Here's Why You Kept Losing at Online Poker

Why go to all the trouble of buying a physical ticket?

(NEWSER) - Poker sites may be strictly verboten , but another kind of online gambling is starting to crop up: state lotteries. Minnesota has already begun selling lottery tickets online, even offering year-long subscriptions for its Powerball and Mega Millions games, USA Today reports. Several other states are considering following suit. A bill allowing online lotto sales has already passed a New Jersey Assembly committee, and another has been introduced in New York. More»

Players can participate in thousands of hands a day

(NEWSER) - The last winner of the World Series of Poker, 22-year-old Joe Cada, had been legally able to play poker in a casino for less than a year. Yet by the time he blew away the competition at the WSOP, Cada had played millions of hands—by his reckoning, 2,000 a day—for real stakes, online. Internet poker has revolutionizing the real-world version, helping teens gain impressive amounts of experience—and the winnings to prove it. More»

(NEWSER) - Minnesota wants Internet providers who serve customers in the state to block access to Internet gambling sites, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Officials say the practice is illegal in the state, but how prevalent it is is unclear. “It's hard to know that," a gambling regulator said. “I can't tell you if it's one or 500,000. My only concern is that it's unlawful.” More»

DOJ has winning hand in legal battle with Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!

(NEWSER) - Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo have agreed to cough up $31.5 million to settle Justice Department charges they promoted Internet gambling by accepting advertising from gambling sites for the past 10 years, Reuters reports. The high-tech giants will pay some of that amount in fines, and will create PSAs telling young adults and teenagers that Internet gambling is illegal. More»

Sarah Phillips' real identity was questioned

(NEWSER) - ESPN has fired a writer who went from being a poster on the message boards at gambling site Covers.com to being a star columnist at ESPN.com without anybody checking her real identity. Sarah Phillips was sacked soon after Deadspin ran a lengthy expose questioning her identity and accusing her of involvement in a fraud and extortion scheme involving social media. Phillips, who said she was a 22-year-old West Coast university student and a hardcore gambler, never met anybody at ESPN in person and used photographs of several different people to accompany her writings at Covers. More»