Seminole’s To Get Exclusive Rights to Operate Blackjack in Casinos?

April 6th, 2010 by OBO-admin

In Florida, blackjack enthusiasts are waiting with bated breath for the conclusion of the deal between the legislators and the Seminole Tribe. This deal will allow the Seminole Tribe to expand their operations to include blackjack and slot machine games and will bring in $1.5 Billion to the state. An additional clause in the deal will allow the Seminole Tribe to gain exclusive rights to a number of specific games like blackjack in South Florida.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida Inc. is based in Tampa, Florida and the company owns the famous Seminole Hard Rock Casino. It also owns the Immokalee Casino and two other USA casinos in the Broward County in South Florida. In total there are seven casinos owned and operated by the Tribe in Florida. These casinos are some of the biggest casinos in the state and the deal is one that is much anticipated.

According to the deal, the tribe will get exclusive rights to operate blackjack at four of its casinos, the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and the three Broward County casinos. In addition to this, all of their casinos will retain their rights to operate Vegas Style slot machine games. The deal awaits the approval of both the Seminole Tribal Council as well as the Florida Legislature.

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New Blackjack Memoir Goes Beyond the Game

April 3rd, 2010 by OBO-admin

Apparently, author Josh Axelrad’s success publishing a memoir is as surprising to him as his knack for numbers. “I didn’t know how to write a book,” says the former professional card counter, who also claims that math was never a skill he could boast about. In “Repeat Until Rich: A Professional Card Counter’s Chronicle of the Blackjack Wars,” Axelrad reflects upon his emergence into the craft of blackjack card counting during his twenties and the crushing pressures and fears that come with winning big.

After studying Edward O. Thorp’s classic card counting guide “Beat The Dealer,” Axelrad joins a blackjack team in 2000. The rookie’s winnings amount to a hefty $700,000 in just five years and, by 2001, Axelrad’s income spikes $120,000.

Naturally, the most intriguing stories interlace both triumphs and failures. Axelrad quits blackjack when his annual income trickles down and soon after, he dabbles with an online poker addiction. Axelrad’s memoir is not focused so much on the strategy of blackjack; instead, the author shares an insightful coming of age tale in the world of quick wins, high stakes and entertaining personalities. The author recalls his past experiences from the perspective of one who no longer partakes in the gamble, perhaps allowing him to emit more humor, more sincerity and more substantial conclusions.

Source: Review by Jeffrey Burke, March 31, 2010, Bloomberg.com

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Blackjack Table Closes for Good at the Rat Pack Casino

April 1st, 2010 by OBO-admin

The Cal Neva, a renowned casino once owned by Frank Sinatra recently closed up its blackjack tables and its doors to the public.

This casino for usa players was once full of players eager to sample the blackjack games and other table games on offer here could not bear up under the stress of the recession. The Cal Neva is located near the Nevada-California close to the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

Frank Sinatra’s old casino and resort, the Cal Neva was popular with the Rat Pack members like Sammy Davis Junior and Dean Martin and many other celebrities of Sinatra’s time. The casino was also well known for its association with Marilyn Monroe and is the place where Monroe spent her last week before she died.

The casino was very popular since the 1960’s but can no longer attract players as it once used to. The recession is just one cause of this as players seem to prefer online casinos to land based casinos. Recent reports have revealed that blackjack players tend to game at online blackjack tables instead of going to Vegas and trying out the blackjack opportunities there.

Although, its owner has stated that the casino has hopes of reopening, it may not be possible for the Cal Neva to thrive in today’s gaming world, where it is all about the bells and whistles and online games.

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Orange Launching iPhone Blackjack Games

March 30th, 2010 by OBO-admin

Orange, a reputed mobile phone service provider in the UK, recently announced its intentions to provide iPhone users with blackjack games. Orange is offering players and owners of iPhones a suite of casino and table games like blackjack which will be launched next month.

These iphone blackjack games will utilize the phone’s high-definition screen, movement sensors and touch screen features to provide a unique gaming experience while on the move. This unique range of games will be made available for purchase next month at Apple’s App Store.

These iPhone games from Orange will include racing games, poker games, arcade varieties and also blackjack.

However, these iPhone games from Orange do not allow for online blackjack for money and gamers will not be able to win any money or place genuine wagers. They are meant for players to entertain themselves and possibly practice their skills at the game.

Online Blackjack for UK players who want to play for real money can from their iPhones will have sign up with online casinos that have mobile versions. Some of the most popular mobile online casinos include Ladbrokes Casino, an enterprise that just released a suite of iPhone games in February this year. These games offer players the opportunity of playing for real money and winning big, they can also be played for fun if a player does not wish to play for money.

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Blackjack Cheater Sentenced to 6 Years

March 29th, 2010 by OBO-admin

An American called Phuong Quoc Truong was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment in the federal prison for cheating at the Baccarat and Blackjack tables and making $7 million. As part of his sentence, Troung also has to pay restitution of $5.7 million and fine of $2.8. He will forfeit two houses, a Rolex watch, a 2001 Porsche Carrera, and a lot of jewelry.

In April 2008, Truong confessed that he was the leader of a group of six, who regularly cheated at casinos. The gang operated at 27 casinos under the name of “Tran Organization” in 2002. They used the method of false shuffles, which enabled them to place successful bets on games because they knew the values of the cards that would be dealt next. The group also used sophisticated software and hidden transmitters.

