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A draft of a bill to counteract the US Department of Justices’ opinion on the Wire Act and prohibit online poker has been leaked. The proposed bill received widespread attention when online gaming insider Marco Valerio posted it on his blog over the weekend.
Many suspect that Sheldon Adelson and his Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG) are behind the effort as Adelson has publically stated the he will “spend whatever it takes” to stop internet gambling. Enacting the “Internet Gambling Control Act” would go along way towards achieving that goal.
As of yet, there is no vociferous congressional constituency supporting the bill, but given the ramifications of such a bill passing, it must be taken seriously.
The critical elements of the Wire Act re-write are:
(f) For the purposes of this Act:
(1) the term “wire communication” includes the Internet, and any activity which involves the use, at least in part, of the Internet.
(2) the term “any sporting event or contest” includes games in part or predominantly subject to chance, including games in which players compete against each other, and not against any person, entity, or fellow player hosting the game, the outcome of which, over any significant interval, is predominantly determined by the skill of the players, and the purchase of a chance or opportunity to win a lottery or other prize (which opportunity to win is predominantly subject to chance).
Should lobbying efforts garner sufficient support, the proposed legislation would put an end to state legalization of online poker.
One of the latest campaigns to move public opinion away from regulating online gaming comes from the CSIG and includes a picture on Facebook that shows a young boy apparently playing online poker. The text reads: “If we have learned anything about the Internet, it is that kids will find ways to outsmart their parents. Gaming experts say that Internet gambling is in part intended to draw the younger generation into gambling.”
Adelson is 80, he is the Chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp, Bloomberg lists him as 11th richest man in the world. He is not a man accustomed to failure, so factions within the online poker industry will need to cooperate, if it is to head off a very real threat.
The battle for the freedom to gamble or play poker online in the USA will not be won or lost in Congress; it will be first and foremost a battle for the hearts and minds of the voters.
The American Gaming Association (AGA) President Geoff Freeman said that the industry is often its “own worst enemy.” He has shifted the organization’s strategy to be more proactive and to initiate pro-gaming campaigns. After hiring five extra lobbying staff, he said: “We need to do a better of job of explaining how regulated gaming can be a positive influence on a community.”
2014 may well see a battle royal commence, with online poker providing the critical battleground.
Proposed Revisions to the Wire Act Threaten Online Poker in the US | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
Many suspect that Sheldon Adelson and his Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG) are behind the effort as Adelson has publically stated the he will “spend whatever it takes” to stop internet gambling. Enacting the “Internet Gambling Control Act” would go along way towards achieving that goal.
As of yet, there is no vociferous congressional constituency supporting the bill, but given the ramifications of such a bill passing, it must be taken seriously.
The critical elements of the Wire Act re-write are:
(f) For the purposes of this Act:
(1) the term “wire communication” includes the Internet, and any activity which involves the use, at least in part, of the Internet.
(2) the term “any sporting event or contest” includes games in part or predominantly subject to chance, including games in which players compete against each other, and not against any person, entity, or fellow player hosting the game, the outcome of which, over any significant interval, is predominantly determined by the skill of the players, and the purchase of a chance or opportunity to win a lottery or other prize (which opportunity to win is predominantly subject to chance).
Should lobbying efforts garner sufficient support, the proposed legislation would put an end to state legalization of online poker.
One of the latest campaigns to move public opinion away from regulating online gaming comes from the CSIG and includes a picture on Facebook that shows a young boy apparently playing online poker. The text reads: “If we have learned anything about the Internet, it is that kids will find ways to outsmart their parents. Gaming experts say that Internet gambling is in part intended to draw the younger generation into gambling.”
Adelson is 80, he is the Chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp, Bloomberg lists him as 11th richest man in the world. He is not a man accustomed to failure, so factions within the online poker industry will need to cooperate, if it is to head off a very real threat.
The battle for the freedom to gamble or play poker online in the USA will not be won or lost in Congress; it will be first and foremost a battle for the hearts and minds of the voters.
The American Gaming Association (AGA) President Geoff Freeman said that the industry is often its “own worst enemy.” He has shifted the organization’s strategy to be more proactive and to initiate pro-gaming campaigns. After hiring five extra lobbying staff, he said: “We need to do a better of job of explaining how regulated gaming can be a positive influence on a community.”
2014 may well see a battle royal commence, with online poker providing the critical battleground.
Proposed Revisions to the Wire Act Threaten Online Poker in the US | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
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2006/12/07
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Trends for France’s igaming verticals were confirmed on Tuesday when the country’s online gaming regulator ARJEL revealed that fourth quarter stakes for online poker cash games dropped 23% to €1.2bn, with gross gaming revenues down 12% during the final months of 2013 to €65m.
Annual figures showed gross gaming revenues and stakes for online poker cash games had dropped 13% and 18% to €258m and €5.5bn respectively during 2013. Stakes for tournaments were up 5% to €1.4bn, although this was not enough to make up for the drop in cash game figures.
Online betting continued its upward trend, with a 41% rise in stakes to €264m and a 38% rise in gross win to €54m during the three month period. Over the 12-month period, stakes rose 20% to €848m and gross win was up 19% to €164m, helped by football’s popularity, stakes on the beautiful game were up 39% in 2013. Basketball and tennis also proved attractive to punters as stakes on those sports rose 36% and 25% during the year.
Stakes for horse racing pari mutuel were down 6% to €278m with gross win just about stable (-1%) at €67m during the quarter. Stakes were down 1% to €1.1bn over the course of the year while gross gaming revenues rose very slightly, 0.4% to €264m, in 2013. Operators achieved the rise in annual gross win through an equivalent reduction in the payout ratios to 78.2%.
Online poker still suffering in France, sports betting continues upward trend | iGaming Business
Annual figures showed gross gaming revenues and stakes for online poker cash games had dropped 13% and 18% to €258m and €5.5bn respectively during 2013. Stakes for tournaments were up 5% to €1.4bn, although this was not enough to make up for the drop in cash game figures.
Online betting continued its upward trend, with a 41% rise in stakes to €264m and a 38% rise in gross win to €54m during the three month period. Over the 12-month period, stakes rose 20% to €848m and gross win was up 19% to €164m, helped by football’s popularity, stakes on the beautiful game were up 39% in 2013. Basketball and tennis also proved attractive to punters as stakes on those sports rose 36% and 25% during the year.
Stakes for horse racing pari mutuel were down 6% to €278m with gross win just about stable (-1%) at €67m during the quarter. Stakes were down 1% to €1.1bn over the course of the year while gross gaming revenues rose very slightly, 0.4% to €264m, in 2013. Operators achieved the rise in annual gross win through an equivalent reduction in the payout ratios to 78.2%.
Online poker still suffering in France, sports betting continues upward trend | iGaming Business
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2006/12/07
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On Tuesday, well-known poker tournament photographer and videographer, Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum broke his nearly week long silence regarding allegations of his participation of the theft of dealer tip money from the Foxwoods Poker Room. In his statement posted on his own blog, Newnum states that while he is unable to talk about the incident, he plans to “step away from the poker world indefinitely.”
Newnum offered no explanation, no apologies and no admission to any of the accusations, but rather addressed the short-lived backlash that took place against Assistant Supervisors and Dealers Union, Local 2121 president Billy Shea, who initially made the story public on January 8 by posting a message to union members on the union Facebook page.
“I would like to address the negative reaction against certain third parties, particularly Billy Shea, the union president who originally posted the story.” Newnum writes, “I want to state clearly that any negative reaction against him or attacks against his character has not been condoned by me.”
As previously reported by pokerfuse, according to court documents obtained from the Superior Court of New London, Connecticut, Newnum was arrested on-site and charged with 5th Degree Larceny on December 16. Newnum applied for Connecticut’s Accelerated Pretrial Rehabilitation, which was granted on December 24.
Here is the statement made by Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum in full:
First, let me say that it hasn’t been easy to stay silent.
The Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge ended early in the morning on December 16th. After flying home that same day, I agreed that I would not discuss anything with anyone.
I have honored and will continue to honor that commitment, but in light of third-party reports and the subsequent reactions, I wanted to make this limited statement.
I would like to address the negative reaction against certain third parties, particularly Billy Shea, the union president who originally posted the story.
I want to state clearly that any negative reaction against him or attacks against his character has not been condoned by me.
Yesterday, I called Mr. Shea personally. We spoke at length, not about what he had posted, but instead about the reactions from the community. I hold no ill will against him, as he simply did what he felt he needed to do as union president. It was a great conversation with Billy and I do appreciate him taking the time to speak with me.
I have spent a decade as part of the poker community, and have truly come to appreciate this game and the family of people in it.
That being said, it seems for the best that I step away from the poker world indefinitely. I do want to say thank you to my family and my friends, both inside and outside of poker, who have been incredibly supportive during this time.
Finally, even though I won’t be a part of the poker world for now, I’ll still be rooting for the industry to continue to grow, expand, and improve, in all the ways that we know it can.
Jay "WhoJedi" Newnum Issues Statement, Steps Away From Poker | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
Newnum offered no explanation, no apologies and no admission to any of the accusations, but rather addressed the short-lived backlash that took place against Assistant Supervisors and Dealers Union, Local 2121 president Billy Shea, who initially made the story public on January 8 by posting a message to union members on the union Facebook page.
“I would like to address the negative reaction against certain third parties, particularly Billy Shea, the union president who originally posted the story.” Newnum writes, “I want to state clearly that any negative reaction against him or attacks against his character has not been condoned by me.”
As previously reported by pokerfuse, according to court documents obtained from the Superior Court of New London, Connecticut, Newnum was arrested on-site and charged with 5th Degree Larceny on December 16. Newnum applied for Connecticut’s Accelerated Pretrial Rehabilitation, which was granted on December 24.
Here is the statement made by Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum in full:
First, let me say that it hasn’t been easy to stay silent.
The Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge ended early in the morning on December 16th. After flying home that same day, I agreed that I would not discuss anything with anyone.
I have honored and will continue to honor that commitment, but in light of third-party reports and the subsequent reactions, I wanted to make this limited statement.
I would like to address the negative reaction against certain third parties, particularly Billy Shea, the union president who originally posted the story.
I want to state clearly that any negative reaction against him or attacks against his character has not been condoned by me.
Yesterday, I called Mr. Shea personally. We spoke at length, not about what he had posted, but instead about the reactions from the community. I hold no ill will against him, as he simply did what he felt he needed to do as union president. It was a great conversation with Billy and I do appreciate him taking the time to speak with me.
I have spent a decade as part of the poker community, and have truly come to appreciate this game and the family of people in it.
That being said, it seems for the best that I step away from the poker world indefinitely. I do want to say thank you to my family and my friends, both inside and outside of poker, who have been incredibly supportive during this time.
Finally, even though I won’t be a part of the poker world for now, I’ll still be rooting for the industry to continue to grow, expand, and improve, in all the ways that we know it can.
