It’s not always all poker here at PokerNews HQ. Inside Gaming brings you all the goings on in the gaming industry every week. Read on to find out about the WPT’s new TV deal, and more.
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09 3rd, 2010
On today’s Daily Deal, the coalition of California casinos clarifies its stance on internet gambling legislation, reports its financial results for the first half of two-thousand ten, the Main Event continues airing on ESPN and we find out who the final nominees are for this year’s Hall of Fame. It’s all ahead… faster than you can say, “I can dodge bullets, baby.”
Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.
Recently, the Commerce Casino, Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, Hollywood Park, and the California Gaming Association joined in opposition Congressman Barney Frank’s HR 2267, which would create a full licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States.
The four casinos have found themselves in a war of words against the , which has launched an online petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse their stance against the groundbreaking legislation. Poker News Daily sat down with card room coalition spokesperson Waltona Manion to explore the coalition’s resistance.
Manion argued,
“We’re looking for Federal enforcement of the same strict licensing and regulation for online poker as U.S. land-based casinos abide by. This means that they have to license all of their employees and the physical operations should be in the U.S. In addition, the hardware and software should be tested and certified.”
She added, “Frank’s bill provides fewer industry regulations and player protections. It imposes lower taxes for foreign online companies than what U.S. casinos pay. It would enable illegal offshore companies to export significant money from our economy.”
We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.
888 Holdings, the gaming operator that owns 888 Poker, announced Tuesday that it will be cutting costs in order to address a loss in profits for the first half of 2010. The company has also decided to scrap its dividend in order to pay for acquisitions after the weak economy and World Cup caused a decline in poker revenue.
888’s first half financial results showed revenues were up 10.5% to one-hundred thirty million dollars, but pre-tax profit dropped by 56% to four point three million dollars. Poker revenue dropped 25% to nineteen point six million.
The Main Event continued airing on ESPN on Tuesday night with Day Two-B. Two one-hour episodes were devoted to the second Day Two and the feature table included and Jeff Shulman, who were seated next to each other. and Allied Network Solutions CEO Ted Bort tangled in a hand in which Bort called the clock after pushing all in. Friedman waited until the count reached one and quietly said, “I call,” but floor officials ruled that the clock had expired. Bort turned over top two pair and Friedman mucked.
A maelstrom of yelling ensued. ESPN aired a replay clearly showing that Friedman had called at the one-second mark and the dealer promptly said, “He called.” Nevertheless, another floor supervisor was summoned who also said the hand was dead. Don’t forget that Friedman was also involved in “Ante-gate” with .
Finally, the nominees as voted by the fans are in for the Poker Hall of Fame. This year’s class is a who’s who of the poker world, all of whom have distinguished careers warranting their nominations. This year’s class of nominees, who will be voted on by the 16 living Hall of Fame members and a 17-person media panel. Only these 33 individuals cast votes for induction. The nominees are:
1.
2.
3. -TRANIELLO
4. DAN HARRINGTON
5.
6.
7. TOM McEVOY
8.
9.
10.
Well, that does it for today’s edition of The Daily Deal, and we’ll be back with you on Tuesday of next week. Be sure to visit Poker News Daily every day for the latest poker headlines, and be sure to check us out at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, thanks for tuning in, and we’ll see you next time. Now go crush those fish at the tables!
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U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had long been on the fence regarding the legalization of online poker in the States. But when Reid sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke asking for a delay for the enforcement of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act () regulations in November of last year, it became clear that the influential politician was becoming more favorable toward poker on the internet.
This week, Reid showed even more support of online poker in the state of Nevada. According to the , Reid claimed he would support the legalization of online poker in the United States during an August 16 meeting at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. Reid also stated he would not support any other form of online gaming, including sports betting.
The news was disconcerting to Nevada gaming executives, who fear that the legalization of online poker will result in a major loss of customers in brick-and-mortar casinos.
“It (online poker) is just the tip of the iceberg and could open up this state to more online gaming,” said Bill Hughes, the Marketing Director of Peppermill, to the Reno Gazette-Journal. “It will only draw more money out of this state, from our poker rooms and eventually other facilities.”
Reid has stated that he would not support anything that hurts Nevada jobs, but the Senate Majority Leader will play a huge role in whether online poker is legalized. The House Financial Services Committee passed HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, in July and the bill is currently waiting on a vote by the full House. HR 2267 would effectively legalize online poker, overturning a 2006 law that bars offshore sites from accepting money from U.S. bettors.
