http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/gambling-and-the-20th-century-rulers-part1.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/gambling-and-the-20th-century-rulers-part1.html Sat, 12 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500
A lot of these bans and legalizations were directly connected with the principle political acting personalities of the 20th century. How venturesome were the most famous totalitarian rulers of the previous century and what was their role in regulation of activities on organizing and playing games and bets?

Vladimir Lenin
(1870-1924)
When in a small town of Simbirsk little Volodya Ulyanov was born nobody of the people around, including his parents, could ever guess that one of the main heroes of the 20th century came into the world. After many years it is already difficult to unambiguously evaluate the activities of Vladimir Lenin in the office of the chairman of the Soviet of National Commissars, but there is no doubt that he has gone down in history as the main ideologist of the bright ideas of communism which the Russian poor strived for so much and never achieved despite the long 70-year way.

It is not known for sure whether Vladimir Lenin was fond of gambling, in his public speeches he never mentioned the words "gambling-house" and “casino”. However, in his boyhood the future Ilyich played chess and russian bowling (gorodki) with passion. Having grown up, he played cards as well, alas, the history does not give a single answer as to the games the chief of revolutionists played and whether the bets were made

It is interesting to know that even when Vladimir Ilyich was still alive there were anecdotes and tales concerning his love of card games. But still the most favourite game of Ilyich was politics. But with regard to regulation of gambling industry, of course, Vladimir Ulyanov succeeded in the way so typical of him.

Having become the statesman, firstly, he started to fight against bourgeois heritage, established censorship. And he decided to establish order in gambling in addition to this. In provisions of the Petrograd (St. Petersburg) military-revolutionary committee as of the 24th of November of 1917 the task was set to "close all the clubs and gambling-dens where card games were played". Despite this, in spring of 1918 the commissar of municipal economy of Petrograd the future "all-union head" M.I.Kalinin taking into account the interests of reimbursement of state treasury proposed legalization of gambling. This proposal was rejected though “on revolutionary grounds” and all the gambling establishments were found illegal.

In 1921 Vladimir Lenin introduced NEP – so to say new economic politics of the state at which the priority was no longer general equality and fraternity but earning money by the young Soviet state for its own budget for realization of revolutionary ideas. It was at that time that gambling business was founded in the Republic of Soviets. On the 9th of November, 1921, The Soviet of labour and defence of the RSFSR issued a decree according to which sale of playing cards was allowed on the territory of the country. Also in 1921 when there happened to be the worst drought in Russia, the first All-Russian lottery to help the starving people took place.

In the course of two years local authorities allowed activities of gambling-houses, following financial principles and collecting rather large amounts of taxes from organizers of gambling games. In spite of this fact, at the end of 1923 there was created a commission on struggle against “moonshine, cocaine and gambling” in the USSR.

Struggle against gambling started to follow its regular soviet course, however, Vladimir Lenin could not witness its end. On the 21st of January, 1924, Lenin died. It happened just at the time of flourishing of soviet gambling industry, but after half a year after his death CEC of the USSR and SNC of the USSR issued a Decree dated the 1st of August, 1924, “about state monopoly on production of playing cards”. And afterwards still four years later gambling industry was finally prohibited in the USSR as a remnant of the old times which was to be done away with.

Iosif Stalin
(1879-1953)
Iosif Stalin (Djugashvili) was born on the 21st of December 1879 in a small Georgian town of Gori. A friend and adviser of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, his great successor, he took the reins of government in his hands after Lenin and kept them till his death. The time of Iosif Stalin’s rule is still reflected with joy and pain in the hearts of those Soviet citizens living at the time of his being in power. Industrialization, the victory in the war and continuation of communistic construction, on the one hand, and concentration camps and mass repressions – on the other hand. Without taking into account personal characteristics of the second chief of proletariat and without estimating the deeds of his in the course of almost 30 years of his being in power, we’ll point out only one thing – Iosif Stalin was not a venturesome person and except for games in politics, where stakes were sometimes hundreds of thousands of human lives, he acknowledged only billiards and races on the race track.

Let’s point out that totalizator on the race track under Iosif Stalin the only legal pastime for venturesome Soviet citizens. The most famous race tracks were situated in Moscow, Tbilisi, Tallinn, Odessa, Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) and other cities. The son of Iosif Vissarionovich – Vasiliy was also a great admirer of race tracks.

The death of Iosif Stalin did not have any impact on the existence of legal gambling in the Soviet country. They did not exist when Stalin came to power and did not appear after his death. The exclusion were horse races and races on the race tracks which attracted rather large cash means with the help of the totalizator for development of the Soviet horse breeding.
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Arthur Prudent is the developer of Casino bonus codes , web site covering gambling news, features reviews on Casinos, Poker rooms, bingos, Sports Betting bonuses promotions and more.
Gambling and the 20th century Rulers Part1

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/gambling-and-the-20th-century-rulers-part2.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/gambling-and-the-20th-century-rulers-part2.html Sat, 12 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500 (1889-1945)
Adolph Hitler (Schicklgruber) was born on the 20th of April, 1889, in a small town of Braunau on the border of Austria and Germany. The phenomenon of Hitler is still under study by historians and politicians but there are still a lot more questions than answers to them.

