World’s premier search engine, Google has been showcasing “illegal” slot online and gambling sites on the Internet. In doing so, it has violated the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001, in Australia. Google Australia, is facing flak for giving advertising links to gambling and poker sites online, during its search results. Australian law does not allow any advdertisements of gambling services on web sites. Justice Munsie, a senior associate of an Australian law firm said that if a web site is targetted at Australian users and publishes advertisements on gambling services; irrespective of where the site is located, it has broken the law. The interesting bit of information is that Google Australia does not show links to poker directly, when a term such as ‘poker’ is used during search. However, it has not made a stringent check on the listings that appear when the search term is misspelt. Casinos and poker sites are taking advantage of this little loophole. As per law the Australian government can levy stiff penalties on individual violators as well as companies. pokernews.com reports:
According to law, individual violators can be fined $220,000 (AU) and companies can be fined $1.2 million (AU) per day. These stiff penalties have yet to be officially enforced since the Act’s inception in 2001.
Thomas Kelly’s thoughts on his dissapointing performance in the World Series
Remarking on his performance in the 2005 World Series of Poker, Thomas Keller says that although he did not play very well in the event, he was satisfied with his overall performance. He showed up late, at around 12.40 p.m. just in time to catch two hands before the first break. According to him, the hand that went against him was the first one after the break. He says that the blinds were $50-$100. He decided to bet $500 which was about half the pot, into his two opponents. The first player made it $1500 and the other one folded, putting the ball in his court again. Since he had just come in, he had not been able to read the play strategy of his opponent. Kelly says that he had $10,000 in chips and wasn’t sure where he was headed, but getting 3-1 with A-K seemed too good, to fold so he decided to call and see what happened next. Next, the player bet $2500 into the $4000 pot and confused him again. Kelly’s problem became compounded he says, as his hand was too big! cardplayer.com reports:
The problem was that I also held a big hand, three kings with the nut kicker, and given the way I had played it, I was pretty sure that he didn’t put me on a hand as big as the one I held, since I just called his small raise on the flop and checked the king on the turn. Therefore, I thought it was likely that he also made trip kings, possibly with an ace kicker but perhaps with a worse kicker.