Congress is on summer recess until September 8, at which point Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) hopes the House Ways and Means Committee will mark up their tax companion bill, HR 4976, and bring both measures to the floor.
Meanwhile, gaming properties in Nevada, such as Harrah’s Entertainment and MGM Resorts International, are in the process of developing strategies to monetize the legalization of internet gaming. With the future of sites like , , and Poker up in the air following the markup amendments of HR 2267, people like Jan Jones, Harrah’s Senior Vice President for Communications and Government Relations, seem to think online poker would improve Nevada’s gaming market.
“If you look at the businesses that are surviving today, they approach their customers in three ways,” Jones told the Gazette-Journal. “One is brick and mortar. One is direct marketing sales, and the other is the internet.
“The businesses that have not done that have gone out of business. Look at record stores. Look at newspapers. In the gaming industry, we need to realize, where are the X-Y generation customers? They are all on the internet. That is where they play. That is where they congregate, and if we don’t leverage the internet, then we run the risk of becoming an old person’s entertainment.”
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest news on Capitol Hill.
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08 26th, 2010
Today’s Daily Deal comes form The Bicycle Casino, the home of the ‘s Legends of Poker event where the final table is being taped today. Our topics today include the Big Game television show, Holland (otherwise known as The Netherlands) potentially legalizing online poker and Jungleman12 being the next participant in the DurrrrChallenge.
PokerStars Big Game has some amazing things going on this week. New cast this week and some big pots between and and between Eugene Katchalov and Dani Stern. There’s a huge pot between Hellmuth and Stern where Stern held pocket Kings and Hellmuth had pocket Queens. Fireworks during that hand to say the least. The PokerStars Big Game airs nightly on Fox and is PokerStars’ answer to GSN’s “High Stakes Poker”.
Holland Online Poker Legalization might be right around the corner. The story from Gaming Intelligence says the country’s Ministry of Justice created a special group called the Online Gaming Advisory Committee to look into the potential for expanding their current online gaming laws to include poker. The nation currently operates a state-run monopoly on online gaming, offering only sports betting and a national lottery through state-authorized sites. The findings from the Online Gaming Advisory Committee could affect the laws as they are currently written and enforced in the country.
Out last bit of news has to do with the Challenge and the next competitor in Jungleman12. JungleMan12 says he shipped $500,000 to for escrow, which is the amount of money he has to put up for the challenge in order to participate. Unlike the ongoing challenge between and which has stretched for nearly two years, this challenge might just take a couple of weeks. There hasn’t been any action at the tables yet but we are expecting this new leg of the Durrrr Challenge to pick up potentially next week.
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08 24th, 2010
In a story from Gaming Intelligence issued earlier today, Holland looks to be the latest country in Europe to open up its online gaming options to include internet poker.
The story from Gaming Intelligence says the country’s Ministry of Justice created a special group, called the Online Gaming Advisory Committee, to look into the potential for expanding their current online gaming laws to include poker. The nation currently operates a state-run monopoly on online gaming, offering only sportsbetting and a national lottery through state-authorized sites. The findings from the Online Gaming Advisory Committee could affect the laws as they are currently written and enforced in the country.
The group, formed in September of last year, is a six member body that investigated the current market conditions in Holland and the application of the country’s laws toward online gaming. According to Gaming Intelligence, the recommendations from the committee support legalization of online poker in much the same way that France recently opened up its online gaming market. The reasons for the suggested changes are twofold, according to Gaming Intelligence’s reports.
First, Holland already licenses sports betting and a national lottery, which the committee found haven’t caused any problems under current national laws. Secondly, the committee found that “illegal” variants of online gaming (including poker) already exist and haven’t been inhibited by the current legal system. The only way for the country to prevent access to the online sites, the committee found, was for the different Internet Service Providers (ISPs) throughout the country to block the sites.
There are a couple of other reasons that the committee may have found to change the current stance in Holland. By blocking ISPs in the country, Holland would run afoul of the European Union’s free trade policies and treaties. This could lead to sanctions from the EU for such violations. It is also possible that the government committee saw another source of revenue that the country could bring into the fold during the current economically sluggish period.
