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The immediate effect of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 was to destroy an unregulated but predictable market for online poker and leave in its place an uncertain playing field.
The law’s passage came not because of a sudden groundswell of popular opposition to online poker, but thanks to some late-night political maneuvering by a handful of politically influential anti-gambling Republicans and one GOP senator with no horse in the online gambling race but a hankering to become president.
It’s enough to make one wonder what would have happened if some pollster with a brain had gained then-Majority Leader Bill Frist’s ear and let him know his White House chances were slim to none.
With no need to strike a deal with influential anti-gambling Congressman Jim Leach for support in the Iowa caucuses, there would have been no reason for the otherwise gambling-agnostic Frist to jam UIGEA through the Senate.
When Republicans lost control of the Senate shortly afterward, making Harry Reid Frist’s replacement, and Democrats took the White House in 2008, everything would have progressed differently.
The still-developing market for online poker likely would have continued to grow and diversify it offerings, and a wide range of events that came to pass post-UIGEA never would have occurred, bringing with them their own reverberations for the industry.
So what would the online poker landscape look like if the UIGEA had never passed?
Party Poker
The online poker market has belonged to PokerStars for so long now that it’s easy to forget that wasn’t always the case. When UIGEA was signed into law, PartyGaming controlled two out of every five dollars in the online poker market and made more than three-quarters of its profits in the United States, thanks to an early entry into the market and ubiquitous advertising during televised poker shows and even mainstream sporting events.
Had the company never gone public in 2005, it could have remained in the U.S. market like PokerStars, Full Tilt, and a raft of smaller rooms and networks. But the pressure from stockholders who didn’t want to see their company involved in any potential violation of American law forced the company to abandon its cash cow.
Though it’s still around and profitable today, Party is no longer the behemoth it once was. It took a sea change for the company to lose market share in the U.S., and had UIGEA never passed, there’s no reason to believe things would have been much different at the publicly traded company.
Poker on TV
Prior to UIGEA poker was enormously popular on television in the United States, and the number one source of advertising dollars during such shows was the online poker industry. Even after the Act passed, the money pipeline between poker and media remained intact, at least until Black Friday brought that to an end.
Without UIGEA there would have been no reason for poker rooms to stop pouring marketing dollars into new invitational and made-for-TV events. Nor would there have been cause for them to stop slapping patches bearing their company logos on any player who got within a sniff of a televised table.
PokerStars IPO
PokerStars, the second-largest online poker room in the world pre-UIGEA, had an initial public offering of its stock planned for the spring of 2007 that was only called off because of UIGEA.
Other companies with inferior products had already gone public for huge sums – Party, in particular, soared in value from an initial valuation of £4.64 billion in June 2005 to more than £12 billion ($21.3 billion at the time) one month later.
A PokerStars IPO would have been the most successful of all-time in the online gambling industry. More than that, a valuation anywhere near that of Party would have rivaled the IPOs of major corporations like AT&T Wireless ($10.62 billion in 2000), Deutsche Telekom ($12.48 billion in 1996), General Motors ($15.8 billion in 2010), and Visa ($17.9 billion in 2008).
Such a turn of events would have placed PokerStars in the top half of the 10 biggest IPOs in history even today, making the online poker industry a true force to be reckoned with in the process.
No Full Tilt scandal
Before the passage of UIGEA, Full Tilt Poker had developed an excellent reputation based on innovation, customer service, and the best software in the business.
Once UIGEA’s regulations went into effect and made moving money vastly more difficult, though, the site’s owners decided to start playing a shell game with players’ funds while claiming hard cash for themselves.
That ended up turning into one of the biggest fiascos in industry history, and for good reason. But in the absence of UIGEA, with players still able to move money back and forth, the incentive for Howard Lederer, Ray Bitar, and company to engage in such a ruse would have been nonexistent.
Live tournament growth
In the absence of the UIGEA, we would have seen continued growth at live tournaments via cheap online satellites. The World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour took full advantage of the online poker boom by accepting buy-ins from online poker sites that held their own satellites to these live tournaments.
Satellites were high-test fuel for the engine of the poker economy, bringing in all sorts of players who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford to play in high-stakes tournaments and vastly increasing the amount of money in play at tables around the world.
This created new millionaires, but it also fed most of the fish to the sharks who then circulated their money to the rest of their communities through cash games and local and regional tournaments.
Perhaps no two tournaments typify the impact of UIGEA better than the WSOP Main Event and the WPT Championship, as shown below:
$10,000 WSOP Main Event attendance, 2003-2013
2003: 836
2004: 2,576
2005: 5,619
2006: 8,773
2007: 6,358
2008: 6,844
2009: 6,494
The law’s passage came not because of a sudden groundswell of popular opposition to online poker, but thanks to some late-night political maneuvering by a handful of politically influential anti-gambling Republicans and one GOP senator with no horse in the online gambling race but a hankering to become president.
It’s enough to make one wonder what would have happened if some pollster with a brain had gained then-Majority Leader Bill Frist’s ear and let him know his White House chances were slim to none.
With no need to strike a deal with influential anti-gambling Congressman Jim Leach for support in the Iowa caucuses, there would have been no reason for the otherwise gambling-agnostic Frist to jam UIGEA through the Senate.
When Republicans lost control of the Senate shortly afterward, making Harry Reid Frist’s replacement, and Democrats took the White House in 2008, everything would have progressed differently.
The still-developing market for online poker likely would have continued to grow and diversify it offerings, and a wide range of events that came to pass post-UIGEA never would have occurred, bringing with them their own reverberations for the industry.
So what would the online poker landscape look like if the UIGEA had never passed?
Party Poker
The online poker market has belonged to PokerStars for so long now that it’s easy to forget that wasn’t always the case. When UIGEA was signed into law, PartyGaming controlled two out of every five dollars in the online poker market and made more than three-quarters of its profits in the United States, thanks to an early entry into the market and ubiquitous advertising during televised poker shows and even mainstream sporting events.
Had the company never gone public in 2005, it could have remained in the U.S. market like PokerStars, Full Tilt, and a raft of smaller rooms and networks. But the pressure from stockholders who didn’t want to see their company involved in any potential violation of American law forced the company to abandon its cash cow.
Though it’s still around and profitable today, Party is no longer the behemoth it once was. It took a sea change for the company to lose market share in the U.S., and had UIGEA never passed, there’s no reason to believe things would have been much different at the publicly traded company.
Poker on TV
Prior to UIGEA poker was enormously popular on television in the United States, and the number one source of advertising dollars during such shows was the online poker industry. Even after the Act passed, the money pipeline between poker and media remained intact, at least until Black Friday brought that to an end.
Without UIGEA there would have been no reason for poker rooms to stop pouring marketing dollars into new invitational and made-for-TV events. Nor would there have been cause for them to stop slapping patches bearing their company logos on any player who got within a sniff of a televised table.
PokerStars IPO
PokerStars, the second-largest online poker room in the world pre-UIGEA, had an initial public offering of its stock planned for the spring of 2007 that was only called off because of UIGEA.
Other companies with inferior products had already gone public for huge sums – Party, in particular, soared in value from an initial valuation of £4.64 billion in June 2005 to more than £12 billion ($21.3 billion at the time) one month later.
A PokerStars IPO would have been the most successful of all-time in the online gambling industry. More than that, a valuation anywhere near that of Party would have rivaled the IPOs of major corporations like AT&T Wireless ($10.62 billion in 2000), Deutsche Telekom ($12.48 billion in 1996), General Motors ($15.8 billion in 2010), and Visa ($17.9 billion in 2008).
Such a turn of events would have placed PokerStars in the top half of the 10 biggest IPOs in history even today, making the online poker industry a true force to be reckoned with in the process.
No Full Tilt scandal
Before the passage of UIGEA, Full Tilt Poker had developed an excellent reputation based on innovation, customer service, and the best software in the business.
Once UIGEA’s regulations went into effect and made moving money vastly more difficult, though, the site’s owners decided to start playing a shell game with players’ funds while claiming hard cash for themselves.
That ended up turning into one of the biggest fiascos in industry history, and for good reason. But in the absence of UIGEA, with players still able to move money back and forth, the incentive for Howard Lederer, Ray Bitar, and company to engage in such a ruse would have been nonexistent.
Live tournament growth
In the absence of the UIGEA, we would have seen continued growth at live tournaments via cheap online satellites. The World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour took full advantage of the online poker boom by accepting buy-ins from online poker sites that held their own satellites to these live tournaments.
Satellites were high-test fuel for the engine of the poker economy, bringing in all sorts of players who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford to play in high-stakes tournaments and vastly increasing the amount of money in play at tables around the world.
This created new millionaires, but it also fed most of the fish to the sharks who then circulated their money to the rest of their communities through cash games and local and regional tournaments.
Perhaps no two tournaments typify the impact of UIGEA better than the WSOP Main Event and the WPT Championship, as shown below:
$10,000 WSOP Main Event attendance, 2003-2013
2003: 836
2004: 2,576
2005: 5,619
2006: 8,773
2007: 6,358
2008: 6,844
2009: 6,494
Join:
2006/12/07
Messages:
29893
Step aside Tom Dwan and Viktor Blom, there’s a new world leader for biggest online earner for 2013, a seemingly lucky year for one young poker pro. The 2013 total online earnings for 28-year-old German player Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker recently surpassed $4.19 million, making him the biggest online poker earner of the year. And what’s even more impressive is that Heinecker only started playing seriously in May, grinding on Full Tilt. By August he was in the red, but now only about three months later, he’s one of the richest poker players in the world.
Not only has he been busy online, but he’s also a live poker winner as well. Back in June in Macau, he won the HK$1 GuangDong Asia Millions and won a whopping US$4.5 million (HK$34.6m). His live plus online earnings for the year total more than $8.7 million, making it one the best years for any poker player ever.
One of the biggest pots Heinecker won as of late was a $403K pot. He’s been a force at the 6-max NLHE tables, as well as the Triple Draw tables, and the 2-7 Triple Draw games as well. Last Thursday he took $573K after just five and a half hours on eight tables of $2K/$4K 2-7 Triple Draw.
Heinecker lives in the UK and is a student of economic mathematics, which he says helps him better understand poker. He first got into poker with some friends, and after a lot of practice, he eventually entered the 2007 WSOP Main Event, in which he took 80th place. Since then, he’s had two first place cashes, the Macau event mentioned above, and the $5,100 NLH Heads-Up Championship at the 2012 LA Poker Classic in Los Angeles, a tourney that paid him just over $46K.
But no year has been quite like this one for him. He kicked off his wonder year back in February with a $89K+ win at the $25K NLH $25K Challenge at the 2013 Aussie Millions Poker Championship in Melbourne.
Fellow German, poker pro, and friend of Heinecker, Philipp Gruissem, is not to be overlooked by Heinecker’s big wins. He recently won first place and $4.6+ million at the WPT Alpha8 St. Kitts.
Other German players that follow the international circuit with Heinecker and Gruissem include Fabian Quoss, Igor Kurganov, and Tobias Reinkemeier. They have sort of created their own German poker team and have all been successful, due in part to their support for each other.
