This week EGM Green announced the launching of its new line of entirely eco-friendly gaming tables. Currently, these are the only tables in the market designed to add points to an establishment’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating and reduce their carbon footprints.

The line includes blackjack, poker, baccarat, mini-baccarat and roulette tables plus specialty tables that can be customized to fit the needs of any gaming venue. Also, EGM Green has developed eco-friendly furnishings for those casinos and gambling halls that want to show they are really committed to the environment.

The legendary action themed game Street Fighter is one of the seven new games that InterCasino has released this month. It has taken the game’s attributes, such as weapons, logos and characters and has fused them into a video slot where you can win up to 5,000 times your line bet.

Other games also released this month are Roamin’ Gnome, which is a 5-reel, 30-payline slot, in which you must follow the gnome to historic and bizarre locations around the world. Another game is Fantasy Realm, which is a game for dreamers, where you can win up to 3,000 times your line bet on a single spin.

A new version of blackjack, called Double Attack Blackjack (by Wagerworks) has just been released.

The main differences of this version are that first of all, you can double your bet even after seeing the dealer’s card up and also that you can double down or give up if you get a weak hand after any number of cards. These new rules, offer the player obvious advantages when comparing to traditional blackjack.

Steven Stotts, aged 57, was arrested in November 2006, for “capping” bets (adding chips) or “pinching” (taking back chips) while playing blackjack at the Northwood casino in Iowa.

The surveillance camera shows Stotts adding more chips on the table when the game had already been determined or trying to take away chips before the dealer had time to collect.

The results of a new survey about Jamaican’s view on prohibited casino games like roulette and blackjack were revealed this week. The research, which was carried out on January 12 and 13, 2008, shows public opinion has changed compared to the last survey conducted in 2006 and support to the legalization of these games has increased an eight percent.

Bill Johnson and his team were in charge of preparing and performing the poll and they found out that only 40 percent of the 1,008 people who answered it were against the lifting of the ban on gambling, 15 per cent less than in 2006.

Carnival Cruise Lines, known as the biggest and most important cruise operator in the whole world has announced that it will organize and host a series of Slots, Blackjack and Poker tournaments that will take place in 10 of its exclusive cruises.

The blackjack and slots tournaments will have a total prize of $2,500.00. Players who make it to the first place in these events will also win balcony accommodations for themselves and a guest and will have the right to participate in the final event, which will be held next November 17th.

The legendary Blackjack Team, a group of students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who learned how to cheat in blackjack, will now have their own movie. Based on the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, the film named “21” will tell the story of the youngsters who used maths to defeat the casino.

It all started in 1979, when a group of MIT students that played poker regularly took a course called How To Gamble If You Must. There, they learned about the game of blackjack and card counting techniques and after the course finished they decided to try their skills.

As published by Canadian Press: “Shares in Canadian online gambling companies fell Tuesday amid fears that a U.S. crackdown on Internet gaming may spread and affect revenue from firms doing business south of the border.”

Shares in software firm CryptoLogic Inc. (TSX:CRY) tumbled $2.69, or 10.8 per cent, to close at $22.19 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, while Fun Technologies Inc. (TSX:FUN), an online gambling firm, was down five cents at $5.35.

“There's a simple explanation for why Congress gets itself all worked up over such inoffensive acts as gambling over the Internet: There's no current way to tax it, so it should be illegal”, as published by DelawareOnline.com

And there's more hypocrisy. While it would make criminals out of people who play poker or blackjack on the Internet, it exempts those who gamble on horses and dogs, online lotteries and sports fantasy games that are legal within state boundaries.

As published by BreakingNews.ie: “Shares in online casino 888 plunged 6% today after the business reported a drop in active members, while a 23% hike in second quarter revenues fell short of market expectations.”

“The gambling firm said sales between April and the end of June rose to $80m (€59m), reflecting a rise of 48% for poker and 9% in casino.”