Jay "WhoJedi" Newnum Issues Statement, Steps Away From Poker | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
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2006/12/07
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29893
With initial revenue numbers for regulated online gambling in New Jersey coming in a bit lower than anticipated, market watchers are wondering if the industry will be able to bulk up enough in January to move in line with expectations.
Current online poker traffic trends suggest that they will.
NJ online poker growth continues after record-setting week
Data from the latest Scouting Report - a daily analysis publication produced by PokerScout-com covering the global online poker industry – shows that New Jersey’s regulated online poker rooms are building upon their record-setting traffic levels of last week.
While traffic has fallen from the peak set the weekend of January 3rd, the trend line continues to point upward:
Delaware and Nevada struggle to find growth
Meanwhile, the effectively flat trend lines for Delaware and Nevada present a stark contrast to New Jersey’s steady incline.
Nevada continues to face a challenge in generating sustainable player growth. While the market spiked in the weeks following the launch of WSOP-com, traffic levels have now receded to summer levels.
It will be interesting to see if the World Series of Poker, which kicks off in late May, has a material impact on traffic levels in Nevada.
This will be the first WSOP where online satellites are readily available to live events, and arguably the first where online poker is fully up and running in the state.
New Jersey Online Poker Traffic: Steady as She Goes
Current online poker traffic trends suggest that they will.
NJ online poker growth continues after record-setting week
Data from the latest Scouting Report - a daily analysis publication produced by PokerScout-com covering the global online poker industry – shows that New Jersey’s regulated online poker rooms are building upon their record-setting traffic levels of last week.
While traffic has fallen from the peak set the weekend of January 3rd, the trend line continues to point upward:
Delaware and Nevada struggle to find growth
Meanwhile, the effectively flat trend lines for Delaware and Nevada present a stark contrast to New Jersey’s steady incline.
Nevada continues to face a challenge in generating sustainable player growth. While the market spiked in the weeks following the launch of WSOP-com, traffic levels have now receded to summer levels.
It will be interesting to see if the World Series of Poker, which kicks off in late May, has a material impact on traffic levels in Nevada.
This will be the first WSOP where online satellites are readily available to live events, and arguably the first where online poker is fully up and running in the state.
New Jersey Online Poker Traffic: Steady as She Goes
Join:
2006/12/07
Messages:
29893
On Saturday, Marco “AgentMarco” Valerio, one of the preeminent reporters in the poker industry, posted on his site the draft of an anti-online gaming bill that is supposedly strongly backed by Las Vegas Sands CEO and staunch opponent of online poker, Sheldon Adelson.
The bill, designed to be introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives, appears to be in its early stages. It has not been assigned a number and has no sponsors (though considering the weight Adelson can throw around in the halls of Congress, it would be shocking if a sponsor couldn’t be found). It is also very short, just three pages, making it one of the easier bills to digest.
Called the “Internet Gambling Control Act (IGCA),” it aims to primarily to “restore long-standing United States policy that the Wire Act prohibits Internet gambling.”
Legal arguments against online gambling, including poker, were often made based on the Wire Act of 1961, which outlawed the use of telephone lines to place and accept sports bets. It was instituted to clamp down on illegal interstate bookmaking. Opponents of online gambling argued that the Wire Act encompassed all remote gambling, not just sports betting over phone lines, whereas supporters said it was limited in scope to just what it said it was. In late 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice changed its stance on the Wire Act, saying it only applied to sports betting and not poker and other casino games. This approval of internet gambling opened the doors for states to begin the process of legalization and regulation and to date, three states – Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware – have launched internet gambling industries.
The IGCA looks to amend the Wire Act to make “wire communication” include the internet and not just phone lines, something that may very well make sense, considering advances in communication technology. Where poker players are really going to get miffed, though, is the desired expansion of the definition of “any sporting event or contest” to include “…games in part or predominantly subject to chance, including games in which players compete against each other, and not against any person, entity, or fellow player hosting the game, the outcome of which, over any significant interval, is predominantly determined by the skill of the players…”
In part subject to chance, players compete against each other, predominantly determined by skill…yes, that’s poker.
The bill also requires that the FBI produce a report within two years that addresses potential problems with online gambling, such as the ability for people to cheat, the ability for minors or people outside of legalized jurisdictions to play, and of course, the thing that online gambling opponents always bring up, the possibility of terrorists to use online gaming sites to launder money.
Sheldon Adelson-Backed Anti-Online Poker Bill Made Public
The bill, designed to be introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives, appears to be in its early stages. It has not been assigned a number and has no sponsors (though considering the weight Adelson can throw around in the halls of Congress, it would be shocking if a sponsor couldn’t be found). It is also very short, just three pages, making it one of the easier bills to digest.
Called the “Internet Gambling Control Act (IGCA),” it aims to primarily to “restore long-standing United States policy that the Wire Act prohibits Internet gambling.”
Legal arguments against online gambling, including poker, were often made based on the Wire Act of 1961, which outlawed the use of telephone lines to place and accept sports bets. It was instituted to clamp down on illegal interstate bookmaking. Opponents of online gambling argued that the Wire Act encompassed all remote gambling, not just sports betting over phone lines, whereas supporters said it was limited in scope to just what it said it was. In late 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice changed its stance on the Wire Act, saying it only applied to sports betting and not poker and other casino games. This approval of internet gambling opened the doors for states to begin the process of legalization and regulation and to date, three states – Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware – have launched internet gambling industries.
The IGCA looks to amend the Wire Act to make “wire communication” include the internet and not just phone lines, something that may very well make sense, considering advances in communication technology. Where poker players are really going to get miffed, though, is the desired expansion of the definition of “any sporting event or contest” to include “…games in part or predominantly subject to chance, including games in which players compete against each other, and not against any person, entity, or fellow player hosting the game, the outcome of which, over any significant interval, is predominantly determined by the skill of the players…”
In part subject to chance, players compete against each other, predominantly determined by skill…yes, that’s poker.
The bill also requires that the FBI produce a report within two years that addresses potential problems with online gambling, such as the ability for people to cheat, the ability for minors or people outside of legalized jurisdictions to play, and of course, the thing that online gambling opponents always bring up, the possibility of terrorists to use online gaming sites to launder money.
Sheldon Adelson-Backed Anti-Online Poker Bill Made Public
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2006/12/07
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The era of licensed online poker is now upon us, but this doesn’t mean that we are now in the clear and can look forward to nothing but smooth sailing from here on out.
It started in Europe and now Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey have all launched regulated online poker.
These licensed online poker markets have certainly ushered in a new era of accountability and oversight, but the current industry bears a striking resemblance to the unlicensed industry of the mid-2000’s, with many of the same problems still left unresolved.
Here are three such problems (along with some possible solutions) that have plagued online poker throughout its existence, and despite the onset of licensed, regulated online poker they have not gone away.
The march of the poker bots
The problem:
Initially viewed as a novelty or little more than a money-making scheme by developers, poker bots have been proliferating in number and sophistication in recent years and are now seen as a major nuisance and moving towards being a serious threat to online poker.
Poker bots pose a dual issue for the online poker industry.
The first difficulty they create is one of perception, an issue that has been around for many years. Players not only worry they are facing poker bots employed by other players – there is also the urban legend that the poker sites are employing bots.
The second problem is more recent, as poker bots have become more sophisticated in recent years and are no longer just a warm body (or a cold robot) filling a seat.
Modern poker bots are capable of beating stakes as high as $100 No Limit Holdem, and perhaps higher, although the average poker bot is still exploitable by good players.
Because they were originally viewed with contempt from winning poker players, the online poker sites were never pressed into taking much action against poker bots.
But now players want them eradicated, and while countermeasures do exist, anyone who wants to intelligently use a poker bot (or poker bot like software such as the controversial PokerSnowie that tells a human player what to do) will likely get away with it.
The fix:
It will likely take a concerted, industry-wide effort to stamp out poker bots, and that is going to take the poker community’s continued calls for the sites to take poker bots more seriously.
This will also require poker players to continue to report suspicious behavior to the sites.
One poker provider, the iPoker Network, has drastically improved its bot detection capabilities and its intention to notify the community of its efforts via PokerStrategy-com.
Players are also being encouraged to notify the site of any suspicious activity.
What do you mean my card has been declined?
The problem:
Until depositing and withdrawing at an online poker site is as simple as using eBay or Amazon-com, payment processing will be the bane of the online poker industry.
Every rejected credit card and every policy enacted by banks and PayPal refusing to process online gambling transactions doesn’t just equate to lost online poker customers, it’s once again a serious problem of perception (a trend in this column).
“If this is legal why is Bank of America refusing to process my transaction?”
“What do they [the banks] know that I don’t?”
Unfortunately, most people aren’t going to head over to Google and do the research to find out why certain banks and payment processors won’t process online gambling transactions, and how the invisible hand of UIGEA legislation and the previous DOJ opinions of the 1961 Wire Act are causing some banks to be overly conservative and operating behind the times.
Instead, they’ll just draw their own conclusions, which will probably be along the lines of, “Yeah, I know they passed some law, but my bank won’t process the transaction, so I’m not really ready to hand over my money to an online poker site just yet.”
The fix:
This is going to take time, but it’s also going to take lobbying efforts, both from groups like the Poker Players Alliance, and from players who can contact their banks and potentially create enough noise that they reverse their policies.
I believe the saying has something to do with squeaky wheels and grease, but right now poker players aren’t quite squeaky enough.
Mired in legal limbo
The problem:
The confusion surrounding the legality of online poker has been a serious problem for a very long time.
It’s legal here, but not there. It’s legal to play online poker, but illegal to operate an online poker site.
Is it any wonder why so many people just assume online poker is against the law? If understanding the law requires you to be a certified paralegal most people are just not going to be bothered.
The baffling array of vague laws and convoluted understanding of what precisely constitutes illegal gambling only adds to the unwarranted worries that many potential players have, and like the first two items on this list, it’s yet another problem of perception for the poker industry.
The fix:
One area where I’d love to see a group like the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) step up its game is in education.
Even if it meant less lobbying efforts [read as: money] on Capitol Hill, I’d like to see some PSA’s regarding online poker, and the current legal landscape surrounding the game.
3 Major Problems for Online Poker - How Can They be Solved?
It started in Europe and now Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey have all launched regulated online poker.
These licensed online poker markets have certainly ushered in a new era of accountability and oversight, but the current industry bears a striking resemblance to the unlicensed industry of the mid-2000’s, with many of the same problems still left unresolved.
Here are three such problems (along with some possible solutions) that have plagued online poker throughout its existence, and despite the onset of licensed, regulated online poker they have not gone away.
The march of the poker bots
The problem:
Initially viewed as a novelty or little more than a money-making scheme by developers, poker bots have been proliferating in number and sophistication in recent years and are now seen as a major nuisance and moving towards being a serious threat to online poker.
Poker bots pose a dual issue for the online poker industry.