Niklas "ragen70" Heineker Becomes Biggest Online Poker Earner
Not only has he been busy online, but he’s also a live poker winner as well. Back in June in Macau, he won the HK$1 GuangDong Asia Millions and won a whopping US$4.5 million (HK$34.6m). His live plus online earnings for the year total more than $8.7 million, making it one the best years for any poker player ever.
One of the biggest pots Heinecker won as of late was a $403K pot. He’s been a force at the 6-max NLHE tables, as well as the Triple Draw tables, and the 2-7 Triple Draw games as well. Last Thursday he took $573K after just five and a half hours on eight tables of $2K/$4K 2-7 Triple Draw.
Heinecker lives in the UK and is a student of economic mathematics, which he says helps him better understand poker. He first got into poker with some friends, and after a lot of practice, he eventually entered the 2007 WSOP Main Event, in which he took 80th place. Since then, he’s had two first place cashes, the Macau event mentioned above, and the $5,100 NLH Heads-Up Championship at the 2012 LA Poker Classic in Los Angeles, a tourney that paid him just over $46K.
But no year has been quite like this one for him. He kicked off his wonder year back in February with a $89K+ win at the $25K NLH $25K Challenge at the 2013 Aussie Millions Poker Championship in Melbourne.
Fellow German, poker pro, and friend of Heinecker, Philipp Gruissem, is not to be overlooked by Heinecker’s big wins. He recently won first place and $4.6+ million at the WPT Alpha8 St. Kitts.
Other German players that follow the international circuit with Heinecker and Gruissem include Fabian Quoss, Igor Kurganov, and Tobias Reinkemeier. They have sort of created their own German poker team and have all been successful, due in part to their support for each other.
Niklas "ragen70" Heineker Becomes Biggest Online Poker Earner
Join:
2006/12/07
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29893
You would think the federal government would be eager to boost revenue by simply legalizing online gaming on a federal level. A few billion dollars each year would find their way to federal and state governments if online betting was made legal, but so far the federal government has punted on the issue.
This leaves potential online operators like Caesars Entertainment's (NASDAQ: CZR ) interactive arm Caesars Acquisition (NASDAQ: CACQ ) , Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN ) , and MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM ) in limbo, despite being so close to another new market.
Ever since a 2011 federal opinion stated that online gaming is actually legal, states have been rushing to open up the Web to gamblers. Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware have passed some form of online gaming. Yet most operators don't see the small local markets as an attractive option, partly because it would be complicated to operate a gaming network.
Residents of these states…
Online Poker May Finally Be on the Horizon
This leaves potential online operators like Caesars Entertainment's (NASDAQ: CZR ) interactive arm Caesars Acquisition (NASDAQ: CACQ ) , Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN ) , and MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM ) in limbo, despite being so close to another new market.
Ever since a 2011 federal opinion stated that online gaming is actually legal, states have been rushing to open up the Web to gamblers. Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware have passed some form of online gaming. Yet most operators don't see the small local markets as an attractive option, partly because it would be complicated to operate a gaming network.
Residents of these states…
Online Poker May Finally Be on the Horizon
Join:
2006/12/07
Messages:
29893
The place in question made sh-tholes look like The Ritz. The clientele werewicked old geezers, tanned like kippers by the fug of Players No 6 and Hamlet cigar smoke, which made navigating across the room without a white stick a hazardous adventure.
If the smog didn’t kill you, tripping and chinning yourself on the edge of the roulette table would. UK casinos have changed immeasurably since those feral, intimidating days of yore, but I still give thanks for the online revolution that has given us the opportunity to play poker, and other casino games, at home, in our underwear (or in somebody else’s for that matter).
It’s both Thanksgiving Day (in the USA) and that poker boom initiator Chris Moneymaker’s birthday, so I will be taking an appreciative swig today and invite you to do the same.
Thanks to Chris & Online Poker | Poker | Sport | Daily Star. Simply The Best 7 Days A Week
If the smog didn’t kill you, tripping and chinning yourself on the edge of the roulette table would. UK casinos have changed immeasurably since those feral, intimidating days of yore, but I still give thanks for the online revolution that has given us the opportunity to play poker, and other casino games, at home, in our underwear (or in somebody else’s for that matter).
It’s both Thanksgiving Day (in the USA) and that poker boom initiator Chris Moneymaker’s birthday, so I will be taking an appreciative swig today and invite you to do the same.
Thanks to Chris & Online Poker | Poker | Sport | Daily Star. Simply The Best 7 Days A Week
Join:
2006/12/07
Messages:
29893
Who is the best online poker player in the world?
This is often a hard question to answer, and one that will assuredly spark a heated debate on any forum. So today I’m going to ask the question in a slightly different way:
If you could choose four online poker players to put on a Mount Rushmore type monument who would they be?
Here are my choices.
Chris Moorman
The only tournament player on the list, Moorman is perhaps the least controversial of all the choices, since his accomplishments are light years ahead of any other online tournament player. Basically, if you are talking about the best online tournament players it’s Chris Moorman, and then everyone else.
Here are just some of his accomplishments:
* 19 Career PocketFives Triple Crowns (second place in that category has 11)
* Multiple-time #1 ranked online player
* Over $10 million in career tournament earnings (no other player is within $3 million of Moorman)
Moorman’s PocketFives-com page
Since the variance and risk-taking in tournaments require a little more “constitution” and “grit” I’m putting Moorman in Teddy Roosevelt’s spot on the mountain.
Phil Galfond
One of the all-time winningest players in online cash-game history, Galfond is more of a quiet, thoughtful player, than the chest-beating, over-confident types online poker generally produces. Still, OMGClayAiken and MrSweets28 have had little problem pushing around the competition at Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars over the years, and to this day Galfond is still one of the top online PLO players.
Along with his skills at the poker tables, Galfond has penned some of the most thoughtful blogs on online poker, appeared on TV shows, started two online poker training sites (BlueFire Poker and his new site RunitOnce-com), not to mention winning a WSOP bracelet.
Phil Galfond’s highstakesdb-com page
Galfond is a perfect match for the Thomas Jefferson spot on the monument, considering they both preferred to do their work behind the scenes and let others make the fiery speeches (I’m still researching if Monticello had a slide).
Tom Dwan
Is there any more recognizable name in online poker than Tom “durrrr” Dwan? Dwan isn’t just successful, his legacy is downright legendary among online poker players, and even though he is essentially a live poker player these days he will always be known for his online exploits.
Nowadays Dwan spends most of his time in Macau, but he still finds time to play high-stakes online poker from time-to-time, as well as his “durrrr Challenge” challenge matches; although not quite at a pace some of his competitors approve of!
Tom Dwan’s highstakesdb-com page
For being a complete game-changer Dwan gets the Lincoln spot on the Mount Rushmore of poker.
Phil Ivey
We may not think of Phil Ivey as an online poker player per se, but the man many consider the best poker player in the world happens to also be the biggest winner in online poker history according to the highstakesdb-com website.
Perhaps even more impressive than his near $20 million in winnings is the fact that Ivey doesn’t put in anywhere near the volume of the other players on the list, yet all he does is win.
Phil Ivey’s highstakesdb-com page
For these reasons I have to put Ivey in the George Washington spot on poker’s Mount Rushmore.
The Short-List
Prahlad Friedman – “SpiritRock” was one of the first rock-stars of the online poker world, tearing up the Ultimate Bet and PokerStars tables during the heyday of the Poker Boom. Unfortunately, a regrettable decision to sign with Ultimate Bet (a site that cheated him out of hundreds of thousands of dollars) turned Friedman from hero to goat in the eyes of many online poker players, and probably kept him from bumping one of the players listed above.
Bertrand Grospellier – “ElkY” was one of the first WoW players to transition to online poker, taking his ability to multi-task and essentially creating the high-volume, multi-tabling poker player. If ElkY continued to focus on online poker he would have surely been in the top half of this column. As much as I wanted one of the “original” online poker players to make the cut, I just couldn’t swap ElkY for Dwan, Ivey, Galfond, or Moorman.
Viktor Blom – “Isildur1” is the new Tom Dwan, and has been since late 2009. While his successes have been fleeting, nobody has created more buzz or more of an aura like Isildur1. Just consider that the 10 largest pots ever played online have only one thing in common: Isildur1 was involved. 10 years from now he may be on the mountainside.
Patrik Antonius – Antonius has crushed online poker for years now, but he has the distinction of being the bridesmaid: second to Ivey in winnings, and second to Dwan in terms of mystique. And once again, it appears Antonius is the runner-up, as I have him as my first alternate.
Who Belongs on Online Poker’s Mount Rushmore?
This is often a hard question to answer, and one that will assuredly spark a heated debate on any forum. So today I’m going to ask the question in a slightly different way:
If you could choose four online poker players to put on a Mount Rushmore type monument who would they be?
Here are my choices.
Chris Moorman
The only tournament player on the list, Moorman is perhaps the least controversial of all the choices, since his accomplishments are light years ahead of any other online tournament player. Basically, if you are talking about the best online tournament players it’s Chris Moorman, and then everyone else.
Here are just some of his accomplishments:
* 19 Career PocketFives Triple Crowns (second place in that category has 11)
* Multiple-time #1 ranked online player
* Over $10 million in career tournament earnings (no other player is within $3 million of Moorman)
Moorman’s PocketFives-com page
Since the variance and risk-taking in tournaments require a little more “constitution” and “grit” I’m putting Moorman in Teddy Roosevelt’s spot on the mountain.
Phil Galfond
One of the all-time winningest players in online cash-game history, Galfond is more of a quiet, thoughtful player, than the chest-beating, over-confident types online poker generally produces. Still, OMGClayAiken and MrSweets28 have had little problem pushing around the competition at Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars over the years, and to this day Galfond is still one of the top online PLO players.
Along with his skills at the poker tables, Galfond has penned some of the most thoughtful blogs on online poker, appeared on TV shows, started two online poker training sites (BlueFire Poker and his new site RunitOnce-com), not to mention winning a WSOP bracelet.
Phil Galfond’s highstakesdb-com page
Galfond is a perfect match for the Thomas Jefferson spot on the monument, considering they both preferred to do their work behind the scenes and let others make the fiery speeches (I’m still researching if Monticello had a slide).
Tom Dwan
Is there any more recognizable name in online poker than Tom “durrrr” Dwan? Dwan isn’t just successful, his legacy is downright legendary among online poker players, and even though he is essentially a live poker player these days he will always be known for his online exploits.
Nowadays Dwan spends most of his time in Macau, but he still finds time to play high-stakes online poker from time-to-time, as well as his “durrrr Challenge” challenge matches; although not quite at a pace some of his competitors approve of!
Tom Dwan’s highstakesdb-com page
For being a complete game-changer Dwan gets the Lincoln spot on the Mount Rushmore of poker.
Phil Ivey
We may not think of Phil Ivey as an online poker player per se, but the man many consider the best poker player in the world happens to also be the biggest winner in online poker history according to the highstakesdb-com website.
Perhaps even more impressive than his near $20 million in winnings is the fact that Ivey doesn’t put in anywhere near the volume of the other players on the list, yet all he does is win.
Phil Ivey’s highstakesdb-com page
For these reasons I have to put Ivey in the George Washington spot on poker’s Mount Rushmore.