Really, political feeling, iron will, rare talent of an orator-demagogue, finally, need on the part of the hosts of Germany – all this helped him make himself a breath-taking career. Starting with a might-have-been artist and resigned soldier of the First World War to Fuhrer of the Third Reich and organizer of Holocaust. The history testifies that the bloodiest tyrant of the 20th century was an extremely venturesome gambler, but like Lenin, only in politics. Though Hitler was more loyal to gambling industry than a lot more of his other companions-in-arms.
In Fascist Germany officer casinos were very popular. However, a few people know that in those casinos people did not play but simply had a rest from everyday military fuss. There was a bar, billiards, music in casinos – a close club for officers in a way. Access to such establishments for outsiders was forbidden, and if officers played cards, then only for each other's money – it was forbidden to organize games and gain profit for them.

Hitler was a frequent visitor of such casinos, moreover, during the war on the occupied territories, it was he who allowed arranging casinos for a rest, in which officers of the German army usually played different card games. In such entertainment establishments the most beautiful girls of the captured towns and villages “worked”.

When Adolph came to power in 1933 there were already no gambling-houses in the country. All of them were closed down still in 1872 under the Kaiser Wilhelm I. One of the first decrees in addition to the law about special authority entrusting Adolph Hitler with unrestricted power in the country, was the decree about permission, as exclusion, of operation on the territory of Germany of the most famous casino in Baden-Baden. It happened in many aspects due to the fact that the country urgently needed money, and Hitler marked for himself that Germans had better lost their money in Germany than in neutral Switzerland. A little later, in particular in 1938, when Germany captured Austria and German legislation started to be legal on its territory prohibiting activities on organization of games and bets, casinos were closed there as well. However, there was an exclusion made for one gambling-house situated in the town of Baden, 26 kilometers from Vienna.

On the 30th of April Hitler committed suicide like a real "keen player" of boulevard novels, having lost all his wealth, and at night, on the 9th of May, 1945, in Berlin complete and unconditional surrender of Fascist Germany was signed. Where do you think it took place? In the capital district of Karlshorst in the building of the previous officer casino…

Benito Mussolini
(1883-1945)
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on the 29th of July, 1883, in a small Italian town of Dovia. The most well-known Italian statesman of the 20th century, chief (duche) of the Fascist party of Italy. Having realized “a crusade to Rome” on the 28th of October, 1922, Mussolini captured power in the country and on the 1st of November, 1922, headed the government of Italy.

Mussolini was a rather venturesome person, but preferred political games and wanted to play them only in accordance with the rules invented by him personally. These rules were quite cruel, and those who refused to follow them, Mussolini threw away as not wanted from his life. Similarly to Adolph Hitler, his main virtue which helped him to achieve self-actualization on the arena of politics, were his oratorical abilities, charisma and skills to show himself to the audience. Alas, unfortunately for Italians of those years, great Duche produced his endorphins not at the card table, but in constant unrestrained desire to possess absolute power over everything and everybody.
Having come to power, the first thing of Mussolini to do was to take under control, exile and subject to repressions leaders of the opposition.

The founder of Italian fascism had a rather negative attitude towards gambling industry. On the 16th of July, 1923, Mussolini banned gambling games in Italy except for lotteries.
In 1926 Mussolini destroyed the remnants of opposition: there were laws adopted according to which all the political parties, except for the fascist one, were banned and dissolved.

However, Mussolini was a far-sighted politician and understood rather well that Italians could not do without gambling games, they would surely get to them – they would go to France, Monaco or Switzerland. He was aware that prohibition of games had a negative impact not only on his personal popularity, as well as on the well-being of the “weak” national economy.

Mussolini made a significant for gambling industry decision. Henceforth casinos were to “cover” the borders of the Italian state hindering from export of monetary resources abroad. In 1927 gamble was officially allowed in in San-Remo. Casino was made the property of municipality of San-Remo, and its management was only carried out by the most loyal to the dictator people.

Italian authorities behaved very consistently and decisively, having allowed organizing of only one casino, they refused to any other requests about a possibility of organization of gambling-houses.

Mussolini declared that gambling industry in Italy was prohibited, existence of a casino in San-Remo was an exclusion which was presupposed by serious political and economic factors, however, the given exclusion only confirmed the general rule. The intention of the dictator was to turn the town of San-Remo into another Monte Carlo, but the dream never came true.

Despite his declaration on prohibition of opening of new casinos, Mussolini changed his decision to some extent as the time went by. During his rule two more casinos appeared. In 1933 there was opened a gambling-house in the Italian enclave Campion created still in 1917. And in 1937 gambling was allowed in Venice. All the casinos belonged to the municipalities of the corresponding towns. Games were only stopped there during the Second World War.

