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Most people that visit casinos or use other forms of gambling such as the lottery or online casinos do it strictly for recreational purposes. However, about 3-5 percent of the world’s population gambles excessively, to the point that it damages their lives. According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, 4-6 million Americans are considered problem gamblers, and 2 million (1 percent of the US population) are diagnosed as pathological gamblers.

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To put it bluntly, the producers of the local poker TV channel are not doing their jobs; or they are not being given the budgets to do so. The camera work is amateur, the lighting nonexistent and the interviews and commentary are, well, embarrassing really.

Heard last week : “Ah yes, that flop will definitely increase his chances to about 64% — which leaves his opponent with only a 46% chance of taking the pot.” Look, we all love poker but do these guys really give it 110%?

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The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is the first step in card players and gambling enthusiasts realizing the strength of their political potential, and one of the initial exercises of this power will be seen in the upcoming Presidential election.

To that end, Rich Muny of the PPA has attempted to narrow down the position of the candidates, and grade them accordingly.

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In the United States, gambling issues drew upwards of $6.98 million in lobbyist spending in the first quarter of 2008.

But, narrowing the field to Internet gambling issues, gaming interests spent almost as much in the first three months of 2008 lobbying Congress as they did in the last six months of 2007.

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Talk of table games in West Virginia goes back a few years, and this week marks one year since two counties’ referendums pulled the trigger for table gaming in West Virginia.

Jefferson County voters defeated a measure allowing table games at Charles Town Races and Slots during a special June 2007 election, but Ohio County’s passed it. Hancock County voters approved it June 30, 2007, and, despite some ballot blunders, Kanawha County voters accepted table games by a slim margin Aug. 11.

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Who would have guessed that Bryn Mawr is fast becoming a poker hotbed?

For the second straight year, the upscale Main Line suburb has produced a big-money winner in the World Series of Poker.

Businessman Eric Brooks, a cofounder and former director of the investing powerhouse Susquehanna International Group, collected $415,856 and a champion’s gold bracelet from a Las Vegas seven-card stud table Monday.

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European Union officials will interview members of the Bush administration next month in advance of a potential trade challenge to the U.S. ban on Internet gambling.

The Remote Gambling Association (RGA) complains that a 2006 U.S. law placing new restrictions on Internet gambling has cost its members hundreds of millions of dollars in lost stock value.

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Frank Catania, former Assistant Attorney General and Director of New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, online gaming consultant and independent director of the player protection group eCOGRA gave a straight-from-the-shoulder briefing to state legislators last Friday, emphasising that Internet gambling is here to stay.

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A retired judge who operates poker rooms in southern Arizona in defiance of state investigators says his organization is opening a new card parlor in Phoenix later this month.

Texas Hold’em games operated by Harold Lee of Tombstone have been referred for criminal prosecution several times by agents of the Arizona Department of Gaming, but he has never been charged.

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European Union officials will interview members of the Bush administration next month in advance of a potential trade challenge to the U.S. ban on Internet gambling, the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which made it illegal for financial institutions to handle transactions between US residents and online poker and gaming operators.

The Remote Gambling Association (RGA) complains that the UIEGA, a 2006 U.S. law placing new restrictions on Internet gambling, has cost its members hundreds of millions of dollars in lost stock value.

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