free tournament and planned to play real money games until he either made $100 or lost it all, but unfortunately the site did not allow US players. Therefore he asked them to send him a 60c cheque. He then decided to make a series of trades until someone offered him the $10,000 buy-in for the Main Event of the WSOP.

Surprise surprise! The best offer came from Internet casino GoldenPalace, which offered a set of 500 custom poker chips for the cheque. “On the surface, this might not seem like a good trade for us,” said GoldenPalace.com CEO Richard Rowe, “but we thought this was a great opportunity to get in as the first trader and help Aaron achieve his goal.”

888 and Ladbrokes have been in talks for over a month and a source close to the situation said a deal worth £490M could be struck as early as next week. Aaron, Avi Shaked (the billionaire who has plans for peace in the Middle East) and Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak still own about two-thirds of 888 - worth over £300m. At this point we are not sure whether they will sell all their shares to Ladbrokes.

Ladbrokes set its sights on 888 after the sector was hammered by the US ban on online gambling. 888 managed to come out of the water much faster than most of its rivals due to the fact that only half of the revenues came from the States.

Once the deal is struck Ladbrokes will set its sights to the acquisition of Rank but the bookmaker will face the challenge of William Hill.

Following the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Pokerstars.com and Fulltiltpoker.com have seen massive increases in their numbers, proving that poker remains an popular pastime.

“These two private companies may be in breach of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, although there have been arguments bantered about that poker is a game of skill. Nothing could be further from being correct” says a spokesman of GamingPublic.com.

However, remains to be said that cards are drawn randomly from a deck all of which defines the game as one of chance. In 2001 Randy Peterson, a court accredited gaming expert, invented a new version of poker (Duplicate Poker) that could be played online and meet the strict definitions needed to be a skill game, and thereby be legal in most American States. Peterson is looking to market his inventions seeking equity partners, GamingPublic informs.

There has been some interest expressed from both online and land based operators who see the upside potential, the least of which allows them to utilize their American player databases legally.
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