In 1943 previous associates foreseeing the military collapse of Italy, “put” Mussolini on the retired list. However, he didn’t give in, and as a most venturesome gambler tried to win back with Hitler’s help, still being the head of the fascist puppet government in the town of Salo for some time. However, the system he had been building for 20 years, fell apart within a few months. Cliché of a gambler let him down at that moment. Mussolini didn’t bring himself to put a pistol to head. In 1945 he was captured by Italian partisans and executed, and after a year, in 1946, gambling industry returned to Italy again, and casinos opened their doors which Mussolini was no longer able to enter.
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Arthur Prudent is the developer of Casino bonus codes , web site covering gambling news, features reviews on Casinos, Poker rooms, bingos, Sports Betting bonuses promotions and more.
Gambling and the 20th century Rulers Part2

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/gambling-and-the-20th-century-rulers-part3.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/gambling-and-the-20th-century-rulers-part3.html Sat, 12 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500 (1893-1976)
Mao Zedong was born on the 26th of December, 1893, in the village of Shaoshan of Hunan Province situated in the south of the country. Great helmsman, revolutionary - Marxist came to power in 1949 when gambling was already forbidden in the country. The creator of communistic China did rather a lot for getting into the list of the sternest rulers of the 20th century; however, as a fighter against gambling industry Mao did not distinguish himself in any way, simply leaving the ban in force. Frankly speaking, Mao had more important matters in the country.

Kim Ir Sen
(1912-1994)
The creator of North-Korean communism was born on the 15th of April, 1912, near Pyongyang. The author of Korean doctrine about Juche and supporter of Marxism-Leninism was not an admirer of gambling. During the rule of Kim Ir Sen operation of gambling-houses was out of the question, however, the son of the great North-Korean chief Kim Chen Ir after his father’s death still opened a casino. Famous Chinese millionaire Stanly Ho helped him with opening of the first gambling-house in 1999. Although, it was not allowed for aborigines to play in North-Korean casinos, but there are a lot of Chinese players there.

Fidel Castro
(1926)
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on the 13th of August, 1926 in a Cuban settlement of Biran. Since childhood Fidel was a purposeful young man, seeing his destination in the fight for liberation of the Cuban people.

Before the victory of the revolution during the rule of Batista all Cuban casinos belonged to Americans. A consultant of the acting president on gambling industry was none other than Meyer Lansky, a notorious American gangster.

Castro came to power on the 1st of January, 1959, when under attack of the revolutionary army under his command the dictatorship of Batista was over.

Having become firmly established in power, firstly, in 1959 Fidel Castro banned gambling industry – and he had his own reasons for that: struggle against Americanism. From the end of February till May of 1959 casinos were opened for some time, but finished their accounting periods with negative results and were ultimately and definitely closed down.

Until now in one of the most beautiful countries of the world attracting large tourist flows there are no casinos. Why is it so? This question should be, evidently, addressed to the Cuban president.

Saddam Hussein
(1937-2006)
Saddam Hussein was born on the 28th of April, 1937, in the Iraqi village al-Awja in the south of Tikrit region. He came to power in 1968 and changed the life of the country beyond recognition. While he was in power Iraqi became the noticeable power in the Near East, but Hussein “become famous” not for this. Genocide concerning Kurds, war against Iran, occupation of Kuwait, maximal possible totalitarianism placed the name of the born in poverty boy on the first page of the book about bloody crimes of the 20th century.

At the beginning of Saddam’s rule there was opened a race track in the country, as well as a casino the existence of which is so difficult to believe in now as well as in the fact that Hussein was once the best friend of the Soviet government.

In 1979 Saddam banned games of chance. And only after overthrow of the principle Near-eastern dictator, there were slowly but surely opened gambling-houses. Surprisingly, but they were opened by Russian entrepreneurs.

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Gambling and the 20th century Rulers Part3

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/gambling-and-the-20th-century-rulers-part4.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/gambling-and-the-20th-century-rulers-part4.html Sat, 12 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500 (1924)
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born on the 21st of February, 1924 in the town of Kutama on the territory of current Zimbabwe. Before coming to power in 1987 he had spent 11 years in prison for participation in the national liberation movement. Robert Mugabe is famous, firstly, for his anti-American claims, as well as for the fact that in 2005 he the inflation reached the record 502% in the new 21st century.

Interestingly, but at the peak of inflation growth speaking in front of the journalists the president of Zimbabwe declared that the population of his country was “very happy”. What it meant to be “very happy” the president knew not through hearsay. A few years ago Mugabe won the state lottery’s main prize in the amount of 2 639 dollars. Curiously, but only those citizens took part in this lottery who had accounts in the National Bank of Zimbabwe, at this for every 135 dollars there was only one lottery ticket. Naturally, under the name of the current president there was registered the record number of tickets, that is why the prize did not keep him waiting for a long time. They say, the results of the lottery upset the citizens of Zimbabwe very much.

Robert Mugabe is a very temperamental person and a typical gambler by nature. A lot of his statements are made in a burst of passion and excitement. By the way, the attitude of the president towards gambling industry is not in the least bad: there are several casinos opened in the country, as well as race tracks with the totalizator, left to the Zimbabwean from English colonizers.

Augusto Pinochet
(1915-2006)
Augusto Pinochet was born on the 25th of November, 1915, in a Chile resort town of Valparaiso. In September 1973 he organized a putsch against the president of Chile Allende and after his murder took the post of the head of the state. Like many other “heroes” of the 20th century, he was distinguished by mass terror in relation to the “otherwise-minded”.

General Pinochet was quite a cruel and ruthless person, but under his rule hyperinflation was stopped and economic growth began.

