The unnamed problem gambler was in charge of an Uppsala company’s finances and siphoned off some 15 million kronor to finance her gambling addiction. The embezzled funds had an enormously adverse impact on the company, which had to lay off some of its employees as a result.

When the woman’s unlawful acts were detected she was sentenced by a local court to three years in prison, and ordered to repay 10 million kronor to the company. The online gambling company subsequently elected to repay to her company the 4.9 million kronor she had gambled away at its virtual tables, conditional on a confidentiality agreement being signed by her employers, the Swedish newspaper The Local reports.

In court, the woman explained that she was able to lose up to one million kronor in one night playing on the gaming company’s website. Rules posted by the gaming firm stating that players could lose no more than Euro 2 500 in a 24-hour period were not followed, according to the woman, who was also the beneficiary of tens of thousands of kronor in bonuses in a restricted account, which she also quickly gambled away.

“It’s obvious that the gaming company understood that something was wrong. If the woman’s account of how the company acted is accurate, she has definitely been used and therefore it’s appropriate for a repayment to take place,” the prosecutor in the case, Kenneth Brattström, commented regarding the voluntary refund.

“I’ve never heard of anything like it,” Thomas Nilsson of the gambling research firm Spelinstitutet said of the repayment.

A first in the online gambling tournament’s history, the 25 year old Swede claimed the coveted PKR Masters crown twice in consecutive months– scooping a huge $60,000 in the process. He then returned for a third month and despite making the final online casino table with the chip lead, just missed out on the hat-trick - bringing home $11,250 for third place, and bowing out to Russian ‘ShatokhinNikita’.

On top of that impressive feat, ‘PatIvey’ continued his good run, with a Saturday Big Shot victory for $7,800 as well as a win in a $10,000 Guaranteed Prime Time internet gambling tournament.

The up-and-coming online phenomenon from Norkopping commented on success and his recent hot-streak, saying “Of course you have to be lucky. But when I play I try not to risk all my chips on weak hands and I try to put the guys on what they have, and after that I make my play. If you have many chips it’s not wrong to be a fish and try to steal. But when you play tournaments you must have a combination of good play and luck. Sometimes you have that luck and sometimes you don’t, but you can always improve your own odds of winning - that’s the big clue I think.”

“It’s a true reflection of our industry where we are seeing affiliates grab a larger share of the marketing spotlight.” Alex Pratt, Publisher of iGB Affiliate magazine commented “The Online Betting Guide is one of the best sportsbook affiliates in the industry and we welcome their involvement for this special online casinos night.”

It seems that the old cliché of the lonesome webmaster affiliate working in his basement has radically evolved into a viable commercial enterprise. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has been in the industry for any length of time, but it is only recently that we have seen the growing importance of brand recognition for affiliates as much as operators. Is this the reason behind OLBG’s decision to sponsor this award or is there a higher purpose?

“We are proud to sponsor the iGB affiliate awards for the Best Sportsbook Affiliate Manager and would like to take this opportunity to thank those who have gone out of their way to contribute to the growth of OLBG.” Richard Moffat, Operations Manager for OLBG.co.uk added “It’s time to say thanks to all the Sportsbook affiliate managers who have worked so hard for us. We understand the huge pressure that they are under and despite their time constraints they continue to find ways to help us and other sports betting affiliates grow our businesses. We look forward to seeing your hard work recognised at the awards ceremony in January.”

In an industry which is all about making connections, honouring those whose contribution play a vital role to the success of your business is perhaps one of the best strategies for standing out from the crowd. However, should you not be in a position to sponsor an award, winning one may well be equally effective. Votes are currently being accepted online at iGBAffiliateAwards and the only way to win is to gain the most votes and then the top five will judged by a panel of industry experts. The iGB Affiliate Awards are due to be held on the 28th of January 2010 at the Grange St Paul’s Hotel, the night prior to the grand opening of the London Affiliate Conference, the largest affiliate conference for the iGaming industry this year.

“I’m very proud of the VIP support team that we’ve assembled,” said Oliver Smith of JackpotCapital. “We are generous with comp points and casino bonuses, of course, but we also know that sometimes it’s the little personal touches that make all the difference to players, and that’s what our staff is here for.”

