The internet popularity has just grown another not for many online casino poker enthusiasts. Full Tilt hosted one of the largest internet-based tournaments in the history of the internet, and players from all over the world joined in the games. The event, The 5th Full Tilt Online Poker Series, saw more entrants than previous tournaments and broke the company’s expectations about the sheer number of online casino poker participants anteing-up the event buy-ins.

The event boasted a guaranteed prize pool of US $7 million, but that quickly swelled as the number of participants in each even exceeded expectations. Across the planned 14 tournaments Full Tilt’s prize pool reached more than US $10.5 million. End participation numbers place the online casino poker players at roughly 25,000 participants across the many events.

Players at the online casinos poker tournament could expect to find all levels of players from the well-known pros to those still a bit wet behind the ears. The Full Tilt Team also represented at the online casino event with Phil Ivey, Phil Gordon, Allen Cunningham, and Clonie Gowen participating.

The online casino poker industry should gear up for a slew of new poker tournaments considering how successful these events prove to be – and because of the sheer numbers of participants the tournaments draw to the Full Tilt site. Howard Lederer, a Full Tilt member comments. “The FTOPS series proves that things happen faster and bigger online. In a little over a year, the prize pools have gone up over 5-1 and we expect an even bigger series in just a few months time.”

Online casinos and other companies in the internet gambling industry already fear the results from the UK’s recent Gambling Prevalence research study. The UK government commissioned the study as a way to provide baseline statistics that can be used in future years according to the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport. But the online casino companies doubt that the media companies will take all facts into consideration – and most companies expect the media to lambaste the gambling sector and demand stricter legislation and more taxes.

The results from the latest prevalence study are not due out until the end of the month, but already some newspapers have gotten a hold of some statistics, and are beginning the unfavorable reporting. Specifically, The Observer and the Times have run stories on the Prevalence study. And as the online casino and land-based gambling industries come under attack again, one gambling industry executive in the Times commented, “It’s time to put our tin helmets on.”

The online casino industry feels the impending attack is entirely unjust because the recent Gambling Prevalence results will be compared to results from eight years ago – a time when internet gambling was a new medium and just gaining momentum, so naturally the results will have risen in that time period.

The research study eight years ago reported problems gamblers were 0.6 to 0.8 percent of the UK’s adult population. And though the exact results on this recent study have not yet been released, most expect results closer to 2.0 percent of adults. But the online casinos also stress that support help lines and emerging “opt-out” programs weren’t as prevalent eight years ago, so the industry is taking steps to keep problem gambling levels in check.

The online casino industry executive also noted about problem gambling that “Bookmakers and casino operators fear that, despite the government’s protestations to the contrary, it will seize on any increase to clamp down on the industry or hit it with punitive tax rises.”

Recent actions from Prime Minister Gordon Brown and parliament have also caused concern and confusion in the online casino industry, the government is sending out mixed messages about it’s stance on gambling in the UK, and has watered down important legislation like the Gambling Act that recently took effect.

New legislation in South Africa concerning online casinos has been a long time coming, and even though the latest bill is closer to where it needs to be, others think there is still more work to be done before any gambling bills will pass through the government. The South African government, specifically the Department of Industry and Trade (DTI), recently held a committee meeting to discuss the National Gambling Amendment Bill NGA Bill. And some representatives from online casinos in the remote gambling industry attended the meetings as a way to judge the status of legalizing internet gambling activities in South Africa.

The NGA Bill has some strong supporters in the online casino gambling industry – the bill calls for strict licensing and regulations of internet gambling sites allowed to offer services to South Africans. Most industry analysts agree that the NGA Bill is a step in the right direction, but there are still drawbacks that are still left to be addressed says a representative for the online casino betting site Betfair. Betfair’s legal counsel, Elliott Kernohan, attended the hearings and noted one particular aspect of the NGA bill that “needs to go back to the drawing board.”

Kernohan notes that though the Chief Executive at CASA, Derek Auret, is concerned ensuring that “the standards that his constituency has had to meet are applied across the board,” in actuality, from the point of view of the online casino industry, “it’s slightly bigger than that.” Kernohan elaborates on where the NGA is lacking, These requirements and these protections that are to be provided for South African players really need to be imposed right across the online gambling space. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an online casino or whether it’s online poker or sports betting or anything in between, it’s the perceived risks of transacting through the Internet that need to be addressed, and that’s what we think needs to go back to the drawing board.”