The Short-List
Prahlad Friedman – “SpiritRock” was one of the first rock-stars of the online poker world, tearing up the Ultimate Bet and PokerStars tables during the heyday of the Poker Boom. Unfortunately, a regrettable decision to sign with Ultimate Bet (a site that cheated him out of hundreds of thousands of dollars) turned Friedman from hero to goat in the eyes of many online poker players, and probably kept him from bumping one of the players listed above.
Bertrand Grospellier – “ElkY” was one of the first WoW players to transition to online poker, taking his ability to multi-task and essentially creating the high-volume, multi-tabling poker player. If ElkY continued to focus on online poker he would have surely been in the top half of this column. As much as I wanted one of the “original” online poker players to make the cut, I just couldn’t swap ElkY for Dwan, Ivey, Galfond, or Moorman.
Viktor Blom – “Isildur1” is the new Tom Dwan, and has been since late 2009. While his successes have been fleeting, nobody has created more buzz or more of an aura like Isildur1. Just consider that the 10 largest pots ever played online have only one thing in common: Isildur1 was involved. 10 years from now he may be on the mountainside.
Patrik Antonius – Antonius has crushed online poker for years now, but he has the distinction of being the bridesmaid: second to Ivey in winnings, and second to Dwan in terms of mystique. And once again, it appears Antonius is the runner-up, as I have him as my first alternate.
Who Belongs on Online Poker’s Mount Rushmore?
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Between live and online play, Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker has won more than $9 million on the year, which is the most in the poker world in 2013.
Another solid week at the online poker tables resulted in profits of around $460,000 for the German. He is now up a whopping $4.65 million on Full Tilt Poker, according to HighstakesDB.
That figure is tops in the Internet poker world this year as well.
November has been amazing for him, as he is closing out the year in the midst of a $1.4 million upswing. For most of the year he wasn’t near the top of the leader board. Heinecker’s game of choice is $400-$800 no-limit hold’em. He has played several pots of more than $300,000 in 2013. His largest was $403,000.
The other half of Heinecker’s winnings on the year came from a live tournament.
In June, Heinecker took down the HK 1,000,000 ($130,000 USD) buy-in event that attracted 71 entrants, 54 of whom exercised their option to rebuy. A massive HK 119 million prize pool ($15.4 million USD) was created. Heinecker captured $4.5 million of that.
On the flip side in November, Full Tilt sponsored players Viktor Blom and Gus Hansen have lost massive amounts. Blom is down $1 million, while Hansen has lost $800,000.
Card Player reported on Hansen when he reached $14 million in lifetime losses on the software, but since then he has managed to win about $500,000 of that back.
High-Stakes Online Poker: Niklas Heinecker Has Another Great Week, Now Up $4.65 Million
Another solid week at the online poker tables resulted in profits of around $460,000 for the German. He is now up a whopping $4.65 million on Full Tilt Poker, according to HighstakesDB.
That figure is tops in the Internet poker world this year as well.
November has been amazing for him, as he is closing out the year in the midst of a $1.4 million upswing. For most of the year he wasn’t near the top of the leader board. Heinecker’s game of choice is $400-$800 no-limit hold’em. He has played several pots of more than $300,000 in 2013. His largest was $403,000.
The other half of Heinecker’s winnings on the year came from a live tournament.
In June, Heinecker took down the HK 1,000,000 ($130,000 USD) buy-in event that attracted 71 entrants, 54 of whom exercised their option to rebuy. A massive HK 119 million prize pool ($15.4 million USD) was created. Heinecker captured $4.5 million of that.
On the flip side in November, Full Tilt sponsored players Viktor Blom and Gus Hansen have lost massive amounts. Blom is down $1 million, while Hansen has lost $800,000.
Card Player reported on Hansen when he reached $14 million in lifetime losses on the software, but since then he has managed to win about $500,000 of that back.
High-Stakes Online Poker: Niklas Heinecker Has Another Great Week, Now Up $4.65 Million
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2006/12/07
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At present just a few online poker sites offer Bitcoin as a payment processing option, but that may all be about to change after a U.S. Congressional hearing signaled a more positive attitude towards the internet currency.
Up until now, U.S. lawmakers seemed more concerned about highlighting the potential for illicit activities stemming from Bitcoin use, such as money laundering, with The Economist reasoning in 2012 that its popularity was due to “its role in dodgy online markets.”
Recently, however, the value of the digital currency has sky-rocketed after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, said that the use of virtual currencies could hold “long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.”
As a result, the value of Bitcoins soared from $400 last week to $900 earlier this week, before settling down to its current exchange rate of $777. The latest figures are even more impressive when one considers the value of Bitcoin was just $70 around five months ago, and that in 2011, two years after Bitcoin became operational, the value of one Bitcoin was just $0.30.
As well as sparking wider interest in Bitcoins, the three-hour long Congressional hearing on the currency also helped the digital currency gain a certain degree of legitimacy, which may bode well for online poker sites which accept Bitcoins.
Case in point, US-friendly poker site SealswithClubs has witnessed a huge surge in traffic lately and now enjoys a seven-day average of 130 cash players, which is well above the numbers reported by PokerScout only a couple of months ago.
At present there is believed to be around 12 million Bitcoin in existence, with over 50,000 being transacted each hour. It has even been suggested that Bitcoin is also gaining popularity in countries suffering from weak currencies and inflation, such as Argentina, for instance, where Bitcoins are used by some people as an alternative to the country’s legal tender.
Bitcoin Gains Spark Huge Interest From Online Poker Market
Up until now, U.S. lawmakers seemed more concerned about highlighting the potential for illicit activities stemming from Bitcoin use, such as money laundering, with The Economist reasoning in 2012 that its popularity was due to “its role in dodgy online markets.”
Recently, however, the value of the digital currency has sky-rocketed after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, said that the use of virtual currencies could hold “long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.”
As a result, the value of Bitcoins soared from $400 last week to $900 earlier this week, before settling down to its current exchange rate of $777. The latest figures are even more impressive when one considers the value of Bitcoin was just $70 around five months ago, and that in 2011, two years after Bitcoin became operational, the value of one Bitcoin was just $0.30.
As well as sparking wider interest in Bitcoins, the three-hour long Congressional hearing on the currency also helped the digital currency gain a certain degree of legitimacy, which may bode well for online poker sites which accept Bitcoins.
Case in point, US-friendly poker site SealswithClubs has witnessed a huge surge in traffic lately and now enjoys a seven-day average of 130 cash players, which is well above the numbers reported by PokerScout only a couple of months ago.
At present there is believed to be around 12 million Bitcoin in existence, with over 50,000 being transacted each hour. It has even been suggested that Bitcoin is also gaining popularity in countries suffering from weak currencies and inflation, such as Argentina, for instance, where Bitcoins are used by some people as an alternative to the country’s legal tender.
Bitcoin Gains Spark Huge Interest From Online Poker Market
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2006/12/07
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Today marks the last day of New Jersey’s five day online poker and gambling soft launch which began on Thursday. All those companies and providers which had received authorization of the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement before the launch date, are currently participating in the test run before tomorrow’s official launch of the Garden State’s new online gambling regime.
On the first day of the trial period, around 500 real money invitation-only players were allowed on each site that was up and running. The players were New Jersey residents or visitors and over the age of 21, as per the rules of the state’s new online gambling laws.
Caesars Entertainment was one of several gambling giants who launched online gambling platforms in the new market. “We are excited to be launching three of the most iconic U.S. gaming brands online for those inside New Jersey borders, said Caesars in a statement issued on Friday. “With the loyalty benefits of our Total Rewards and Action Club programs, we know consumers will quickly see why CaesarsCasino-com, HarrahsCasino-com, and WSOP-com are some of the best places to play online casino games for real money in the Garden State. The fun and action found online will reflect what our players have come to expect from our land-based properties for decades.”
The launch of New Jersy’s online gambling sites has attracted international attention and world media is keeping a close eye on developments. The UK publication, The Guardian, wrote: “While New Jersey is not the first state to legalize and license online gambling – Nevada and Delaware already have licensed operators – it is seen as the first with a population of a scale likely to attract the critical mass of players needed by large, profitable sites.”
New Jersey Online Poker Soft Launch Nearing End
On the first day of the trial period, around 500 real money invitation-only players were allowed on each site that was up and running. The players were New Jersey residents or visitors and over the age of 21, as per the rules of the state’s new online gambling laws.
Caesars Entertainment was one of several gambling giants who launched online gambling platforms in the new market. “We are excited to be launching three of the most iconic U.S. gaming brands online for those inside New Jersey borders, said Caesars in a statement issued on Friday. “With the loyalty benefits of our Total Rewards and Action Club programs, we know consumers will quickly see why CaesarsCasino-com, HarrahsCasino-com, and WSOP-com are some of the best places to play online casino games for real money in the Garden State. The fun and action found online will reflect what our players have come to expect from our land-based properties for decades.”
The launch of New Jersy’s online gambling sites has attracted international attention and world media is keeping a close eye on developments. The UK publication, The Guardian, wrote: “While New Jersey is not the first state to legalize and license online gambling – Nevada and Delaware already have licensed operators – it is seen as the first with a population of a scale likely to attract the critical mass of players needed by large, profitable sites.”
New Jersey Online Poker Soft Launch Nearing End
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Wynn Resorts Ltd. Chairman Steve Wynn said Monday he’s undecided whether New Jersey’s decision to legalize online gaming will have a major impact on efforts in Congress to pass any federal legislation legalizing online poker.
“I’m not sure as I stand here where online gaming is going,” Wynn said. “Within the state of New Jersey it’s legal. Its status in America is much in doubt.”
Wynn said Sheldon Adelson’s point that there is a lack of control with online gaming “resonates with a lot of people.”
Citing moral concerns, Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., created a group, the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, to push for legislation to ban online gaming in the United States.
The group also wants the FBI to study law-enforcement related issues. Adelson’s effort would also ban online gaming already underway in Nevada and Delaware.
New Jersey begins taking bets today. Other states are considering similar measures that would introduce online gaming,
“On the other hand, playing poker is America, and outlawing poker is like the Volstead Act where they outlawed beer,” Wynn told reporters in the Wynn Las Vegas atrium following the unveiling of two floral sculptures designed by Preston Bailey.
Wynn said you can outlaw online gaming but “people are going to do it anyway.” A recent survey by H2 Gambling Capital found illegal online gambling generated $2.6 billion last year in the United States.
“I think it’s questionable whether Sheldon will be able to stop it, which is not to say he is wrong,” Wynn said. “I just think this sort of thing has a life of its own. I‘m neither a proponent nor opponent of it. I’m an observer of this process and the chairman of a publicly traded company that is required to pay attention to such things.”
Wynn said his Las Vegas-based gaming company has “put their toes in the water” when it comes to Internet gaming by teaming with Caesars Entertainment Corp. in New Jersey. He said his company will “stay in the game.”
“I’m not the leader of this parade, “Wynn said. “The Harrah’s … Caesar’s people are because they’ve got the World Series of Poker. I know Gary Loveman (chairman and CEO of Caesars) believes in this as strongly as Sheldon opposes it.” Wynn believes that neither Sheldon Adelson nor Gary Loveman will make the final decision on the legality of online gaming, but “everybody is going to try to influence the outcome.”
