Anyone following the recent financial turmoil in the United States will know how close the

Online legislation nearing?

country was to defaulting on its payments.  A last minute deal to agree a raise in the debt ceiling allowed the U.S. to borrow more money to resolve the situation, if only in the short term.  In the longer term, it needs to find savings of around $1.5 trillion in the next decade by making cuts and raising more revenue.

The Debt Super Committee was created as part of the Budget Control Bill 2011 and this is a bi-partisan group which will be able to devise bills that will go straight to a vote in the Senate and then Congress before being signed into law by the President.  It will avoid the filibustering and other delaying tactics that beset many controversial bills.

It is this which gives online poker players some optimism – federal, online poker legislation would raise huge amounts of money for the treasury while avoiding raising taxes in general. There are other influencing factors at work now as well, not least the efforts being made by individual states to enact their own intrastate bills.  California and Nevada are leading the way in this area.  California is currently experiencing television and radio ads from supporters and opponents of the bill (Lou Correa’s Senate Bill 40) as the state’s legislature approaches the end of its business year.

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) also continues to lobby politicians of all hues and has ranked them all in terms of whether they are likely or not to be a supporter of any new legislation.  A couple of weeks ago we also wrote about Fair Play USA, a new pressure group set up specifically to further the cause of online poker (the PPA is about all poker) and one which has several very influential people as its spokespersons.

The joint forces of online gaming supporters and an economy in desperate need of cash may well have the necessary clout to get a new bill passed into law.

It’s Europe’s largest festival of poker and it’s now only a matter of weeks away.  Poker In The
Park 2011 starts on Friday 2nd September and continues over the weekend.  This year it’s happening in Hanover Square in London, previously it’s been held in Leicester Square.

Capacity has been extended this year for the anticipated 20,000 visitors and there will be three ‘poker domes’ running round the clock sit-n-gos.  There’s a ‘heads up’ marquee running tournaments played on electronic tables and a ‘mixed’ marquee where visitors can play other chess, dominoes and other pub related games.

It’s not just about playing the game however, part of the draw of Poker In The Park has been its focus on guest speakers and education.  Some of the biggest names in poker are always on hand to talk about the game and offer advice.  There’s even a ‘live tuition’ marquee where more accomplished players will analyse your hand while you play.

The best feature of the event is that it’s free to enter, so any London based poker enthusiasts should clear the calendar for that weekend and go and have some fun.

Binion’s Sixtieth Birthday Approaches

On August 15th 1951, Benny Binion opened The Horseshoe Club in Las Vegas and later this week it will celebrate its sixtieth birthday.  It’s now one of the longest surviving operations on the strip and constant change and innovation must be given credit for that longevity.

Lots of ‘firsts’ happened at this casino – high stakes and then no limit games, air conditioning, free drinks and even the first electrically powered lift.  Of course it also hosted the first World Series of Poker in 1970.

To celebrate the occasion, casino members will be able to win a range of branded items throughout August and on the 15th, beer and hot dogs will be available at 1951 prices.  If you can find a photo of yourself with the original, famous million dollar display, the food and drink will be free.

At first glance FairPlayUSA looks a little like the Poker Players Alliance but an organisation which only concentrates on online gaming. That’s actually not too far from the truth – FairPlayUSA is a brand new organisation which had as its aims the legalisation of online gambling.  Its guiding principles present a long list of safeguards and regulations surrounding any implementation of legalised online gambling but the overall aim is pretty clear – make sure Americans can play poker legally online if they want to.

FairPlayUSA could scarcely be any better organised or run.  The three main advisors to the organisation are:

• Parry Aftab.  Parry is a lawyer and online consumer protection expert.  She is known globally and wrote ‘A Parents Guide to the Internet’, the first ever book about using the internet safely.  She is an advisor to many leading tech companies and is in demand as a keynote speaker on internet best practices.
• Tom Ridge.  A familiar name even outside the U.S.  Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Tom Ridge was the first Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security – a job which required outstanding organisational and logistical skills when it came to the reorganisation of the U.S. administration.  He now runs his own risk management company, Ridge Global.
• Greg Raymer. The 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event champion, Raymer was originally a patent attorney for a biotech company before concentrating on poker.  A successful tournament player, he now teaches poker play and theory at the WSOP Academy.

