See, some folks in New Jersey put together a bill that would allow online gambling within the state, with the idea that the online casinos would be based in Atlantic City. Atlantic City could use the boost to its economy right about now.  And the bill made it through both legislative houses, which hadn’t really been accomplished anywhere else. But then it had one more step – being signed by the Governor.

Unfortunately the Governor of New Jersey is a top Republican and a potential nominee for the 2012 GOP ticket. Oh, and one of the big GOP donors is a Vegas casino owner who doesn’t approve of online gambling and probably doesn’t approve of Atlantic City getting something he doesn’t have.

So, last year Christie vetoed the bill. Then he had a change of heart about the time the Department of Justice changed their stance on the Wire Act of 1961. Suddenly it looked like everything was go and all that needed to happen was clarifying some technical details.

Then we got closer to summer and Christie took a look at the Romney / ??? ticket and dug out those flip flops. Suddenly he isn’t sure that online gambling is good for Atlantic City. And online casino daddy predicts he’s going to continue to be unsure until that VP slot on the Romney ticket is decided. And somewhere a donor in Las Vegas is happy.

Okay, I’ve long heard the myth that it’s better to pull the handle on the game than it is to push the button. In fact, that myth is so hard to fight, some casinos still include the handle because of it. It only matters to the player. Not the game. But hey, pull away if you think it helps.

What about the myth that the temperature of a coin affects whether you win or lose? Okay, it’s tricky to even believe that one these days since casinos don’t usually take coins, but who came up with that one and how? It doesn’t matter kiddies. Spin away. There’s also a myth that the temperature of the actual machine determines whether it’s willing to give out wins. Yep, you should grope the machine before you play because a machine that is warm will give out more coins. Don’t believe this. I think it was started by someone who wanted to see how many players would cuddle with slot machines trying to find a winner.

If a slot machine has been paying out, it’s hot and that means it’ll soon turn cold and stop paying. Or the other way around.  Not true. Though there is the factor that eventually with slots the casino always come out ahead. Always. So, if you’re winning, somewhere someone else is losing. Lots of them in fact. And if you’re losing, well, you’re right on schedule for what the casino wants.

Look, slots are fun. Play them. But set your limits in advance and know when to stop. Or just go play at freeonline-slots.com where you can believe all the myths you want because no money is involved.

Or do they? Look, let’s get real here. It isn’t “free money” unless you just hand it to me and let me go buy stuff with it.  Casino bonuses come with more things to tie you down than saying “we’re in a relationship” does. In fact, taking a casino bonus is a lot like entering into a relationship. Hey, this may work out to be a beautiful thing. Or you may find yourself feeling tied down. Because you will be.

A casino bonus comes with a play through requirement. This means you have to play the bonus money through a specific number of times before it, or anything you have left from it, becomes yours. And the casino is going to tell you what type of games to play. No more hanging out with any game you like. You’re now wed to slots for the duration of the bonus. I’ve even seen casino bonuses that restrict how much I can win. So, I have to play slots but there’s no use hoping for the slots jackpot because I can’t win that much.

So, should you take that tempting bonus offer from the casino?  Well, it depends. If you feel like you’re ready to enter a relationship on their terms, it will give you more playing money. I’ll even recommend that you check out http://onlinecasinoswithbestbonuses.com/ for some great bonuses. But if you want to play free and unrestricted, give the bonus a pass.

But you know what you can get online? Practice at craps! Look, I’ll be honest, this isn’t one of the easiest games to understand when it comes to betting.  There’s the craps table and lots of spaces for bets that provide useful information like “pass” or “don’t pass” and I can’t blame a novice player for just not understanding what those translate to.  But if you play craps online, you can practice some bets and learn those terms.  You can also check out  http://www.gamblingreviews.com/craps/  for some great information, but let me try to give you a quick rundown of what you need to know to get started.

