A 31 billion dollar construction spending bill was signed last year by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn that would last over the next 10 years. Funding was to be made in many ways: by selling bonds, raising state fees, and the statewide legalization of video gambling which at this point is leaving a sour taste in the mouth of Pat Quinn. Betting is always available with video gambling.

Of course not wanting to upset certain people, a provision was allowed that allowed local (city governments) the choice to keep established bans in place. Of course I’m sure you all know that the city with the highest population in Illinois is Chicago, meaning the city that would more and likely bring in the most revenue from legalization of the video gambling, about 475 million to be exact (35% of that revenue going to the state which equates out to about 178 million dollars).

However, repealing the ban is not being discussed at this time in Chicago, and could be ended up costing the state of Illinois 178 million dollars a year, and in worse case scenario it could be ended up costing the state of Illinois nearly 2 billion dollars over the next 10 years.

“This puts a monkey wrench in a couple billion dollars worth of projects we can’t move forward on and do jobs.” as quoted by State Representative Raymond Poe. So stay tuned for the video poker updates with sportsbooks.

Most casino gambling has been down in tough economic times. A form of gambling that is on the rise is Baccarat. 1.3 billion was wagered in Las Vegas in December on baccarat. Casinos won 155.7 million dollars on baccarat gambling. Revenue for 2009 was up 26.5 % going over 970 million dollars.

A high stakes game that is offered at 17 casinos near the strip is Baccarat. With the wealthy Chinese population, it’s a very popular game.

Is the draw taking away from other forms of gambling? Some business from other forms of gambling is probably taken by Baccarat but this is not the only reason the gambling business is down. A lot of new business is being brought by Baccarat to the gaming industry in Las Vegas.

A big interest to the game has been brought by new casinos like Aria. To take the hit of a lucky player cannot be afforded by little casinos with single hand wagers in the 100,000 dollar range. Million dollar payouts are possibilities small casinos cannot pay.

The gaming industry in Las Vegas would have fallen drastically without baccarat. Other then baccarat, over all gambling has declined to levels of 2003. Baccarat has single handedly helped improve gaming numbers taking in over half of the gaming revenue. Baccarat is helping the state’s depressed revenue out as well.

New casino play has been big days for the high stake game. A very successful opening at the baccarat tables has been in places like Aria. The Chinese New Year is also a big event at the tables.

Another big company, VISA has just made a move to hinder those that wanted a smooth transition by blocking all payments or transactions made to online casinos. The debate for online gambling continues and it is still a concerning factor for many online casino operators. VISA is following the lead of MasterCard and this move will not have quite the effect that MasterCard did. Either by identifying the coded “online gambling” tags or by using routing payment merchants this is done. You can bet online casino games with the different sportsbooks.

It is not clear if this ban will be worldwide, but it is apparent that both of these companies have blocked these kinds of payments here in America. Banks and other financial institutions are forbidden by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to be involved in transfers between online casinos. These companies have dropped these types of payments probably due to this reason.

It is apparent that there will need to be some changes made in the gambling industry if they want their online casinos to continue to thrive.  It is a big warning sign for online gambling as a whole having these two huge financial institutions involved.

The regulations from this act will go into effect Jun. 1. There are certain online casinos that continue to advertise VISA credit card transfers on their sites.  In order to avoid any problems come this summer these big companies have probably made the move. These discrepancies will be resolved in future. So stay tuned with your favorite sportsbooks for the latest online casino events.