Online Gambling

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I’ve combined the online poker freeroll schedule from several online poker sites. You can filter the schedule by day of week, time of day, and game, etc. There’s a freeroll running 24-7, and nearly all of them are available to US players.

I’ve been playing poker online for several years now. Based on my experiences, feedback from others, and news reports (both good and bad), here is my list of the 4 best online poker sites for US players.

1. Doyle’s Room – Free and easy credit card and e-wallet deposits, fast and free e-wallet withdrawals (express check withdrawals are $50), and their unique bounty tournaments set this poker room apart from the others. Doyle’s Room operates on the Cake Poker network, the 4th-largest poker network open to US players in terms of number of players. They also have a pretty good casino, too. Accepting players from 47 states (KY, WA, LA are barred), Doyle’s Room is a great choice for playing poker online. Current online poker promotion for new players: Get a 110% bonus up to $550.
2. Full Tilt – There is always a lot of action at Full Tilt, the 2nd-largest poker network in terms of number of players. E-checks are free for depositing and withdrawing, so that’s a real bankroll saver. Also, thinking back to when I first opened an account with Full Tilt, their initial deposit bonus was generous and straightforward to clear. Current online poker promotion for new players: Get a 100% bonus up to $600.
3. PokerStars – The granddaddy of them all, PokerStars is the largest poker room in the world — it’s about twice as big as Full Tilt. The PokerStars lobby is full-featured, yet still easy-to-use; the tabbed interface and filtering options allow you to customize its display of just the cash games, tourneys, and poker variants that you want to see. Freerolls abound at PokerStars. E-checks are free for depositing and withdrawing. Current online poker promotion for new players: Get a 100% bonus up to $600.
4. OddsMaker.com Poker – This is one of 70+ rooms in the growing Merge Network. While I suppose that one room on the network is as good as any other, OddsMaker.com also has a sportsbook, racebook, and casino, which is convenient if you like to bet sports, play table games, and win at some video poker. Their initial signup offer is simpler than it sounds: $10 rake = 800 VIP points = $10 free money released to real money account. Current online poker promotion for new players: Get a 100% bonus up to $1000 + 14 days of entries into a daily $500 freeroll.

Intertops has a prop bet on the value of the tenths digit of the Dow Jones Industrial Average at market close. It’s certainly not a very attractive prop bet, with each selection 0 through 9 returning only 8-1. But it got me wondering — do the values 0 through 9 appear approximately equally often as the tenths digit of the Dow close?

As you may or may not know, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a weighted average of 30 stocks. The 30 stocks that comprise the Dow are changed every once in a while, but have not changed since June 8, 2009. Looking at the daily close of the Dow beginning with that date (you can use Yahoo! Finance if you are interested in these data), we have the following:

One would expect that each digit should have appeared approximately 29 times over the course of the 290 closes starting June 8, 2009. But the 9 has appeared 41 times! Now, I have no idea what factors may influence the value of the tenths digit, I am simply interested if the data suggest that some values appear more often than others. To do this, a Chi-Square statistical test can be run on the data; OpenOffice.org Calc and other spreadsheets can do this for you.

The resulting chi-square statistic has a probability of 0.09, meaning that if you randomly picked values from 0 through 9 290 times, the probability that you would get a distribution similar to the one shown in the table above is only 9%. That’s fairly rare, but not overly so.

But, if you were going to make this prop bet, pick the 9.

Often, I am asked “What online gambling sites accept US players?”. This is an important question to my blog readers, since no one wants to waste time researching a site only to find that they do not accept US-based real-money players.

In addition to clearly stating each online gambling site’s policy toward US players in the search engine results pages at The Online Casino Gambling Directory, I’ve also created a single page that lists all online gambling sites, grouped by their policy toward US players, as well as by site type (bingo, casino, poker, etc.).

Here is that list of online gambling sites that accept US players.

You may be surprised to learn that most online bingo halls are adding slot machines, video poker, and even some table games like blackjack. This is good news for online players, since online bingo rooms have typically been flying under the radar of  UIGEA enforcement. For a variety of reasons, online bingo rooms have a higher credit card deposit acceptance rate than online casinos and online poker rooms; this makes it easier for players to get into the game and have some fun.

Not only are online bingo halls adding non-bingo games, the payback on some of these games is the best you’ll find at any online property. For example, Bingo Entertainment Network sites offer a 99.54% payback on Jacks or Better video poker; you’ll not find a better payback online than this!

Here are some good picks for online bingo halls on the Bingo Entertainment Network, all of which accept players from all 50 states.

Bingo Splash
100% bonus on initial deposits between $20 and $1000!
At Bingo Splash you’ll meet really … of you at Bingo Splash…there’s 24/7 Customer Support … our Help section. At Bingo Splash there’s entertainment all … day!! You can play Bingo, Video Poker, 3-4-5 …[Full Description]
Languages: Currencies:

Bingo Empire
100% bonus on initial deposits between $20 and $1000!
At Bingo Empire you’ll meet really … care of you at Bingo Empire…there’s 24/7 Customer Support … our Help section. At Bingo Empire there’s entertainment all … day!! You can play Bingo, Video Poker, 3 …[Full Description]
Languages: Currencies:

Premier Bingo
100% bonus on initial deposits between $20 and $1000!
At Premier Bingo you’ll meet really sociable … Help section. At Premier Bingo there’s entertainment all day!! … day!! You can play Bingo, Video Poker, 3-4-5 Reel …[Full Description]
Languages: Currencies:

