While the stock prices of USA gambling companies, both online and land-based, are decreasing by the day, the stock prices of UK operators are ever increasing, particularly William Hill, who closed last Friday at $269,25, whilst Ladbrokes closed at $205,75. 

Despite the financial troubles causing Americans to economise, it appears that players have to do something to take their minds off the situation and one way is to play free online games being offered by many sites, including WildTangent, EA Online, Yahoo Games, Addicting Games and Disney Games.  Online advertisers are taking advantage of this for their own marketing purposes and advertising revenue for sites has increased accordingly.  Definitely a case of what goes around comes around.

The Third World Poker Congress takes place in Budapest, Hungary on 29-30 October.  Several interesting speakers have been lined up for the event and there will also be presentations from many well-informed business people giving their views on the poker industry.

Although it is only recently that online poker has been accepted in Italy, it has already proved to be very successful.  So successful that it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Italians could be playing online very soon.  So far there are two online companies offering online poker, but it is believed that many more will soon be offering their services.