The win marks a life changing moment for one lucky player, and is the maximum jackpot available on a penny slot machine outside of Vegas.

Aristocrat’s Mega Millioni$er is a multi-site progressive penny slot which is appealing to players because the jackpot network allows players to play it on video as well as the RFX 5-reel stepper format.  The progressive jackpot has a total of 8 base games, which include the video slots 50 Lions, Geisha, as well as Big Ride, Sun & Moon and Vegas Hitched on the RFX-5 reel steeper platform.

Currently, Mega Millioni$er is only available in the American market, but fans of penny slots should have access to casinos that use Aristocrat games at some stage in the near future.

Source: Online Pokies Club - the number one site dedicated to fans of online pokies and slots.  Looking for information on the 10 best online casinos then look no further than the Online Pokies Club site.

At a cost of $4.93 billion and covering 121 acres, the Sentosa Resort, which is based on the island off the southern coast of Singapore represents one of the largest luxury development projects to have been undertaken in the last two years.

Built by Genting International, and covering a remarkable 121 acres, the resort estimates that it will employ around 10,000 people.

At the centre of the resort is the 15,000 square foot casino which offers the latest in slots technology thanks to the link up between the Sentosa Resort and the International Game Technology (IGT) Group.

This link up has enabled the resort to play some of the leading video slots games on the market, including ‘Alien vs Predator’, ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Star Wars’.

However, the Sentosa casino has not only got access to the latest slots games.  As part of the IGT deal they have access to the IGT Advantage System, which includes both EZ Pay and the RFID Chip Inventory System.  In addition, the casino will have access to a large number of slots tournaments as well as the usual array of progressive jackpot games.

Commenting on the recent launch, Jon Gomes of IGT Asia…

“We worked diligently with Resorts World Sentosa to facilitate a smooth go-live”

To celebrate its launch, throughout March the casino is featuring a host of impersonators such as Marty McFly and Dr Emmett Brown from Back to the Future, Storm Troopers as well as Indiana Jones himself.

Source: Online Pokies Club

Pre-tax profits for the group came in at £121m, a figure 60% lower than the one made in 2008.  Aside from the current economic climate, a number of other reasons have been put forward for the poor results, including a high number of draws at the start of the Premiership football season, and some exceptional accounting charges that have had to be reported in the accounts.

However, it doesn’t appear to be all bad news for the William Hill Group.  Revenue for their online division was up 64% to £204m, representing a full annualised set of results following the assets acquired from the Playtech deal.  Other key performance indicators show unique active players up 31% and a growth in new accounts of 21%, figures that will please both shareholders and management alike.

Commenting on the results, Ralph Topping, William Hills CEO…

“We have transformed key parts of William Hill in the last year. William Hill Online is almost unrecognisable from a year ago.”

Source: Online Pokies Club - for the latest information on the gambling sector.  Check out the latest news on our progressive slot machines.

The loss comes a year after the company recorded record profits the previous year of over $100 million, with the main problem being a decline in revenue which was down 16% to $908 million in 2009.

The messages coming out of the company don’t paint a positive picture for 2010, indicating that any talk of recovery in the Australasian leisure sector is certainly premature.

However, the problems that Aristocrat faced in 2009 were not solely on Australian shores.

According to Jamie Odell, their CEO, Aristocrat “faced challenging trading conditions across all major gaming markets.”

The problems appear to stem from a lack of capital expenditure, particularly in the US market, where new venue openings were way down on what was predicted.

Commenting on the recent results, Jamie Spence an industry analyst states…

“With 2010 likely to be a difficult year it may be time for Aristocrat, it looks like its time the management team proactively reduced costs and overheads in order to streamline the business to match market conditions.”

With over 50 years experience, Aristocrat Leisure employ 2000 staff globally  and have produced leading games such as Queen of the Nile, 50 Lions and Dolphin Treasure and are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Source: Online Pokies Club - the number one source for free pokies online.

The agreement is effective for the 2010 NRL season and will see SportingBet’s logo appear on the lower back of the team’s shirt.  The Bronco’s season kicks off on March 12^th with a game against the North Queensland Cowboys.  However, aside from the SportingBet logo, fans of the Broncos won’t notice too much different in the team’s strip, which will have a little more gold along the lower sleeves and saddles of the jersey.

In a deal thought to be in the region of over $200,000 per annum, Bruno Cellen, the Bronco’s CEO stated…

“It now joins a historically elite and unique family of jersey sponsors with the Broncos.”

SportingBet’s move into NRL shirt sponsorship is expected to be the first of a number of high profile shirt sponsorship deals.  Commenting on the deal, Dan Spence, a leading industry analyst goes on to say….