In October 2005, the group was highly successful at the Resorts East Chicago hotel and casino in East Chicago, Indiana, winning $868,000 in just one-and-a-half hour.

Players who are worried about being cheated must play online because it is relatively safer. All online blackjack games are powered by software and are entirely digital; so gaming table cheats cannot bribe dealers or stack decks, a fact that ensures security and fair play.

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Senate Committee Passes Gov’s Compact to Allow Blackjack

March 26th, 2010 by OBO-admin

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee agreed to proceed with a compact that will expand the gambling rights of Florida’s Seminole Tribe and passed SB622. Accordingly, the Legislature must approve Governor Charlie Crist’s deal to grant exclusive rights to table games such as Blackjack to the Seminole Tribe.

This bill is the committee’s second attempt with regard to a gaming compact. During the early phase of the session, the governor had to include specific provisions in the agreement. The Legislature, however, has now approved the signing of a compact with the Seminole Tribe because of which the sponsor of the bill, Senator Denis Jones, said that the requirements placed in his first bill were no longer required. He also said that most of the issues are now resolved and that he hopes that the Legislature will vote for the agreement to allow blackjack games before the end of the session’s seventh week.

The Florida Supreme Court was not in favor of the governor’s first compact with the Seminole Tribe granting them exclusive rights to table games such as Blackjack in the USA casinos. The Legislature must now pass the previous years bills that will require the introduction of weekly licensing taxes and the reduction the slot licensing fees by nearly one million dollars.

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Online Blackjack Preferred over Atlantic City Blackjack

March 25th, 2010 by OBO-admin

Blackjack was a once a very popular table game back in the nineties in Atlantic City. Today, the game has been replaced by different varieties of online blackjack games available for free and for real betting at the thousands of us online casinos and online blackjack portals on the internet today. These online casino sites also offer blackjack players a variety of other games like Caribbean Stud, Let It Ride, Four-Card Poker, Three-Card Poker, Pai Gow Poker, Casino War, Texas Hold’em Bonus and Mini Baccarat to mention a few.

Slot machines have also formed a very important part of casino gaming in America since the early eighties when Atlantic City and Vegas raked in more profits from slot machines than from table games. However, it has been noted that unlike the slots sections, the blackjack tables in Atlantic City Casinos are no longer as popular as they once were, as blackjack players appear to prefer to game at online casinos. Blackjack players at Atlantic City Casinos have either stopped playing the game or have reduced the time they spend on it at land based casinos.

One of the reasons for this could be that the online casinos and online blackjack portals provide Blackjack players with special bonuses and allows them to participate in tournaments from the comfort of their own home. The online sites also have tutorials for players who can learn both complex and basic strategies of the game of blackjack and then try their luck.

Casinos do not care whether players play slots or Four-Card Poker as long as they earn a profit from table games. However, the dearth of players at the blackjack tables cannot be ignored.

Simultaneously, nobody can deny that Blackjack is still a hot favorite as an online game although it no longer reigns supreme in the casinos.

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Pennsylvania Trains First Batch of Blackjack Dealers

March 24th, 2010 by OBO-admin

Pennsylvania, which legalized the playing of table games this year, made it mandatory for casinos to offer a six-week course on Blackjack dealing. Accordingly, Mount Airy Casino Resort decided to offer a course in Paradise Township Casino. The games are yet to be launched; but Mount Airy in collaboration with Northampton Community College, designed courses to qualify students in the art of Blackjack dealing.

Most of the students in the first batch of the very first college offering courses on Blackjack dealing in Pennsylvania were below thirty and above twenty. Some of them were above forty. All of them were in occupations ranging from trading to tree trimming. The trainers were from casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Mississippi.

Students were taught how to handle the chips during the initial parts of the course. This is important because every table game requires knowledge on how to count and stack chips. A simple technique of cutting chip stacks was taught. They were also taught to clear their hands by exposing their palms to prove to security cameras above as well as to players that they hadn’t hidden anything in their hands.

The class was assured that they could get a Blackjack dealing job anywhere in the world. Maybe in the future you can see these dealers live at an online blackjack casino?

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Rushmore Blackjack Bonus

February 1st, 2010 by OBO-admin

If you are hoping Lady Luck will be on your side, consider the bonuses available right now at Rushmore Online Casino to get you started on your lucky path.

If you’re a new player at Rushmore (www.rushmoreonline.com), you can get a good bonus on your opening deposit. On your first deposit, the casino is offering a 100% match up to $400, and on your second deposit, the match is up to $488. Of course, the bonuses are “playing money” and you can’t withdraw them when you take your winnings. But having extra cash to play with is always a treat.

If your game is blackjack, consider the current blackjack bonuses that Rushmore is offering. With codes available at the site, you can get a 200% match on your first blackjack deposit, up to $1,000.

Some of us like to play without having to think a lot, and slots are the game for that. If you are a slots player, you can sign up at Rushmore right now, make a first deposit, and get a 400% match on your deposit. The maximum matching deposit is $2,400, certainly enough to get some good fun going.

Finally, don’t forget the weekend bonuses at Rushmore. If you make a weekend bonus deposit, you can enjoy a 150% match worth up to $750.

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