The first difficulty they create is one of perception, an issue that has been around for many years. Players not only worry they are facing poker bots employed by other players – there is also the urban legend that the poker sites are employing bots.
The second problem is more recent, as poker bots have become more sophisticated in recent years and are no longer just a warm body (or a cold robot) filling a seat.
Modern poker bots are capable of beating stakes as high as $100 No Limit Holdem, and perhaps higher, although the average poker bot is still exploitable by good players.
Because they were originally viewed with contempt from winning poker players, the online poker sites were never pressed into taking much action against poker bots.
But now players want them eradicated, and while countermeasures do exist, anyone who wants to intelligently use a poker bot (or poker bot like software such as the controversial PokerSnowie that tells a human player what to do) will likely get away with it.
The fix:
It will likely take a concerted, industry-wide effort to stamp out poker bots, and that is going to take the poker community’s continued calls for the sites to take poker bots more seriously.
This will also require poker players to continue to report suspicious behavior to the sites.
One poker provider, the iPoker Network, has drastically improved its bot detection capabilities and its intention to notify the community of its efforts via PokerStrategy-com.
Players are also being encouraged to notify the site of any suspicious activity.
What do you mean my card has been declined?
The problem:
Until depositing and withdrawing at an online poker site is as simple as using eBay or Amazon-com, payment processing will be the bane of the online poker industry.
Every rejected credit card and every policy enacted by banks and PayPal refusing to process online gambling transactions doesn’t just equate to lost online poker customers, it’s once again a serious problem of perception (a trend in this column).
“If this is legal why is Bank of America refusing to process my transaction?”
“What do they [the banks] know that I don’t?”
Unfortunately, most people aren’t going to head over to Google and do the research to find out why certain banks and payment processors won’t process online gambling transactions, and how the invisible hand of UIGEA legislation and the previous DOJ opinions of the 1961 Wire Act are causing some banks to be overly conservative and operating behind the times.
Instead, they’ll just draw their own conclusions, which will probably be along the lines of, “Yeah, I know they passed some law, but my bank won’t process the transaction, so I’m not really ready to hand over my money to an online poker site just yet.”
The fix:
This is going to take time, but it’s also going to take lobbying efforts, both from groups like the Poker Players Alliance, and from players who can contact their banks and potentially create enough noise that they reverse their policies.
I believe the saying has something to do with squeaky wheels and grease, but right now poker players aren’t quite squeaky enough.
Mired in legal limbo
The problem:
The confusion surrounding the legality of online poker has been a serious problem for a very long time.
It’s legal here, but not there. It’s legal to play online poker, but illegal to operate an online poker site.
Is it any wonder why so many people just assume online poker is against the law? If understanding the law requires you to be a certified paralegal most people are just not going to be bothered.
The baffling array of vague laws and convoluted understanding of what precisely constitutes illegal gambling only adds to the unwarranted worries that many potential players have, and like the first two items on this list, it’s yet another problem of perception for the poker industry.
The fix:
One area where I’d love to see a group like the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) step up its game is in education.
Even if it meant less lobbying efforts [read as: money] on Capitol Hill, I’d like to see some PSA’s regarding online poker, and the current legal landscape surrounding the game.
3 Major Problems for Online Poker - How Can They be Solved?
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2006/12/07
Messages:
29893
The focus of efforts to license and regulate Internet poker in the United States may be more about defense than offense in 2014.
Since the poker lobby truly got going in 2006 in response to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the momentum has slowly but surely been in favor of legalization. This culminated in 2013 with three states — New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware — beginning to offer regulated online poker.
This year will be all about making sure that momentum continues in the face of Internet poker's toughest opponent yet — Las Vegas Sands chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson. For this reason, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) plans to focus more on the federal level after shifting its attention to the states last year.
"I think we're going to have an interesting federal discussion emerging with Sheldon Adelson and his group throwing their weight around to get what they call a Wire Act-fix bill," said PPA executive director John Pappas. "I think you'll see the industry and poker players really step up to counter that. We're going to see a little more action at the federal level, but more so with us playing defense."
A draft of the bill Adelson and his team have crafted to outlaw Internet poker has surfaced. Titled the Internet Gambling Control Act, it seeks to amend the Wire Act to add online poker and online casino gaming to the list of unlawful games. It does not yet have a Congressional sponsor, but the politically influential Adelson is expected to find one soon.
"We have a very clear enemy target in which to shoot at," Pappas said. "[Adelson] will probably get a Republican on the Judiciary Committee to introduce it. I think that will happen, and we just have to make sure anyone who does introduce the bill will be reminded regularly that they made the wrong decision."
Focus of Efforts for U.S. Online Poker Is More About Defense Than Offense in 2014 | PokerNews
Since the poker lobby truly got going in 2006 in response to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the momentum has slowly but surely been in favor of legalization. This culminated in 2013 with three states — New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware — beginning to offer regulated online poker.
This year will be all about making sure that momentum continues in the face of Internet poker's toughest opponent yet — Las Vegas Sands chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson. For this reason, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) plans to focus more on the federal level after shifting its attention to the states last year.
"I think we're going to have an interesting federal discussion emerging with Sheldon Adelson and his group throwing their weight around to get what they call a Wire Act-fix bill," said PPA executive director John Pappas. "I think you'll see the industry and poker players really step up to counter that. We're going to see a little more action at the federal level, but more so with us playing defense."
A draft of the bill Adelson and his team have crafted to outlaw Internet poker has surfaced. Titled the Internet Gambling Control Act, it seeks to amend the Wire Act to add online poker and online casino gaming to the list of unlawful games. It does not yet have a Congressional sponsor, but the politically influential Adelson is expected to find one soon.
"We have a very clear enemy target in which to shoot at," Pappas said. "[Adelson] will probably get a Republican on the Judiciary Committee to introduce it. I think that will happen, and we just have to make sure anyone who does introduce the bill will be reminded regularly that they made the wrong decision."
Focus of Efforts for U.S. Online Poker Is More About Defense Than Offense in 2014 | PokerNews
Join:
2006/12/07
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29893
The sector of online gambling in France was less dynamic in 2013, has announced the French Regulation Authority of online gambling (AREL) in its last assessment. According to this authority, the result was mixed with a strong raise of bets of sports betting and a drop in the two other sectors, namely horse betting and online poker. And the new development of sports betting couldn’t manage to compensate the backward movement of the activity of online poker and horse betting. In 2013, the sector of online gambling knew strong variations from a quarter to another one, by generating € 79 million for sports betting, € 86 million for poker and €160 million for horserace, or a total of €325 million of tax revenue in 2013, against € 327 million in 2012. This decline can be explained by the collapse of bets by 10%, at €8.474 billion. This fall of the total amount of bets have caused a drop of the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) by 2%, at €686 million, has specified the ARJEL.
The bets on sports betting increased by 20%, at €848 million, compared with 2012, especially thanks to football. The bets raised by 41% in the fourth quarter and move towards exceeding those of horse betting in 2014, with the winter Olympic Games in Sochi and the World Cup of football in Brazil. The online sector of horse betting has lost 1% at €1.111 billion; a small backward movement which worries all the same Jean-François Vilotte. Concerning online poker, the entrance fees in poker tournaments have increased by 5%, at €1.46 million, while the bets in cash game have sensibly moved back by 18% at €5.055 billion. To catch up, Jean-Francois Vilotte recommends the introduction of new variants of poker and the sharing of liquidities with other European countries like Italy.
Poker News - Online poker: The weak link of online gambling in France according to the ARJEL
The bets on sports betting increased by 20%, at €848 million, compared with 2012, especially thanks to football. The bets raised by 41% in the fourth quarter and move towards exceeding those of horse betting in 2014, with the winter Olympic Games in Sochi and the World Cup of football in Brazil. The online sector of horse betting has lost 1% at €1.111 billion; a small backward movement which worries all the same Jean-François Vilotte. Concerning online poker, the entrance fees in poker tournaments have increased by 5%, at €1.46 million, while the bets in cash game have sensibly moved back by 18% at €5.055 billion. To catch up, Jean-Francois Vilotte recommends the introduction of new variants of poker and the sharing of liquidities with other European countries like Italy.
Poker News - Online poker: The weak link of online gambling in France according to the ARJEL
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2006/12/07
Messages:
29893
It is hard to put into words how terrible Gus Hansen was on Full Tilt Poker in 2013. He lost a staggering sum of around $8.4 million.
To start 2014, he has already dusted off $698,000, according to HighstakesDB.
He started off the year on a tiny upswing, winning around $200,000, but with most miniature Hansen upswings, it was quickly followed by gut-wrenching defeats.
The “Gus Hansen” screen name on Full Tilt, which has been in existence since 2005, has now dumped $15,570,941 over 1,383,512 hands, according to the tracking data.
He is a sponsored player by the site, which is now owned by PokerStars.
His account is by far the most abysmal in the history of online poker.
Despite the losses, especially the deficit over recent memory, Hansen continues to play often and against the games best players, grinders such as Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene and Jens “Ingenious89” Kyllönen. While Hansen used to gamble it up big in pot-limit games, these days he is usually seen at fixed limit tables, albeit still at the highest stakes.
While Hansen has been getting crushed as per usual, Tollerene and Blom have been winning. The Texan is up around $750,000 this year so far, while Blom has profits of around $225,000. Both players were among the top earners from 2013.
Dan “Jungleman12” Cates, who was crushing the high-stakes world in the pre-Black Friday days, has started off this year with a solid $115,000 in winnings. He was pretty quiet last year, winning just $400,000. He’s up $7.5 million lifetime on Full Tilt.
Joining Hansen on the loser leader board to start 2014 were Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius and Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky, who had a disastrous 2013 despite being the biggest winner from online poker in 2012. Maybe his opponents have figured him out?
High-Stakes Online Poker: Hansen Starts 2014 Off By Dropping $700,000
To start 2014, he has already dusted off $698,000, according to HighstakesDB.
He started off the year on a tiny upswing, winning around $200,000, but with most miniature Hansen upswings, it was quickly followed by gut-wrenching defeats.
The “Gus Hansen” screen name on Full Tilt, which has been in existence since 2005, has now dumped $15,570,941 over 1,383,512 hands, according to the tracking data.
He is a sponsored player by the site, which is now owned by PokerStars.
His account is by far the most abysmal in the history of online poker.
Despite the losses, especially the deficit over recent memory, Hansen continues to play often and against the games best players, grinders such as Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene and Jens “Ingenious89” Kyllönen. While Hansen used to gamble it up big in pot-limit games, these days he is usually seen at fixed limit tables, albeit still at the highest stakes.
While Hansen has been getting crushed as per usual, Tollerene and Blom have been winning. The Texan is up around $750,000 this year so far, while Blom has profits of around $225,000. Both players were among the top earners from 2013.
Dan “Jungleman12” Cates, who was crushing the high-stakes world in the pre-Black Friday days, has started off this year with a solid $115,000 in winnings. He was pretty quiet last year, winning just $400,000. He’s up $7.5 million lifetime on Full Tilt.