The Chilean dictator had a negative attitude towards gambling industry, and there were no gambling-houses in the country during his rule. However, he had rather a loyal attitude to holding a state lottery. Maybe it was because the control over profits from lotteries was entrusted to his daughter Lucia Pinochet Hiriart?

Only after a few years upon retirement of Pinochet under the president Eduardo Free a new casino was opened in the country in 1997.
At present Augusto Pinochet is in Chile under house arrest and is awaiting the trial for evasion from tax payment. The trial, by the way, perhaps, will not even take place because of his age and extremely bad heath.

We can continue mentioning great dictators and rulers of the 20th century and argue about their attitude to gambling industry. Iosip Broz Tito, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Idi Amin, Joseph Desire Mobutu, Muammar Gaddafi, Suharto, Thieu, Somoza, Marcos, Pol Pot, Ceausescu, Bokassa, Hissene Habre, Chombe, Franco, Duvalier, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Batista, Salazar and many others had different attitude to gambling. Some, like Marcos and Batista, liked it a lot, while others, like Gaddafi and Ceausescu, didn’t give it even a chance for existence.
While in Spain all power was in the hands of the general Franco Bahamonde Francisco, people were even afraid of talking about gambling-houses, but as soon as he died and the royal throne was occupied by Juan Carlos I, there were at once opened a number of casinos in the country. While Batista favoured gambling games, Fidel Castro, who substituted him, banned them at once. And it is clear. Batista was an American protégé, and Fidel was the one who fought against American imperialism. That is why casinos simply lost favour.

A lot of rulers of the 20th century were quite venturesome personalities having revealed their excitable skills in politics, and not on the cloth of the gambling table in the gambling-house. Who knows, if their passion had been connected with visiting of gambling establishments, perhaps, our planet would be quieter.
Total struggle against gambling in the 20th century was under way only in one, at this “the most democratic” country – the USA. And after repressions, which failed, gambling industry there not only continued to exist, but started to flourish. The ideas of Marxism-Leninism did not give the right of existence of gambling establishments in the countries that chose the way of rise to radiant future in the form of communism, since the norms of the given ideology prescribed earning money by way of labour, and not in the hours of entertaining pastime. Countries practising traditional Islam do not allow gambling industry on their territory in accordance with their religious dogma. Despite this, Muslim Egypt, Tunis, Morocco and Lebanon have opened gambling-houses. The same was done by the Korean Republic, having demonstrated that ideology is ideology but if the country needs to earn money for the budget, gambling industry won’t hinder it.

Totalitarianism and gambling are not connected with each other in the least. The basis of struggle against gambling industry in 99 cases out of 100 is not the desire to protect the rights and interests of the citizens and the society, but the most trivial desire to win votes of people which any party, striving to come to power, pursues. Politics is rather a subtle thing.
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Arthur Prudent is the developer of Casino bonus codes , web site covering gambling news, features reviews on Casinos, Poker rooms, bingos, Sports Betting bonuses promotions and more.
Gambling and the 20th century Rulers Part4

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/is-asia-a-new-horizon-of-the-poker.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/is-asia-a-new-horizon-of-the-poker.html Sat, 12 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500
This "new horizon" is a continental Asia. One billion people lives in China, one more billion is the population of India, and one more billion is spread over the remaining part of the continent. Considering such an amount of potential poker players, this market is a "gold vein" for organizers of the game. Only recently this horizon started to be developed (with or without the assistance of local governments). The new horizon can become the last one for poker, meaning that it will completely conquer the whole world. Organizers of poker assure that by the end of 2007 many Asians understand perfectly well what is "blind", "turn" and "river".

For a long time on-line companies have been interested in the possibility of entering Asian markets (particularly, Chinese market), but governments of Asian countries prevent on-line or traditional gambling industry from full-scale development. The government of India, for example, does not actively support the idea of the gambling industry (though there are six casinos in this country). China, which will host international Olympic games-2008, the government gradually weakens the control over the Internet. This is very good news for the representatives of the gambling industry, who have already prepared to launch a large-scale acquaintance of Asia with poker.

Steve Wynn, the owner of hotels and casinos all over the world, is ready to bring his brilliant and glamorous style to the Asian market. “Wynn Macau”, the complex of casinos and hotels, was opened on September 5 in Macao. It familiarizes the Asian continent with the luxury of Las-Vegas. It includes hotels of 600 rooms and casinos, which undoubtedly offer gambling and poker games, just like the other Steve Wynn’s institutions do all over the world. The 20-storeyed hotel will be an exact copy of the hotel-casino “Wynn Las Vegas”. The company plans to arrange further spreading of table games throughout the continent.

TV has also brought poker tournaments onto the Asian market. The most popular world poker tournament (World Poker Tour or WPT) has recently granted a license to TV stations in Macao and Singapore for them to show the first season of WPT games to the Asian audience. But the continent is getting ready to organize its own outstanding poker tournaments. The organization entitled “PanAsia Poker Tour” has recently declared that the debut of this new championship will take place in November, and it is for the first time in history that the official championship will take place in Manila, Philippines.