Mainstreet Bingo
100% bonus on initial deposits between $20 and $1000!
At Mainstreet Bingo you’ll meet really sociable … Help section. At Mainstreet Bingo there’s entertainment all day!! … day!! You can play Bingo, Video Poker, 3-4-5 Reel …[Full Description]
Languages: Currencies:

Glamour Bingo
100% bonus on initial deposits between $20 and $1000!
At Glamour Bingo you’ll meet really sociable … Help section. At Glamour Bingo there’s entertainment all day!! … day!! You can play Bingo, Video Poker, 3-4-5 Reel …[Full Description]
Languages: Currencies:

As reported in yesterday’s The Wall Street Journal, the House Financial Services Committee voted 41-22 to approve legislation that would regulate many forms of online gambling, including poker and bingo, while specifically banning betting on major US sports leagues like the MLB, NFL, NBA, and others.

Other news articles point out that the legislation also would deny licenses to any online site that has allowed, or currently does allow, US players to gamble online. Looking ahead, this would appear to effect PokerStars, FullTilt, and other online poker rooms that have continued to serve US players despite the UIGEA of 2006.

Other key elements of the legislation include player loss limits, rigorous age verification systems and frequent testing thereof, and allowing states to opt out of this legislation and ban its citizens from online gambling.

And the legislation that was passed does not cover how the industry is to be taxed — that’s covered in a separate bill that hasn’t made it out of the House Ways and Means Committee.

It is unlikely that this legislation will be voted on before the current Congressional Session expires in September. The scheduling is simply too tight. If it is not voted on, the process will need to start again next session. Perhaps it will be attached to some other legislation, as was the UIGEA of 2006. Even so, if the legislation is approved, it still would need to be signed by Obama.

We are still years away from any comprehensive online gambling policy in the United States. Need proof? The UIGEA of 2006 took nearly 4 years before it actually went into effect this past June 1 — and there are still plenty of loopholes in that legislation that allow US players to fund and withdraw money from their online gambling accounts… or so I’ve heard.

In addition to maintaining The Online Casino Gambling Directory, I also answer online gambling questions at AllExperts.com, the oldest and largest free Q&A service on the internet. I thought that I would share with you a recent question about sportsbooks, as well as my response.

Question:

What sites are good for online sports betting? Is there a catch to placing bets? I understand money line bets i think just wanna know if there was max or minumum bets?

Answer:

If you’re a casual bettor, you really need just one sportsbook account. If you’re a more serious bettor, you’ll want to have five or more accounts. The reason for this is so that you can compare lines (often called “shopping lines”) offered at the sportsbooks, and get the best odds on the bet you’d like to place. Moneyline odds, for example, can vary by as much as 15 cents (e.g. a team may be +105 at one book and +120 at another) and you’ll want to be able to take advantage of that by having accounts at different sportsbooks.

As for if there is a “catch” to placing bets, I’d say not really. The only thing you need to be aware of is when you accept a bonus on your deposit, the types of bets that you can place with the bonus money are often limited to -110 bets (or worse, e.g. -105, -100, +105, etc.), and usually no parlays or props are allowed with the bonus. Also after accepting a bonus, you must place a minimum number of wagers before you can make a withdraw. These restrictions vary by sportsbook, so you’ll want to make sure that you understand their bonus when you make a deposit.

The minimum bet varies by sportsbook as well. Most sportsbooks accept bets of as little as $5 if you place the bet online; higher minimums are required when placing a bet by phone (where phone betting is offered, which is pretty rare). Maximum bets depend on the type of wager and your relationship with the sportsbook; generally speaking, more exotic wagers have lower maximums, which may be increased as you develop a relationship with a sportsbook.

Now to the meat of your question — which are the best sportsbooks? I’ve been betting online for years, and use a 5-star rating scale to rate sportsbooks. As of this writing, there are only two sportsbooks that I rate as 5-star and that accept US players. You can find them at this link, which you may need to copy and paste into the address bar of your browser:
http://www.theonlinecasinogamblingdirectory.com/s.php?as_usa=2&as_rat=5&t=Sportsbook&SRC=AEJul2010Blog

If you want a few more options, here is a list of the 4- and 5-star sportsbooks that accept US players:
http://www.theonlinecasinogamblingdirectory.com/s.php?as_usa=2&as_rat=4&t=Sportsbook&SRC=AEJul2010Blog

Finally, here is a list of the 3-, 4-, and 5-star sportsbooks that accept US players:
http://www.theonlinecasinogamblingdirectory.com/s.php?as_usa=2&as_rat=3&t=Sportsbook&SRC=AEJul2010Blog

I hope you found my answer helpful; feel free to let me know if you have additional questions.

Jason Young is steaming. He’s claimed in a recent blog post that he and many other pros feel that online poker is rigged.

Here is an excerpt:

“I know a lot of live pro’s that run like dogsh*t online…HOW in the world can a guy who wins well into 6 figures playing live sit n go’s, have it be the complete opposite online. That is for Tommy…guy wins seats into every major tourny imaginable and cant win a cent online to save his life…the same can be said for so many other guys I know.”

I certainly disagree with Jason on this, but if you like conspiracy theories, then maybe you’ll find yourself agreeing with him.

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