Joining Hansen on the loser leader board to start 2014 were Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius and Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky, who had a disastrous 2013 despite being the biggest winner from online poker in 2012. Maybe his opponents have figured him out?
High-Stakes Online Poker: Hansen Starts 2014 Off By Dropping $700,000
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2006/12/07
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29893
It’s official. Phil Ivey will be launching his long-awaited Ivey League poker training site later this month. And to build awareness for the venture, he will be partnering up with various televised sporting events, the first being a boxing event on Friday night.
IveyPoker-com will sponsor the boxing program ShoBox, The Next Generation, set to air on Showtime tonight at 10 p.m. EST. The event will take place at Cook Convention Center in Memphis, TN, featuring many up-and-coming prospects in the world of boxing.
The IveyPoker brand will be present throughout the event.
"Phil is a big fan of boxing, but more importantly he is a fan of hard work, commitment, and dedication. That’s exactly what is needed when you step in the ring," says Clete McQuinn, Chief Operating Officer of Ivey Poker.
According to Ivey's website, the Ivey League is dedicated to teaching people how to play poker the "right way." Ivey and his team of pros and instructors will provide downloadable video instruction to the poker community. The site also offers an interactive social poker game on Facebook.
Several of poker's top talents are instructors for Ivey's site, including Patrik Antonius, Jen Harman, Greg Merson, Dan Shak and James Dempsey.
Phil Ivey to Launch Online Poker Training Site This Month | PokerNews
IveyPoker-com will sponsor the boxing program ShoBox, The Next Generation, set to air on Showtime tonight at 10 p.m. EST. The event will take place at Cook Convention Center in Memphis, TN, featuring many up-and-coming prospects in the world of boxing.
The IveyPoker brand will be present throughout the event.
"Phil is a big fan of boxing, but more importantly he is a fan of hard work, commitment, and dedication. That’s exactly what is needed when you step in the ring," says Clete McQuinn, Chief Operating Officer of Ivey Poker.
According to Ivey's website, the Ivey League is dedicated to teaching people how to play poker the "right way." Ivey and his team of pros and instructors will provide downloadable video instruction to the poker community. The site also offers an interactive social poker game on Facebook.
Several of poker's top talents are instructors for Ivey's site, including Patrik Antonius, Jen Harman, Greg Merson, Dan Shak and James Dempsey.
Phil Ivey to Launch Online Poker Training Site This Month | PokerNews
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2006/12/07
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29893
Jamie Kerstetter is in her pink slippers with the pom-poms. And why shouldn't she be? It's a Sunday morning, and she's settling in to a long day during which she won't leave the apartment.
The cards are dealt, on the screen, four tables going at once, a far cry from the 20 poker games this former tax lawyer used to fire up on her computer screen in Mexico, where she would spend hour after twitchy hour playing online Texas hold 'em.
"My boyfriend and I would sit all day and not talk to each other except when one of us would say, 'Wanna order out?' " Kerstetter, 31, recalled.
At least now she's in New Jersey playing online poker, one of 150,000 accounts created since online gambling went live Nov. 21. Jersey gamblers have left revenue of $8.4 million on virtual poker tables, blackjack, and slots since, well below projections by the state. Online poker accounted for $2.89 million in revenue.
Before that, it was Rosarito, the little beach town in Mexico where she lived for two years, a place she describes as calm and welcoming - and also close to activities of a Mexican drug cartel.
Rosarito was full of resettled ex-pat online poker pros who fled the United States in shock after "Black Friday," the April 15, 2011, ruling that made online gambling illegal in this country, their hands and bankrolls frozen somewhere between the flop and the river cards of hold 'em.
Kerstetter, then known by the screen name "AndtheLawWon," persuaded her poker-playing boyfriend, Zach Donovan, to move to Rosarito. She then left him there, heading to the United States in November, when New Jersey made online poker legal again. Yes, the prodigal professional poker-playing daughter has come home. (And nobody's happier than mom in Monroe Township.)
One thing is clear: The career trajectory of Jamie Kerstetter never did run smooth.
Three years of law school at the University of Michigan, grinding jobs at high-powered law firms, and she left that all behind to turn online poker pro, now grinding cash in a third-story apartment facing the ocean, feasting on the site's newbies, having snagged a coveted sponsorship from partypoker.com.
"I ended up bluffing the river with a missed flush draw," she says in a flash of poker lingo that accounts for much of the back-and-forth with her roommates, Patti "Patticakes" Haggerty, 39, and Haggerty's boyfriend, John Allan Hinds, 26, known as "Beastro," an engineering-school dropout turned poker pro and Lucky Charms-eating foil.
"You don't know how anyone's doing until you hear 'Yes!' or 'Jesus!' " says Kerstetter.
Says Haggerty, with the laser-focused dejection that will punctuate her night on till her epic 3:22 a.m. bad beat flameout: "I flopped a set of sevens; he turned a set of nines," she said in typically obtuse pokerese.
And, more than once, "Jesus!"
It's 6:56 p.m., seven hours into the usual Sunday poker jag, but Kerstetter hasn't eaten yet. When you're anticipating poker till 3 a.m., better to push dinner to 10. She has a blanket around her legs, stretched out onto another stool. Outside, it's a quiet winter beach town. The Borgata, which partners with partypoker.com, is just a few miles up the road and over the bridge.
For PartyPoker, Kerstetter is their local hero. "We know her by reputation," says Jeffrey Haas, global poker director for partypoker.com of Gibraltar-based bwin.party. "She's a consistently successful poker player." She receives an undisclosed salary and other perks. As a successful female in the casino world, she is a pivot from the ubiquitous cocktail waitress or nickel slot player.
Kerstetter, who started playing while an undergraduate at Rutgers, says she hasn't looked back. The old job took over her life, long hours in a cubicle researching tax law and writing wills and trusts. She left family events early, ground her teeth at night, and paid Manhattan rents. Then she got laid off. She got a new law job, but had already begun the poker life, fueled by her usual intense research, and soon left for Mexico. Her new job raises eyebrows, but feels liberating.
"I had to defend poker a lot," she says. "At my old job, I never took heat. I was saving rich people money from their estate taxes, but I was a lawyer, so I was respected."
Lawyers, along with traders, have flocked to the ranks of poker pros. At the WPT Borgata Poker Open last year, two lawyers - Anthony Zinno and Vanessa Selbst - duked it out for first and second place ($825,099 and $492,569).
Selbst ranks fifth in the world with $9 million. Kerstetter ranks 494th, with $359,313 in live career winnings. She says she once had a $40,000 month to top six figures that year.
In her first month in Jersey so far, Kerstetter says, she has made the final table of the partypoker nightly $10,000 guarantee tournament four times, for about $5,000 profit. She has also earned about $3,000 cash game winnings. "That amount won't stay consistent," she says. "It's too early to tell after only one month how much I can possibly expect to earn."
As a pro, Kerstetter is still the exception in Jersey. Most online players are recreational and male, those playing along while watching Jimmy Kimmel Live! Most are New Jersey residents, though Haas says the site gets an influx of New Yorkers who travel across state lines on Sundays. (Gamblers must be in Jersey.)
At its peak - and the success of any poker room depends on having enough players to bankroll the game - about 3,000 players were logged into the sites shared with Borgata on this Sunday. (By contrast, Isle of Man-based PokerStars, not licensed in Jersey, averages 25,000 players a day.)
The pool in Jersey is small enough that Kerstetter looks at a screen name, popo10, and says, "This is my friend from Sunday school." (It's small enough to keep Donovan, a serious online tournament player, over the border.)
The laptop and big screen are still fired up. Kerstetter is playing a few cash games - "an opportunity to
The cards are dealt, on the screen, four tables going at once, a far cry from the 20 poker games this former tax lawyer used to fire up on her computer screen in Mexico, where she would spend hour after twitchy hour playing online Texas hold 'em.
"My boyfriend and I would sit all day and not talk to each other except when one of us would say, 'Wanna order out?' " Kerstetter, 31, recalled.
At least now she's in New Jersey playing online poker, one of 150,000 accounts created since online gambling went live Nov. 21. Jersey gamblers have left revenue of $8.4 million on virtual poker tables, blackjack, and slots since, well below projections by the state. Online poker accounted for $2.89 million in revenue.
Before that, it was Rosarito, the little beach town in Mexico where she lived for two years, a place she describes as calm and welcoming - and also close to activities of a Mexican drug cartel.
Rosarito was full of resettled ex-pat online poker pros who fled the United States in shock after "Black Friday," the April 15, 2011, ruling that made online gambling illegal in this country, their hands and bankrolls frozen somewhere between the flop and the river cards of hold 'em.
Kerstetter, then known by the screen name "AndtheLawWon," persuaded her poker-playing boyfriend, Zach Donovan, to move to Rosarito. She then left him there, heading to the United States in November, when New Jersey made online poker legal again. Yes, the prodigal professional poker-playing daughter has come home. (And nobody's happier than mom in Monroe Township.)
One thing is clear: The career trajectory of Jamie Kerstetter never did run smooth.
Three years of law school at the University of Michigan, grinding jobs at high-powered law firms, and she left that all behind to turn online poker pro, now grinding cash in a third-story apartment facing the ocean, feasting on the site's newbies, having snagged a coveted sponsorship from partypoker.com.
"I ended up bluffing the river with a missed flush draw," she says in a flash of poker lingo that accounts for much of the back-and-forth with her roommates, Patti "Patticakes" Haggerty, 39, and Haggerty's boyfriend, John Allan Hinds, 26, known as "Beastro," an engineering-school dropout turned poker pro and Lucky Charms-eating foil.
"You don't know how anyone's doing until you hear 'Yes!' or 'Jesus!' " says Kerstetter.
Says Haggerty, with the laser-focused dejection that will punctuate her night on till her epic 3:22 a.m. bad beat flameout: "I flopped a set of sevens; he turned a set of nines," she said in typically obtuse pokerese.
And, more than once, "Jesus!"
It's 6:56 p.m., seven hours into the usual Sunday poker jag, but Kerstetter hasn't eaten yet. When you're anticipating poker till 3 a.m., better to push dinner to 10. She has a blanket around her legs, stretched out onto another stool. Outside, it's a quiet winter beach town. The Borgata, which partners with partypoker.com, is just a few miles up the road and over the bridge.
For PartyPoker, Kerstetter is their local hero. "We know her by reputation," says Jeffrey Haas, global poker director for partypoker.com of Gibraltar-based bwin.party. "She's a consistently successful poker player." She receives an undisclosed salary and other perks. As a successful female in the casino world, she is a pivot from the ubiquitous cocktail waitress or nickel slot player.
