We all know how it is to get that flutter from a nice small win at the casino, but imagine yourself on the receiving end of a huge five figure win. These wins are not small by any means and for many it means a fresh financial start during this downturn.

We pay homage to Royal Vegas because of the big way they deliver jackpots time and again, wins that many people talk about time and again.

You may be reading this and wondering how big some of these jackpots are, well if this is the casino hold on to your hats and read on to see the wins in question for the past week:

Enrico R     Pure Platinum     € 19 729     12/5/2013     Royal Vegas
Enrico R     Pure Platinum     € 16 245     9/5/2013     Royal Vegas
Pierre S     Mystic Dreams     € 33 800     9/5/2013     Royal Vegas
Pierre S     Bust The Bank     € 17 100     9/5/2013     Royal Vegas
Ashleigh M     Octopays     € 28 765     8/5/2013     Royal Vegas
Scott B     Burning Desire     € 45 690     8/5/2013     Vegas Palms
Pierre S     Break Away     € 34 590     8/5/2013     Royal Vegas

If you love great casinos that deliver a fresh and vibrant place to play then Royal Vegas tips the scales as a heavy weight. If you want a place where big wins are a normal occurrence and achievable for any player, then Royal Vegas is also the place to play.

What are you waiting for people, give Royal Vegas a try.

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The people in opposition to the centre have been raving about the deal because it allows the casino to grow in size, this growth includes:

40 new gaming tables
230 more pokies with 17% allowing for $20 + wagering
12 gaming tables that can be substituted for automated table game player stations

Although many who don’t agree with gambling are against the move, the government are totally in tune with the convention centre idea and Economic Development minister Steven Joyce said:

“An international convention centre in Auckland will be a major asset for New Zealand and will generate significant spin-off benefits including a projected $90 million annual injection into the economy; an estimated 1000 jobs during construction; and 800 jobs once it is up and running,”

The centre is costing SkyCity $402 million in total (taking land into account) and the centre is creating 1,000 jobs to build it and an additional 800 jobs for its continued running once its opened.

Air New Zealand also agree with the convention centre and produced a press release saying:

“The planned national convention centre, with its capacity of 3,500, will allow New Zealand to compete to host larger conferences, providing access to a new market that we are currently disadvantaged in due to a lack of appropriately sized infrastructure, said airline chief executive Christopher Luxon.

“As an airline based in New Zealand, which has relatively small volumes of business traffic, the conventions market is very important to us and one which we actively target in Australia, Asia and North America. The 33,000 extra delegates a year the centre is predicted to attract is a significant increase.”

Today we pay homage to the sign up bonus and thank the casino gods for the wondrous free cash they give us!

Below are a few great sign up bonuses on offer. We have the casino name, the match up percentage, the amount you can win and the wager amount you have to play through before the money turns in to hard cash you can withdraw.

1     Jackpot City NZ         100%     $500     50x – Click here to try out today!
2     All Slots NZ         110%     $200     30x – Click here to try out today!
3     Royal Vegas NZD     100%     $1200     30x – Click here to try out today!
4     All Jackpots Casino     110%     $200     30x – Click here to try out today!
5     Spin Palace Casino     100%     $1000     30x- Click here to try out today!

With pokie spend dropping at the bars and casinos across New Zealand, in fact it dropped by 4% over the first quarter of the year, its no surprise to learn that people are moving to playing pokies online. With this its important that new players understand what sign up bonuses are on offer and also what requirements are set to ensure the bonus is as good as it looks.

It is for this reason we have looked through and chosen these five sign up bonuses to tell you about. If any of the above online casino welcome bonuses take your fancy, why not give the casino a try. You will find it is a great alternative to the bars and clubs close to home.

Why not get involved and try an online casino today!

The criminal activity is actually a massive fraud in which Lindsay Raki applied for grants for the Manurewa High School Rugby Academy and Counties Manukau Youth Development organizations. Upon the grants being paid into the accounts of both the Manurewa High School Rugby Academy and Counties Manukau Youth Development, Raki would then transfer the money into his personal account.

