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On Monday, February 8, the entirety of the gambling world wept in unison as pictures from a celebratory New Orleans flickered across nearly every sports book TV set on the globe.

The Super Bowl was over, the Saints emerging victorious, and as CBS broadcasters closed out the game's festivities they were also placing a moratorium on big gambling action until March Madness.

Added to this, both the World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour simultaneously went on break, golf hadn't really started back up yet and neither had horse racing.
What was a rounder to do? Bet on NBA games? Come on, everyone knows that's fixed!

All kidding aside, we are at a lull point in the gambling calendar and normally hardcore gamblers would have to turn to the NBA All-Star Weekend for their betting fix.

But this is one of those magical gambling leap years, where the Winter Olympics brings both massive sporting attention and gambling action.

But before you rounders run off to the snowy rainy wonderland of Western Canada to get in on the Olympic action, let me dispense to you five pieces of information every gambler should know before booking a Vancouver Olympic vacation. 

Well it's that time of year again, when degenerate gamblers come out of the woodwork to bet on pretty much anything related to the NFL's big game.

Oh, you thought it was only about who wins or the point spread? You're probably still under the impression that betting on which player will score first or the over/under on the jersey number of the guy who scores last are edgy bets.

No, no, no my friend, let me enlighten you on the world of crazy Super Bowl prop bets with ten of this year's best.

Note: You'll notice that the majority of the "craziest prop bets" come from one site, Bodog. Bodog as of late has become the online prop betting Mecca and is one of the few sites that still panders to the extreme prop bet. It's not that I'm trying to favor Bodog, it's just...geez...look what you can lose money on!

This past Sunday, January 25, professional bowling history was set when Kelly Kulick defeated hall of famer Chris Barnes by 70 pins in the Professional Bowling Association's Tournament of Champions, one of the PBA's most important tournaments of the year, held in Las Vegas.

Kulick is the first woman to win a title on the PBA and in honor of her achievement I thought I'd take a look at a few more groundbreaking moments for women in the world of hustling games--bowling, poker, golf etc.   

While serving as an intern at an Upstate New York television news outlet some time ago, I remember very clearly a discussion that forever changed my view of how the news is reported.

The debate was between two international stories, a plane crashing into a gas station in Brazil and a bus carrying around 200 passengers falling off a cliff in India. Both were horrific consequences of man's inability to realize certain risks about mass transit, both had a similar, remarkably high death count, and both were competing directly against each other for a spot on the evening news.

That's right, I said competing. For there are only a set amount of minutes in every news broadcast, just like there are a set amount of pages in each newspaper and a set amount of space on each website that people are willing to read each day, so consequently, some, arguably deserving, stories go underreported every year.

Since we are rapidly closing in on 2010, and soon many of the underreported stories of 2009 will be tossed into the ether, I've decided to trudge up some of the most interesting and important gambling stories of 2009 you never read.

I hope you enjoy!

Happy holidays everyone! Those celebrating Christmas out there should have your gifts already purchased, wrapped and neatly placed under the tree.

But, I understand that things happen; there's always at least one family member who is just impossible to gift for.

If that family member happens to be a gambler then you're in luck, for I have supplied a list of some rather..err...unique gift ideas for that rounder who already has everything.

For the second installment of our Gambling 101 series I've decided to share with all the beginner gamblers out there some of the most important gambling terms related to cheating, because if you get swindled you should at least know how to tell your sad tale.

More experienced rounders, feel free to add any terms you think could be useful in the comment box below. Come back next week for a new list of important info for gambling novices.

A few of my non-gambling friends have told me that the casino is an intimidating environment, and for a new player I can definitely see why this may be.

The dealer is yelling difficult to understand instructions, other gamblers are yelling all sorts of bizarre phrases, lights are flashing, sounds are going off in the background, it's easy to tell why people can feel unsure of themselves.

I believe at least half the problem is all the unfamiliar terms people are confronted with when they first start out. Not only terms related to the rules of whatever game they are starting out in, but the gambling lingo that isn't really spoken outside the casino.

So in order to help, let me present "Gambling 101," a list of gambling terms, phrases and commonly used lingo.

Please come back next Monday to read the second installment of helpful phrases and terms every new player should know before they start seriously gambling.

In response to yesterday's, somewhat joking, post I made about former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's possible poker prowess, I'd like to give you readers a more serious, but still fun, article about politicians and poker.

As I stated previously, poker has been the game of choice in the White House for some time now. More than a few commander-in-chiefs have taken a break from the day-to-day troubles of the world to play a quick game of poker.

The White House is just like any other American home I guess, poker nights and all--except I'm sure the stakes are a bit higher...can anyone say military secrets?

So in honor of political poker, here is a list of a few Presidents that weren't afraid to battle with the best of them at both the negotiation table and the poker table.

Please share other stories you know about presidential or political poker play!

As reported in the Tribune this past Saturday, November 28, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are extending the date for U.S. based financial institutions to comply with new anti-internet gambling regulations by six months. Both sides of the debate have listed plenty of reasons why internet gambling should or should not be legal, so I decided to share with you, the readers, eight reasons why I believe internet gambling should not be banned.

With so much luck involved in gaming, the prevalence of superstitions in casinos seems only natural. I've seen many an intelligent player fall victim to poor decision making as a result of their own quirky superstitions, so I've decided to clear up some of the most common ones in order to try to end, once and for all, gamblers reliance on these irrational beliefs. Of course just in case I'm wrong about this whole superstition thing, I've listed seven. No reason to tempt fate too much. Please feel free to share your own superstition stories!

Although the religious separatist Pilgrims might disapprove, gambling has worked its way into the traditional Thanksgiving festivities of almost every household in America nowadays, primarily because of a little game called football.

So in honor of Thanksgiving, and considering the aforementioned Pilgrims' stance on gaming, I felt like sharing some traditional Native American gambling games would be a good way to get into the holiday spirit.

Note: The games listed were created by many different tribes from many places in the United States. I don't want to give the false impression that all Native American tribes are the same--I too have an itsy bit of Native lineage and know how frustrating those comparisons can be. So please think of the list as a celebration of Native American culture.   

Gamblers are gamblers, and usually if their willing to put big money on small skill edges they're also up for wagers of an entirely more interesting kind. I'm talking of course about prop bets, a phenomenon I've eluded to in earlier posts. The idea is that the bet can be made on anything for any amount of money as long as both sides agree on a set of rules for the wager. This means these kinds of bets can be wide open to pretty much anything, from the outcome of the opening coin toss in a football game to the suit of the final card dealt face-up in a poker match. Over the years prop bets have sometimes become ludicrous and extremely interesting in nature, so for readers enjoyment here are what I think are the 12 most ridiculous prop bets of all-time.

Please discuss, disagree and share your own prop betting escapades.

Everyone dreams of winning big at the casino. Often times, however, bankroll constraints keep us from going for the big score. That's when the works of Hollywood, Broadway and the literary world come to the rescue and offer up fictional accounts of big wins and tough losses. Who, then, are the most famous of these invented rounders? Well, let me give you my list of who I think are the most popular fictional gamblers of all-time. Feel free to discuss and disagree!