Pass or Don’t Pass is the most basic bet you make when a shooter is going to toss the dice. Now, there is one critical bit of info to remember about this bet. If you bet “don’t pass” you are betting against the shooter and probably most of the table. So when playing craps at a live casino, you’re safest betting “pass.”  Just trust me on this one.

Okay, now here’s the rundown.   When the shooter rolls the dice for the first time, if he rolls 7 or 11, it’s a win. All those Pass bets win.  2, 3 or 12 is a loss, except for the “don’t pass” guy. Other numbers rolled will establish a point and the shooter keeps rolling because he needs to roll that point number again before he hits a 7. So, 7 is a good thing on the first roll and bad after that.  Makes sense, right?  Yeah, I know. It’s craps.

The other bets on the table are a bit easier to understand. You can bet the field, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12. Or you can bet a specific number 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10.  Or you can even bet a specific dice roll like two sixes or a five and six. Want the odds? Well, often they’ll be right there on the table. But obviously betting the field gives you better odds than betting on a roll of 2 sixes.  But betting “boxcars” and winning, hey, that pays better.

Okay, so you may want an explanation for that last remark, but let me give an example that you may have seen at a blackjack table if you play regularly.  Two players have a similar hand, perhaps both soft 16 but it could be a soft and hard 16.  The first player, who has proven to be the more experienced player, hits when he should stand according to strategy.  The second player in a moment of doubt, follows the action of the first player rather than what’s on his strategy card.  Why? Well, simply because he thinks the first player, who is more confident, must know what he’s doing.  At the table, I want to be the confident player, not the follower.

And the best way to become more confident is to practice. And then practice some more.  Not only will you learn to make decisions without referring to the cards, but you’ll be able to see how the strategy plays out over time.  This means you’ll be more likely to make the right decision when playing.  And the best place to practice is at an online casino where you can play free blackjack games.  Right now, I’m devoting a little spare time each day to go in and let the computer deal me some cards.  It’s easier than trying to get to a land based casino after work and I enjoy the game.

For those not familiar with video poker, it essentially works like playing five card draw on a machine. The player is dealt five cards and chooses which to hold and which to discard. The new cards are then drawn and the player wins or loses based on the hand they have. Winning hands vary depending on the game variation. For an example, in Jacks or Better, the lowest winning hand is a single pair of Jacks or Better. Hold on to that thought.  The jackpot hand is the royal flush which is 10, J, Q, K, A all of the same suit.  Now a Jacks or Better win pays one for one, so essentially you don’t go up in money, you just don’t lose the money you bet. But a royal flush can pay anything from 200 to one to 4,000 to one depending on the casino and the player’s bet.  Video poker players are essentially chasing the royal flush.

So, the win that makes me groan? It’s when I’m dealt a hand that’s four cards to a royal flush. Something like J, Q, K, A all of the same suit and then another card, say a 6 of an off-suit.  So, I discard the six. It’s the only smart thing to do. I need the 10. And I draw a K (or J, Q, A).  I didn’t hit the royal and I was so close. But I’ve still “won” because I do have a Jacks or Better hand. It’s just that I’ve won a “stay even” hand instead of a jackpot. I hate that.

So, what happened?  Okay, let’s talk history for a bit. We’re going back to 1961. Please remain seated and keep your hands and arms inside my time machine at all times. Welcome to 1961. Please show me an online casino. What, you can’t find one? Yep, online casinos have yet to be invented. While we’re in this year, we’ll just have to go to Vegas and play with the Rat Pack.  So, what does 1961 have to do with 2011? Well, see 1961 was the year they passed the Wire Act of 1961, an act designed to prevent nefarious activities in sports betting. The act says you can’t place distance bets on a sporting event or contest. That law was interpreted to mean – you can’t place online bets or play at an online casino. But it all depends on how you read the act.

Some important people at the Department of Justice got together to read the Wire Act and discuss how the Wire Act should be read and they decided — the wording only applies to sports betting. Sporting events or sporting contests.  It wasn’t meant to apply to online casinos or online poker or other forms of gambling (remember our trip to 1961 – no online casinos).