“The deal between SportingBet and the Brisbane Broncos represents another step towards the general acceptance of online sports wagering companies into the mainstream media, and builds upon the recent deals done by Betfair with Cricket Australia and Tennis Australia. Given the cash rich position that many online gambling companies find themselves in, as well as their willingness to use the advertising dollar to assist them in gaining market share over their competitors, it’s likely that this will be the first of many deals with NRL teams over the next 18 months.  This can only be good news for a number of cash strapped teams.”

Source: Online Pokies Club - the number one source for the latest information on Pokie Games.

Slots.com

When we went about establishing the Online Pokies Club in late 2008, we came across a small number of slot related sites that we thought were real gems, and we promised ourselves that at some stage we would share them with our readership and the slots community at large.  One great site we came across was Slots.com, who not only have one of the most desirable gambling related domain names currently on the internet, but also provide a site whose core focus is providing great content to its visitors, a characteristic that many gaming related sites these days seem simply to ignore.

The old saying that ‘content is King‘ can certainly be applied to Slots.com, and it’s one of the most content rich sites players are likely to come across.  Not only does it makes the most of the latest Web 2 technologies but it’s also immediately obvious a considerable amount of work has been put into the design and layout of the site.  Visitors are provided with a sleek professional look that is pleasant on the eye and is easy to navigate.

The sites primary focus is on providing information about the best free slots available to players.  However, it also has useful information on progressive slots, as well as reviews and thoughts on the latest new slots to hit the market.  The great thing about Slots.com is that is was built with the visitor in mind which makes it amazingly easy to get to where you want to go thereby making cyberspace travel effortless.

Finally, Slots.com has an excellent blog which is updated regularly with all sorts of information about slots, including specific machines and casinos, a range of tips and strategies and lots of other insights.  However, it’s the community spirit that really marks Slots.com out from the crowd.  You can subscribe to the site for free and create your own MyStuff page and connect with other folks who love slot machines.   What more could a slot fan want?  Answers on a post card please.

New games have been added to the Scratch Card, Video Slots, Keno, as well as the Arcade and Card games categories.

Fans of 100 payline slots games will be delighted to see the addition of Amazon Wild to the 888 Video Slots stable.  Arcade games fans will now have the opportunity to play Slot Box, a fixed odds game in the classic arcade genre.  Other games launched include Keno 10 and Poker Fives, which whilst not original do provide a bit of variety to players who play at the 888.com casino.

The major surprise in this recent launch is the addition of a number of Scratch Card games such as Monster Maker, Find the Bone and Love Pond.

A spokesman for 888 said of the new casino games…

‘We’re thrilled to provide its players with an exciting array of quality games to choose from and  know that each player has their preference and we are happy to cater to this diversity.’

Jamie Spence of the Online Pokies Club said of the new games…

“The launch of the Amazon Wild slot will appeal to fans with deep pockets.  With 100 paylines, this video slot will particularly appeal to the niche high stakes gambler.  It’s an exciting game and we hope to provide a video review of the game on the site in the next few days.”

Playtech,  the publicly listed online gaming software manufacturer, have traditionally focussed on the casino and poker markets.  The acquisition of the bingo specialist Virtue Fusion, who operate a network with over 6 thousand online bingo players, and supplies bingo licenses to industry giants such as Bet365, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and William Hill, is a marked change of direction for Playtech, and a clear indication that bingo represents a core component of their business strategy going forward.

Commenting on the move, Jamie Spence an analyst and contributor to the leading gaming portal the Online Pokies Club said of the deal……

‘Playtech have long been recognised as the industry leaders with their in casino and poker products but have to date stayed well clear of the bingo market.  The move into bingo is not a major surprise, given that their competitors have been making similar acquisitions in recent times.  However the market itself will be surprised at the acquisition price.  Based on 2009 EBITDA of £3.8 million, the price tag of £29 million represents a multiple of 7.6 which seems rather high, even by industry standards, and is a figure based on the future potential of the business rather than its past performance.’

Source: The Online Pokies Club - the number one resource for online casino and slots news.   Check out the latest  free pokies promotions available to online players.

A number of leading European based online gaming operators have been locked in battle this week with the French authorities having been accused of illegally offering online casino games to French residents.

Unibet, 888, Sportingbet and BWin have been identified as the main culprits by the French authorities.  The issue has been championed within France by the Casinos de France trade union, who in turn are heavily sponsored by the land based French casino giants Tranchant and Barriere.

These accusations come just months before the legal regulation of the French online gambling market, which officially comes into effect on  the 1st June.  However, lobbying by the Casinos de France trade union has focused on the fact that the French market will only be open to online sports books and online poker rooms, and not online casinos that provide online games such as roulette and online pokies.

A spokesman for the French lobby group have stated….

‘These companies are deliberately violating French law  thereby depriving the French treasury of considerable tax revenues.’

However, Bwin’s legal team have quickly countered the accusations, stating that they offer their casino product in over 21 languages, and by providing a French language version that they are not directly targeting French residents.

It’s clear that French is spoken outside of France but we expect this legal argument to go on for some time.

Source: OnlinePokiesClub.com