The European Union has been battling the issue of online gaming since the industry first appeared in the late 1990s. Each of the 27 Member States have signed treaties that promote free trade and commerce between each other, but many nations have attempted to circumvent those agreements at various points over the last decade. The European Court of Justice, where disagreements are heard between Member States, has repeatedly emphasized EU law over individual nations’ laws regarding the question of online gaming and continuously questioned the different national monopolies that some nations, such as France and Holland, had established.
Earlier this year, France overhauled its three year old state run monopoly on gaming and created ARJEL, the country’s online gaming regulatory authority, to handle bringing online gaming into the country legally and the dispersal of online licenses in sports betting, horse racing and online poker. In June, ARJEL seamlessly handled the licensing of such online sites as , , and , among others. It is thought that Holland will be trying to implement a system much like France’s in the near future to handle their online gaming issues.
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Property ownership is always in flux in the gaming industry, but in the last two weeks, managing stakes in Las Vegas casinos seem to be flying around. Station Casinos has been in the middle of hostile bidding war for months, Boyd Gaming is trying…
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Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good Yanks/Sox Sunday afternoon slugfest as much as the next guy. But 2,430 games are just a little too many to hold my attention over the course of a regular season. And for me, midseason baseball wears out its…
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08 10th, 2010
Topics: Mizrachi joins Deepstacks Live, Atlantic City Summit, Ameristar Casino results and Aussie Millions results.
On today’s Daily Deal, Atlantic City hosts a major gambling summit, Ameristar Casinos turns in its second quarter financial results, and the Aussie Millions Main Event wraps up on GSN. Plus, Michael “” Mizrachi signs on with Deepstacks Live. It’s all coming your way… right now!
Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.
Last Friday, a “who’s who” in the New Jersey gambling world turned out to the Atlantic City Convention Center. The topic: how to rejuvenate the city’s fledgling casinos and, at the same time, preserve the storied horse racing industry in the northern part of the state. Economists, representatives of organized labor, and other key industry leaders gathered on Friday and among them was Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association Chairman Joe Brennan.
Brennan told Poker News Daily about the attendees’ attitudes towards intrastate internet gambling: “There wasn’t one sense either way. The bigger issue was North Jersey versus South Jersey economic developments issues. The question: How do we save the horse racing industry in the North and preserve the gaming enterprises in the South?”
In other land-based casino news, Ameristar Casinos reported lower than expected financials for the second quarter of 2010 and cited heavy construction work near one of its properties as the reason for poor performance. The casino giant reported that consolidated net revenues were down $15.9 million dollars versus the same period in 2009. Construction on a major artery connecting the city of Chicago to Ameristar’s East Chicago, Indiana property cut into the company’s profitability in the second quarter.
On Saturday night, the two-thousand ten Aussie Millions Main Event wrapped up on GSN with Tyron Krost taking down the title and one point eight million dollar first place prize. Krost defeated Frederik Jensen heads-up. On Saturday, August 14th, the Doubles Poker Championship will begin airing on GSN at 8pm Eastern Time. The $50,000 buy-in tournament features sixteen teams.
One of the first members of the 2010 November Nine to make a splash following the final table being determined in July is pro Michael “” Mizrachi. Mizrachi signed on with Deepstacks Live to teach three courses over the next three months, largely in events held in his home state of Florida. You can catch Mizrachi on September tenth at the Mardi Gras Casino in Hallandale Beach, Florida. The cash game session comes with a four-hundred ninety-five dollar price tag and will also feature online poker studs Matt Graham and Tristan Wade.
That does it for today’s edition of The Daily Deal and be sure to check back in with us every week day for a new episode featuring the top news in the world of poker. Also be sure to add us to your twitter feed at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, wishing you great sessions at the tables all week long!
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08 5th, 2010
Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to this express edition Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.
In breaking news from , the site will release an update to the new client in the near future to fix a potentially hazardous security issue. According to Cake Poker Card Room Manager Lee Jones, the fix implements OpenSSL into all client-server communication. On Tuesday night, the old Cake Poker client received the update correcting the security flaw.
PokerTableRatings.com, which first reported the security vulnerability on July 26th, has promised to take the new version’s updated Beta client for a test drive. The Cake Poker Network used an XOR-based encryption similar to the security issue experienced on the CEREUS Network back in May. PokerTableRatings.com noted that Cake Poker Network skins like and Bruce Poker have not yet received an update.