The event called “PAPT Philippine Open” will take place on November 3-5 in “Airport Casino Filipino”. Its final tournament will incorporate free Texas holdem poker game with the prize fund of $2500. It is expected that the tournament, which got the official permission of Philippines State Corporation for Control over entertaining and gambling industry (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation or PAGCOR), will attract celebrities and professional poker players who would attempt to win the title of the tournament champion. There are plans to film this tournament to be shown in the future on Asian TV. This means that the spectators of the Asian continent want to watch games, which are played on their own land.

However, the poker tournament entitled “PanAsia” does not stop at arranging one event. Leaders of this organization have adopted plans to arrange in 2007 a tour across the continent with ten stops. The latter are planned in Macao, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines. If the tour appears to be successful, it will be able to attract millions of new poker players to the poker community.

India is also a part of Asia; the world outlook of Indians in many aspects reflects the peculiarities of Asian or even Eastern philosophy. Gambling games and casinos in the Indian society are usually condemned (though many Indians want to change this), while poker sites, which are not prohibited here, encounter difficulties in spreading deeper into the continent. It is interesting that some activities of the on-line poker companies take place particularly in India. For example, the company “PartyPoker” has a branch office there with 900 employees, the company pays taxes here, as well as in Gibraltar, where its headquarters are located. Nevertheless, India will be able to display its real interest to poker during the first tournament in the history of this country, which will take place in 2007.

Asian poker championship in India - Asian Poker Classic - with the guaranteed prize of one million dollars will take place on March 1-3, 2007, in a major resort Goa (Grand Resort Goa) in the hotel “Intercontinental”. It is expected that more than two hundred players will take part in the tournament. The admission fee being $7500, this competition is to attract some of the best poker players from all over the world and many celebrities. Its organizers hope that the poker site (and the tournament sponsor) “Maharajah Club” that has earned a reputation a long ago will help to attract many players to this competition.

Perhaps, the organizers themselves will give the best account of the tournament. This is what the tournament director and the respected director of the championship "European poker tournament" (European Poker Tour) Thomas Kremser said about the event. “Nothing similar has ever happened in India before. Undoubtedly, the tournament will be impressive. The striking beauty of the Goa resort, splendid hotels and absolutely unique character of this tournament will become its unsurpassed scenery. It will be the poker tournament of the year!"

Asian poker players have already inscribed their names into the history of the game. From Johnny Chan to Men "The Master" Nguyen and Can Kim Hua, Asian players made their contribution to the game, and today their impact is felt in any tournament. Upon arriving onto the Asian continent, poker will conquer the new and the last geographic horizon and give birth to a new generation of champions from Asia.

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Is Asia a new horizon of the poker?

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/casino-is-the-temple-of-games.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/casino-is-the-temple-of-games.html Sat, 12 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500
The history tells us that in 49 B.C. the famous ancient Roman commander Julius Caesar, having won brilliant victories over barbarian galls, wanted to seize supreme power in the Eternal City. Then the frightened senators forbade him and his troops to return to Italy.

Without hesitations, the commander announced about his decision regarding the senate ban by saying "Alea jacta est" ("The die has been cast") and crossed the border river Rubicon. This led to lingering civil wars in Rome, which became one of the most significant events in ancient history.

The words of the ferocious dictator became proverbial, however, today there is hardly a person who thinks about its real meaning. As it turned out, the Great Caesar actually cast the dice. So great was his passion to gambling, that he deeply believed in the magic ability of the dice to predict the future.

The public opinion hardly favors gamble and everything connected with it. Conversely, in those times the word "player" was nearly a swearword - so huge was the contempt of the majority of people to those who gave the game its due.

But at the same time ancient people understood perfectly well that the thirst for gambling could not be eradicated. The Greeks with their characteristic rich imagination invented a myth about the goddess of the fate Tyche (the Romans called her “Fortune”), who gave birth to Zeus’ daughter, and this girl was endowed with the gift of inventing various dangerous amusements, which caused the people to lose a lot of money, cheat, scuffle and committed suicides.

Tyche loved her daughter and thus winked at her cruel pranks. She even presented her with a large beautiful house, to which her daughter allured the most credulous players to make them miserable.
More than two thousand years passed since those times, and today hardly anyone believes in fortune-telling by throwing lot and myths about the goddess Tyche, but there is one thing that has not changed. It is the human need for the game. This unquenchable desire stipulated for the fact that in the course of time special premises were built for gambling – as if the ancient Greek legend came true.

In these establishments visitors played with each other in these and paid a part of their winnings to the owner - or played with owner and then, if they lost, they were to pay the whole amount of the bet to the casino owner. Approximately in the 16th century such establishments came to be called by the Italian word "casino", which has not changed its meaning up to now.

Gambling houses irrepressibly attracted people with different characters, different talents and varying financial possibilities. The list of famous casino frequenters, compiled by the largest casinos in Europe, includes such celebrities as chancellor Bismarck, composers Berlioz and Brahms, the writer Dostoyevskiy, the poet Mayakovsky and the automobile king Citroen.

Reverberating fame, however, did not prevent these people from insidious tricks of Fortune. Admittedly, some celebrities were often lucky and they won a lot. For example, Citroen was such a lucky player. He loved to play for high stakes, in order to impress other rich men. Journalists never grew tired of writing that the automobile king is as lucky on the green cloth, as in business.

