While the majority of European countries are slowly seeing the reality and viability of opening up their markets to competition in a bid to introduce a regulated and legalized system, the Netherlands (surprising, considering this country’s liberal outlook on many other issues) has stood steadfast in its decision to block with brute force any other operator except its own lottery operator, De Lotto.

Ladbrokes and Betfair online betting sites both brought separate cases to the European Union Court of Justice, claiming that the Netherlands’ policy counters the free trade charters signed between member states. Ladbrokes said that Holland’s policy was “hard to reconcile with its expansive gambling policy, which is characterized by the introduction and active advertising, marketing and promotion of new gaming products.”

Betfair called on the European Commission to take a lead on the issue of online poker and gambling on the continent “so that we can separate fact from fiction and settle the online gambling debate once and for all.”

The group also scoffed at the idea that online gambling was more detrimental than other forms of gambling, as claimed by the Dutch in their case, and said that these claims were simply “without foundation.”

The Secretary General of EGBA, Sigrid Ligne said that the internet raises new questions and challenges that are not possible to resolve through the judicial process.

She called on the Netherlands to examine its gambling policy once more and to introduce reforms that we have come to see in more enlightened countries such as France, Italy and Denmark.

Van der Sloot’s name may be familiar to many due to him being a suspect in the murder of Natalee Holloway in 2005 – exactly five years to the day of the new murder case. At the time, camera footage shows Holloway leaving a bar with van der Sloot in Aruba. However, although the teen never showed up to rejoin her group the following day, her body was never found and van der Sloot managed to be released after being arrested and questioned twice, simply through lack of evidence.

In 2008, van der Sloot was caught by an undercover investigator selling Thai women into sex slavery after duping them into believing that they were going to become exotic dancers in the Netherlands. He made $13,000 per woman yet somehow avoided arrest on these counts as well.

Van der Sloot is well known on the live poker circuit and was in Chile to attend the PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT). He is known to be a sharp and talented young player.

Yesterday, van der Sloot’s lawyer tried to portray his client as a victim of the media and said: “He’s a popular suspect, he’s someone who people believe – people have very strong opinions about this – that he got away with murder, literally, in Aruba which, the evidence says otherwise, the judges have said otherwise. But he’s someone who is easy to point the finger at, he wears a bulls-eye on his back.”

As such, those who have experience working at the tables have been training control board employees and the police how to spot cheater at the tables when card games are eventually introduced into casinos by this summer.

“Quite frankly, we don’t want to be caught with our heads in the sand,” said a spokesman for the gaming control board, Richard McGarvey, who, along with his colleagues has already being undergoing an intensive course of over 5 weeks with professional dealers.

Each casino that has applied for - and received – a license to run poker and other card games on their floors have been training their new dealers to spot potential cheats or cheats in action. Each casino is in fact responsible for its own training, however the board was keen to ensure that its own people were able to identify criminals as well and are therefore also undergoing training.

“The number one job of the Gaming Control Board is to ensure the integrity of gaming in Pennsylvania,” said the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, Gregory Fajt. “When a person comes into a Pennsylvania casino, they need to know they are getting a fair shake and they aren’t being cheated.”

It is believed that over 4,000 new jobs will be created with the introduction of poker in Pennsylvania, and millions of dollars will be generated for the state.

The player has been one of the most influential members of the site that makes up one half of the Cereus Poker Network and hasn’t left so much as a clue as to why she is leaving.

Jones’ announcement came just before the beginning of this year’s World Series of Poker event, when all eyes are on the poker world, so it seems that she definitely wanted to make an impact when she cut the cord with Absolute Poker.

Lacey Jones’ departure from the controversial online poker site prompted a wave of rumors and speculations as to why she was going her own way.

A recent Tweet (after days of silence), certainly didn’t clarify things when she wrote saying: “Today is a new chapter of my life and I’ve never been more excited! Get ready for some BIG things everybody!”

Absolute Poker, for its bit, has stressed very firmly that Jones’ departure has been done in an amicable manner and that there were no hard feelings from either side. This has led to speculation that Jones is simply ready to move on to something bigger, despite the fact that Absolute Poker is well placed on the list of popular online poker sites.

Some of said that her departure is due to the fact that Absolute Poker has been linked once again with a cheating scandal, being the sister site of Ultimate Bet where a security breach was recently reported. However, others have dismissed this rumor. It remains to be seen whether Lacey Jones will make another announcement in the coming days regarding her future on the circuit.

Two important things happened soon after Intertops joined the network. Firstly, Cake Poker announced several new exciting features that are sure to become a big hit with players. These are all incorporated in the launch of the updated software Cake 2.0 and include a handy calendar, tournament schedules and notification and a fantastic new lobby set up.

The other big change involves a partnership deal recently signed between Cake Poker and the European based casino software group, CTXM. The deal calls for the two to pool their services and market them as a joint venture to gaming sites across the globe.

“Since Cake and CTXM operate non-competitive businesses within the online gaming space and have a similar model, joining forces seemed like the perfect evolution of the relationship,” said the Chief Executive Officer of CTXM, Udy Yosha. “Our partnership with Cake perfectly fits with our strategy of providing one-stop-shop solutions to our partners.”

The director of marketing at Cake, Andrew Turner, said that his group is extremely pleased to partner with CTX due to their long history in online gambling and their high levels of innovation.

“We are also excited to be launching two new partners to the Cake Network in Comeon.com and AdamEvePoker.com, both of which bring strong brands and unique marketing approaches. We look forward to a long and successful partnership,” he added.

Phil Ivey, not a man of many words and certainly not one to express his feelings in interviews, couldn’t help but gush about the new poker room.