Although he understood the interest in online gaming, Wynn said his company’s focus is on proceeding with building a $1.5 billion resort in Everett, Mass.
“We’ll be in Boston,” Wynn said. “That process is underway. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Wynn’s Everett proposal is the only project in the eastern part of the state to be approved by voters. Voters in Milford and East Boston recently rejected rival proposals. MGM Resorts International’s Springfield, Mass., plan is alone in the western part of the state.
But Wynn has a couple of weeks to find out if it has passed a state background check. The extensive process derailed Caesars Entertainment’s deal with Suffolk Downs in East Boston; concerns were raised over a licensing deal with a separate company that was partly owned by a businessman with alleged Russian mob ties.
“It takes a partnership with a very savvy, sophisticated government,” Wynn said. “You can’t do it without both parties being on the same page. So … we are in Massachusetts to help educate everybody and show them what it takes to build a place like (Wynn Las Vegas).
Steve Wynn compares effort to outlaw online poker to Prohibition | Las Vegas Review-Journal
“I’m not sure as I stand here where online gaming is going,” Wynn said. “Within the state of New Jersey it’s legal. Its status in America is much in doubt.”
Wynn said Sheldon Adelson’s point that there is a lack of control with online gaming “resonates with a lot of people.”
Citing moral concerns, Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., created a group, the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, to push for legislation to ban online gaming in the United States.
The group also wants the FBI to study law-enforcement related issues. Adelson’s effort would also ban online gaming already underway in Nevada and Delaware.
New Jersey begins taking bets today. Other states are considering similar measures that would introduce online gaming,
“On the other hand, playing poker is America, and outlawing poker is like the Volstead Act where they outlawed beer,” Wynn told reporters in the Wynn Las Vegas atrium following the unveiling of two floral sculptures designed by Preston Bailey.
Wynn said you can outlaw online gaming but “people are going to do it anyway.” A recent survey by H2 Gambling Capital found illegal online gambling generated $2.6 billion last year in the United States.
“I think it’s questionable whether Sheldon will be able to stop it, which is not to say he is wrong,” Wynn said. “I just think this sort of thing has a life of its own. I‘m neither a proponent nor opponent of it. I’m an observer of this process and the chairman of a publicly traded company that is required to pay attention to such things.”
Wynn said his Las Vegas-based gaming company has “put their toes in the water” when it comes to Internet gaming by teaming with Caesars Entertainment Corp. in New Jersey. He said his company will “stay in the game.”
“I’m not the leader of this parade, “Wynn said. “The Harrah’s … Caesar’s people are because they’ve got the World Series of Poker. I know Gary Loveman (chairman and CEO of Caesars) believes in this as strongly as Sheldon opposes it.” Wynn believes that neither Sheldon Adelson nor Gary Loveman will make the final decision on the legality of online gaming, but “everybody is going to try to influence the outcome.”
Although he understood the interest in online gaming, Wynn said his company’s focus is on proceeding with building a $1.5 billion resort in Everett, Mass.
“We’ll be in Boston,” Wynn said. “That process is underway. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Wynn’s Everett proposal is the only project in the eastern part of the state to be approved by voters. Voters in Milford and East Boston recently rejected rival proposals. MGM Resorts International’s Springfield, Mass., plan is alone in the western part of the state.
But Wynn has a couple of weeks to find out if it has passed a state background check. The extensive process derailed Caesars Entertainment’s deal with Suffolk Downs in East Boston; concerns were raised over a licensing deal with a separate company that was partly owned by a businessman with alleged Russian mob ties.
“It takes a partnership with a very savvy, sophisticated government,” Wynn said. “You can’t do it without both parties being on the same page. So … we are in Massachusetts to help educate everybody and show them what it takes to build a place like (Wynn Las Vegas).
Steve Wynn compares effort to outlaw online poker to Prohibition | Las Vegas Review-Journal
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I fully support the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) in its attempts to lobby Congress and state legislatures to legalize and regulate online poker. The PPA is, in my opinion, the best lobbying group available to online poker players.
I do not always agree with the actions taken by the PPA. I typically agree to disagree when this occurs. We are all in this fight together. An unusual circumstance has presented itself and I feel that it is time to speak.
PPA vs Las Vegas Sands
The PPA is fighting Sheldon Adelson’s attack against online gambling. I respect Adelson’s right to speak his mind. I am willing to grant him the benefit of the doubt there, even if I am suspect of his motives.
The PPA seems fixated on the fact that Cantor Gaming, a Venetian and Palazzo tenant, offers mobile sports betting to anyone in Nevada, as well as casino games to guests located at Venetian and Palazzo.
A page on Venetian’s website is titled “Mobile Gaming by Cantor”. That page advertises ways to gamble on casino games through a mobile device within the properties served by Cantor Gaming. The Palazzo website displays a similar page.
I completely agree that this is a great way to portray Sheldon Adelson as a hypocrite since Cantor Gaming leases space from his company. On the other hand, I feel that the online poker movement should not be forcing one of our allies into a corner that may affect the company’s business.
PPA Position
The PPA asserts that since Adelson and his company leases space to Cantor Gaming, his company Las Vegas Sands is a hypocrite for supporting a ban on Internet gambling. Presumably, Las Vegas Sands, the parent company of Venetian and Palazzo, receives commission through a lease agreement with Cantor Gaming. Maybe they do, but in my opinion, that is irrelevant.
To the best of my knowledge, Las Vegas Sands has no entry in its most recent 10-Q for sports betting or Cantor Gaming revenue. They are no more of a tenant than a restaurant or sundries store.
Cantor Gaming appears to be on the side of those wanting to see gaming expand to the Internet and mobile devices. If that is not the case, they are certainly not the enemy. It seems apparent to me that Cantor Gaming is a friend of the online poker industry and its expansion.
If the online poker movement attacks the relationship between Cantor Gaming and Las Vegas Sands then the most likely outcome would be an in-fight between the two companies. That does not help the cause at all. It may even cause bad blood between two groups that should be on the same side.
Why Instigate a Fight Between Our Ally and Adversary?
Cantor Gaming is a friend to online poker. The company obviously embraces advances in online gaming. Sports bettors in Nevada are able to wager on mobile devices anywhere in the state through the Cantor Gaming app. Tourists can wager on dozens of games offered by Cantor Gaming through partner properties. This product might be the next innovation for the industry as we wait to find complete regulation.
Cantor Gaming may cut a check each month to Las Vegas Sands, but that does not make them our foe. At the very least, the company should be given the opportunity to pick a side before we pit them against our enemy.
Including Cantor Gaming in Adelson Fight is Not the Answer for Online Poker Movement |
I do not always agree with the actions taken by the PPA. I typically agree to disagree when this occurs. We are all in this fight together. An unusual circumstance has presented itself and I feel that it is time to speak.
PPA vs Las Vegas Sands
The PPA is fighting Sheldon Adelson’s attack against online gambling. I respect Adelson’s right to speak his mind. I am willing to grant him the benefit of the doubt there, even if I am suspect of his motives.
The PPA seems fixated on the fact that Cantor Gaming, a Venetian and Palazzo tenant, offers mobile sports betting to anyone in Nevada, as well as casino games to guests located at Venetian and Palazzo.
A page on Venetian’s website is titled “Mobile Gaming by Cantor”. That page advertises ways to gamble on casino games through a mobile device within the properties served by Cantor Gaming. The Palazzo website displays a similar page.
I completely agree that this is a great way to portray Sheldon Adelson as a hypocrite since Cantor Gaming leases space from his company. On the other hand, I feel that the online poker movement should not be forcing one of our allies into a corner that may affect the company’s business.
PPA Position
The PPA asserts that since Adelson and his company leases space to Cantor Gaming, his company Las Vegas Sands is a hypocrite for supporting a ban on Internet gambling. Presumably, Las Vegas Sands, the parent company of Venetian and Palazzo, receives commission through a lease agreement with Cantor Gaming. Maybe they do, but in my opinion, that is irrelevant.
To the best of my knowledge, Las Vegas Sands has no entry in its most recent 10-Q for sports betting or Cantor Gaming revenue. They are no more of a tenant than a restaurant or sundries store.
Cantor Gaming appears to be on the side of those wanting to see gaming expand to the Internet and mobile devices. If that is not the case, they are certainly not the enemy. It seems apparent to me that Cantor Gaming is a friend of the online poker industry and its expansion.
If the online poker movement attacks the relationship between Cantor Gaming and Las Vegas Sands then the most likely outcome would be an in-fight between the two companies. That does not help the cause at all. It may even cause bad blood between two groups that should be on the same side.
Why Instigate a Fight Between Our Ally and Adversary?
Cantor Gaming is a friend to online poker. The company obviously embraces advances in online gaming. Sports bettors in Nevada are able to wager on mobile devices anywhere in the state through the Cantor Gaming app. Tourists can wager on dozens of games offered by Cantor Gaming through partner properties. This product might be the next innovation for the industry as we wait to find complete regulation.
Cantor Gaming may cut a check each month to Las Vegas Sands, but that does not make them our foe. At the very least, the company should be given the opportunity to pick a side before we pit them against our enemy.
Including Cantor Gaming in Adelson Fight is Not the Answer for Online Poker Movement |
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Since this time last year, overall Poker traffic has gone down by around 15%, but in recent weeks that trend has been reversed. Cash game numbers have risen some 1% in the last week, and that follows three weeks of continued increases, with some sites doing better than others. PokerStars, Bodog/Bovada, and 888Poker have all gained significant numbers of players in the last year, which is an impressive achievement in a slower market. However, some of these figures may not stand up to closer examination, as Bodog/Bovada remove tables once they have enough players at them, making it difficult to precisely track how many people are online at any one time.
The top site remains PokerStars, with Full Tilt in second place, having a seven day average of some 2,600 players online.
In the USA, where only a couple of states regulate online Poker, traffic is still rising slightly. In Delaware, where the state launched online gambling on 8th November, traffic has gone from a high of 64 players, to an average of just 14, leading to speculation that Delaware will join up their Casino and Poker sites with Nevada, where numbers are greater.
The situation in Nevada itself is that WSOP remains the biggest site, with Ultimate Poker somewhat behind. Other sites may soon be allowed to operate here, although that means that each one will have fewer and fewer players each.
New Jersey is due to launch regulated online gambling later this week, and this is a more populous state that could dramatically improve the Casino and Poker traffic situation, especially if it is a success that leads to other states relaxing their rules.
Online Poker Sites Continue To Grow - The Headlines - Onlinecasinoreports-com
The top site remains PokerStars, with Full Tilt in second place, having a seven day average of some 2,600 players online.
In the USA, where only a couple of states regulate online Poker, traffic is still rising slightly. In Delaware, where the state launched online gambling on 8th November, traffic has gone from a high of 64 players, to an average of just 14, leading to speculation that Delaware will join up their Casino and Poker sites with Nevada, where numbers are greater.
The situation in Nevada itself is that WSOP remains the biggest site, with Ultimate Poker somewhat behind. Other sites may soon be allowed to operate here, although that means that each one will have fewer and fewer players each.