It’s an impressive and necessary trio to have in your corner if your goal is to force the federal government into action.  FairPlayUSA is coming at the problem from a largely consumer protection point of view.  They state that the lack of online gaming regulation (apart from the shoddy UIGEA) leaves those who do continue to play online open to a ‘wild west’ situation, where no one is really safe.  And let’s not forget that the playing of poker online for money is not illegal – it’s just the payment processing that is banned.  Below is FiarPlayUSA’s list of solutions:

It began on May 31st with Event #1.  On July 7th Event #58 started – the Main Event and the competition that poker players around the world aspire to win.  6,865 pros and amateurs paid the $10,000 buy in and a couple of days ago that number of entries was whittled won to the final nine.  Known as the November Nine, they will now regroup at the Rio All Suite Casino for the play off in several months time to decide the 2011 champion once and for all.

The final nine.

As usual it was a nerve-wracking and disappointing time for the last few players to bedismissed but they still walk away with a healthy $607,882.  When the competition reaches the final ten players, they are all grouped around one table and the tension really begins to rise.  In danger at this point were John Hewitt from Costa Rica, Sam Holden from the U.K. and Anton Makiievsky from the Ukraine.

In the end it was John Hewitt who became the final evictee and tenth place finisher as Holden and Makiievsky exerted the pressure and gained the rewards.  The big climber on the final day was Czech Martin Staszko, overtaking young Irishman Eoghan O’Dea, son of accomplished poker player and bracelet winner Donnacha “The Don” O’Dea.

When they resume in November, all players will start with the chip counts they finished with

Martin Straszko

here.  They will also start sitting in the same positions so they now have several months to brush up on their tactics and defenses against those sitting nearby.  The field is also a relatively young one, the one exception being Belize national Badih Bou-Nahra who is 49. Staszko is 35 and the others are all in their twenties.

A quick glance at the chart above will demonstrate the international flavour of the November Nine, once again wresting the balance of power away from historical American domination of this competition.  We look forward to November with no little excitement.

California has joined the list of states pondering a move into the world of online gaming.  Bill

Senator Lou Correa

SB40, presented by Senator Lou Correa, will seek to legalise intra-state gaming and in the process create a reputed 1300 jobs and $1.4 billion of extra revenue.  In these cash strapped time who could argue with that?

Proponents of the California bill have also raised an interesting point which seems to suggest that federal legislation may soon be on the way.  Federal advocate Jim Wise explained that California needs an online gaming structure in place in preparation for federal legislation.  If this does not happen, the fear is that when online gaming is eventually legalised, states such as Nevada will attract the lion’s share of business.  Nevada recently passed a comprehensive bill which, while not legalising anything, will have the appropriate structures in place by January 2012.

Various senior Californian politicians have put their weight behind this bill and the arguments supporting it.  Whisper it quietly but there may be a change in the air.

Phil Hellmuth Oversleeps, Almost Loses Stack

An amusing incident at the 2011 WSOP recently as Phil ‘poker brat’ Hellmuth managed to oversleep and almost knock himself out of the tournament.  To explain what happened, the early stages of this year’s WSOP is split into alternate sessions – for example Day 1a, 1b & Day 2a & 2b.

Hellmuth somehow confused the session in which he was supposed to be playing and turned

Hellmut - awake!

up 1 hour and 20 minutes late.  By this time his already meagre chip stack had shrunk due to repeated rounds of blinds.  He was only rescued when fellow pro Mike Matusow asked Hellmuth’s hotel security to force his door and wake him up.  He had already tried to call his phone without success.

To the ‘poker brat’s’ credit, he duly raced down to the Rio All-Suite Casino and gradually built his stack back up to around 65,000 (from the 7,000 to which it had been depleted).

The WSOP Main Event continues…..

