What happens in Las Vegas is supposed to stay in Las Vegas.

But this week, as the Mobile Host Summit for Hospitality and Retail gets underway in Sin City, there’s a good chance that plenty of announcements, insight, and news will leave Las Vegas and better educate marketers and industry professionals all over the world.

The Mobile Host Summit for Hospitality and Retail is a leading event dedicated to mobile strategies for the hospitality and retail industries. The one-day event brings experts from around the world together in order to discuss how to develop and deploy effective mobile applications and mobile web strategies to grow business in today’s always-connected world.

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Ultimate Poker’s bet in Nevada has certainly paid off.

The Las Vegas Review Journal reports that the site has registered “thousands of users” from every U.S. state and 20 countries.

Within the first three days, the website had dealt its 100,000th hand of poker.

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Ultimate Poker is behind the first legal pay-to-play online poker website in the United States.

On Tuesday, UltimatePoker.com becomes accessible only on computers or mobile devices located in Nevada, the Las Vegas Review-Journal confirms.

State gaming authorities signed off of the company’s technology last week and allowed Ultimate Poker to move forward in what is considered a test period.

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The Chicago Tribune reported Friday that a gambling expansion bill in Illinois may allow PokerStars, which was formerly accused of money laundering and fraud by federal prosecutors, to pursue an online gaming license in Illinois.

In the first draft of Senate Bill 1739, introduced by state Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, PokerStars and sister company Full Tilt Poker would have been barred from obtaining an Internet gambling license in the state because they had “accepted wagers” in violation of U.S. law.

Last month, however, the bill was amended to read that companies had to be “convicted of accepting” wagers for a disqualification to be handed down.

According to the report, PokerStars settled these charges last year for $731 million.

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Tomorrow, social gaming giant Zynga will introduce to the United Kingdom its first real-money gambling product made possible through a partnership with online gaming firm Bwin.party, a leading global real-money gaming operator.

Beginning Wednesday, Zynga will open ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino to all eligible U.K. players.

Although the games will initially be downloadable or available on the web, Zynga plans to bring them to Facebook and other mobile platforms before 2013 draws to a close.

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Real money online and mobile gambling is growing increasingly popular with women according to a new report from UK-based publication The Independent.

Online gambling is becoming more attractive to women than drugs or alcohol, says the UK’s leading female addiction specialist.

Liz Karter, the aforementioned specialist, says work stress is a major cause of gambling addiction for women.

“Instead of going out drinking, women are coming home from work and switching on the PC. Many are in demanding careers and want to be able to escape at the end of the day while remaining in control in a way they would not be after drinking or taking drugs,” Kartner explains. “Then they can return to the real world and at first there are no side effects – only later do the problems really start when the habit sets in.”

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From Nevada to New Jersey, states are lining up to legislate their way into the next big billion dollar market – online gambling and mobile real-money casino games and apps.

In the background of statewide efforts to legalize online gaming, efforts to pass a national bill pertinent to the cause are gaining steam. Legislation that opens the door to online gambling in the U.S. could be introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives within weeks.

Recent reports indicate that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) is in the process of building a coalition to support sweeping legislation related to online gambling.

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