New Jersey is due to launch regulated online gambling later this week, and this is a more populous state that could dramatically improve the Casino and Poker traffic situation, especially if it is a success that leads to other states relaxing their rules.
Online Poker Sites Continue To Grow - The Headlines - Onlinecasinoreports-com
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Most poker players are in the game basically for a good time and with some skill and some luck poker will do the job. While the idea of winning big money is on every player’s mind there are high stakes games that you need a fortune to participate in.
Poker tournaments can be the way to fame and fortune with the possibility of a win that changes the life of the player. The tournaments were for high stakes traditionally and that concept has been transferred to the online poker experience.
The recreational poker player has become the mainstay of many internet poker sites and as per the tradition the buy in is usually beyond the financial reach of everyone except the well healed professionals, wealthy amateurs, and those who have earned enough to make the cut.
There are more micro-stakes players than any other category when it comes to players online. The industry is finally waking up to that fact.
The MicroMillions series at Poker Stars has run every four months for two years now and every time the tournament is operated it gains more traction. The latest edition of the MicroMillions #6 is a poker player’s dream with a massive variety of poker games available. There are 100 events over a short 11 days with most tournaments costing no more than eleven dollars with the exception of the twenty two dollar Main Event. The tournaments give the recreational player something to write home about.
The variations are a diversion from the typical grind and recreational players are taking home nice sums of cash after playing games they have never played before. This is a win, win for the casual tournament poker player with an inexpensive opportunity to try something new as well as the possibility of taking home relatively big money as a superior return on a small investment. This kind of fun is what the everyday poker player is truly looking for in the game and it keeps the poker player coming back for more.
Micro-Stakes Online Poker Gaining Momentum
Poker tournaments can be the way to fame and fortune with the possibility of a win that changes the life of the player. The tournaments were for high stakes traditionally and that concept has been transferred to the online poker experience.
The recreational poker player has become the mainstay of many internet poker sites and as per the tradition the buy in is usually beyond the financial reach of everyone except the well healed professionals, wealthy amateurs, and those who have earned enough to make the cut.
There are more micro-stakes players than any other category when it comes to players online. The industry is finally waking up to that fact.
The MicroMillions series at Poker Stars has run every four months for two years now and every time the tournament is operated it gains more traction. The latest edition of the MicroMillions #6 is a poker player’s dream with a massive variety of poker games available. There are 100 events over a short 11 days with most tournaments costing no more than eleven dollars with the exception of the twenty two dollar Main Event. The tournaments give the recreational player something to write home about.
The variations are a diversion from the typical grind and recreational players are taking home nice sums of cash after playing games they have never played before. This is a win, win for the casual tournament poker player with an inexpensive opportunity to try something new as well as the possibility of taking home relatively big money as a superior return on a small investment. This kind of fun is what the everyday poker player is truly looking for in the game and it keeps the poker player coming back for more.
Micro-Stakes Online Poker Gaining Momentum
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Currently there are several Online Poker bills pending before the United States Congress. There is the bill introduced by Rep. Peter King (R-NY), which is limited to legalizing online poker and contains provisions allowing greater participation from state lotteries. Another pending bill, sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), also only authorizes online poker, and not other casino games. Apart from this limitation, Rep. Barton’s bill is otherwise almost identical to the bill Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) introduced last year, which failed to gain any traction in the United States Senate.
New Online Poker Bill
The newest federal online bill was introduced last week by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) and is meant to coincide and be adopted alongside Rep. King’s bill. In essence, Rep. McDermott’s bill, entitled the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2013, proposes that online poker operators pay a mandatory tax of 12 cents on every dollar deposited with their sites by users. The tax money collected would be shared by the federal government and the state in which the user is playing online poker. Rep. McDermott’s new online poker bill is not the only one in the pipeline, and it is rumored that Senator Reid is drafting a new version of his failed online poker bill, which may be introduced shortly.
The State Race
The resurgence of interest in online poker legislation is not surprising. Earlier this year, Nevada and Delaware began accepting online poker wagers and New Jersey is poised to do the same on November 26th, 2013. These events may be providing federal lawmakers with a renewed sense of urgency to pass some form of federal legislation, rather than let the states create a patchwork of regulation. It remains to be seen how any prospective federal legislation will interact with state laws that have legalized online poker in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey.
The legislative process on the federal level, and the potential impact on applicable state laws, will be worth keeping an eye on for gambling attorneys and those interested in Internet poker law in general.
Newest federal online poker bill includes mandatory tax - Lexology
New Online Poker Bill
The newest federal online bill was introduced last week by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) and is meant to coincide and be adopted alongside Rep. King’s bill. In essence, Rep. McDermott’s bill, entitled the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2013, proposes that online poker operators pay a mandatory tax of 12 cents on every dollar deposited with their sites by users. The tax money collected would be shared by the federal government and the state in which the user is playing online poker. Rep. McDermott’s new online poker bill is not the only one in the pipeline, and it is rumored that Senator Reid is drafting a new version of his failed online poker bill, which may be introduced shortly.
The State Race
The resurgence of interest in online poker legislation is not surprising. Earlier this year, Nevada and Delaware began accepting online poker wagers and New Jersey is poised to do the same on November 26th, 2013. These events may be providing federal lawmakers with a renewed sense of urgency to pass some form of federal legislation, rather than let the states create a patchwork of regulation. It remains to be seen how any prospective federal legislation will interact with state laws that have legalized online poker in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey.
The legislative process on the federal level, and the potential impact on applicable state laws, will be worth keeping an eye on for gambling attorneys and those interested in Internet poker law in general.
Newest federal online poker bill includes mandatory tax - Lexology
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Earlier this summer, Sheldon Adelson told those nasty little Internet gaming punks to get off his lawn.
Now, he thinks they egged his house.
As payback, the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp. says he’ll put online gaming out of business forever in the United States.
Adelson, 80, who is ranked 11th on the Forbes 400 with a net worth of $28.5 billion, is opening his wallet to fight what he once dubbed “a toxin all good people should resist.”
He’s forming an advocacy group, the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling. He’s hiring Washington, D.C., lobbyists and public relations experts. He’s enlisting the help of former elected officials. Adelson is armed with a public opinion survey — directed by a noted Republican pollster — that says 67 percent of Americans oppose legalizing Internet gambling.
A public campaign showing online wagering as a danger to children, poor people and those with gambling addiction is being readied.
By the way, did we tell you that Adelson is the founder and 53 percent owner of Las Vegas Sands, which has casinos in Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, Macau and Singapore that produced more than $11 billion in revenue last year?
Adelson plans to take his anti-Internet gambling message to Congress and state capitals to quash any legalization efforts. But stopping online casino expansion isn’t enough. Adelson wants Congress to outlaw all Internet gaming.
For all of the millions of dollars he says he’ll spend on his campaign, Adelson will have as much success forcing a federal ban as a hand of ace high has versus a full house. He just isn’t holding the cards.
Internet gaming is not going away, no matter how much money Adelson throws at his new holy war.
Nevada and Delaware launched real money online gaming this year. New Jersey begins accepting Internet wagers Tuesday. At least a half-dozen other states, including California, Illinois and Pennsylvania, are considering Internet gaming legalization.
Other than Las Vegas Sands, the casino industry — for the most part — wants Internet gaming legalized and regulated.
American Gaming Association President Geoff Freeman said U.S. gamblers spent $3 billion in 2012 wagering online with “rogue offshore operators.” The prohibition Adelson advocates just won’t work.
“The Internet cannot be forced back into the bottle,” Freeman said.
The association, which has Las Vegas Sands as a member, supports “pragmatism and strong regulation of online gaming that protects consumers, prevents underage play, ensures the integrity of the games and empowers law enforcement,” Freeman said.
New Jersey lawmakers haven’t been as diplomatic.
With the state investing millions of dollars in this week’s launch and the business viewed as way of propping up the sagging Atlantic City casino industry, Adelson’s campaign wasn’t well received.
“If Sheldon Adelson wants to spend a lot of money shouting into the wind, fine,” Democratic state Sen. Jim Whelan told the Press of Atlantic City. “It’s a little hypocritical.”
On Capitol Hill, two Internet gaming bills were introduced this year. A companion bill that would tax federally sanctioned online wagering was put forward last week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is reportedly ready with his own legislation that would legalize Internet gaming.
But Congress can’t compromise on a lunch sandwich order, let alone agree on complex legislation. Adelson’s newest campaign against Internet wagering will only sideline some Republican members of Congress if the legislation actually comes up for a vote. They won’t risk getting sideways with Adelson and his checkbook as the 2014 elections fast approach.
In 2012, Adelson and his wife spent nearly $100 million to help Republican candidates across the country, to keep Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign alive and to back GOP nominee Mitt Romney. His lone success was the election of Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.
So Adelson is not opposed to throwing away money on politics, nor has he ever hidden his distaste for online gaming.
In a Forbes-com commentary in June Adelson called Internet gaming immoral, fool’s gold and a threat to society.
“Click your mouse and lose your house,” Adelson warned.
The commentary earned him scorn from other casino operators, the online gaming industry, and a brief boycott of The Venetian poker room by players.
This time, Adelson says he’s doing it for the children.
In reality, the online gaming business model doesn’t work for Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands, which derives 85 percent of its quarterly revenue from Macau and Singapore.
Spending millions on Internet gaming technology, acquiring the business expertise, and marketing an online product wouldn’t have the same return on investment as a new $2.5 billion resort in Macau.
Caesars Entertainment Corp., however, views Internet gaming legalization as the company’s own personal Macau. As owners of the World Series of Poker, the company owns the game’s best-known brand. Caesars plans to jump into Internet gaming opportunities as new states open their borders.
Caesars will fight Adelson’s anti-Internet gaming efforts every step of the way. So will MGM Resorts International, Boyd Gaming Corp. and even Station Casinos, which owns Ultimate Gaming.
“The Internet is the world we live in, and regulations protect the consumer,” Ultimate Gaming Chairman Tom Breitling said.
Adelson’s philosophy is simple. He has no reason to participate in online gaming. But if he’s not going to play, he wants to shut down the game for everyone else.
Howard Stutz: Adelson Faces Steep Odds in Campaign to Roll Back Internet Gambling
Now, he thinks they egged his house.
As payback, the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp. says he’ll put online gaming out of business forever in the United States.
Adelson, 80, who is ranked 11th on the Forbes 400 with a net worth of $28.5 billion, is opening his wallet to fight what he once dubbed “a toxin all good people should resist.”
He’s forming an advocacy group, the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling. He’s hiring Washington, D.C., lobbyists and public relations experts. He’s enlisting the help of former elected officials. Adelson is armed with a public opinion survey — directed by a noted Republican pollster — that says 67 percent of Americans oppose legalizing Internet gambling.
A public campaign showing online wagering as a danger to children, poor people and those with gambling addiction is being readied.
By the way, did we tell you that Adelson is the founder and 53 percent owner of Las Vegas Sands, which has casinos in Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, Macau and Singapore that produced more than $11 billion in revenue last year?
Adelson plans to take his anti-Internet gambling message to Congress and state capitals to quash any legalization efforts. But stopping online casino expansion isn’t enough. Adelson wants Congress to outlaw all Internet gaming.