Kerstetter, who started playing while an undergraduate at Rutgers, says she hasn't looked back. The old job took over her life, long hours in a cubicle researching tax law and writing wills and trusts. She left family events early, ground her teeth at night, and paid Manhattan rents. Then she got laid off. She got a new law job, but had already begun the poker life, fueled by her usual intense research, and soon left for Mexico. Her new job raises eyebrows, but feels liberating.
"I had to defend poker a lot," she says. "At my old job, I never took heat. I was saving rich people money from their estate taxes, but I was a lawyer, so I was respected."
Lawyers, along with traders, have flocked to the ranks of poker pros. At the WPT Borgata Poker Open last year, two lawyers - Anthony Zinno and Vanessa Selbst - duked it out for first and second place ($825,099 and $492,569).
Selbst ranks fifth in the world with $9 million. Kerstetter ranks 494th, with $359,313 in live career winnings. She says she once had a $40,000 month to top six figures that year.
In her first month in Jersey so far, Kerstetter says, she has made the final table of the partypoker nightly $10,000 guarantee tournament four times, for about $5,000 profit. She has also earned about $3,000 cash game winnings. "That amount won't stay consistent," she says. "It's too early to tell after only one month how much I can possibly expect to earn."
As a pro, Kerstetter is still the exception in Jersey. Most online players are recreational and male, those playing along while watching Jimmy Kimmel Live! Most are New Jersey residents, though Haas says the site gets an influx of New Yorkers who travel across state lines on Sundays. (Gamblers must be in Jersey.)
At its peak - and the success of any poker room depends on having enough players to bankroll the game - about 3,000 players were logged into the sites shared with Borgata on this Sunday. (By contrast, Isle of Man-based PokerStars, not licensed in Jersey, averages 25,000 players a day.)
The pool in Jersey is small enough that Kerstetter looks at a screen name, popo10, and says, "This is my friend from Sunday school." (It's small enough to keep Donovan, a serious online tournament player, over the border.)
The laptop and big screen are still fired up. Kerstetter is playing a few cash games - "an opportunity to
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2006/12/07
Messages:
29893
Geoff Freeman, head of the American Gaming Association, was the keynote speaker at the recent National Council of Legislators from Gaming States winter meeting in Hollywood, Florida. Among the subjects touched on by Freeman was the issue of online poker and gaming, with the CEO reiterating the group’s support for a legalized and regulated industry in the United States.
Freeman said that the AGA strongly disapproves of Las Vegas Sands’ boss, Sheldon Adelson’s stance on online gaming and his recent attempts to bring about changes to the 1961 Wire Act that would essentially ban all forms of online gaming in the country. “The AGA strongly opposes Adelson’s position,” said Freeman. “We appreciate Las Vegas Sands’ support of our organization and their membership, but we strongly oppose their approach to internet gaming.”
“We cannot force the Internet back into the bottle. We no longer have to debate about ‘do we want online gaming or do we not want online gaming’,” he said. ”Online gaming is here. The question is, are we going to regulate online gaming, in a way to protect minors, prevent criminal activity, reap tax revenue and other benefits, or are we going to allow the black market to continue to thrive?”
Freeman said that, for the foreseeable future, the American Gaming Association’s efforts will be focused on the prevention of prohibition in the online gaming industry.
“What’s done at the state level, in terms of compacts or whether states have poker-only or all games online, I’ll leave that to other interested parties,” he said, adding that the AGA’s focus is making sure that states have the ability to move forward.
“When it comes to compacts or poker-only, none of that will matter anymore if the other side is successful in getting prohibition through Congress,” he stressed.
AGA Head: Online Poker is Here
Freeman said that the AGA strongly disapproves of Las Vegas Sands’ boss, Sheldon Adelson’s stance on online gaming and his recent attempts to bring about changes to the 1961 Wire Act that would essentially ban all forms of online gaming in the country. “The AGA strongly opposes Adelson’s position,” said Freeman. “We appreciate Las Vegas Sands’ support of our organization and their membership, but we strongly oppose their approach to internet gaming.”
“We cannot force the Internet back into the bottle. We no longer have to debate about ‘do we want online gaming or do we not want online gaming’,” he said. ”Online gaming is here. The question is, are we going to regulate online gaming, in a way to protect minors, prevent criminal activity, reap tax revenue and other benefits, or are we going to allow the black market to continue to thrive?”
Freeman said that, for the foreseeable future, the American Gaming Association’s efforts will be focused on the prevention of prohibition in the online gaming industry.
“What’s done at the state level, in terms of compacts or whether states have poker-only or all games online, I’ll leave that to other interested parties,” he said, adding that the AGA’s focus is making sure that states have the ability to move forward.
“When it comes to compacts or poker-only, none of that will matter anymore if the other side is successful in getting prohibition through Congress,” he stressed.
AGA Head: Online Poker is Here
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2006/12/07
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29893
I went to Blackhawk this weekend! It was so fun, and I won quite a bit😡 Does anyone else go to blackhawk>> is anyone from colorado??😄
Join:
2014/01/07
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13
Jamie Kerstetter is in her pink slippers with the pom-poms. And why shouldn't she be? It's a Sunday morning, and she's settling in to a long day during which she won't leave the apartment.
The cards are dealt, on the screen, four tables going at once, a far cry from the 20 poker games this former tax lawyer used to fire up on her computer screen in Mexico, where she would spend hour after twitchy hour playing online Texas hold 'em.
"My boyfriend and I would sit all day and not talk to each other except when one of us would say, 'Wanna order out?' " Kerstetter, 31, recalled.
At least now she's in New Jersey playing online poker, one of 150,000 accounts created since online gambling went live Nov. 21. Jersey gamblers have left revenue of $8.4 million on virtual poker tables, blackjack, and slots since, well below projections by the state. Online poker accounted for $2.89 million in revenue.
Before that, it was Rosarito, the little beach town in Mexico where she lived for two years, a place she describes as calm and welcoming - and also close to activities of a Mexican drug cartel.
Rosarito was full of resettled ex-pat online poker pros who fled the United States in shock after "Black Friday," the April 15, 2011, ruling that made online gambling illegal in this country, their hands and bankrolls frozen somewhere between the flop and the river cards of hold 'em.
Kerstetter, then known by the screen name "AndtheLawWon," persuaded her poker-playing boyfriend, Zach Donovan, to move to Rosarito. She then left him there, heading to the United States in November, when New Jersey made online poker legal again. Yes, the prodigal professional poker-playing daughter has come home. (And nobody's happier than mom in Monroe Township.)
One thing is clear: The career trajectory of Jamie Kerstetter never did run smooth.
Three years of law school at the University of Michigan, grinding jobs at high-powered law firms, and she left that all behind to turn online poker pro, now grinding cash in a third-story apartment facing the ocean, feasting on the site's newbies, having snagged a coveted sponsorship from partypoker.com.
"I ended up bluffing the river with a missed flush draw," she says in a flash of poker lingo that accounts for much of the back-and-forth with her roommates, Patti "Patticakes" Haggerty, 39, and Haggerty's boyfriend, John Allan Hinds, 26, known as "Beastro," an engineering-school dropout turned poker pro and Lucky Charms-eating foil.
"You don't know how anyone's doing until you hear 'Yes!' or 'Jesus!' " says Kerstetter.
Says Haggerty, with the laser-focused dejection that will punctuate her night on till her epic 3:22 a.m. bad beat flameout: "I flopped a set of sevens; he turned a set of nines," she said in typically obtuse pokerese.
And, more than once, "Jesus!"
It's 6:56 p.m., seven hours into the usual Sunday poker jag, but Kerstetter hasn't eaten yet. When you're anticipating poker till 3 a.m., better to push dinner to 10. She has a blanket around her legs, stretched out onto another stool. Outside, it's a quiet winter beach town. The Borgata, which partners with partypoker.com, is just a few miles up the road and over the bridge.
For PartyPoker, Kerstetter is their local hero. "We know her by reputation," says Jeffrey Haas, global poker director for partypoker.com of Gibraltar-based bwin.party. "She's a consistently successful poker player." She receives an undisclosed salary and other perks. As a successful female in the casino world, she is a pivot from the ubiquitous cocktail waitress or nickel slot player.
Kerstetter, who started playing while an undergraduate at Rutgers, says she hasn't looked back. The old job took over her life, long hours in a cubicle researching tax law and writing wills and trusts. She left family events early, ground her teeth at night, and paid Manhattan rents. Then she got laid off. She got a new law job, but had already begun the poker life, fueled by her usual intense research, and soon left for Mexico. Her new job raises eyebrows, but feels liberating.
"I had to defend poker a lot," she says. "At my old job, I never took heat. I was saving rich people money from their estate taxes, but I was a lawyer, so I was respected."
Lawyers, along with traders, have flocked to the ranks of poker pros. At the WPT Borgata Poker Open last year, two lawyers - Anthony Zinno and Vanessa Selbst - duked it out for first and second place ($825,099 and $492,569).
Selbst ranks fifth in the world with $9 million. Kerstetter ranks 494th, with $359,313 in live career winnings. She says she once had a $40,000 month to top six figures that year.
In her first month in Jersey so far, Kerstetter says, she has made the final table of the partypoker nightly $10,000 guarantee tournament four times, for about $5,000 profit. She has also earned about $3,000 cash game winnings. "That amount won't stay consistent," she says. "It's too early to tell after only one month how much I can possibly expect to earn."
As a pro, Kerstetter is still the exception in Jersey. Most online players are recreational and male, those playing along while watching Jimmy Kimmel Live! Most are New Jersey residents, though Haas says the site gets an influx of New Yorkers who travel across state lines on Sundays. (Gamblers must be in Jersey.)
At its peak - and the success of any poker room depends on having enough players to bankroll the game - about 3,000 players were logged into the sites shared with Borgata on this Sunday. (By contrast, Isle of Man-based PokerStars, not licensed in Jersey, averages 25,000 players a day.)
The pool in Jersey is small enough that Kerstetter looks at a screen name, popo10, and says, "This is my friend from Sunday school." (It's small enough to keep Donovan, a serious online tournament player, over the border.)
The laptop and big screen are still fired up. Kerstetter is playing a few cash games - "an opportunity to
The cards are dealt, on the screen, four tables going at once, a far cry from the 20 poker games this former tax lawyer used to fire up on her computer screen in Mexico, where she would spend hour after twitchy hour playing online Texas hold 'em.
"My boyfriend and I would sit all day and not talk to each other except when one of us would say, 'Wanna order out?' " Kerstetter, 31, recalled.
At least now she's in New Jersey playing online poker, one of 150,000 accounts created since online gambling went live Nov. 21. Jersey gamblers have left revenue of $8.4 million on virtual poker tables, blackjack, and slots since, well below projections by the state. Online poker accounted for $2.89 million in revenue.
Before that, it was Rosarito, the little beach town in Mexico where she lived for two years, a place she describes as calm and welcoming - and also close to activities of a Mexican drug cartel.