In total it is believed that Raki took over three hundred thousand dollars and deposited these into his personal account which he then used for personal transactions. In total the figure taken is believed to be $304,216.65 and this was done over eleven transactions, thus Raki was in court over 11 counts of theft.

Judge Aitken sentenced Raki to two years and nine months in jail and said:

“That he would go to such extraordinary lengths significantly undermines his claim that he believed he had authority and legal justification to make those transfers,” she said in the judgment.

“In short the defendant is a dishonest witness … and I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that on each of the 11 occasions … intended to permanently deprive the owner of the monies of the amounts.”

The truth behind what Raki spent the money on has not been shown, what we do know is that upon investigation the accounts were empty and actually overdrawn so Raki had spent the money. Whats even more interesting is that there was little to show for this money.

You may wonder why this casino seems to stand above all others in the large payout awards, the truth is that we do not know. Our informed idea is that this is because of the numerous amount of players who enjoy their time at All Slots Casino, in fact the number of players who are signed up hits over a million from our knowledge.

To get an idea of the financial rewards are on offer to you at All Slots Casino why not look at some of the recent winners below:

Mary W      Bonus Wheel Of Wealth     £5000    04/10/13
Sandra H      Megaspin – Break da Bank Again     $5031    04/09/13
David A      Alaskan Fishing     $6210    04/09/13
Kathryn R      Gopher Gold     $10015    04/09/13
Reto S          Love Potion     €10180  04/09/13
Leanne L      Moonshine     $23640    04/08/13
Linda V      Break Away     $6240    04/08/13
Scott S          Mermaids Millions     $6380    04/06/13
Tom F          Summertime     SEK 12850    04/05/13
Jacobus N      Adventure Palace     $5125    04/04/13

As you may have noticed by the winners list above, the big winners do tend to happen on the pokies. This adds more weight to us Kiwis winning because we are renowned for loving a pokie play or two!

If your in the market for a new online casino to play at and want a place full of pokies with the lure of big money wins, then All Slots Casino is certainly the casino for you.

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The Trinity Group leases the Occidental bar that sits in the Lambton Quay properties and Sir Bob has said that the lease will not be renewed unless the pokies are taken away from the bar. What even more is that Sir Bob has even gone to lengths in saying that the bar has to be renamed as part of the lease renewal too, he wants it to be called the Old Bailey!

Sir Bob said about pokies:

“Pokies are just a tax on the stupid, which tends to be a tax on the poor”.

“Betting is age-old and brings pleasure to people, but sitting in front of a machine and pulling a lever or pushing a button attracts a certain type.”

The Trinity Group were said to be quite astounded by the decision but have decided to stay put in the building, in fact their Managing Director said:

“We negotiated and decided we’d rather stay in the building and have a good relationship, rather than fight with the landlord.”

Sir Bob is one of the more prominent people who are turning their back on the pokies and want anyone residing in their properties to do so. Part of this seems to be related to the feeling that those who play on pokies are the underbelly of society and are simply down and outs. But this is not true…many people from all walks of life love a game or two on the pokies and its a pity people feel this way.

Reports suggest that 45,000 people do have a gambling addiction with many preferring pokies to other gambling options. Whilst this is the case, those against pokies liken the machine to hard drugs with many calling pokies the “methamphetamine of gambling”. The truth is that methamphetamine is a killer drug that people cannot do without, a drug that is not a recreational tool to enjoy your spare time.

The fact that people try to show pokies in a negative light is because they are trying to reduce the amount of people who are problem gamblers, something that is important and dear to our hearts. The issue is that they may be taking things a step too far in the process with these spurious comments.

Even some charity executives have come out to say that pokies are not as bad as people think, especially those who say they are like drugs.

Martin Cheer, chief executive of Pub Charity has said of the people talking about the great harm that pokies do not pose:

“I have six in my showroom now loaded with credits. I am in gaming venues almost daily, and having had no exposure to gaming machines before this, I have shown no inclination to lose self-control.”

“I am ‘at risk’ every time I drive over the Rimutaka [Hill] every day but I, like the overwhelming majority, travel it safely.”