There are various VIP entry levels at Jackpot Capital, with corresponding benefits. The new “VIP Silver” offers VIP benefits to players when they accumulate just 1500 Comp Points in a 90-day period. VIPs earn comp points at a faster rate than regular players. They also receive extra non-deposit bonuses from $50 - $400 plus a monthly 100% deposit match bonus.

The US-friendly online casino is well-known for having some of the best games and biggest jackpots available to US players. Jackpot Pinatas is currently over $1.5 million and begging to be won. Aztec’s Riches is just over a million and Midlife Crisis/Shopping Spree is almost a million.

Commission Warehouse Program Manager, Grant Cook, says that the thinking behind this initiative was quite simply to secure a strong portfolio of affiliate businesses in an increasingly competitive environment and to provide that point of difference between Commission Warehouse and all other affiliate programs. Initial indications after just one month are that AdVantage is here to stay – the concept of added value is easy to talk about, says Cook, but difficult to deliver. However, with AdVantage, Cook believes that the added value is clear for all to see and the affiliates have the ability to manage their points wallet until they have accumulated enough to order their desired item. In addition some affiliate businesses have asked for tailor made rewards packages – in other words, they stipulate the reward and a points target is allocated to it by the AdVantage software.

Cook says that it is likely that other programs may follow suit, but is confident that Commission Warehouse and their AdVantage Rewards Program will stand that test, and will remain innovative and cutting edge enough to always ensure that their affiliate partner businesses are provided with new and attractive offers and rewards.

Laak emerged triumphant from a final table that also featured Poker Hall of Fame inductee and PartyPoker ambassador Mike Sexton, former Premier League champion Andy Black, the controversial Luke ‘Full Flush’ Schwartz, PartyPoker grassroots team member Bodo Sbrzesny , Austrian online qualifier Jan Veit and Phil Laak’s partner, Hollywood actress and WSOP bracelet holder Jennifer Tilly.

The new deep triple stack structure meant there was over four hours play before the first elimination but eventually it came down to a heads-up battle between Laak and 26-year-old online qualifier Jan Veit, a computer science student from Salzburg, Austria. The damage was done when Laak pushed with A8 off-suit and hit an 8 on the flop, leaving Veit’s A4 stranded. The winning hand came when Laak raised with Q9 and Jan moved all-in with J7. Phil called and nothing hit on the board and Laak was congratulated at the table by his partner Jennifer Tilly and the crowd of people that had built to watch the exciting online gambling final table.

“This was a wild roller coaster ride and I am proud to have shared it with this amazing cast of characters. They were a tough bunch. Wow – what an honor,” said Laak.

It certainly wasn’t a straightforward victory for Laak. In his heat, his stack had shrunk to just 47,000 from a triple stack starting amount of 300,000 and he looked destined for an early exit. He made a remarkable comeback, however, to secure his place at the final table and, ultimately, take it down. “Coming back from one and a half big blinds is about as crazy as it gets. So sick, just so sick,” said Laak.

Jennifer was first to congratulate him and she busted at the final table in fifth. “I’m so happy for Phil,” said the Academy Award nominated actress, “people underestimate him because he is so entertaining. He really deserves this. I really enjoyed this tournament, it had a fantastic structure. You can see that by the amount of top players who made the final table.”

First out on the final table was early chip leader Andy Black, followed shortly by Mike Sexton, whose deserved Hall of Fame induction was confirmed to the public while he was playing the final table. Sexton’s pocket eights ran into Veit’s pocket kings. Champion Laak had special words for the Ambassador of Poker on collecting his trophy. “Mike Sexton, inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame today. The consummate player. Full stop.”

Next to go was Jennifer Tilly when her AJ failed to hit against Veit’s 99 - it looked to many like it was going to be the online qualifier’s day. Fourth place belonged to PartyPoker Grassroots team member Bodo Sbrzesny, who impressed again in front of the cameras in a gruelling heads-up battle with Andy Black in his heat and with his creative play at the final table. Sbrzesny, a Palladium Lounge Elite member, exploded on the scene last year after he won a rake race on PartyPoker to take a seat at the Poker Den 36 hour cash game. He certainly made in impression on Roland De Wolfe and Barny Boatman there, by bluffing both with 72 and showing them.