Rosarito was full of resettled ex-pat online poker pros who fled the United States in shock after "Black Friday," the April 15, 2011, ruling that made online gambling illegal in this country, their hands and bankrolls frozen somewhere between the flop and the river cards of hold 'em.
Kerstetter, then known by the screen name "AndtheLawWon," persuaded her poker-playing boyfriend, Zach Donovan, to move to Rosarito. She then left him there, heading to the United States in November, when New Jersey made online poker legal again. Yes, the prodigal professional poker-playing daughter has come home. (And nobody's happier than mom in Monroe Township.)
One thing is clear: The career trajectory of Jamie Kerstetter never did run smooth.
Three years of law school at the University of Michigan, grinding jobs at high-powered law firms, and she left that all behind to turn online poker pro, now grinding cash in a third-story apartment facing the ocean, feasting on the site's newbies, having snagged a coveted sponsorship from partypoker.com.
"I ended up bluffing the river with a missed flush draw," she says in a flash of poker lingo that accounts for much of the back-and-forth with her roommates, Patti "Patticakes" Haggerty, 39, and Haggerty's boyfriend, John Allan Hinds, 26, known as "Beastro," an engineering-school dropout turned poker pro and Lucky Charms-eating foil.
"You don't know how anyone's doing until you hear 'Yes!' or 'Jesus!' " says Kerstetter.
Says Haggerty, with the laser-focused dejection that will punctuate her night on till her epic 3:22 a.m. bad beat flameout: "I flopped a set of sevens; he turned a set of nines," she said in typically obtuse pokerese.
And, more than once, "Jesus!"
It's 6:56 p.m., seven hours into the usual Sunday poker jag, but Kerstetter hasn't eaten yet. When you're anticipating poker till 3 a.m., better to push dinner to 10. She has a blanket around her legs, stretched out onto another stool. Outside, it's a quiet winter beach town. The Borgata, which partners with partypoker.com, is just a few miles up the road and over the bridge.
For PartyPoker, Kerstetter is their local hero. "We know her by reputation," says Jeffrey Haas, global poker director for partypoker.com of Gibraltar-based bwin.party. "She's a consistently successful poker player." She receives an undisclosed salary and other perks. As a successful female in the casino world, she is a pivot from the ubiquitous cocktail waitress or nickel slot player.
Kerstetter, who started playing while an undergraduate at Rutgers, says she hasn't looked back. The old job took over her life, long hours in a cubicle researching tax law and writing wills and trusts. She left family events early, ground her teeth at night, and paid Manhattan rents. Then she got laid off. She got a new law job, but had already begun the poker life, fueled by her usual intense research, and soon left for Mexico. Her new job raises eyebrows, but feels liberating.
"I had to defend poker a lot," she says. "At my old job, I never took heat. I was saving rich people money from their estate taxes, but I was a lawyer, so I was respected."
Lawyers, along with traders, have flocked to the ranks of poker pros. At the WPT Borgata Poker Open last year, two lawyers - Anthony Zinno and Vanessa Selbst - duked it out for first and second place ($825,099 and $492,569).
Selbst ranks fifth in the world with $9 million. Kerstetter ranks 494th, with $359,313 in live career winnings. She says she once had a $40,000 month to top six figures that year.
In her first month in Jersey so far, Kerstetter says, she has made the final table of the partypoker nightly $10,000 guarantee tournament four times, for about $5,000 profit. She has also earned about $3,000 cash game winnings. "That amount won't stay consistent," she says. "It's too early to tell after only one month how much I can possibly expect to earn."
As a pro, Kerstetter is still the exception in Jersey. Most online players are recreational and male, those playing along while watching Jimmy Kimmel Live! Most are New Jersey residents, though Haas says the site gets an influx of New Yorkers who travel across state lines on Sundays. (Gamblers must be in Jersey.)
At its peak - and the success of any poker room depends on having enough players to bankroll the game - about 3,000 players were logged into the sites shared with Borgata on this Sunday. (By contrast, Isle of Man-based PokerStars, not licensed in Jersey, averages 25,000 players a day.)
The pool in Jersey is small enough that Kerstetter looks at a screen name, popo10, and says, "This is my friend from Sunday school." (It's small enough to keep Donovan, a serious online tournament player, over the border.)
The laptop and big screen are still fired up. Kerstetter is playing a few cash games - "an opportunity to
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The Ivey League poker training site will officially launch later this month, according to a post on the IveyPoker website.
In February last year, Ivey bought LeggoPoker and announced that it would close and be replaced by his Ivey League.
With the launch of Ivey Poker in October 2012, Phil Ivey announced that his aim was to “teach the world how to play better poker.” Between then and now, he has launched a Facebook play money poker app that provided access to training videos made by members of Team Ivey.
His status has made it easy to recruit some big names such as Jennifer Harman and Greg Merson to the team. The poker world has at times been skeptical that he would successfully monetize his investment, but the Ivey League may provide the right vehicle.
Early filming has taken place in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico which was publicized with photographs of luxury beachfront accommodations and recording sessions being posted on Facebook and on the Ivey Poker blog news site.
In the announcement late last week, it was revealed that Ivey Poker sponsored an episode of the popular boxing program, “ShoBox, The Next Generation.” The episode aired Friday January 17 on Showtime in the US and is set for international distribution in the future. Ivey Poker also sponsored coverage of the 2013 World Series of Poker on ESPN.
Ivey Poker to Unveil Ivey League Training Site | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
In February last year, Ivey bought LeggoPoker and announced that it would close and be replaced by his Ivey League.
With the launch of Ivey Poker in October 2012, Phil Ivey announced that his aim was to “teach the world how to play better poker.” Between then and now, he has launched a Facebook play money poker app that provided access to training videos made by members of Team Ivey.
His status has made it easy to recruit some big names such as Jennifer Harman and Greg Merson to the team. The poker world has at times been skeptical that he would successfully monetize his investment, but the Ivey League may provide the right vehicle.
Early filming has taken place in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico which was publicized with photographs of luxury beachfront accommodations and recording sessions being posted on Facebook and on the Ivey Poker blog news site.
In the announcement late last week, it was revealed that Ivey Poker sponsored an episode of the popular boxing program, “ShoBox, The Next Generation.” The episode aired Friday January 17 on Showtime in the US and is set for international distribution in the future. Ivey Poker also sponsored coverage of the 2013 World Series of Poker on ESPN.
Ivey Poker to Unveil Ivey League Training Site | Pokerfuse Online Poker News
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Legalized online poker is slowly, but surely, coming to the United States. Right now, three states — Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware — have online poker up and running in their respective borders. More are expected in the near future (maybe none in 2014, though).
While the poker boom, which started around a decade ago, has ended, the U.S. online poker market could be set for a comeback. Card Player had the chance to speak with Dr. Kahlil Philander of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, who has done research on the size of the U.S. online poker market, to talk about some of the things that could be in store.
Brian Pempus: Can you talk about some of the estimates of the U.S. online gambling market?
Kahlil Philander: Well, my research has only been with online poker. As for online gaming in general, my take is that there are a lot of numbers out there that are probably overly optimistic in general. And that’s probably pretty consistent with what we’ve seen come out of New Jersey, just as far as the end of November and full December numbers, which were the first real test of a population big enough to hold a reasonably-sized poker market and also a market that has online casino games and online slots. So, I mean that’s sort of a general perspective. But in terms of trying to benchmark online poker, in particular, and comparing it to where the market was previously, I certainly think that if there was widespread adoption of legal online poker the market would certainly be larger than the previous peak, which was sort of the post-UIGEA, but pre-Black Friday, era. If you go by PokerScout’s numbers, which are considered the best in the business…you could easily exceed that by quite a bit.
BP: Do you have an estimate on the size of the U.S. market if online poker was legal everywhere?
KP: If there was a national network, my forecast was around $2.2 billion during the first year. That’s assuming there would be liquidity between all those players. If somehow Congress passed a bill or every state legalized it simultaneously on their own and had compacts.
BP: There was some indication in the past that California, with the largest population of any U.S. state, might want to isolate itself and have its own online poker industry and not share liquidity with another state. Do you think this could be viable for California?
KP: They are a big enough state to where they could create a viable network on their own, but they would always benefit from allowing people in from other areas and other time zones to also participate. But there’s some protectionistic ideas behind them sort of taking that approach. One of the issues with interstate deals is where do the servers have to be located. There are a certain number of jobs associated with that infrastructure, so there’s an interest in having that within your own borders. So part of this is politicking and trying to reap the economic benefits. If you really look at it in terms of the long term, mostly everybody can benefit from having shared player pools. It’s just the negotiations that have to happen in the interim. I’m fairly confident that in the end that’s the situation that we are going to get to, should these states decide to adopt legal online poker.
BP: What kind of timeline would you give for there to be a true U.S. online poker system?
KP: That’s a tough question. Five years ago a lot people thought a national network was going to pop up in a year. It is really hard to predict these types of things. They do take time. It doesn’t look like California, for example, will have anything passed in 2014, but you never know. When you try to think about gambling adoption, and Internet gambling adoption in particular, there’s a few things that can preempt things being legalized or banned. In terms of general gambling, one of the biggest things is whether there is a public revenue shortage. So as things get further and further and away from the financial crisis — the Great Recession — that makes less of an impact, but it certainly did help provide this wave of adoption in Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. But you also need things like political motivations, obviously an interest by players and other stakeholders. There needs to be that cultural interest in having gambling adopted. So you wouldn’t see it in Utah or Hawaii. And then the technological infrastructure. So the issue here is that some states might want to sit back and see how things develop in Nevada and New Jersey. See if this geo-location is accurate as they might want it to be, and what hiccups arise. Certainly if New Jersey continues to grow quickly and a lot of revenue is generated, that may accelerate some timelines in other states.
BP: Now, we’ve seen PokerStars exist as an industry leader for quite some time, but they haven’t been able to gain access to the United States again yet. Let’s say the firm never returns to the U.S., do you think it could be dethroned so to speak from its top spot?
KP: It’s hard to say. PokerStars is in a fairly entrenched market position, internationally. There are a lot more markets in Europe…if one or two dominant firms emerged in the U.S., and international compacts were available and they could farm out and create an international network between their U.S. sites and European sites, certainly there is potential for them to acquire some market share from PokerStars. I mean, yeah it’s possible PokerStars could lose some market size, but they do have a lot of good will among the poker community, good software and they already have a large network, which regardless of what happens in the U.S., is still going to have a lot of liquidity. It’s hard to say there’d be a significant risk for their business, but projecting out more than a couple of years is always a challenge.
BP: Going along with that, how does the U.S. market compare to the global online poker market?
KP: The U.S. is the world’s largest economy. It also has widespread
While the poker boom, which started around a decade ago, has ended, the U.S. online poker market could be set for a comeback. Card Player had the chance to speak with Dr. Kahlil Philander of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, who has done research on the size of the U.S. online poker market, to talk about some of the things that could be in store.
Brian Pempus: Can you talk about some of the estimates of the U.S. online gambling market?