For all of the millions of dollars he says he’ll spend on his campaign, Adelson will have as much success forcing a federal ban as a hand of ace high has versus a full house. He just isn’t holding the cards.
Internet gaming is not going away, no matter how much money Adelson throws at his new holy war.
Nevada and Delaware launched real money online gaming this year. New Jersey begins accepting Internet wagers Tuesday. At least a half-dozen other states, including California, Illinois and Pennsylvania, are considering Internet gaming legalization.
Other than Las Vegas Sands, the casino industry — for the most part — wants Internet gaming legalized and regulated.
American Gaming Association President Geoff Freeman said U.S. gamblers spent $3 billion in 2012 wagering online with “rogue offshore operators.” The prohibition Adelson advocates just won’t work.
“The Internet cannot be forced back into the bottle,” Freeman said.
The association, which has Las Vegas Sands as a member, supports “pragmatism and strong regulation of online gaming that protects consumers, prevents underage play, ensures the integrity of the games and empowers law enforcement,” Freeman said.
New Jersey lawmakers haven’t been as diplomatic.
With the state investing millions of dollars in this week’s launch and the business viewed as way of propping up the sagging Atlantic City casino industry, Adelson’s campaign wasn’t well received.
“If Sheldon Adelson wants to spend a lot of money shouting into the wind, fine,” Democratic state Sen. Jim Whelan told the Press of Atlantic City. “It’s a little hypocritical.”
On Capitol Hill, two Internet gaming bills were introduced this year. A companion bill that would tax federally sanctioned online wagering was put forward last week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is reportedly ready with his own legislation that would legalize Internet gaming.
But Congress can’t compromise on a lunch sandwich order, let alone agree on complex legislation. Adelson’s newest campaign against Internet wagering will only sideline some Republican members of Congress if the legislation actually comes up for a vote. They won’t risk getting sideways with Adelson and his checkbook as the 2014 elections fast approach.
In 2012, Adelson and his wife spent nearly $100 million to help Republican candidates across the country, to keep Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign alive and to back GOP nominee Mitt Romney. His lone success was the election of Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.
So Adelson is not opposed to throwing away money on politics, nor has he ever hidden his distaste for online gaming.
In a Forbes-com commentary in June Adelson called Internet gaming immoral, fool’s gold and a threat to society.
“Click your mouse and lose your house,” Adelson warned.
The commentary earned him scorn from other casino operators, the online gaming industry, and a brief boycott of The Venetian poker room by players.
This time, Adelson says he’s doing it for the children.
In reality, the online gaming business model doesn’t work for Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands, which derives 85 percent of its quarterly revenue from Macau and Singapore.
Spending millions on Internet gaming technology, acquiring the business expertise, and marketing an online product wouldn’t have the same return on investment as a new $2.5 billion resort in Macau.
Caesars Entertainment Corp., however, views Internet gaming legalization as the company’s own personal Macau. As owners of the World Series of Poker, the company owns the game’s best-known brand. Caesars plans to jump into Internet gaming opportunities as new states open their borders.
Caesars will fight Adelson’s anti-Internet gaming efforts every step of the way. So will MGM Resorts International, Boyd Gaming Corp. and even Station Casinos, which owns Ultimate Gaming.
“The Internet is the world we live in, and regulations protect the consumer,” Ultimate Gaming Chairman Tom Breitling said.
Adelson’s philosophy is simple. He has no reason to participate in online gaming. But if he’s not going to play, he wants to shut down the game for everyone else.
Howard Stutz: Adelson Faces Steep Odds in Campaign to Roll Back Internet Gambling
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2006/12/07
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29893
The life of a poker pro is never easy and as well as having to contend with a multitude of factors in order to gain an edge over your competitors, there also lurks the ever-present danger of wild variance combined with a soul crushing downswing.
Every poker player will have to contend with these facets of the game over their poker careers, but they are never pleasant and some may seem to go on forever with no end in sight. Casing point, US pro Bryan Devonshire had been carving out a lucrative career for himself, as one glimpse of his poker statistics would confirm.
From 2005 up until now Devonshire has won $2,115,160 playing live tournaments, and a further $696,405 online playing under the screen name Badbeatninja. However, Devonshire’s last cash online occurred back in February, 2009, and in the live arena he has won just $27,126 in 2013, so far.
Nevertheless, cash games have always been a poker pro’s mainstay, but on that score Bryan Devonshire is also having the worse downswing of his career and in the last 21 months has booked just one winning month. As the US pro mentioned recently in an article entitled “Bryan Devonshire: It Can Always Get Worse”:
“I’m neck deep in my fourth and greatest downswing of my decade-long professional career. I have won one out of the past 21 months, losing money on my 2012 tax returns, and losing every single month of 2013. By the end of 2012 it was approaching my worst downswing ever, so I moved way down in stakes, from $400-$800 to $30-$60, putting myself in the best game I knew of. In ten soul-crushing months since, I’ve had very few winning days, and have only been ahead for the month for about seven days this entire year. It has been extremely rattling both emotionally and financially, and I’m learning very clearly that things can always get worse. This weekend I moved down in stakes again and was rewarded with four straight losing days.”
In fact, things have been so woeful for Devonshire during his prolonged slump that as far back as May this year, he was already contemplating quitting the game altogether, explaining that he wasn’t having fun anymore.
Nonetheless, a few months on and it would seem Bryan Devonshire isn’t quite ready to make that decision yet, and instead in his latest article has been offering advise on how to survive a poker nightmare. Bryan’s suggestions include moving down in stakes, ignoring short-term results, and having something else in life besides poker.
All the same, it would seem that the talented pros poker career still remains very much in the balance, and as he concludes his piece by saying; “If I didn’t have other things going on in life, I would be on suicide watch. If poker was all I did, it would be really easy to fall into a deep, dark, depression, figuring everything to be pointless during one of these brutal downswings. If poker’s a hobby for you, then don’t play when it isn’t fun. And if poker is your job, then treat is as such, and do something else besides work. If you’re unhappy in your job, then you’re in the wrong job.”
Poker Pro Bryan Devonshire And His Horrific Downswing
Every poker player will have to contend with these facets of the game over their poker careers, but they are never pleasant and some may seem to go on forever with no end in sight. Casing point, US pro Bryan Devonshire had been carving out a lucrative career for himself, as one glimpse of his poker statistics would confirm.
From 2005 up until now Devonshire has won $2,115,160 playing live tournaments, and a further $696,405 online playing under the screen name Badbeatninja. However, Devonshire’s last cash online occurred back in February, 2009, and in the live arena he has won just $27,126 in 2013, so far.
Nevertheless, cash games have always been a poker pro’s mainstay, but on that score Bryan Devonshire is also having the worse downswing of his career and in the last 21 months has booked just one winning month. As the US pro mentioned recently in an article entitled “Bryan Devonshire: It Can Always Get Worse”:
“I’m neck deep in my fourth and greatest downswing of my decade-long professional career. I have won one out of the past 21 months, losing money on my 2012 tax returns, and losing every single month of 2013. By the end of 2012 it was approaching my worst downswing ever, so I moved way down in stakes, from $400-$800 to $30-$60, putting myself in the best game I knew of. In ten soul-crushing months since, I’ve had very few winning days, and have only been ahead for the month for about seven days this entire year. It has been extremely rattling both emotionally and financially, and I’m learning very clearly that things can always get worse. This weekend I moved down in stakes again and was rewarded with four straight losing days.”
In fact, things have been so woeful for Devonshire during his prolonged slump that as far back as May this year, he was already contemplating quitting the game altogether, explaining that he wasn’t having fun anymore.
Nonetheless, a few months on and it would seem Bryan Devonshire isn’t quite ready to make that decision yet, and instead in his latest article has been offering advise on how to survive a poker nightmare. Bryan’s suggestions include moving down in stakes, ignoring short-term results, and having something else in life besides poker.
All the same, it would seem that the talented pros poker career still remains very much in the balance, and as he concludes his piece by saying; “If I didn’t have other things going on in life, I would be on suicide watch. If poker was all I did, it would be really easy to fall into a deep, dark, depression, figuring everything to be pointless during one of these brutal downswings. If poker’s a hobby for you, then don’t play when it isn’t fun. And if poker is your job, then treat is as such, and do something else besides work. If you’re unhappy in your job, then you’re in the wrong job.”
Poker Pro Bryan Devonshire And His Horrific Downswing
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2006/12/07
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In addition to the usual holiday traditions, gamblers found time to create 5,000 new Internet betting accounts on Thanksgiving.
Since a test of online betting began in New Jersey on Nov. 21, the state Division of Gaming Enforcement says 32,277 accounts had been created as of Thursday. About 5,000 of those accounts were added on Thursday.
Regulators could not immediately say how many different gamblers actually made bets online. Some users have created accounts with more than one gambling site.
Full statewide Internet gambling began Monday afternoon in New Jersey.
It marks the biggest expansion of gambling in New Jersey since the first Atlantic City casino opened in 1978.
New Jersey is the third state in the nation to offer online gambling, after Nevada and Delaware.
New Jersey lets gamblers play any of the games offered in its 12 casinos including card games and slots.
Matthew Pineault of Ridgewood in Bergen County, has enjoyed playing online poker with several sites, but said he favors the World Series of Poker site run by Caesars Entertainment — a site that drew praise from many players during its first week of operation.
“I haven’t had the time I would like to play, but turned my $250 deposit into almost $1,200,” he said. “I requested a cash-out of my original deposit ($250) and that went fairly seamlessly. I had to send them a copy of my bank statement, but they were willing to accept a picture and that was easier for me. I still haven’t seen the funds but it’s only been 3 days, so no concerns yet. “
Six Atlantic City casinos — the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa; the Tropicana Casino and Resort; Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino; the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort; Bally’s Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City — were the first to be approved for online gambling in New Jersey. The Golden Nugget Atlantic City decided to wait a week to launch its online betting while it works out last-minute problems with some systems.
37K accounts set up for NJ Internet gambling
Since a test of online betting began in New Jersey on Nov. 21, the state Division of Gaming Enforcement says 32,277 accounts had been created as of Thursday. About 5,000 of those accounts were added on Thursday.
Regulators could not immediately say how many different gamblers actually made bets online. Some users have created accounts with more than one gambling site.
Full statewide Internet gambling began Monday afternoon in New Jersey.
It marks the biggest expansion of gambling in New Jersey since the first Atlantic City casino opened in 1978.
New Jersey is the third state in the nation to offer online gambling, after Nevada and Delaware.
New Jersey lets gamblers play any of the games offered in its 12 casinos including card games and slots.
Matthew Pineault of Ridgewood in Bergen County, has enjoyed playing online poker with several sites, but said he favors the World Series of Poker site run by Caesars Entertainment — a site that drew praise from many players during its first week of operation.