So now the US faces a new year without a federal law specifically forbidding online gambling. Oh, we still have the UIGEA or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which says that where online gambling is illegal, the law has to be enforced. It’s a weird law that’s now been done in by its own vagueness.

Sounds good, right? But what if I told you Bwin.Party has pulled a fast one on all of us. Didn’t think they would, did you. See, while we’ve all be waiting for them to enter the market as a legal and real money online gambling site, they’ve gone a made a deal with Google to offer fun play poker.  Yep, Aces Hangout is going to be a new Google+ and Bwin.Party effort. But this effort isn’t going after PokerStars. Nope, this is Google’s effort to go after Facebook and the popular Zynga poker site. Now if you have a Facebook account, you can play Zynga poker – but not for real money. You can also play Farmville and grow crops that you can’t eat. It’s a Facebook thing.  But when Google rolled out Google+, they didn’t include the games that Facebook has.  The result is that Google+ is some sort of vast waste land where people seldom post. So, Google decided to do something about this. Well, something besides occasionally sending me emails reminding me that Google+ exists.

They’ve decided to try to bring in users with a game strategy. Now as big as Zynga is and as undefeatable as Farmville might seem, they really aren’t a force in the real world poker landscape. So Google is betting that by teaming up with Bwin.Party and Party Poker’s reputation for, well, Poker, they can beat Zynga.

You know, I wouldn’t mind playing poker on Google+. It’s not like I’m using it for anything else.

So, what does all this have to do with casinos and online gambling?  Well, what do you think of when you hear the names Bellagio, CircusCircus, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM, Aria.  Are you thinking Las Vegas casinos?  Because, the MGM Resorts International has done a lot of work to make sure you associate those names with their hotels and casinos.  So, if you saw Bellagioonlinepoker.com or MGMPoker.com or any of the other names as online domain names, you’d probably think they were associated with the big reputable casinos, right?  Certainly the MGM Resorts International group owns MGMPoker.com.  Except they don’t. Or any of the other online poker rooms associated with the names listed above.

What’s in a name? How about a lawsuit. The MGM as filed suits against the owners of each of the domain names that they say infringes on one of their existing trademarks.  Now trademark infringement cases can sometimes seem silly – McDonalds the hamburger chain once sued the small Scottish tea room over the use of the name McDonald. The owner was given permission from the Earl of McDonald to use the name and his claim to the name apparently goes back slightly longer than the hamburger chain.  These are the types of stories that make it to Yahoo!.  But in the cases that the MGM is suing over, it’s easy to see the damage that can be done by the misuse of the MGM brands.  After all, a poker player might be hesitant about playing on a poker site owned by a man in Zimbabwe, but that’s exactly what the player would be doing on Ariapoker.com.

So, what’s in a name? Reputation.

So, what’s going down? Expect to the see the PPA (Poker Players Alliance) stepping up their game to try to get legislation through Congress while Big Daddy is still in town. Expect Frank to get behind any pet projects he wants to support because you know what, the last year of a Congressman’s career is the year he can tell everyone to go do themselves and do whatever he wants.  And Barney Frank isn’t one of this shy, quiet politicians. (Are there shy, quiet politicians?)

Barney Frank was an openly gay politician who was once reprimanded by Congress for his involvement with male prostitutes, thereby annoying the hell out of the closeted gay Republicans who couldn’t surf through a career crisis like that.  I can just imagine Frank responding to the issue with “Dude, of course they were male prostitutes. I’m gay. You were expecting women?”   No, he didn’t say that. He did tell one woman who was screaming at him about Obama’s health plan that he’d rather argue with a dining room table than talk with her.  A response that makes onlinecasinodaddy applaud and say “Go Big Daddy.”

The casino industry will miss you. Can you please fix Congress before you leave?

e casino? Well, probably not much, except maybe costing more to set up.