On Tuesday night, the 2010 Tournament of Champions aired on ESPN. This week marked the last preliminary tournament leading up to the Main Event, which will begin next Tuesday at eight P-M Eastern Time. defeated ’s in the finale of the Tournament of Champions and banked five-hundred thousand dollars. The tournament appeared on the slate for the first time since 2006, when beat for the title.
Finally, online poker players have been celebrating the passage of H-R two-two-six-seven by the House Financial Services Committee last week. However, now that the House is out of session for its summer recess, what will the future of the bill be?
PND asked Executive Director John Pappas what we can expect. He responded,
“What Barney Frank indicated in the committee hearing last week was that his intent was to move HR two-two-six-seven simultaneously with the revenue bill in the Ways and Means Committee. In September, we hope to have the Ways and Means Committee mark up their bill and bring both bills to the floor.”
Less optimistic was Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association Chairman Joe Brennan, who told PND, “Frank’s bill has no companion bill in the Senate. All of these amendments were thrown in and it’s a bill that doesn’t have a chance of passing before the end of this Congress.”
Congress returns to Capitol Hill on September tenth.
That does it for this express edition of The Daily Deal, and as always be sure to check back with us all day long for the latest in poker news. This is Sean Gibson reporting for Poker News Daily dot com.
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08 4th, 2010
Last week, online poker players across the United States watched as HR 2267 passed out of the House Financial Services Committee by a 2:1 margin, 41-22. The winds of change are clearly in the air, but how long will the internet poker world wait until regulation finally comes to fruition?
Among those ardently working on Capitol Hill is (PPA) Executive Director John Pappas, who told Poker News Daily on Tuesday that he was elated to see the somewhat bipartisan support for HR 2267: “I was really pleased with the overwhelming majority and the bipartisan support for the legislation. If you look back just four short years ago, the House passed an Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act ()-like prohibition by a wide margin. Just two years ago, we had a bill defeated on a 32-32 stalemate. Now, we have a pro-internet poker bill that passed by a 2:1 margin.”
Time is quickly running out on the 2010 legislative session, with less than a month remaining for Congress to act. The lawmaking body is on summer recess until September 10th and has a target adjournment of October 8th for general elections. Pappas shared the PPA’s timeline for action: “What Barney Frank (D-MA) indicated in the committee hearing last week was that his intent was to move HR 2267 simultaneously with the revenue bill in the Ways and Means Committee. In September, we hope to have the Ways and Means Committee mark up their bill and bring both bills to the floor.”
The revenue companion bill to Frank’s HR 2267 is HR 4976, introduced by Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA). It was discussed in the House Ways and Means Committee in May and boasts four co-sponsors. Meanwhile, HR 2267 lacks a supported counterpart in the Senate, where Senator Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) S 1597 has not been discussed in any committee and offers no co-sponsors.
Among the various amendments added to HR 2267 last week included one by Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) forbidding those internet gambling sites operating illegally in the United States now from receiving licenses. The inclusion has raised the question as to whether rooms like and will exist in a regulated regime. Pappas speculated, “Most of the online poker sites have well-reasoned legal opinions that say they’re not operating in violation of any Federal law. It’s hard to prove that someone is operating illegally if you haven’t convicted or indicted anyone. How can they be considered illegal if they continue to operate without any legal repercussions?”
Not optimistic about HR 2267’s chances of becoming law before the end of the legislative session was Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) Chairman Joe Brennan, who told Poker News Daily, “Frank’s bill has no companion bill in the Senate. All of these amendments were thrown in and it’s a bill that doesn’t have a chance of passing before the end of this Congress.”
Brennan also questioned whether the 14 amendments added to HR 2267 increased its chances of approval in the House: “On the face of it, it was a difficult bill made even more difficult by all of those amendments. The post-markup bill is something that anyone who is in the industry now should be concerned about. It’s so nakedly tilted away from current operators to establish a standard for individuals and companies as far as licensure.”
An amendment proposed by Ranking Member Spencer Bachus (R-AL) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN) prohibits anyone who has “knowingly participated in, or should have known they were participating in, any illegal internet gambling activity” on or since the passage of the UIGEA in 2006 from receiving a license. Consequently, how the clause is enacted will play a major role in determining who is able to serve the U.S. market. Companies like Party Gaming, for example, have signed non-prosecution agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Pappas added that the PPA has seen a spike in donations since the markup hearing. Read our .
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