Happy St. Patrick's Day and welcome to the last eBay Watch of the winter! Spring begins next week and we couldn't be happier. We know you all head about Microsoft going after software pirates on eBay this week, so we did our best to dig up some truly abstract stories for you to indulge on.

Hi Stakes PayPal
OnlineCasinoReports.com reported that PayPal is getting back in the gambling business — in Europe.

"Electronic cash merchant PayPal used to be the payment method of choice for many online casino fans. However after a takeover by eBay, the company's policies toward online casinos changed and U.S. gambling fans found they were no longer able to make financial transactions to the online casino via their eBay accounts. Neteller subsequently took over where PayPal left off and grew to be one of the most successful finance companies on the Internet," said the report.

The article goes on to say online casino operator Bet Fair has recently opened the door for European fans to start using PayPal again for all their online casinos transactions.

"PayPal's service will be fully integrated with the account section of the Bet Fair site so casino fans will be able to pay in and withdraw funds from their online casino account instantaneously. Players will also be able to withdraw winnings directly into their PayPal accounts," it says.

We can only imagine PayPal is eagerly awaiting the day U.S. politicians get over their puritanical hang-up over online gambling here.

eBay Go Bra!
Sticking with the holiday spirit today, a BusinessJournal.com report indicates things are going well for eBay in Ireland. So much so that the company is adding 300 jobs at its Irish headquarters.

"The new jobs will be in customer support and financial processing, compliance and senior management," the report stated.

eBay claims more than 200,000 registered users buy and sell on eBay.ie and PayPal.ie.

All Your Base Belong to Us
IntenetNews and ECommerce-Guide.com published an update on the Google Base payment processing service, which is the search behemoth's e-commerce initiative targeted at small businesses. With Google's payment processing offering, users of the Google Base classified ads service will now be able to accept credit card payments from buyers. This move is clearly a shot across the bow PayPal's and eBay's ship.

Google Base, still in beta, debuted in November. Users can post virtually any sort of legal content or advertising to the service, and Google will then index and make the content findable via Google's search engine.

Analysts have speculated that Google Base could be a Craigslist killer. Craigslist carries the sort of classified ads for jobs, apartments and other services that newspapers used to count on for a steady revenue stream.

Be sure to read the entire article, as it gives plenty of insight into what's coming down to road from Google.

WHat do you think of Google's Base? Tell us what you think in our Forum.

Not Guilty, Your Honor
We also reported earlier this week that the United States government is siding with a Virginia patent holder that eBay willfully infringed on its patents and should be barred from using its popular "Buy It Now" feature, which allows a buyer to purchase an item at a set price.

In a Supreme Court brief supporting MercExchange, the U.S. Solicitor General said that an appeals court did not err when it ruled an injunction was in order against eBay, reversing a district court decision to not impose an injunction.

The Supreme Court will hear the case on March 29.

You can read the full article here.

Devin Comiskey is the Managing Editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.

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