Upcoming this Saturday September 26th, the River Cree Marriot Resort and Casino will hold the Black and White Celebrity Poker Safari.

This tournament is sponsored by the Zebra center. This center is located in Edmonton, Canada. It is the first centre of its kind in Canada. It enables the community to respond to child abuse with a professional, compassionate and highly integrated program of healing and justice. The Zebra Centre brings together a multi-disciplinary community of professionals : Edmonton Police Service, Alberta Children’s Services, Crown Prosecutors, Child at Risk Response Teams, medical and trauma screening professionals and volunteer Child and Family Advocates. All of them into an environment that nurtures the hurt child and uses all the wisdom of its partnership to see that justice is done.

The tournament will begin at 3pm. The entry cost is 500 Canadian dollars per couples. Like said before, all the profits will go toward the Zebra Center. This includes an afternoon of playing cards with some local celebrities followed at 6pm by cocktails, comedy and the dinner at 7 pm for two.

The River Cree Casino is located in Edmonton, Canada. It has more than 35 game tables on the casino floor. One can find the Roulette, Blackjack, Craps, Baccarat plus many other exciting games.

Over 800 slot machines can be found in the casino with a variety of games.

The poker room has 12 tables offering a number of cash and tournament events. Besides the Black and White Celebrity Poker Safari, some of the events include:

- Monday Madness: Monday nights at 7:30 PM. Player Point Re-buy Tournament Conditional Unlimited $10 re-buys in the first hour and a $10 Add-On at the break.

- Edmonton Poker League: the EPL (Edmonton Poker League) is opened to anyone! On the third Sunday of the month, register for the league in the room on the day of the event and enjoy multi-table, NLTH action !

- Enoch Open Poker Classic – Every second Wednesday evening at 7:30 PM, this NLTH tournament features a $175 + $10 buy-in for 13500 chips. You also have the option of purchasing a $10 add-on from the organizers for another 1500 in chips. $20 of each buy-in goes towards a grand prize poker trip package. The Enoch Open also features a full re-buy-in if you’re knocked out in the first four rounds of action.

- Guaranteed Prize Pool Series VIII – Daily cash tournaments to qualify for the Series Final on September 27, 2009. Earn points through tournament series play, and sign up with the Houseman to earn points for cash play time. The final will feature 40 minute rounds and as many chips as you can qualify for through the series. The Guaranteed prize pool is $30,000 again. Now the winners of the finals are going to be playing for a trip to the WSOP Main Event.

The casino has a lot more to offer: hotel, restaurants, nightlife !

Be sure to take part in one of those events !

Posted by George in Casino News, Poker, Tournaments | No Comments » September 20th, 2009

Since BC Premier Campbell embarked on the biggest, most aggressive gambling expansion program ever seen in Canada with the changes made to gambling in British Columbia in 1997, gambling in the whole province have been stacked up.

First, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation is going more aggressive than ever. Starting this month, every adults in British Columbia can deposit into their personal E-gambling accounts, managed by the province, the sum of $9,999 every week. Visa and MasterCard accepted. Until this month, registered players were allowed weekly account transfers of only 120 Canadian dollars.

A gambler in British Columbia can now build up to $520,000 in his or her government-controlled account in one year and will soon be able to wager the entire sum on one virtual poker hand, one virtual spin of the wheel. No other jurisdiction in Canada or in the whole United States offers online casino-style games.

In Canada, only the Atlantic provinces offer online sports betting and lottery draws, along with British Columbia. Officially, no other provinces are contemplating the introduction of Internet gambling so far.

Besides offering internet betting, soon the BCLC (British Columbia Lottery Corporation) will offer  casino-style betting on games such as blackjack, roulette and poker, designed for computers and portable devices (Ipod, Iphone, cellphones, and more).

Last month, Mr. Graydon from BCLC noted in a newspaper opinion that “Gaming online is growing at a rate of 20% a year. Globally, the industry is worth a staggering $12-billion a year. Simply put, if British Columbians wish to gamble online, we’d like them to do it as customers of BCLC.”.

Seen as a good thing from gamblers, others noted that problems will but arise. In a study released earlier this year (Internet Gambling: Prevalence, Patterns, Problems, and Policy Options), one can find: “The prevalence of problem gambling is three to four times higher in Internet gamblers compared to non-Internet gamblers,” reads the report. “Having problems with gambling is one of the features that best predicts someone is an Internet gambler.”

The report also notes “a significant proportion of online gambling revenue comes from problem gamblers (41.3% in Canada, 27% internationally).” Canadian Internet gamblers have “relatively high, past month rates of substance abuse (23.3% for illicit drugs).” Use of illicit drugs “is statistically associated with Internet gambling,” the report notes.

Though the BCLS is doing reasonable steps to help problems gamblers. Should a gambler in British Columbia find himself losing control, betting beyond his means, having suicidal thoughts, counselling is available. The government provides this help through its gaming policy and enforcement branch.

The whole province is booming with gambling: 17 full services casinos and 10 196 slots machines.

The province is getting since 2001 a yearly increase in gambling revenue of 50 millions Canadian dollars (308 millions in 2001/2002 for 658 millions in 2008/2009). Internet revenue gambling were 0 dollars in 2001/2002 and are now up to 23.5 millions for 2008/2009. The province is expecting around 34 millions for the 2009/2010 fiscal year.