Kahlil Philander: Well, my research has only been with online poker. As for online gaming in general, my take is that there are a lot of numbers out there that are probably overly optimistic in general. And that’s probably pretty consistent with what we’ve seen come out of New Jersey, just as far as the end of November and full December numbers, which were the first real test of a population big enough to hold a reasonably-sized poker market and also a market that has online casino games and online slots. So, I mean that’s sort of a general perspective. But in terms of trying to benchmark online poker, in particular, and comparing it to where the market was previously, I certainly think that if there was widespread adoption of legal online poker the market would certainly be larger than the previous peak, which was sort of the post-UIGEA, but pre-Black Friday, era. If you go by PokerScout’s numbers, which are considered the best in the business…you could easily exceed that by quite a bit.
BP: Do you have an estimate on the size of the U.S. market if online poker was legal everywhere?
KP: If there was a national network, my forecast was around $2.2 billion during the first year. That’s assuming there would be liquidity between all those players. If somehow Congress passed a bill or every state legalized it simultaneously on their own and had compacts.
BP: There was some indication in the past that California, with the largest population of any U.S. state, might want to isolate itself and have its own online poker industry and not share liquidity with another state. Do you think this could be viable for California?
KP: They are a big enough state to where they could create a viable network on their own, but they would always benefit from allowing people in from other areas and other time zones to also participate. But there’s some protectionistic ideas behind them sort of taking that approach. One of the issues with interstate deals is where do the servers have to be located. There are a certain number of jobs associated with that infrastructure, so there’s an interest in having that within your own borders. So part of this is politicking and trying to reap the economic benefits. If you really look at it in terms of the long term, mostly everybody can benefit from having shared player pools. It’s just the negotiations that have to happen in the interim. I’m fairly confident that in the end that’s the situation that we are going to get to, should these states decide to adopt legal online poker.
BP: What kind of timeline would you give for there to be a true U.S. online poker system?
KP: That’s a tough question. Five years ago a lot people thought a national network was going to pop up in a year. It is really hard to predict these types of things. They do take time. It doesn’t look like California, for example, will have anything passed in 2014, but you never know. When you try to think about gambling adoption, and Internet gambling adoption in particular, there’s a few things that can preempt things being legalized or banned. In terms of general gambling, one of the biggest things is whether there is a public revenue shortage. So as things get further and further and away from the financial crisis — the Great Recession — that makes less of an impact, but it certainly did help provide this wave of adoption in Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. But you also need things like political motivations, obviously an interest by players and other stakeholders. There needs to be that cultural interest in having gambling adopted. So you wouldn’t see it in Utah or Hawaii. And then the technological infrastructure. So the issue here is that some states might want to sit back and see how things develop in Nevada and New Jersey. See if this geo-location is accurate as they might want it to be, and what hiccups arise. Certainly if New Jersey continues to grow quickly and a lot of revenue is generated, that may accelerate some timelines in other states.
BP: Now, we’ve seen PokerStars exist as an industry leader for quite some time, but they haven’t been able to gain access to the United States again yet. Let’s say the firm never returns to the U.S., do you think it could be dethroned so to speak from its top spot?
KP: It’s hard to say. PokerStars is in a fairly entrenched market position, internationally. There are a lot more markets in Europe…if one or two dominant firms emerged in the U.S., and international compacts were available and they could farm out and create an international network between their U.S. sites and European sites, certainly there is potential for them to acquire some market share from PokerStars. I mean, yeah it’s possible PokerStars could lose some market size, but they do have a lot of good will among the poker community, good software and they already have a large network, which regardless of what happens in the U.S., is still going to have a lot of liquidity. It’s hard to say there’d be a significant risk for their business, but projecting out more than a couple of years is always a challenge.
BP: Going along with that, how does the U.S. market compare to the global online poker market?
KP: The U.S. is the world’s largest economy. It also has widespread
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Smaller states such as Delaware and Nevada, who have legalized their online poker industries, are hoping that other, larger states such as California will go down the same path very soon, so that they can sign compacts and start pooling their players. However, the Commissioner of the California Gambling Control Commission, Richard Schuetz, recently shot down hopes that the Golden State will be entering into compacts with others very soon, saying that it will take a lot to convince lawmakers of the viability of such a move.
Speaking at the winter meeting of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, Schuetz said that while other states may need to sign deals with California in order to see their own industries remain viable, California – with its 40 million residents – wasn’t in a rush to do so.
“People need to understand the complexity of getting a compact agreement on liquidity, where we’re going to share customers,” said the Commissioner. “For one, you’re going to have to convince us why we’re going to give you those customers.”
He continued: ”If it were true that we were going to have a compact in California, the Governor will have to sign off on that. So will the State Senate, and the Attorney General. The people who do handle investigation and compliance issues work for the Attorney General – they are some of the strongest union members in the state of California. Someone’s going to have to convince them that they should give those jobs to Nevada. That may be a difficult sell.”
Other speakers at the event included Nevada State Senator Greg Bower, who said that liquidity in his state was “a big, big deal”, admitting that Nevada doesn’t “have the liquidity to make this a success”. Bower said that 2014 will probably see the signing of compacts between his state and Delaware.
Californian Commissioner Foresees Problems with Online Poker Compacts
Speaking at the winter meeting of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, Schuetz said that while other states may need to sign deals with California in order to see their own industries remain viable, California – with its 40 million residents – wasn’t in a rush to do so.
“People need to understand the complexity of getting a compact agreement on liquidity, where we’re going to share customers,” said the Commissioner. “For one, you’re going to have to convince us why we’re going to give you those customers.”
He continued: ”If it were true that we were going to have a compact in California, the Governor will have to sign off on that. So will the State Senate, and the Attorney General. The people who do handle investigation and compliance issues work for the Attorney General – they are some of the strongest union members in the state of California. Someone’s going to have to convince them that they should give those jobs to Nevada. That may be a difficult sell.”
Other speakers at the event included Nevada State Senator Greg Bower, who said that liquidity in his state was “a big, big deal”, admitting that Nevada doesn’t “have the liquidity to make this a success”. Bower said that 2014 will probably see the signing of compacts between his state and Delaware.
Californian Commissioner Foresees Problems with Online Poker Compacts
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As you are reading this, Americans are free to play online poker in three states. Though no bills legalizing and regulating online poker have made it all the way through Congress, support on Capitol Hill is growing every year. Opponents of online poker are scared, so scared that they are back on the offensive.
The latest salvo from the anti-poker army: a letter to state Attorneys General calling for an outright ban on online poker. The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) got its hands on the letter last week and has since blasted out to its members via Facebook, Twitter, and its website.
The letter is divided into two parts. The first is a plea from Chris Koster, Missouri’s Attorney General, Jon Bruning, Nebraska’s Attorney General, and Alan Wilson, South Carolina’s, to their fellow state Attorneys General from around the country, urging them to sign the attached letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of both the Senate and House of Representatives Judiciary Committees.
That letter asks Congress to make online gambling, including poker, illegal. In December 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice adjusted its stance on the Wire Act of 1961, saying that it outlawed only online sports betting, not all online gambling. While the Act was designed to stop organized crime from running sports betting rackets over telephone lines, it had come to be interpreted much more broadly, fitting other gambling like poker under its umbrella. That reversal did not sit well with opponents of online gambling. In the letter, the Attorneys General ask Congress to restore the ban on online gambling (which wasn’t technically there in the first place), but do so in a way that makes it look like they really just want more information on the subject before giving internet gaming the thumbs-up:
The impact of this opinion – which in effect opens the door to the spread of Internet gambling – will have a potentially significant impact on state and local law enforcement. As such, we urge Congress to fully review, assess, understand and debate the significant policy implications entailed in the spread of Internet gambling, including concerns related to money laundering; access by minors; fraud; exploitation of individuals with a gambling addiction; and terrorist financing.
Of course, they had to include the terms “money laundering” and “terrorist financing” in there because fear mongering.
The Attorneys General also want the federal government to ban online gambling in the three states – Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey – that have already legalized and regulated it. Again, because they are concerned for law enforcement. They want “to give federal and state law enforcement agencies time to fully assess and report on the implications Internet gambling has on our respective charges to protect the citizens of our states.”
The way the authors of the letter get around the idea that Congress “may only regulate transactions which are interstate in nature” is quite clever. They say that because online gambling is “interstate in nature” (which is not inaccurate), “federal oversight…is appropriate.”
According to the PPA, ten state Attorneys General, including the three already mentioned, have signed the letter. They are:
Arizona – Tom Horne
Hawaii – David Louie
Michigan – Bill Schuette
Missouri – Chris Koster
Montana – Tim Fox
Nebraska – Jon Bruning
North Dakota – Wayne Stenehjem
South Carolina – Alan Wilson
South Dakota – Marty Jackley
Wyoming – Peter Michael
The PPA is asking everyone to write, e-mail, and tweet their state’s Attorney General and Governor, to support legalized and regulated online poker, even those who have agreed to sign the letter.
More information on how to contact those people can be found on the PPA’s Facebook page as well as a special page on the PPA website about the letter.
State Attorneys General Petitioning Congress to Ban Online Poker
The latest salvo from the anti-poker army: a letter to state Attorneys General calling for an outright ban on online poker. The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) got its hands on the letter last week and has since blasted out to its members via Facebook, Twitter, and its website.
The letter is divided into two parts. The first is a plea from Chris Koster, Missouri’s Attorney General, Jon Bruning, Nebraska’s Attorney General, and Alan Wilson, South Carolina’s, to their fellow state Attorneys General from around the country, urging them to sign the attached letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of both the Senate and House of Representatives Judiciary Committees.
That letter asks Congress to make online gambling, including poker, illegal. In December 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice adjusted its stance on the Wire Act of 1961, saying that it outlawed only online sports betting, not all online gambling. While the Act was designed to stop organized crime from running sports betting rackets over telephone lines, it had come to be interpreted much more broadly, fitting other gambling like poker under its umbrella. That reversal did not sit well with opponents of online gambling. In the letter, the Attorneys General ask Congress to restore the ban on online gambling (which wasn’t technically there in the first place), but do so in a way that makes it look like they really just want more information on the subject before giving internet gaming the thumbs-up:
The impact of this opinion – which in effect opens the door to the spread of Internet gambling – will have a potentially significant impact on state and local law enforcement. As such, we urge Congress to fully review, assess, understand and debate the significant policy implications entailed in the spread of Internet gambling, including concerns related to money laundering; access by minors; fraud; exploitation of individuals with a gambling addiction; and terrorist financing.
Of course, they had to include the terms “money laundering” and “terrorist financing” in there because fear mongering.
The Attorneys General also want the federal government to ban online gambling in the three states – Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey – that have already legalized and regulated it. Again, because they are concerned for law enforcement. They want “to give federal and state law enforcement agencies time to fully assess and report on the implications Internet gambling has on our respective charges to protect the citizens of our states.”