“I haven’t had the time I would like to play, but turned my $250 deposit into almost $1,200,” he said. “I requested a cash-out of my original deposit ($250) and that went fairly seamlessly. I had to send them a copy of my bank statement, but they were willing to accept a picture and that was easier for me. I still haven’t seen the funds but it’s only been 3 days, so no concerns yet. “
Six Atlantic City casinos — the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa; the Tropicana Casino and Resort; Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino; the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort; Bally’s Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City — were the first to be approved for online gambling in New Jersey. The Golden Nugget Atlantic City decided to wait a week to launch its online betting while it works out last-minute problems with some systems.
37K accounts set up for NJ Internet gambling
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2006/12/07
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29893
Selling online poker isn’t particularly difficult. People like to play poker, but not as much as they like not having to put on pants and leave the house.
Put those things together and there almost isn’t even a need to advertise. But as soon as one guy advertises everyone else has to do the same, making it important to stand out from the crowd.
Aside from the “hot chicks” and “you can win a lot of money” strategies, the most popular method during online poker’s early years was using poker pros to sell the product.
Planet Poker
The first online poker site was also the first one to have a poker pro on board as a sponsor. The original Planet Poker was endorsed by two poker pros, and their bios were appropriately old-school given the nascence of the online industry.
Mike Caro, the “Mad Genius of Poker,” was the author of The Book Of Tells and a co-author of Doyle Brunson’s original Super System.
Roy Cooke, best known for his column in Card Player magazine, was a former rounder and limit hold’em specialist who had played with the old-time Texas and Vegas greats and wrote books published by ConJelCo and Mike Caro University Press.
They weren’t exactly cutting-edge, but Caro and Cooke did help to lend some credibility among live poker players to the idea of playing poker on a computer for real money.
UltimateBet
Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke were early endorsers of UltimateBet, another of the earliest sites. Hellmuth was already an eight-time WSOP bracelet winner by that point, making him one of the four most successful players in Series history, while Duke, who finished 10th at the 2000 WSOP Main Event, was one of the game’s handful of recognizable women (not to mention younger than the others and thus, for better or worse, more appealing to the target audience).
Both got a lot of airtime from ESPN once the boom began thanks to their brash personalities, which in turn became a big selling point in UB’s marketing. (The “bad boy” aspect of site founder/former WSOP Main Event winner/future cheater Russ Hamilton hadn’t yet become UB’s marketing nightmare.)
PokerStars
The world’s largest online poker room is well-known these days for its Team PokerStars Pro lineup of grinders from around the globe.
But the team got its start almost by accident in 2003 when amateur Chris Moneymaker won a WSOP Main Event satellite on the site and then went on to win the biggest prize in tournament poker. Signing him to endorse the site was a no-brainer.
The next two world champions, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem, also signed on with Stars, creating the earliest iteration of Team PokerStars and pushing the site’s marketing department into an obvious slogan: “Where Champions Play.”
The idea of the team pros as aspirational models later proved useful to PokerStars’ expansion into emerging markets in Latin America and Eastern Europe, adding local players who had shown some promise and giving their countrymen someone to identify with.
Doyle’s Room
If having the new champion endorse a site was enough to draw players, branding a site with the game’s greatest living player had to be even better. That was the idea behind Doyle’s Room, which launched in 2004 with the full endorsement of Doyle Brunson.
Brunson played on the site regularly, particularly in special tournaments with a bounty on his head. Those tourneys often featured other members of Brunson’s poker circle, like his son Todd or old friend Mike Caro, or poker celebrities of the moment.
It was a draw for some players, and it did spawn some later imitators like Phil Laak’s Unabomber Poker, but the site never grew too large.
Full Tilt Poker
Team Full Tilt changed the marketing of online poker overnight. Even though Full Tilt’s number-one strength was its software, the ads for the site never even mentioned it.
Instead they focused on the stylish presentation of Team Full Tilt, a collection of nine recognizable and accomplished pros: Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Erik Seidel, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, and Clonie Gowen.
These players all played regularly on the site, even at small-stakes tables, and provided aspirational models for the legions of players who signed up to “Play With The Pros.”
The rollout of Full Tilt met with great success. It did marketing so much bigger and better than the competition that soon having a stable of pros became the de facto strategy for selling online poker to the masses.
The only site that didn’t have to follow the same route was Party Poker, which controlled more than 40 percent of the global market with nothing more than ubiquitous advertising featuring its pitchman, WPT host (and, later, 2009 inductee to the Poker Hall of Fame) Mike Sexton. Everyone else had to slick up to keep up.
UIGEA
The passage of UIGEA shrank the number of participants in the American market, meaning there were more potential dollars per site up for grabs than there had been when Party was the biggest game in town.
Even with PokerStars and Full Tilt gobbling up most of those dollars, smaller operators still saw a chance to grow their market share and jumped on it by doubling down on the pro-based marketing strategy.
Full Tilt’s own stable of “red pros” grew into the hundreds, and tiny upstarts like Victory Poker emulated the old Full Tilt formula by signing legions of their own. But with so many more pros than there were back in the early days, each one was worth less than ever. It was an unsustainable model.
Black Friday
The end of the line for the pro strategy was Black Friday. If players can’t withdraw their winnings they might as well be playing with Zynga chips, and no amount of pro endorsement will get somebody to make a deposit.
Some sites kept going with the strategy to cover up death spirals, and PokerStars kept its pro team alive because it has enough money to operate a small nation, but otherwise the days of the poker pro were
Put those things together and there almost isn’t even a need to advertise. But as soon as one guy advertises everyone else has to do the same, making it important to stand out from the crowd.
Aside from the “hot chicks” and “you can win a lot of money” strategies, the most popular method during online poker’s early years was using poker pros to sell the product.
Planet Poker
The first online poker site was also the first one to have a poker pro on board as a sponsor. The original Planet Poker was endorsed by two poker pros, and their bios were appropriately old-school given the nascence of the online industry.
Mike Caro, the “Mad Genius of Poker,” was the author of The Book Of Tells and a co-author of Doyle Brunson’s original Super System.
Roy Cooke, best known for his column in Card Player magazine, was a former rounder and limit hold’em specialist who had played with the old-time Texas and Vegas greats and wrote books published by ConJelCo and Mike Caro University Press.
They weren’t exactly cutting-edge, but Caro and Cooke did help to lend some credibility among live poker players to the idea of playing poker on a computer for real money.
UltimateBet
Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke were early endorsers of UltimateBet, another of the earliest sites. Hellmuth was already an eight-time WSOP bracelet winner by that point, making him one of the four most successful players in Series history, while Duke, who finished 10th at the 2000 WSOP Main Event, was one of the game’s handful of recognizable women (not to mention younger than the others and thus, for better or worse, more appealing to the target audience).
Both got a lot of airtime from ESPN once the boom began thanks to their brash personalities, which in turn became a big selling point in UB’s marketing. (The “bad boy” aspect of site founder/former WSOP Main Event winner/future cheater Russ Hamilton hadn’t yet become UB’s marketing nightmare.)
PokerStars
The world’s largest online poker room is well-known these days for its Team PokerStars Pro lineup of grinders from around the globe.
But the team got its start almost by accident in 2003 when amateur Chris Moneymaker won a WSOP Main Event satellite on the site and then went on to win the biggest prize in tournament poker. Signing him to endorse the site was a no-brainer.
The next two world champions, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem, also signed on with Stars, creating the earliest iteration of Team PokerStars and pushing the site’s marketing department into an obvious slogan: “Where Champions Play.”
The idea of the team pros as aspirational models later proved useful to PokerStars’ expansion into emerging markets in Latin America and Eastern Europe, adding local players who had shown some promise and giving their countrymen someone to identify with.
Doyle’s Room
If having the new champion endorse a site was enough to draw players, branding a site with the game’s greatest living player had to be even better. That was the idea behind Doyle’s Room, which launched in 2004 with the full endorsement of Doyle Brunson.
Brunson played on the site regularly, particularly in special tournaments with a bounty on his head. Those tourneys often featured other members of Brunson’s poker circle, like his son Todd or old friend Mike Caro, or poker celebrities of the moment.
It was a draw for some players, and it did spawn some later imitators like Phil Laak’s Unabomber Poker, but the site never grew too large.
Full Tilt Poker
Team Full Tilt changed the marketing of online poker overnight. Even though Full Tilt’s number-one strength was its software, the ads for the site never even mentioned it.
Instead they focused on the stylish presentation of Team Full Tilt, a collection of nine recognizable and accomplished pros: Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Erik Seidel, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, and Clonie Gowen.
These players all played regularly on the site, even at small-stakes tables, and provided aspirational models for the legions of players who signed up to “Play With The Pros.”
The rollout of Full Tilt met with great success. It did marketing so much bigger and better than the competition that soon having a stable of pros became the de facto strategy for selling online poker to the masses.
The only site that didn’t have to follow the same route was Party Poker, which controlled more than 40 percent of the global market with nothing more than ubiquitous advertising featuring its pitchman, WPT host (and, later, 2009 inductee to the Poker Hall of Fame) Mike Sexton. Everyone else had to slick up to keep up.
UIGEA
The passage of UIGEA shrank the number of participants in the American market, meaning there were more potential dollars per site up for grabs than there had been when Party was the biggest game in town.
Even with PokerStars and Full Tilt gobbling up most of those dollars, smaller operators still saw a chance to grow their market share and jumped on it by doubling down on the pro-based marketing strategy.
Full Tilt’s own stable of “red pros” grew into the hundreds, and tiny upstarts like Victory Poker emulated the old Full Tilt formula by signing legions of their own. But with so many more pros than there were back in the early days, each one was worth less than ever. It was an unsustainable model.
Black Friday
The end of the line for the pro strategy was Black Friday. If players can’t withdraw their winnings they might as well be playing with Zynga chips, and no amount of pro endorsement will get somebody to make a deposit.
Some sites kept going with the strategy to cover up death spirals, and PokerStars kept its pro team alive because it has enough money to operate a small nation, but otherwise the days of the poker pro were
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2006/12/07
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29893
After a successful rollout of online gambling, will New Jersey’s success be the tipping point that forces other state legislatures to pass online gambling bills of their own? Or perhaps even the federal legislation?
Keep reading to find out.
Nevada and Delaware never had a chance
Nevada and Delaware may have beaten New Jersey to the punch, but there was nobody in the poker industry (nobody in their right mind anyway) who thought that either of these two sparsely populated states would be able to demonstrate to other states the potential windfall online poker/gambling could provide.
The real hope with Nevada and Delaware was that the commencement of their online gambling industries wouldn’t be an absolute disaster and that they could lay the foundation other states could build on.
It’s not that Nevada and Delaware did anything wrong. In fact both of those states performed their jobs admirably.
The problem is that they simply don’t have the player base to sustain a legitimate online poker industry.
While their lightly populated online poker sites will make a little bit of money, the greater goal of both states all along has been to join forces with other states using the network model that has been prevalent in the international online poker industry for years to increase their liquidity. And hopefully by being “first in”, they will gain a slight upper hand in negotiations with other states.
So Nevada and Delaware need dance partners. But until they demonstrate that online poker and online gambling websites were potential cash cows their dance card was going to remain empty, leaving them in a Catch-22 situation.
But New Jersey and its 8.8 million residents was a different matter. More was expected.
Along came New Jersey
New Jersey has the population to sustain its own online poker economy, and while the state would love to join forces with other states and pool their players, this is not the absolute necessity that it is in Nevada and Delaware.
