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TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada and the United States should legalize and regulate online gambling to contain its potentially harmful effects because players tend to bet more frequently and aggressively than they do in casinos, a study released on Tuesday says.

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Across the country increasing numbers of women are taking up the ultimate man’s game.

Ever since Lana Wood draped herself over the green baize table in Diamonds Are Forever, women have suffered a particular image problem when it comes to gambling.

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According to Gordon Price, expert gambling analyst from CasinoGamblingWeb.com, Republican members of the United States congress, “overly influenced by the ignorance of the religious moralists of their party,” are opening up a corrupt industry to the American market.

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As the players play down to the main event final table at the 2008 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, I asked top pros what politicians can learn from the game.

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When trade emissaries from the European Union arrive in Washington later this month to talk to officials in Congress, the Justice Department, and other executive branch agencies, they’ll have some difficult questions to ask. In particular, they’ll ask about some gambling laws that rank among some the worst written sections of the United States Code. If things go poorly a trade conflict with vast implications for the United States banking sector could ensue.

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While the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has devastated internet poker, separate, quiet battles are being fought, and won, to make poker legal in bars under state laws.

The fight over the rights of bars to run Texas Hold’em tournaments does have some significant differences with the better known Prohibition on alcohol. Legally, Prohibition was a federal issue. It involved an actual amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a rare and difficult feat to accomplish, and a federal statute, limiting adult Americans’ right to drink alcoholic beverages.

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It was just after 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night in Statesville when Brian Curtin took a quick peak at his hole cards. Then he quickly folded his hand.

“Queen-six, offsuit,” he said when asked why he dumped them so hastily.

Curtin was among about two dozen people playing Texas Hold ’Em in an event called World Tavern Poker, which is held Tuesday nights at D’Laney’s Sports Bar and Grill.

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LANSING — Arlene Minsky couldn’t tell you who the current World Series of Poker champion is. Nor is she positive that a straight flush beats four of a kind.

Minsky is the president of the Clinton County Arts Council, a non-profit organization based in St. Johns that promotes the arts and cultural heritage of Clinton County.

The council is hosting an open house this month for its new “train museum,” in St. Johns — complete with restored train cars, models and artwork housed in a historical train depot.

It couldn’t have happened without poker.

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ESPN and Harrah’s are trying to reignite interest in televised poker by changing the format for the Main Event. In years past, the tournament was played and filmed in July, but it reached the airwaves several months later. Those who followed poker knew who won the championship long before it aired.

This year, the Main Event will be whittled down to nine players on Monday. But the finalists will return to the Rio Nov. 9-10 to play for the title, where it will be filmed and broadcast immediately following its conclusion.

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WASHINGTON: The moral opposition to gambling might be gasping its last breaths.

As more and more states turn to casinos and gambling to fill shrinking budget coffers, the voices of the religious opposition are struggling to convince people that it is morally wrong.

It’s an uphill fight: A recent study by Ellison Research showed that 70 percent of Americans do not consider gambling to be a sin.

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