The question we now pose is, which camp are you in? Do you like the pokies and enjoy a game or two or do you really think that pokies are as bad as hard drugs?

Internal Affairs struck up their low key investigation after irregularities surfaced around pokie grants. The Internal Affairs department swooped on many residences in the past four weeks with warrants to search key buildings and peoples homes they feel are part of the scam. In total 10 warrants were served and a team of 50 Internal Affairs and Serious Fraud officers were involved.

All files retrieved as part of the operation have been handed over to the Serious Fraud Office who will now investigate to see if there is a case to answer.

The case actually centres on around $30 million in pokie grants that seem to have been given out illegally. The documents seized include meeting notes and pokie grant applications to check for irregularities.

The main people being targeted for the fraud is Blenheim racing trainer and publican Mike O’Brien and his father Patrick O’Brien who both had their addresses raided. The three main pokie trusts at the centre of the possible scandal are New Zealand Community Trust, Infinity and Bluegrass Trusts and the Otago and Southland racing boards are also implicated.

The trusts concerned are all related to the O’Briens in one form or another and the feeling from the Internal Affairs team is that they are illegally giving grants to others in return for their own personal gains.

This is not the first time that Mike O’Brien has faced these types of accusations as he also did so in 2006 when his pokie trust business, Metro Trust, was shut down by O’Brien after Internal Affairs thought something shady was occurring and moved to shut it down themselves.

When other big casinos talk about wins, they talk about daily, weekly or monthly, but for Ruby Fortune Casino we are talking hourly!

Over the last 48 hours there has been no less than 13 winners who have won large sums across numerous games. Below is a list of yesterday and todays winners alone:

€4125.20     Beach Babes, Spring Break, Loaded and others
€1012.73     Little Chief Big Cash, Big Kahuna – Snakes and Ladders, Rhyming Reels Old King Cole and others
€1542.55     Spring Break, Jason and the Golden Fleece
€4125.00     Dolphin Coast, Ho Ho Ho, Scrooge and others
€7283.20     Dolphin Coast, The Dark Knight, Girls With Guns – Jungle Heat and others
€6000.00     Isis – Flash, Tomb Raider Secret of the Sword – Flash, Thunderstruck II – Flash
€1965.83     Break da Bank Again, Little Chief Big Cash, Harveys and others
€5123.00     Immortal Romance , Rhyming Reels Queen of Hearts, Starlight Kiss
€8285.10     Stash of the Titans – Flash, Girls With Guns – Jungle Heat, Jason and the Golden Fleece
€22308.03     Spring Break, Ramesses Riches, Break da Bank Again and others
€1464.26     Harveys – Flash, Loaded – Flash
€3023.03     Ladies Nite – Flash, Tomb Raider – HTML5, Secret Admirer – Flash and others
€11431.22     Break da Bank Again, Octopays, Jason and the Golden Fleece and others

One thing you will note is that it is the pokies that are paying their way of all the games and a few pokie titles are mentioned multiple times.

Click here to play at Ruby Fortune Casino!

The No More Pokies coalition was created by 20 different community organisations. These communities realised they have a common goal and this is to remove the pokies of Auckland from the poor areas.

Many of the community organisations see the pokies as one of the evils affecting the poor areas. The view is that these people don’t have much and what they do have is being pumped into the pokies making life even worse as what money people do have is squandered.

The coalition went ahead with a poll to see what others felt about the pokies in Auckland and the results showed that 87% of those who took the poll do want to see stricter rules on the availability of pokies. The coalition put forward 9061 submissions to Auckland Council to back this poll

Tony Milne from the Problem Gambling Foundation said: “The most powerful submissions come from people who have experienced the harm from pokie machines with accounts of lives … torn apart by pokie machines.”

The Community Gaming Association Director also said: “By removing gaming machines from supposedly low-decile areas, if you take the view funding should be returned to the communities where it is spent, then they are the ones who will suffer most.”

With the potential for reduced numbers of pokies at bars, there has been a shift of Kiwis moving to the online casino world instead. Here people have found the wonders of enjoying a game online from the comfort of their own home. If you do like the pokies, why not look for an online alternative?