What followed was a long period of three handed play but it was Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz who busted next. After problems entering the casino on the first day, he had his responsible escort on hand in the crowd and certainly did himself justice. As you would expect, he contributed to a chatty and entertaining final table. Schwartz busted when Veit hit runner, runner for a club flush. At the heads-up stage Veit held a 1,190,000/910,000 advantage but you couldn’t rule out comeback king Laak and he proved a very popular winner with the crowd.

Veit was happy with his runner-up finish though and went home with $100,000. “With this line-up I would have been happy to get third,” said Veit, “I’m delighted.”

A PartyPoker spokesman said: “Congratulations to Phil for his deserved victory. We’re delighted with how the tournament has gone this week and we had a fantastic final table. We got great feedback on the new triple stack structure and casino atmosphere and are convinced this tournament has introduced a new high standard for single table satellite events of this nature.”

Amongst those who failed to make the final table included Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, JP Kelly, Teddy Sheringham, Andrew Feldman, Roland De Wolfe Sammy George, Bruno Fitoussi, Antoine Saout, James Akenhead, Praz Bansi, Scott Fischman, Neil Channing, Roberto Romanello, defending World Open champion Marty Smyth and Liam Flood. The 48 player field also included PartyPoker
newly sponsored grassroots players Remy Biechel from France, Felipe ‘Mojave’ Ramos from Brazil and the UK’s Ian Frazer. The emphasis for the grassroots team is on VIPs, player loyalty and historic links to PartyPoker. Another player who took their seat was Danish journalist Johannes Nord Jorgensen, who secured his package by winning the recent PartyPoker in the Sky event in Copenhagen.

This year there was the chance to qualify online for the prestigious tournament, coverage of which is shown on television in countries all over the world. Ten packages worth $13,000 were won which included the buy-in, seven night’s accommodation and $1,000 spending money. The main changes to the event this year were that the starting stacks have been tripled, with the tables being eight seat in the heats and seven players in the final. The buy-in was $10,000, with a total prize pool of $480,000 – the winner scooping $250,000. The players were delighted with the new triple stack structure.

Caesar’s Palace Casino.com is to be one of the first online, multi-currency internet casinos launched by the Harrah’s Entertainment subsidiary.

A gambling company spokesman cautioned that users located in jurisdictions which Harrah’s does not service, such as the United States and Germany,
will not be able to access or ’see’ the new operation, instead being redirected to the land hotel home page.

A team from the city’s vice, gambling and secret societies division led by Chief Inspector Azlihan Ishak raided three shops located on the sixth floor of the shopping complex, arresting a worker and 17 patrons and seizing 21 online slot machines.

Using a popular theme from parent company IGT’s inventory, WagerWorks has taken the popular land-based title Hoot Loot and developed a new casino game for the online market in the new release.

Relative to the original game, Super Hoot Loot increases the base game from 20 to 40-paylines with 5-reels of animated action and multipliers up to 200x. The action also includes two wilds incorporating a 2x Wild Owl symbol which doubles all payline wins.

In addition to the base game play, the wild animal-themed Super Hoot Loot also offers a lucrative 4th row Loot Line bonus feature where wins can be multiplied up to 200x. Loot Line wins are multiplied by the total number of credits bet, offering players good reward potential. When a specially marked “Hoo the Owl” 2x Wild appears on any of the game reels, a matching symbol automatically appears on the Loot Line bonus payline giving the player a chance to double the Loot Line multiplier.

The new game includes a Free Games Bonus which is triggered when three scattered Yellow Safe bonus symbols land on reels 1, 3 and 5. Players earn 7 free games, and are also awarded a boosted Loot Line which is automatically seeded with a 2x Wild Owl symbol. Starting with a 2x Wild Owl and higher hit-frequency reels, players benefit from a Loot Line award multiplier guaranteed to be twice as big – up to 400x. Topped with the possibility of Green Safe symbols awarding a 10x scatter pay, the game is likely to attract a wide range of players.