Posted by George in Casino News | No Comments » September 13th, 2009

Bodog is finally opening a Canadian website (www.bodog.ca) for their Canadian, and others, customers. The Bodog brand is one of the leading brands for US players and soon to be Canadians featuring an online casino, poker room, sportsbook and race book.

Founded in 1994, Bodog has its head office, and is licensed in, the Caribbean nation of Antigua.

For Canadians, they will need to go to Bodog Canada (visit Bodog.ca) to open an account. The Bodog.com main website will not accept Canadian-based players. The payment methods available for Bodog Canadian players will include credit cards and UsemyBank (www.usemybank.com). Both of which are extremely easy to use. The minimum deposit for Canadian Bodog players is set at $20 Canadian.

The Bodog Poker room uses proprietary software created exclusively for Bodog Poker and is known for their incredibly sick overlays while the casino is powered by Real Time Gaming and features 80 different slot machines along with side games.

One of the most recognized entertainment brands on Earth, a host of world-class entertainment services operate and have operated worldwide under the Bodog banner, including online gaming, which continues to grow at an impressive rate; an international record label; a publishing enterprise (with an online magazine, Bodog Nation, and blog, Bodog Beat); and an international television production company (Bodog TV), which has produced reality television series such as Bodog Fight and Calvin Ayre Wild Card Poker.

Bodog offers its players a simple, feature-rich sports betting product, offering a vast selection of sports betting opportunities across all major leagues, tournaments and events around the world.

Bodog’s exciting and fast-growing multi-player online poker community features Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7-Card Stud, 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo and 5-Card Stud.

Bodog has several branches covering the international market, the European one, the Chinese one besides the Canadian one with Bodog.ca .

Bodog does not offer online gaming services within the United States of America. Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG), located in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and led by Olympic gold medalist and First Nations leader Alwyn Morris, is the exclusive licensee of the Bodog brand for online gaming services in that jurisdiction.

BodogBrand.com, created in 2005, is an entirely new model of venture partner: one that takes the vast, contained energy of a globally-recognized brand from one sector, couples it with deep branding expertise and financial depth, and unleashes it to propel new ventures to prominence in complementary industries. A model that respects the entrepreneur and understands that “ventures synergies” is not some marketing buzzword, but has the potential to be the foundation of an entirely new way of doing business.

BodogBrand.com holds the global rights to license the Bodog brand across all sectors and its mandate is to partner with carefully-selected licensees to license the brand to accelerate partner growth, while extending the BodogBrand.com into new and vibrant markets.

So fellow Canadian players, be sure to check the Bodog.ca website !

Posted by George in Casino News, Poker | No Comments » September 7th, 2009

It has been a monumental year for the Bodog brand and its licensees, and Bodog is excited to officially announce yet another key milestone in the brand’s history: the launch of the Bodog experience to the Canadian market. Perhaps fittingly, Bodog Europe’s launch of www.bodog.ca coincides with the 15-year anniversary of the Bodog brand, for the first time giving Canadian players the ability to cash in on some hot new promotions just in time for the remainder of the CFL season and the beginning of the NFL and NHL seasons.

Bodog Europe is lead by industry veteran and Managing Director Keith McDonnell, and is regulated and licensed by the Antigua & Barbuda Financial Services Regulatory Commission, Directorate of Offshore Gaming. McDonnell noted, “We’re extremely excited to be able to bring the unique Bodog experience to Canadian players.

Canadians are passionate sports fans and are extremely savvy consumers. The Bodog brand is known world-over for its unmatched customer service and here at Bodog Europe we put the player’s experience and entertainment ahead of all else – I’m confident that we’re going to quickly earn Canadians’ loyalty and trust.”

Bodog.ca offers Canadian players safe, secure and simple access to world-class sports betting, a thriving and dynamic poker community, and a full Vegas-style casino with more than 80 web-based and downloadable games. Bodog Europe offers its players a simple, feature-rich sports betting product, offering a vast selection of sports betting opportunities across all major leagues and featuring live betting and an 80+ track Racebook.

The Bodog.ca Casino and Sportsbook also has a particular focus on Canada’s most popular sports: NHL Hockey and CFL Football.

Bodog Europe – the upstart Bodog brand licensee already taking the UK by storm with its European-facing site www.Bodog.co.uk – had originally secured the rights to the world-famous “Bodog” brand for use in Europe only. However, when Bodog Europe Managing Director Keith McDonnell learned of BodogBrand.com’s willingness to entertain proposals to license the brand for use within Canada, he was quick to act, and secured the exclusive Canadian license.

“The Bodog brand is celebrating its fifteenth year anniversary this year – an absolutely remarkable pedigree and testament to its enduring values in an industry that quickly kills off mediocrity.

The brand has gone through quite an evolution during that long history, and Bodog Europe is looking forward to carrying the torch forward for at least another fifteen years of world-class customer service, unbeatable promotions, and, above all – fun.”

Click here to check the Bodog.ca Now!

Posted by Diana Sterling in Casino News | No Comments » September 3rd, 2009