New Jersey also has the capability to show other states the potential of online poker revenue, as long as their industry thrives.
So how is it doing? Just a week into their launch – and only days into their full public launch – New Jersey online poker traffic has already exceeded Delaware (not a difficult task) and is approaching Nevada’s numbers according to PokerScout-com’s traffic data:
Average daily cash-game traffic at Ultimate Poker and WSOP-com Nevada = 200 players
Average daily cash-game traffic at 888 Delaware = 18 players
Average daily cash-game traffic at the four NJ online poker rooms = 150 players
It’s pretty clear that when it comes to a model other states would like to emulate it will be New Jersey they look to. And if New Jersey’s online gambling continues to grow as it is expected to, you can bet other states and the federal government will start to pay attention.
What will it take for other states to take notice?
New Jersey will have to demonstrate two main things to prompt other state legislatures to take action:
#1 – That online poker/gambling is popular and fairly noncontroversial.
#2 – That online gambling can produce a noticeable revenue stream for the state.
As to point number one, we have seen a good deal of buzz surrounding New Jersey’s online gambling launch.
And other than the random cannonades issued from the SS Sheldon Adelson, opposition to online gambling has been relatively quiet. In fact, the coverage of New Jersey online gambling industry has been mainly optimistic from the outset.
Point number two is a little trickier, and it will likely take a good six months and probably longer before we have anything close to full saturation of the market and reliable revenue data to look at.
To be where it needs to be to bolster online gambling efforts in other states, New Jersey will likely need to see average traffic near 1,000 players.
If New Jersey can demonstrate that both of these things are not only possible, but attainable in a relatively short amount of time, we will likely have reached a tipping point in the U.S. when it comes to online poker and online gambling.
Not only would I expect more and more states to adopt their own online gambling laws, but at some point the federal government might also step in and we could potentially realize the long-held dream of legal online poker in the US with open borders that possibly extend overseas.
The effect on land-based casinos
There is also a third point to consider, one specifically aimed at California and a few other states that have flirted with Internet gaming legislation but have pulled back on the reigns over fears of decimating their land based casino industry.
#3 – Online gambling will have zero impact on live gambling revenue.
New Jersey is in the unique situation of having a long-established land-based casino industry, so if the Garden State can show that their online gambling industry doesn’t affect their land-based casino industry (or potentially helps it) then opponents of online gambling legislation in states like California, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland would lose a key argument against regulation.
What Impact Will NJ's New Online Betting Market Have on Other States?
Keep reading to find out.
Nevada and Delaware never had a chance
Nevada and Delaware may have beaten New Jersey to the punch, but there was nobody in the poker industry (nobody in their right mind anyway) who thought that either of these two sparsely populated states would be able to demonstrate to other states the potential windfall online poker/gambling could provide.
The real hope with Nevada and Delaware was that the commencement of their online gambling industries wouldn’t be an absolute disaster and that they could lay the foundation other states could build on.
It’s not that Nevada and Delaware did anything wrong. In fact both of those states performed their jobs admirably.
The problem is that they simply don’t have the player base to sustain a legitimate online poker industry.
While their lightly populated online poker sites will make a little bit of money, the greater goal of both states all along has been to join forces with other states using the network model that has been prevalent in the international online poker industry for years to increase their liquidity. And hopefully by being “first in”, they will gain a slight upper hand in negotiations with other states.
So Nevada and Delaware need dance partners. But until they demonstrate that online poker and online gambling websites were potential cash cows their dance card was going to remain empty, leaving them in a Catch-22 situation.
But New Jersey and its 8.8 million residents was a different matter. More was expected.
Along came New Jersey
New Jersey has the population to sustain its own online poker economy, and while the state would love to join forces with other states and pool their players, this is not the absolute necessity that it is in Nevada and Delaware.
New Jersey also has the capability to show other states the potential of online poker revenue, as long as their industry thrives.
So how is it doing? Just a week into their launch – and only days into their full public launch – New Jersey online poker traffic has already exceeded Delaware (not a difficult task) and is approaching Nevada’s numbers according to PokerScout-com’s traffic data:
Average daily cash-game traffic at Ultimate Poker and WSOP-com Nevada = 200 players
Average daily cash-game traffic at 888 Delaware = 18 players
Average daily cash-game traffic at the four NJ online poker rooms = 150 players
It’s pretty clear that when it comes to a model other states would like to emulate it will be New Jersey they look to. And if New Jersey’s online gambling continues to grow as it is expected to, you can bet other states and the federal government will start to pay attention.
What will it take for other states to take notice?
New Jersey will have to demonstrate two main things to prompt other state legislatures to take action:
#1 – That online poker/gambling is popular and fairly noncontroversial.
#2 – That online gambling can produce a noticeable revenue stream for the state.
As to point number one, we have seen a good deal of buzz surrounding New Jersey’s online gambling launch.
And other than the random cannonades issued from the SS Sheldon Adelson, opposition to online gambling has been relatively quiet. In fact, the coverage of New Jersey online gambling industry has been mainly optimistic from the outset.
Point number two is a little trickier, and it will likely take a good six months and probably longer before we have anything close to full saturation of the market and reliable revenue data to look at.
To be where it needs to be to bolster online gambling efforts in other states, New Jersey will likely need to see average traffic near 1,000 players.
If New Jersey can demonstrate that both of these things are not only possible, but attainable in a relatively short amount of time, we will likely have reached a tipping point in the U.S. when it comes to online poker and online gambling.
Not only would I expect more and more states to adopt their own online gambling laws, but at some point the federal government might also step in and we could potentially realize the long-held dream of legal online poker in the US with open borders that possibly extend overseas.
The effect on land-based casinos
There is also a third point to consider, one specifically aimed at California and a few other states that have flirted with Internet gaming legislation but have pulled back on the reigns over fears of decimating their land based casino industry.
#3 – Online gambling will have zero impact on live gambling revenue.
New Jersey is in the unique situation of having a long-established land-based casino industry, so if the Garden State can show that their online gambling industry doesn’t affect their land-based casino industry (or potentially helps it) then opponents of online gambling legislation in states like California, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland would lose a key argument against regulation.
What Impact Will NJ's New Online Betting Market Have on Other States?
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2006/12/07
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There are five New Jersey poker sites with VIP programs. Some only give straight cash based on rake. Others include options to exchange points for a higher return in tournament tickets and offer VIP freerolls. Cash game players tend to rake more than tournament players. This makes tournament tickets less desirable to those players. Freerolls, which usually add less than 1% in rakeback, are also less attractive to cash game players.
USPoker compiled New Jersey online poker VIP details in an earlier post. We based all of the numbers on cash returned to players with the estimated rakeback percent. These numbers do not include the return on freerolls or tournament tickets. Neither do the ones in the comparisons below.
Best VIP Program Based on Return at Different Rake Amounts
The following rake numbers are based on the amount paid during a month. The sites are ranked in order of best return to worst return.
$50 Monthly Rake
Betfair $3.50
Ultimate Poker $3.35
Party Poker $3
Borgata $.50
WSOP $0
$100 Monthly Rake
Betfair $8
WSOP $8
Ultimate Poker $7.20
Party Poker $6
Borgata $2
$250 Monthly Rake
WSOP $25
Ultimate Poker $24.50
Betfair $22.50
Party Poker $17.50
Borgata $5
$500 Monthly Rake
Ultimate Poker $61
Betfair $50
WSOP $50
Party Poker $40
Borgata $15
$1000 Monthly Rake
Ultimate Poker $162
Betfair $120
WSOP $120
Party Poker $80
Borgata $30
$2000 Monthly Rake
Betfair $400
Ultimate Poker $389
WSOP $300
Party Poker $160
Borgata $60
$3000 Monthly Rake
Betfair $600
WSOP $600
Ultimate Poker $584
Party Poker $240
Borgata $90
$5000 Monthly Rake
Betfair $1000
WSOP $1000
Ultimate Poker $973
Party Poker $400
Borgata $150
Comparison Notes
Party Poker Palladium players will receive double the return when exchanging points for tournament tickets instead of bonuses. Ultimate Poker returns at $1,000 or more are the minimum possible number. Returns may be higher depending on whether the player falls under Cranberry or Gold, and whether a milestone bonus was obtained.
More to Choosing a Site than Rakeback
VIP rewards should not be the only item to consider when choosing a site. The game quality, game selection, software, cashout speeds and support are also important. Make sure to find the site that best suits your needs. VIP information should be used to help break a tie, not as the sole reason to play at any site.
Which New Jersey Online Poker VIP Program is Best for You? |
USPoker compiled New Jersey online poker VIP details in an earlier post. We based all of the numbers on cash returned to players with the estimated rakeback percent. These numbers do not include the return on freerolls or tournament tickets. Neither do the ones in the comparisons below.
Best VIP Program Based on Return at Different Rake Amounts
The following rake numbers are based on the amount paid during a month. The sites are ranked in order of best return to worst return.
$50 Monthly Rake
Betfair $3.50
Ultimate Poker $3.35
Party Poker $3
Borgata $.50
WSOP $0
$100 Monthly Rake
Betfair $8
WSOP $8
Ultimate Poker $7.20
Party Poker $6
Borgata $2
$250 Monthly Rake
WSOP $25
Ultimate Poker $24.50
Betfair $22.50
Party Poker $17.50
Borgata $5
$500 Monthly Rake
Ultimate Poker $61
Betfair $50
WSOP $50
Party Poker $40
Borgata $15
$1000 Monthly Rake
Ultimate Poker $162
Betfair $120
WSOP $120
Party Poker $80
Borgata $30
$2000 Monthly Rake
Betfair $400
Ultimate Poker $389
WSOP $300
Party Poker $160
Borgata $60
$3000 Monthly Rake
Betfair $600
WSOP $600
Ultimate Poker $584
Party Poker $240
Borgata $90
$5000 Monthly Rake
Betfair $1000
WSOP $1000
Ultimate Poker $973
Party Poker $400
Borgata $150
Comparison Notes
Party Poker Palladium players will receive double the return when exchanging points for tournament tickets instead of bonuses. Ultimate Poker returns at $1,000 or more are the minimum possible number. Returns may be higher depending on whether the player falls under Cranberry or Gold, and whether a milestone bonus was obtained.
More to Choosing a Site than Rakeback
VIP rewards should not be the only item to consider when choosing a site. The game quality, game selection, software, cashout speeds and support are also important. Make sure to find the site that best suits your needs. VIP information should be used to help break a tie, not as the sole reason to play at any site.
Which New Jersey Online Poker VIP Program is Best for You? |
Join:
2006/12/07
Messages:
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"Unfortunately for some people, there may not be sufficient verification that they are in New Jersey — even if they are — and they'll be denied," said David Rebuck, director of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement. "It's an unavoidable consequence."
"That's the best practice in the industry right now, even though the technology is capable of going right up to the border, because the casinos don't want to risk a violation," he said. "People will try to cheat. You know there will be some guy filming himself for YouTube, starting a poker hand in New Jersey on the PATH train and trying to finish it in New York. That's why I'm giving myself a bit of a buffer zone at the border."
New Jersey preps for live online poker; residents on border may have issues