A trip to Europe’s live casino central (Riga, Latvia) including accommodation, meals and spending money (valued at €1800) where you’ll take one of 12 available seats in a blackjack tournament at the  Royal Casino on December 4.

Winner gets €8000 cash, second place €4000, third €2000 and fourth takes home €1000.

To reserve your seat at the table you’ll have to get over to Unibet live casino and play live blackjack sometime between now (starts Monday 17 Oct 00:00 CET) and 30 October and be one of the top 12 players on their leader qualifying board.

And how do I become one of the top 12, I hear you ask?

Points are awarded based on your biggest single day live blackjack win. Your best winning day at the end of the qualifying period becomes your score (€1 = 1 point).  It’s not cumulative so all other daily wins or losses are irrelevant. Forget turnover amount or number of bets placed; this one’s based on your ability to WIN rather than your appetite to bet. They’re clearly looking for blackjack players who know how to play the game.

Which leaves the €8000 question…is that you?

Opt-in details and t’s and c’s are set out at here at Unibet’s live casino page.

Related pages from livedealer.org:

Unibet live casino

Unibet named best European live casino operator

Live blackjack summary

Evolution Gaming live blackjack

The Latvian Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection and the Ministry of Finance has drafted new online gambling laws with a view to having them implemented by as early as 1 January 2012.

Latvia has an existing license/tax/regulatory regime for online gambling operators and is also home to two of the largest dealer studios streaming live games…those of Evolution Gaming and Playtech, both in Riga.  The draft laws propose a number of changes to the existing regime, including:

• a one-time license entry fee for new licensees of LVL 300 000 (EUR 417,000);
• a requirement that non-EU equity holding in the operators cannot exceed 49%;
• an annual license fee of LVL 25 000 (EUR 35,000)
• an ISP ban of unlicensed operators websites;
• payments bans to unlicensed operator bank accounts;
• a 5% tax on gross gambling revenues;
• an increase in the minimum gambling age to 21 years; and
• permission for licensed operators to advertise during the Olympic games provided they are sponsors of either the Latvian Olympic Team or approved sporting federations/associations.

The draft is currently being presented to industry groups and state institutions as part of a consultation process.  As mentioned above, the plan is to have the new law up and running well before the London Olympics in 2012.

The one time license entry fee will not be levied on existing license holders them an obvious competitive advantage over new applicants.

Riga Blonde Girls Parade

According to news hot off the press, Entertasia are partnering with a Latvian based gambling software developer to create games for the Western playing market.

Their new partners, CXTM are based in Riga.  Yes, that’s the same Riga, Latvia where Evolution Gaming have set up their dealer studio, dealing games to players at Unibet, 888.com, Expekt, Victor Chandler, Ladbrokes, Blue Square, and so on.  It’s also the same Riga, Latvia where Playtech decided to plonk their European based dealer studio.

Under the deal CXTM will be helping to ‘Westernise’  Entertasia’s games which have to date been targeted largely at Asian player markets.  This will largely involve developing new interface skins – but may also involve recruiting new dealers to fill yet another Riga studio.

Now while the interface skin thing is fact that comes from the company CEO’s in their joint press release, the suggestion that a studio in Riga with Latvian dealers is being planned is pure Livedealer.org speculation that has no basis in fact…but it would make plenty of sense.  I mean if you’re going to ‘Westernise’ the product then surely the dealer in the video – a major component of the game, should be Western right?  And if you’re  looking for European dealers, then why not go to the place that seems to be the darling of the real-time-video-streaming industry…Riga, Latvia.   The fact that CXTM is based there just cements the theory.

And judging from the above photo, taken at this years ‘Riga  Blonde Girls Parade’ (organized by the Latvian Blonde Association – this is true, look it up) there is certainly no shortage of qualified dealers to choose from.