The Luxor is the first hotel in the city to host a LGBT pool party. If you’re into real debauchery without fear of disturbing the family crowd, the clothing-optional status of the Blue Moon Resort probably keeps them at bay. It is far from the Strip, but you can strip there.

If you thought pool parties were only for teens, that’s just not true in Las Vegas. Each Sunday at the Luxor is Temptation Sunday, Jay. Son (you pronounce the dot) hosts the pool party. There is a new theme each week. Some previous themes have been I (Heart) the Eighties, Summer of 69, and Wild Wild West. Over at the Venetian, at the same time, 1-7pm on Sundays, the lesbian pool party is called the Kitty Dip. Tao Beach provides loungers, cabanas, and bamboo trees. There’s no need for themes when there are mojitos and sushi at the bar. DJ Lisa Pittman provides the music, an eclectic mix including everything from hip hop to indie pop.

For drinks, ladies can go to Down at Ghostbar at the Palms Hotel or BootyBar behind the Bootlegger Bistro. Gentlemen can try Krave, which is a gay disco with all the trimmings. You’ll find a great sound system, bright lights, and fantastic drinks.

For a gay-friendly day tour, try the Las Vegas Historical City Tour organized by Pink Jeep Tours. You can hear all about the city’s gay history. There are stops on Freemont Street and the Strip. The tour devotes a big chunk of time to Liberace, a famous entertainer and piano player who was known for his flamoyant costumes and personal style.

It obviously doesn’t work that way in a slots tournament. Even poker tournaments don’t work that way. In poker tournaments, usually play is set up in tables of six or eight. Each player is given the same number of chips, and when they run out, they are eliminated. At set intervals, the tables are consolidated, until there is only one table left. One by one, players lose all their money and are eliminated, until there are only two left. Those two play heads-up until one wins. Usually the last several players in win some cash in a poker tournament.

This style of play won’t work in a slots tournament either. In slots, there isn’t really any competition. Play is against the house, but not really in a competitive manner. As a result, turning slots into a tournament game is somewhat of a challenge. In most slots tournaments, players are given a certain number of coins or credits, a limited amount of time, and are allowed to play on only one type of machine. In most tournaments, they can choose how many credits to wager each time and they can control how quickly they play. Other than that, they cannot affect their play. At the end of the set time, the player with the most credits wins the pot.

There is some strategy to playing in a slots tournament. Mainly, the idea is to bet the maximum bet as many times as possible in hopes of hitting a good jackpot, and to hope that all of your opponents do worse than you do.

Many online casinos have started to add a live dealer component to their software.  Basically this means they have set up a tables for various casino games in some building (typically in Eastern Europe or Asia) with attractive dealers.  There are cameras all over the tables and you can see the cards being dealt to you as the dealer deals them (just like in a live casino).  The cards are then converted into an online readable format also so you can see clearly which card is which. You control your actions with your mouse and the dealer then plays out the hand.  If you win, the money is added to your online account or if you lose the money is deducted from your balance.  For example, Ladbrokes currently offers a live dealers section for their casino which can be seen here:

As you can see above, the technology involved is really cool and this is probably the hottest trend in online casinos right now.  If you want to try out the ladbrokes casino simply click the image above.

Zero House Edge

This trend was pioneered by Betfair to make themselves stand out from many of the other online casinos.  In the Betfair casino they have a section called the Zero Lounge where the house edge is less than 1%.  They currently offer 4 games in the Zero Lounge which are: Zero Roulette, Zero Jacks or Better, Zero Blackjack and Zero Baccarat.  The only real downside of playing these games is they can not be used towards clearing bonuses or earning comp points.  I have personally played in the Zero Lounge and went on a run where I turned about $300 into over $40,000.  This is not meant to encourage you as you can go on some really bad runs and at times I was betting ridiculous amounts so I definitely attribute this win to luck over it being that there was a reduced house edge.  Regardless, I think this is a really cool idea for Betfair and I know if I am going to play anywhere online I would rather play somewhere that I have better odds of winning.  If you are interested in checking out the Zero Lounge, go to Betfair and download the casino software (you can play for free to try it out).

Mobile Casinos

The other big trend for online casinos in 2010 is mobile gaming.  Now that so many people have phones with solid internet connections and huge screens like the iPhone, many online casinos have started to put a lot more focus in their mobile gaming software.  This software allows you to access your favorite online casino while on the go with your cell phone.  Several casinos offer this technology right now, one of them being Ladbrokes (I know I already mentioned them earlier in this article, but they are right up there with the big trends! ).  Ladbrokes offers a mobile client which is easy to use for people that want to play on their phone for either play money or real money.  Even if you don’t want to gamble, this is definitely a cool app for your phone.  Here is a screen shot of the mobile gaming software:

Anyway, that is all for now.  I will try to put together a future post about things we might see in the future for online gaming after I do a bit more research or if you know any cool things post them in the comments below. It can only get better and better from here!