Others mostly lost. For instance, Mayakovskiy was such an unlucky fellow. He loved billiards, cards and particularly the roulette. During his trips abroad the poet run into unprecedented debts, because he was lucky only at billiard table, but by no means in the roulette.

Gambling houses are known not only by their frequenters, but also by various legends that surround these establishments. The most enduring is the story how a certain Frenchman monsieur Blanchard won twice in "Casino Monte-Carlo". When he intended to enter this casino for the first time, his hat was spoilt by the dove. Blanchard interpreted this as a good sign and was right. The player managed to win several thousands. Then he intended to go to casino once again, but on condition that a bird would spoil his hat for one more time.

He had to wait for the new dove for several days, but his expectations paid for themselves. The Frenchman was lucky that time and he won even more than before. After this, the doves displayed no interest in Blanchard and he could not win. However, all inveterate players believe that if the bird marks you before the visit to the gambling house is a true sign of good luck.
Clearly, it is nearly impossible to get rid of all possible troubles completely, because even trifle losses somewhat spoil the mood. But they also make the triumph more delightful and allow you to feel the sharp fascination of victory over chance. Thus, it is hardly expedient to worry in advance, you should just be always be at the ready and treat the game lightly, although with deep respect, as if it were a close friend of yours.


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Arthur Prudent is the developer of Casino bonus codes , web site covering gambling news, features reviews on Casinos, Poker rooms, bingos, Sports Betting bonuses promotions and more.
Casino is the Temple of Games.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/casinos.-history-of-gambling-in-brief.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/casinos.-history-of-gambling-in-brief.html Sat, 12 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500
Gamble opens up new possibilities of the personality, which are often not displayed in ordinary life. Almost everybody wants to get rich at once, without any efforts. Game gives a hope for this, but luck is destiny of the chosen ones.

Origins of the game.
Game and gamble has followed the humanity since its first steps. A grain of gamble is evident almost in everything, starting from hunting in the primitive society and up to major financial deals in the 21st century. Elements of game are inherent to many competitions and entertainments, which our forefathers arranged. For example, it is evident in competitions in strength and deftness, which were later transformed into famous tournaments. Later on the first gambling games appeared. They were based on the element of chance, trying one’s destiny.

The historians believe that the very first game was casting various stones, shells, animals’ bones – these objects were the prototypes of the dice. Documental evidence of the first games is stored in the British Museum. Among this evidence are dice, made by an unknown Egyptian craftsman from the elephant’s tusk (16th century B.C.) and a board for playing draughts, also called checkers which belonged to the queen Hatchepsut (1600 B.C.).

Historical evidence attests that all ancient civilizations played dice. Astragalus,i.e. fetlocks of the animals, were mostly used as dice. The word “astragalus” also referred to tetrahedral bricks with indentations, which more resembled modern dice - hexahedral bricks with somewhat rounded corners, in which the opposite facets, when added up, always amount to seven.

In the old days the people played odd and even, cast dice in the circle or threw them, trying to hit certain openings. Dice were also widely used for fortune-telling. It is also interesting that the players treated dice with nearly reverent trepidation, as if the dice were alive: the players talked to them, whispered charms and tried to persuade them to bring victory.

Since their emergence dice almost at once became one of the most venturesome gambling games. The players placed everything in their bet: money, things, dwelling and even freedom (ancient Germans who lost in dice humbly became slaves). At the same time there appeared various lawful bans on this seemingly harmless game. For instance, in the 3rd century B.C. the first known in history law against gambling games was adopted. It was called Lex aleatoria (alea means a die).

In Ancient Greece there was a legend that the Olympic gods divided the “spheres of influence” by casting lots (Zeus got the Olympus, Poseidon received the ocean, and Hades came to rule the underworld). The laws of Ancient Rome formally forbade gambling games, but there was no specific punishment for violation of the ban. The only “penalty” for the players was the right of the defeated player to reclaim everything he lost, if he though that he was wrongly or unfairly defeated. Officially the games were allowed only once a year, during the Saturnalia (annual festivities in honour of the god Saturn).

Throughout the years the significance of the game increased. There appeared new game contrivances, for example cards. Some researchers argue that the first playing-cards appeared in China. In the Chinese dictionary, Ching-tsze-tung (1678), mentions that cards were created in 1120 (according to the Christian chronology), and in 1132 they were already widely used. Cards at those times were long and narrow plates with numbers from 1 to 14 on them. Four suits symbolized four seasons, and the number of cards (52) corresponded to the number of weeks in the year.

The prototype of the modern deck of cards is the Tarot cards. The first documentary witness that we know of refers to 1254, when Saint Louis issued an edict that forbade card game within France under the fear of punishment with a whip.

Other researchers call Egypt the homeland of cards. The Tarot deck was used for fortune-telling. It had 78 sheets – arkana (22 seniors and 56 juniors). The pictures on the senior arkans correspond to golden tables, which are preserved in the dungeon of the god Tote in Egypt. Their names are as follows: 1. Fool; 2. Magician; 3. Priestess; 4. Hostess; 5. Host; 6. High priest; 7. Lovers; 8. Chariot; 9. Power; 10. Hermit; 11. The wheel of fortune; 12. Justice; 13. The hanged man; 14. Death; 15. Abstinence; 16. Devil; 17. Tower; 18. Star; 19. Moon; 20. Sun; 21. Court; 22. Peace.