The way the authors of the letter get around the idea that Congress “may only regulate transactions which are interstate in nature” is quite clever. They say that because online gambling is “interstate in nature” (which is not inaccurate), “federal oversight…is appropriate.”
According to the PPA, ten state Attorneys General, including the three already mentioned, have signed the letter. They are:
Arizona – Tom Horne
Hawaii – David Louie
Michigan – Bill Schuette
Missouri – Chris Koster
Montana – Tim Fox
Nebraska – Jon Bruning
North Dakota – Wayne Stenehjem
South Carolina – Alan Wilson
South Dakota – Marty Jackley
Wyoming – Peter Michael
The PPA is asking everyone to write, e-mail, and tweet their state’s Attorney General and Governor, to support legalized and regulated online poker, even those who have agreed to sign the letter.
More information on how to contact those people can be found on the PPA’s Facebook page as well as a special page on the PPA website about the letter.
State Attorneys General Petitioning Congress to Ban Online Poker
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Congress banned online gambling in 2006. But new laws across the nation are rolling the rules back -- and lawmakers think they’re holding a royal flush.
Mega-entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is the latest entry in online gambling, teaming with the Tropicana Resort in Atlantic City and online game maker Gamesys to bring online poker, blackjack and slots to New Jersey this week. Gov. Chris Christie validated the vice in the waning weeks of 2013, saying he hoped to rake in $1 billion in casino revenues this year, of which the state will collect a 17 percent tax.
And New Jersey isn’t alone; eight other states have bills in the works that will allow Internet gambling as well. Nevada and Delaware also began offering some online gambling last year, but New Jersey is the first state to “fully” legalize it, said Lee Fenton, the chief operating officer of Gamesys.
“There will be many games to play online in New Jersey,” Fenton told FoxNews-com. “Blackjack, slots. Not just poker.”
Players must be at least 21 years old, and either reside in New Jersey or be in the state when they place their bets. They play against the house at Virgin Casino, and they can finance their wagers with debit cards, credit cards, or in person.
“Those from other states can play, but they cannot wager,” Fenton said. “The technology is rolling out this week.”
To prevent unauthorized access, Virgin Casino physically locates gamers’ cellphones periodically. “If we are unable to determine that you are in New Jersey, you will be unable to play on Virgin Casino,” the site notes. If your phone is off, or if you’re too near state borders, you may not be allowed to play.
What happens online, stays online
Six other firms, including popular companies like WSOP-com and Ultimate Poker and other casinos like Caesars and the Golden Nugget, participated in the “soft play” launch of online gambling in New Jersey in November, the state’s Department of Gaming Enforcement Director Dave Rebuck said during a recent conference call.
Not everyone agrees with the odds. Virgin could be holding a full house, but it could also fail before the flop.
“It'll be interesting to see how this plays out,” said Laurence DeGaris, associate professor of marketing at the University of Indianapolis and an expert in Internet culture.
“Slots and roulette are very visceral games, lots of bells and whistles. That doesn't translate online,” DeGaris told FoxNews-com. “Blackjack and poker have a very human element that's lost online. In online casino gambling, it's about the game more than the bet.”
But analysts are mostly rolling with Christie and the casinos. U.K. market research firm H2 Gambling Capital, which focuses on the gaming industry, predicted about $300 million for New Jersey’s online casinos — or about $45 million in tax revenue, according to the New York Times. Others predict the overall U.S. market could be worth as much as $9 billion in the coming years as other states, including California, legalize online wagering.
Globally, the business is even more lucrative. H2 said the industry was worth $33 billion in 2013, with $4.5 billion coming from mobile gambling on iPads, iPhones and smartphones.
Prohibition failed – again
Last month, the president and CEO of the American Gaming Association testified before Congress and urged legislators to repeal their 7-year-old ban on Internet gambling.
“Prohibition simply does not work,” Geoff Freeman told a House panel on Dec. 10. “The federal government has tried the prohibition approach – specifically the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 and the Wire Act – and through multiple Justice Department crackdowns on offshore operators as well.”
Many Americans simply ignored the ban, he noted, as the country did during Prohibition in the ’20s.
“Last year, before a single state authorized legal online gaming, Americans spent nearly $3 billion on illegal, unregulated offshore gaming sites. To put that into further context, Americans accounted for nearly 10 percent of the entire $33 billion worldwide online gaming market,” Freeman said.
Legalizing gambling across the U.S. will generate – in addition to tax revenue from the proceeds at casinos – approximately 22,000 new online gambling-related jobs, Freeman testified.
Freeman said the Department of Justice has relaxed its views toward online gambling since 2011, and this could open up even more opportunities in the U.S. -- notably sports betting.
“In sports gambling, it's about the bet,” DeGaris said. “That's where I see the huge potential in online gambling, and I reckon the U.S. will catch up to the rest of the world and allow it at some point.”
Cybergambling returns -- and this time it's legal | Fox News
Mega-entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is the latest entry in online gambling, teaming with the Tropicana Resort in Atlantic City and online game maker Gamesys to bring online poker, blackjack and slots to New Jersey this week. Gov. Chris Christie validated the vice in the waning weeks of 2013, saying he hoped to rake in $1 billion in casino revenues this year, of which the state will collect a 17 percent tax.
And New Jersey isn’t alone; eight other states have bills in the works that will allow Internet gambling as well. Nevada and Delaware also began offering some online gambling last year, but New Jersey is the first state to “fully” legalize it, said Lee Fenton, the chief operating officer of Gamesys.
“There will be many games to play online in New Jersey,” Fenton told FoxNews-com. “Blackjack, slots. Not just poker.”
Players must be at least 21 years old, and either reside in New Jersey or be in the state when they place their bets. They play against the house at Virgin Casino, and they can finance their wagers with debit cards, credit cards, or in person.
“Those from other states can play, but they cannot wager,” Fenton said. “The technology is rolling out this week.”
To prevent unauthorized access, Virgin Casino physically locates gamers’ cellphones periodically. “If we are unable to determine that you are in New Jersey, you will be unable to play on Virgin Casino,” the site notes. If your phone is off, or if you’re too near state borders, you may not be allowed to play.
What happens online, stays online
Six other firms, including popular companies like WSOP-com and Ultimate Poker and other casinos like Caesars and the Golden Nugget, participated in the “soft play” launch of online gambling in New Jersey in November, the state’s Department of Gaming Enforcement Director Dave Rebuck said during a recent conference call.
Not everyone agrees with the odds. Virgin could be holding a full house, but it could also fail before the flop.
“It'll be interesting to see how this plays out,” said Laurence DeGaris, associate professor of marketing at the University of Indianapolis and an expert in Internet culture.
“Slots and roulette are very visceral games, lots of bells and whistles. That doesn't translate online,” DeGaris told FoxNews-com. “Blackjack and poker have a very human element that's lost online. In online casino gambling, it's about the game more than the bet.”
But analysts are mostly rolling with Christie and the casinos. U.K. market research firm H2 Gambling Capital, which focuses on the gaming industry, predicted about $300 million for New Jersey’s online casinos — or about $45 million in tax revenue, according to the New York Times. Others predict the overall U.S. market could be worth as much as $9 billion in the coming years as other states, including California, legalize online wagering.
Globally, the business is even more lucrative. H2 said the industry was worth $33 billion in 2013, with $4.5 billion coming from mobile gambling on iPads, iPhones and smartphones.
Prohibition failed – again
Last month, the president and CEO of the American Gaming Association testified before Congress and urged legislators to repeal their 7-year-old ban on Internet gambling.
“Prohibition simply does not work,” Geoff Freeman told a House panel on Dec. 10. “The federal government has tried the prohibition approach – specifically the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 and the Wire Act – and through multiple Justice Department crackdowns on offshore operators as well.”
Many Americans simply ignored the ban, he noted, as the country did during Prohibition in the ’20s.
“Last year, before a single state authorized legal online gaming, Americans spent nearly $3 billion on illegal, unregulated offshore gaming sites. To put that into further context, Americans accounted for nearly 10 percent of the entire $33 billion worldwide online gaming market,” Freeman said.
Legalizing gambling across the U.S. will generate – in addition to tax revenue from the proceeds at casinos – approximately 22,000 new online gambling-related jobs, Freeman testified.
Freeman said the Department of Justice has relaxed its views toward online gambling since 2011, and this could open up even more opportunities in the U.S. -- notably sports betting.
“In sports gambling, it's about the bet,” DeGaris said. “That's where I see the huge potential in online gambling, and I reckon the U.S. will catch up to the rest of the world and allow it at some point.”
Cybergambling returns -- and this time it's legal | Fox News
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The top ten poker rooms and networks all showed positive numbers from the previous week. The only position change from last week among those top ten saw MPN creep back into 10th place, knocking PokerStars.fr down to 11th.
MPN's cash action rose by more than 25%. A somewhat surprising statistic that leads to a certain amount of speculation. Without actually polling the influx of players at the Microgaming network, one can surmise that the Bad Beat Jackpot that pays out 100% of funds and allows players to opt in at their choosing may be the reason for the increase.
That tumble out of the top ten did not sit well with PokerStars.fr, as a new promotion was announced that caters to ring game players who may currently be favoring seventh-ranked Winamax. A January Supernova Blast promo is now underway at PokerStars' offering in the French market that aims to shorten the lead that Winamax enjoys over its competitor. That lead currently sits at 1,700 to 1,350 players in a seven-day average.
Other highlights last week among top ten poker rooms include Full Tilt rolling out "Adrenaline Rush," an even quicker-paced fast-fold variant than its Rush Poker offering. Also, second-ranked 888poker announced a "Big Bang Promotion" that can best be described as a leaderboard competition geared toward recreational players that awards points according to hand rankings.
Over in New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie had to fire an aide who was responsible for causing traffic backups in Fort Lee N.J. as retribution for that town's mayor not supporting Christie's campaign. Online poker traffic backed up last week in New Jersey as well, with all four poker sites losing cash action from the week before. PokerScout reports that it was not particularly a bad week in the Garden State market, but that the previous week was just so much better.
In other U.S. player traffic news, SealsWithClubs continues to gain players. The Bitcoin-friendly site added 20 more cash players, increasing its seven-day average to 140. Cashout speed is of utmost importance to players and SWC gets it done within 12 hours for most withdrawal requests and in 24 hours for the rest.
In U.S. news that could affect future player traffic numbers, Sheldon Adelson has stepped up efforts with regard to his Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling. The billionaire casino honcho drafted federal anti-online gambling legislation that he hopes will lead to the DoJ's 2011 ruling that allowed individual states to offer online poker and gambling to be overturned.
Despite the online poker industry gaining 6% overall last week, the global market remains 11% less than this time last year. Let's hope Adelson's campaign to wipe out Internet poker and gambling in the U.S. is unsuccessful or the decline in player numbers may be even greater next year.
Online Poker Player Traffic Update - January 14, 2014 | PokerUpdate