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Gambling can save your life, Arkansas’ highest court ordered an inmate off of death row on Thursday, citing a 1940 court decision that gave an escape clause from an aggravated-robbery conviction to people trying to recover gambling losses.

Justices ordered a new sentencing hearing for Michael B. Daniels, who said he was attempting to recover $20 he lost in a game of three-card monte when he stabbed and killed James Williams, 52, on Jan. 8, 2006. Daniels claimed during the trial that Williams had cheated in the game.

Justices cited a 68-year-old ruling that said someone couldn’t be convicted of aggravated robbery while trying to recover gambling losses. Aggravated robbery was the underlying circumstance when a jury ordered Daniels to die for Williams’ death. The split court reversed Daniels’ aggravated robbery conviction and the capital murder charge linked to it, but upheld his conviction for premeditated and deliberate capital murder.

In the majority opinion, Associate Justice Robert L. Brown acknowledged that some could argue the 1940 case was not in the public’s interest, but said, “it is nonetheless still good law in Arkansas.”

Daniels’ attorney, Teri Chambers, said Thursday’s ruling “makes sense because you have to be able to commit a theft in order to commit a robbery. You have to be taking someone else’s property to commit a theft.” It was unclear whether the ruling had been used to get anyone else off of Arkansas death row.

During the trial, Daniels’ attorney admitted that his client stabbed Williams in the head, chest and stomach with a Bowie knife. The attack was recorded on surveillance video. Prosecutors said there was no evidence that Williams cheated during the card game. I always told my momma that gambling was a good thing!

A very lucky gambler has made one million pounds, or about $1.97 million, from a 50 pence ($1) bet, British bookmaker William Hill said Saturday.

The man, who William Hill has not identified, correctly guessed the outcome of eight horse races Friday, beating odds of two-million-to-one.

He walked into a William Hill branch in the north England town of Thirsk and placed wagers on eight horses in eight different contests in a so-called “accumulator bet,” the company said.

His first win came when a horse called “Isn’t That Lucky” won the 2:55 p.m. race at the Sandown track, southwest of London. By the time “A Dream Come True” crossed the finish line at the Wolverhampton racecourse in central England later that evening, the man had won 1 million pounds.

William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe says the man was oblivious to his win when he came to a different William Hill branch Saturday to place more 50 pence bets. Sharpe said the man had not won any of Saturday’s wagers, losing 2.50 pounds.

“If he does it another 400,000 times we’ll have it all back,” Sharpe said.

William Hill, one of the biggest players in Britain’s gambling industry, operates more than 2,000 betting shops across the country. I have never heard of that type of play but what a fantastic fluke.

So yesterday I went to the casino to play 5-10 limit hold ‘em and here are 10 reasons I like playing there as opposed to an online casino.

1 spot - mid 40’s hippie, plays a lot of hands and likes to roll his eyes everytime he got rivered, which was often.

2nd spot - young asian guy, talked non-stop about how if he could just win a couple more big hands he could go home.

3rd spot - angry shaved head guy, liked to complain everytime someone beat him with crappy hole cards.

4th spot - Nice old guy, around 65-70 years old, good balanced player caught a lot of nice hands.

5th spot - Moi, pretty tight but plays some ‘flyer’.

6th spot - Nice older lady, British accent missed a lot of straights and flushes, lost around $400 during the few hours I was there.

7th spot - Middle aged Asian guy, pretty tight and quiet.

8th spot - Late 50’s, also quiet and tight player.

9th spot - Very tight middle aged guy likes to smile and talk to him neighbours a lot, only plays ace-picture or higher.

10th spot - Very tight player, middle aged with a little slcked back hair. Also likes to play ace-picture and better.

11th spot - My buddy, loud annoying….won the first hand after sitting down and called out he had “nuts” which was really 7th nuts. Everytime he won a hand he would tell the dealer to “ship” his chips.

The point is that sometimes sitting in at the casino can be fun and entertaining, where as the online casino can be a bit boring. At the end of the night I lost $60 but had fun.

Here are some of the top gambling related news stories hitting the web.

-A Pennsylvania company, Penn National Gaming Inc. with gambling operations in 12 states is the first applicant for a contract to manage a state-owned casino in Kansas.

-Tennis umpires and officials received letters from U.S. Open organizers reminding them of rules against gambling, part of strengthened security measures to prevent match tampering.   I guess a little reminder never hurts.

-Today brings a new era for bingo halls, betting shops, high end casinos and humble slot machine arcades in Wales.  The Gambling Act 2005 came into force from midnight overhauling legislation dating as far back as 1845 when Queen Victoria was on the throne and Sir Robert Peel was her Prime Minister. The new laws mean bingo players could now become millionaires as jackpot wins can be “rolled over”. More than 6,000 slot machines will be removed from takeaways and minicab offices to stop children playing them.  Ridiculously easy phone-in quizzes with phone charges as high as £1 per minute must be made harder (otherwise they will be classed as lotteries with a requirement to give 20% of profits to charity).

Yahoo!, one of the biggest search engines and Internet portals, has entered the online poker world with the addition of real-money poker to the games section of its UK operations.

Yahoo! Launched the online poker room in partnership with Gibraltar-based  St Minver, one of Europe’s largest gaming operators. Boss Media, which also supports the powerful gaming operators SportingBet, Bwin, and William Hill, will provide the poker software platform.

The new poker site does not accept players from the U.S., due to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which makes it illegal for credit card companies and banks to accept money transfers to and from online gambling sites.

Yahoo! is the only Internet Service Provider (ISP) to offer play for real money. The YAHOO! UK & Ireland Games Web site also offers real money Bingo. The new site will focus on the growing European poker market.