“This has to be one of the biggest achievements of my life,” Ivey said in an interview to Bluff Magazine. “Having a poker room named after me…I just can’t believe it, really. When Bill McBeath asked me to have the room named after me, I just laughed at him. I was like, ‘Come on, stop joking.’ I really didn’t think anything was going to happen and then I get a phone call and there’s a date for the tournament.”

Those in attendance were certainly out in full force to offer Ivey their support and honor one of the best poker players in history. Doyle Brunson, TJ Cloutier, Barry Greenstein and Eli Elezra were just some of the big names to be found rubbing shoulders at the Aria Poker Room.

The $1 million freeroll added excitement to the evening, with Chino Rheem finally taking down Ivey and winning the bounty on the guest of honor’s head.

After the freeroll, impromptu poker games between pros such as Jennifer Harman, David Benyamine and Tim Phan took place in the Ivey Room, and no doubt big bucks swapped hands long after the official evening ended.

One typical area is Novey Arbat Street in Moscow, which used to draw the crowds with bright flashing neon lights. While the lights have been dimmed, industry experts say that behind closed doors, poker players are just as active and enjoying poker more than ever. While the police are requested to arrest these players and close down the establishments, they simply do not have the manpower or resources to do so.

Russia has certainly tried to clamp down on poker, and even banned the Russian Sports Poker Federation earlier this year. However, as an act of defiance and total disregard for what they consider a very bad law, the federation continues to operate quite openly.

“I heard something about the ruling [of being banned],” said the President of the Federation, Dmitry Lesnoy half mockingly. “But no one notified me personally, so I can’t say – did it take place or not?”

By the looks of it, poker is definitely not going anywhere in Russia. Besides the fact that poker and gambling clubs still flaunt their services in public in full view of the authorities, internet poker is still very much an available option for players who want to enjoy quality poker form the comfort of their own homes.

In addition, even those who can’t find poker clubs in their hometowns can take a quick flight to any of the neighboring countries and play to their hearts’ content.

Two bills that could affect online poker legislation in the United States are up for discussion in the House Committee on Financial Services this week. It was announced over the weekend that HR 2266 and HR 2267 are to be presented on Friday in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC at 10 pm. Both bills would have a dramatic affect on US accepted online casinos and poker rooms found offshore.

The Congressional committee will essentially examine the two pro-poker regulation bills in question.

As a recap, the two bills introduced by Chairman Barney Frank, are as follows:

HR 2266: The Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act will delay the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) which is set to kick in on June 1, 2010.

HR 2267: The Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009 will call for the regulation and legalization of online gambling and poker, and will nullify the controversial UIGEA.

While everyone in the industry is hopeful that HR 2267 will be adopted, putting an end to the UIGEA once and for all, it would still be seen as a victory if HR 2266 temporarily delays the implementation of the act in June. At the beginning of the year, pressure by the online poker and gambling industry drove Congress to delay the act’s implementation for a six month period.

The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative welcomed the news that the two bills would be discussed by the House Committee on Financial Services this coming Friday. The group’s spokesperson, Michael Waxman said in a statement: “This hearing will provide further evidence that UIGEA is a poorly-crafted law that simply does not work. A more common sense approach to protect Americans is required. We expect this hearing to provide further impetus for the House Financial Services Committee and Congress to address this issue and move forward Chairman Frank’s regulatory bill.”

The British courts were due to decide on Bebb-Jones’ future last month, but the decision was held up after his lawyer, Ben Cooper, sought assurance from the US authorities that if he faced trial in the United States, he would not get the death penalty. He was told by the US authorities that they would not be seeking the maximum punishment.

“If the defendant is found guilty of murder in the first degree, which is the charge he faces, the maximum penalty would be a term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” said the ruling judge Howard Riddle at the City of Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London. “The defense argues that a whole life sentence which, in real terms, is irreducible violates a prisoner’s rights.”

“I accept the possibility that some people would consider such a sentence to be grossly disproportionate,” he said. “However, it is not obviously or clearly grossly disproportionate. On these facts the prospect of a whole life term falls short of inhuman and degrading treatment.”

Marcus Bebb-Jones lived with his wife and infant son in Colorado in the 1990’s. He is believed to have murdered his wife and buried her body in a national park in Colorado. He then went on a weekend of frenzied gambling, drinking and sex using his wife’s credit cards in Vegas, before trying to commit suicide.

After that failed attempt, he fled with his son to England and took up professional poker. Bebb-Jones was well known on the live poker circuit and came in the money in several tournaments. He has since lost all his winnings and is living on benefits, according to the Kidderminster Shuttle.

Timex wrote on his blog that while he still loved poker and that he will never quit playing the game, he feels that at this point he is ready to retire from his hugely successful albeit very brief poker career.

“In poker, although I’ve met tons of people I really like and had tons of cool experiences, I just kind of feel like there is nowhere to go from here,” said McDonald on his blog. “I can’t really think of anyone who is more engrossed in the poker world than me who I aspire to be like and poker seems to be a lot more isolating than I initially realized.”

McDonald has some major plans that he is excited to begin already, and having so many millions in live tournament winnings in his bank account will certainly help him. Education is certainly top of his list of priorities and he noted that on his blog as well. “I think returning to school and trying out a wide variety of courses, learning new things, meeting new people, and just beginning to live a life that is more in touch with everyone else seems aligned with my interests,” he wrote. “I currently am trying to get in touch with the University of Waterloo about possibly taking some classes this summer and depending on how that goes, may return to Waterloo or another university in the fall.”

Timex was the youngest person to ever win a live European Poker Tour event in 2008, by winning the German Open prize of €933,000. His latest win has been the $1,500 No Limit Hold ‘em event at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tournament, where he bagged nearly $150,000.