It is considered that cards reached Europe in the 10-11th century, during the crusades to the Near East. Other argue that the majority of card games were born in France, which is called the homeland of European cards. The first factory-made deck of Tarot cards included 56 cards of four suits (swords, wands, money and cups). Besides there were 22 trump-cards with numbers from 1 to 21. Every card had a name of its own: the emperor, the empress, the nun, the conjurer, the fool etc. Thus, the deck incorporated 97 cards. Gradually it was substituted by new cards, which more closely resembled the modern ones.

It is surprising that the symbols of suits and the suits themselves did not change since 15th century. In the Middle Ages card games were very popular among various strata of population, ranging from a king’s court to the common people. By the way, in those times cards were not only a means to beguile the time, but also a symbol of the society structure: hearts embodied the priests, diamonds meant the bourgeoisie, spades represented officers and aristocracy, clubs referred to the peasants.

Modern card games (poker, blackjack) arose in the U.S. in the second half of the 19th century. It is difficult to name them all. There are card games for adults and children, games for training logic and wit – and there are games just to beguile the time. The more mature is the individual, the more complex are the games he plays. Having become financially independent, he lets loose his gamble: makes bets, plays in the lotteries, makes bets on the totalizator and finally funds himself in the very temple of game, the casino. Here the individual totally submits to the game, which sharpens his feelings and emotions and makes him forget everything, but the green cloth and roulette wheel. The thirst for such feelings lures again and again those people, who have at least once been in the casino. Meanwhile, the skeptics say: “If you want to win in the casino, buy one of those”.
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Arthur Prudent is the developer of Casino bonus codes , web site covering gambling news, features reviews on Casinos, Poker rooms, bingos, Sports Betting bonuses promotions and more.
Casinos. History of gambling in brief.


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/casino-online.-poker-bots.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/casino-online.-poker-bots.html Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500
If it is true, then widespread of poker bots capable of beating an average player would pose a significant problem for poker sector. Without creation of a special system verifying the identity and "humanity" of cards players in on-line casinos, the business could be significantly undercut. This is an opinion of players themselves, and gambling figures, interested in further development of on-line game industry.

Some skeptics say that, considering the complexity of the game and constantly changing strategies, creation of the program that can read opponents’ cards using special techniques of screen scanning and respond in real time is many decades away at best. The supporters of this point of view point to the variety of commercial programs that purport to help players, but with no actual effect. However there is a ready answer for all of these objections - in Canadian University of Alberta a computer poker research group has developed an artificially intelligent automaton known as "Vex Bot". This robot is capable of playing poker at master level in a game with two players. The new system has already been used to test the frontiers of artificial intelligence, as it will be the basis for commercial poker tutorial program. As soon as the news about robot creation was published in media, the creators began to receive letters mentioning the danger of system use for the purposes of illegal gambling business.

Darse Billings who is lead designer of "Vex Bot" considers that probability of the use of bots on commercial sites is approximately 50:50, but he is also sure that all of the modern programs can unlikely match his creation, which is a result of a 10 years research work of a team of specialists.

“The strategy of the game is difficult and to sit down and write a program that can beat a table of experienced human players is no trivial task,” Billings said. According to his the opinion, the biggest obstacles lie in the amount of information unavailable to the player and the need for the program to be able to employ a variety of strategies at different times, such as bluffing and laying traps for opponents, etc Exactly for this purpose artificial intelligence was added to the system, capable not only calculate probabilities but also line up logic of game, model it’s opponents behavior, etc.

In the opinion of creators of "Vex Bot", its main advantage is that, as well as any other robot; they have no emotions, no fear and no shame and can not be nervous. He will remain indifferent even before the most aggressive player.

Journalists, studying the problem of poker boats, note that it is very difficult to get the real picture because of the unwillingness of many gambling operators to answer upon requests on this issue. There are no high-quality programs, able to watch suspicious poker sites with the unusual patterns of game.

Representative of CryptoLogic Company, commenting this problem, mentioned that some players, suspected to use of boats, have been banned from the member sites. Sometimes it is just impossible to be sure who plays is a human or robot, but a company, exposing all unusual strategies, prefers to be reinsured and protect itself from the possible socializing with a bot.

Professional players, speaking about the popularity of poker bots, mention how advantageous it can be: if you have the program, able to play 25 casinos simultaneously, two tables apiece and even if you are playing a minimum $10-20 on a game, you earn $1000 an hour. The participants of many gambling chats are distressed that the computer programs have already took the place of interactive poker. Skeptics are sure that poker will continue to become more popular, in spite of all of threats from the side of programmers. In their opinion, it’s only a matter of time before more people want to create their own bots to be remembered, but all of these attempts are doomed to failure.

