Facebook UK said yesterday it would be taking steps to remove all forms of gambling advertising including online casino, bingo, sportsbook and poker ads. Industry insiders fear it could eventually lead to a host of facebook pages belonging to online gambling websites being removed too.

Blacklist

Gambling is just one of 20 categories being wiped as part of a “clean-up” by facebook. Others include firearms, tobacco, spy cameras, politically religious agendas and pyramid schemes.

Bizarrely, Facebook members will still be able to play the sites own “gambling” games and bosses insist that existing group pages, fan pages personal pages will be allowed to continue for the moment.

Smart Live Blackjack — part of the Smart Live Casino franchise — is extending its hours and betting limits.

Smart Live’s Rob O’Connor said: “We’ve been listening to our customers and have made some big improvements.

Upped

“We’re now running every day between 7pm and 2am — previously it was week nights only!

“And we’ve upped the bet limits to £500, which means we have the biggest bet limits for any online Live casino, anywhere in a the WORLD.”

Smart Live rival Net Play currently offer a maximum £100 bet on their live tables.

Nineteen other men were handed prison terms ranging from one to five years and fines of between £2,000 and  £100,000.

Overseas

“This is possibly the country’s biggest online gambling case,” the spokesman for Shanghai Putuo District People’s Court, Zhang Minxian, told reporters.

A report by the Xinhua News Agency says the gang set up shop to coincide with the 2006 World Cup, which was hosted by Germany.

The court heard Qian and two others opened accounts on overseas gambling websites and began to develop a network of agents and gamblers across China, earning £162,000 from wagers.

The proposed Las Vegas-style attractions were announced in the wake of the decision to scrap the Manchester “Super Casino” project.

Now the Department for Culture, Media and Sport says local council chiefs can start to award operating licenses this summer.

Jackpots

Cities pencilled in for the new casinos include Scarborough, Middlesbrough, Wolverhampton and Leeds.

However, some authorities say it will be 2010 before any licence is granted.

The proposed casino in Leeds  would be THREE TIMES BIGGER than current UK casino venue with 150 slot machines offering top jackpots of £4,000.

Experts have said the scheme could bring in more than £20 million of private sector investment and create around 700 jobs.

The early day motion — signed by more than 40 MPs — follows a warning by the Church of England that Google’s actions were “irresponsible”.

The Bill — which has no chance of being made law — reads: “This house notes with concern the recent decision of Google to reintroduce online gambling advertisements during a period of economic downturn; supports the Church of England’s position that the actions of Google risk normalising gambling in society; and calls on Google to review its policy in line with its own obligations on corporate social responsibility.”

Boost

A Church spokesman said fantasies of instant wealth could become particularly attractive at times of financial uncertainty, and the consequences of losses correspondingly serious.

Live TV roulette website SmartLive Casino.com was first off the mark to take advantage of  Google’s rule change last October, followed quickly by bigger companies including Ladbrokes.

Insiders say Google’s revenue is likely to be boosted by up to £300 MILLION this year by allowing gambling ads.

The proposed Las Vegas-style attractions were announced in the wake of the decision to scrap the Manchester “Super Casino” project.

Now the Department for Culture, Media and Sport says local council chiefs can start to award operating licenses this summer.

Jackpots

Cities pencilled in for the new casinos include Scarborough, Middlesbrough, Wolverhampton and Leeds.

However, some authorities say it will be 2010 before any licence is granted.

The proposed casino in Leeds  would be THREE TIMES BIGGER than current UK casino venue with 150 slot machines offering top jackpots of £4,000.

Experts have said the scheme could bring in more than £20 million of private sector investment and create around 700 jobs.

Gambling revenues plunged 23 per cent in December, as fewer punters Buy Clomid Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed came to visit and those who did spent less, figures released by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show. Levitra cialis 10mg levitra

Drawn out

By contrast, Strip revenues were down just 5.3 per cent after the terror attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

But NGCB senior financial analyst Frank Streshley said what was happing now was  “much worse than September 11.”

Streshley told reporters that revenues were in their 12th straight month of decline, compared to a five-month Kamagra slump after 9/11.

Severe

“In Buy Cialis Professional Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed the 53 years we’ve been recording gaming wins, there have only been three Buy Plavix Online declines — in 2001 and a 0.3 per cent in 2002,” Streshley added.

“You can see the severity of where we’ve gone since then.”

The 320 machines — seized by cops across South Africa’s Eastern Cape province — are said to be worth £17 MILLION to the gangs running them.

Tax

“The machines would have generated around £6,500 per day,” said a spokesman for the The Eastern Cape Gambling and Betting Board.

“Assuming that they were operational since 2001, the government has already lost more than half-a-million in unpaid tax.”

The illegal slots are expected to be destroyed in the provincial capital tomorrow.

Figures from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission show the resort’s combined revenue was down 9.4 PER CENT on the previous January, with slots hit harder than table games.

‘No Surprise’

Playing down the significance of the fall, commission spokesman Dan Heneghan Atlantic City was being hit as hard as other US centres.

“Just in the last few days, Illinois and Indiana reported that they’re down significantly,” he said.

“Las Vegas, which is a month behind in reporting revenues, had declines for the first 11 months of 2008 and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were down in December, too.”

Teetering

The fall is an improvement on the figures for December which — at a fall of 18.7 per cent — were the WORST in Atlantic City’s history.

Several Atlantic City casinos are said to be cose to the edge, including Donald Trump-owned properties and the Tropicana Casino and Resort, which may be sold off in a bankruptcy auction.

The disputed ad

An online betting site has been rapped by advertising watchdogs for an ad which glamorised gambling.

The press ad, above, showed a man flanked by two scantily-clad women seated in the back of a stretch limo.

Now the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint that the ad implied gambling made men more attractive to women.

Sex

The ad for ShortsandLongs.com, launched in September 2008 as a way to trade financial markets through spread betting, showed the women “touching the man’s arms intimately”, said the ASA.

Upholding the complaint, it said people who saw the ad printed in regional newspapers were likely to infer that “one of the rewards of success in spread betting was enhanced attractiveness and increased sexual success”.

ShortsandLongs.com today condemned the ruling, saying the site actually REDUCES the risks of spread betting.

The company — the trading name of Spreadex Ltd — said it was leading the way in responsible gambling rather than glamorising betting.