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Arthur Prudent is the developer of Free casino money , web site covering gambling news, features reviews on Casinos, Poker rooms, bingos, Sports Betting bonuses promotions and more.
Casino online. Poker bots.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/casino-games.-games-of-chance-for-asians-more-than-just-a-game.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/casino-games.-games-of-chance-for-asians-more-than-just-a-game.html Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500
Asians spend on games of chance approximately 14 milliard US dollars per year. It includes both a casino game and stakes for races, totalizators and lotteries as well as all sorts of illegal bets. In 2010 it is expected that they will spend 23 milliard US dollars annually. In the first place, interest in gambling games on the part of Asians is determined by their disposition, mentality of the nations. Playing a game of chance they not only try to win money – they check their luck, fortune, destiny. Fast-growing economics of Asian countries, swell in population (especially in China), growth of tourist activity are also responsible for growing demand for gambling games.

The state authorities are well aware of it all. The industry of gambling games is profitable for them not only as a revenue side of the budget as well as workplaces for citizens, additional attraction for tourists. Speaking of Macao, a Chinese enclave, where casinos are legal and are the authorities' principal income, more than 10 million tourists who arrive with the main objective to play, spend money still not only on gambling entertainments but also on the rest of the related services. It is also a significant advantage for the state. Nowadays a lot of people are sure that if casinos should be legalized then they must be full-scale entertainment centers - with shops, movies, restaurants, exhibitions and etc.

Anxiety as regards social woes which somehow or other are a consequence of gambling games prevents statesmen from any steps in connection with revision of the law about gambling business. Some governments would like to reduce negative social influence by limiting access of local residents to casinos and locating casinos in remote areas. However, this, according to expert opinion, is not a way out of the situation, since venturesome Asians will simply play in clandestine gambling establishments.

Which does happen successfully in those countries where the harshest laws are established regarding gambling business. Or there is always an opportunity to get to a neighboring country and leave money there. Thailand is particularly illustrative here, casinos are prohibited there, so right at the border on the territory of neighboring Cambodia, about 20 casinos await venturesome Thais.

The supporters of legalization of casinos as well as other forms of gambling games state that people having problems with gambling games have actually got them. In fact, having legalized casinos the problems will come to the surface. And this, of course, is better than unawareness of what is going on.

To understand what influence gambling business has on the population a lot of Asian countries did research in the course of the recent years, representatives of authority went to world centers of entertainment such as Las-Vegas and Atlantic-City to get personally reassured in the necessity and inevitability of casinos’ legalization. The Asian market of gambling games is claimed by practically all the leading casinos’ operators. These include both companies which own mega resorts in Las-Vegas and European, South-African and Australian firms.

© Copyright 2006-2007 www.bonus-map.com

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Arthur Prudent is the developer of Casino bonus codes , web site covering gambling news, features reviews on Casinos, Poker rooms, bingos, Sports Betting bonuses promotions and more.
Casino games. Games of chance for Asians – more than just a game.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/new-online-casino-games.-who-needs-new-casino-games.html http://www.articletrader.com/entertainment/gambling/new-online-casino-games.-who-needs-new-casino-games.html Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500
1. Inventions
Every year about 2-3 new author games appear on international exhibitions. In the beginning they attract casino operators by their uncommonness very much, who examine them, read incomprehensible rules carefully and try to play these now-how. But their interest gradually disappears. In fact these games are not interesting and sometimes can be difficult to understand not just for an ordinary player, but casino representative as well. Also many games require special equipment. Even if the owner places a table for such game, the customers of casino will be disappointed by it: "Too difficult, boring, not interesting". And frequently: "No chance".

2. Casino inventions
From time to time the owner or employees of gaming houses invent quite interesting games. However, they have no future as well because of the above mentioned reasons: "I don’t want to spend money to learn new games".

3. Innovations, based on the change of existing games
In this case, to think of a new game, it is enough to change the rules of already existing one.
So what makes gaming houses to introduce new games in a casino? Are modern players bored with original version of roulette, blackjack and poker? Not at all. Except some kinds of poker, that are popular nowadays due to really interesting innovations, all new games are only small marketing help in promotion actions of casino. They do not have any playing effect.

If a game is too complicated and casino wins a lot, players leave it at once. It is not interesting for the customers to play too simple and ineffective games. Far more attractive for them are games with the history, such as roulette, queen of the games; poker, having many combinations; intellectual blackjack, having as many or even more combinations as poker games. Besides, if an online casino offers bonuses in a form of free cash, these bonuses turn the house edge that normally exists in these casino games into a player edge over the house. That’s why online casinos started disallowing some games form qualifying for the wagering requirements on their bonus offers. Online casinos that disallow blackjack from their bonus offers lose a lot of good customers. There are still many casinos that disallow blackjack from the wagering requirement qualifying play, but a player should always look at which games these casinos do allow, and play only if the house edge will be small enough on the allowed casino games to provide good money value for the bonus.

There is an opinion, that for the majority of players it is not so important what to play. The main thing for them is an atmosphere of a game. For example, roulette – people are trying to get to the bottom of this game for ages. Naturally it is easy to join them and try your luck.

As a result it appears that the same games such as roulette, blackjack, poker are popular in casino, and all the rest ones keep manager happy that there is "a variety of games" there. That is not bad at all; the main thing is that both players and employees of casino are satisfied.
© Copyright 2006-2007 www.bonus-map.com

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Arthur Prudent is the developer of No deposit casino bonus codes , web site covering gambling news, features reviews on Casinos, Poker rooms, bingos, Sports Betting bonuses promotions and more.
New online casino games. Who needs new casino games?

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>