Washington D.C. appears to be pushing ahead with its own version of online gaming.  The latest news from the capital is that lawyers who have perused the proposed bill have confirmed it does not contravene or contradict any federal laws.  This follows Nevada’s decision to align their bill with federal authorities – waiting for a nationwide law change before implementing their own bill.

The Washington proposal would allow a certain amount of online gaming but strictly within state boundaries.  It seems to be a in a constant state of iterative improvement and could well be a model for other states to follow if they felt the urge to let their citizens partake in a little online gaming.  In what could be described as fairly tight regulations, nobody will be allowed to deposit more than $250 in one week, effectively limiting your weekly loss to that amount.  Debit cards will also be required and credit cards will not be allowed – this will help stop those people who are willing to borrow money with which to gamble.

We can clearly see some pressure and momentum mounting in the U.S. now, especially with the recent news of the three senior politicians introducing their own countrywide legalisation bills.

Full Tilt Rescue?

There may finally be some good news for Full Tilt Poker and its parent company Pocket Kings Ltd.  A group of European investors appear to have finalised a deal to tale over the company.  Full Tilt has its gaming license suspended by the regulatory authorities in Alderney several days ago.  That effectively closed down the website.  The French then withdrew their licence because the site became inaccessible.

The new deal, rumoured to be worth around $150 million, will give the new investors a controlling stake in the parent company.  The money will then be used to refund the mostly American players who have been unable to access their accounts or funds since April 15th.  It’s an ignominious period for Full Tilt Poker, which was once the second most popular online poker venue on the planet.  The whole refunds farce has been the cause of a huge amount of resentment, especially in the U.S, but they may now be turning the corner.

Those of us who work within the poker industry or are in fact just keen aficionados know very well the restrictions on playing online poker in the United States.  A largely unwanted bill (the UIGEA) was passed in an underhand manner back in 2006 which made it illegal for financial institutions to have dealings with online casinos.

That’s the gist of it but recent goings on including the arrests and URL seizures surrounding Black Friday and Blue Monday have seen a number of legally operating U.S. facing sites just give up and concentrate on the rest of the world.

Fortunately the poker industry has some influential supporters who recognise that the efforts to ban this industry are just diverting vast amounts of money overseas and into illegal gambling set ups.

Three bills will be introduced in the coming weeks and the first of these is from Republican representative Joe Barton.  Barton’s proposed bill would only legalise online poker (he’s a poker player himself) and would create a regulatory body to oversee the industry.  Sites would have to be registered in States which already allow licensed gaming.  In Nevada for example, the Nevada Gaming Commission would regulate locally.

There is also an effort by two Democrat representatives, Barney Frank and Jim McDermott,

Jim McDermott

to introduce two connected bills.  One would legalise online gaming and the other one would oversee the tax regulation necessary to administer it.  McDermott pretty much summed up the whole mess when he said:

“Legalizing, regulating and taxing Internet gambling just makes sense,” McDermott said. “Right now, the U.S. loses billion of dollars to off-shore gambling and illegal gambling rings because of an unrealistic and virtually unenforceable policy.”

“The current prohibition of online gambling has failed and made countless American vulnerable to fraud, identity theft and money laundering,” said McDermott, who first introduced his legislation in 2009.

All U.S. poker players will be hoping for a quick solution to this problem and even if these bills fail, there now appears to be some momentum behind the legalisation campaign.

An interesting characteristic of this year’s WSOP is that you can actually hear who’s winning an event before you get anywhere near the table.  That has certainly been the case where the English are concerned – the supporters turning up to cheer on Jake Cody, Matt Perrins and Darren Woods have been more reminiscent of the hordes that descended on Las Vegas in their tens of thousands to watch Ricky Hatton win (and then lose) in previous years.

Jake Cody

To be fair to them, this has been a vintage year for the English.  Jake Cody started it off in Event #2, winning the $25,000 No Limit Heads Up Hold’em.  He walked away with $850,000 and a WSOP bracelet.

Matt Perrins was next up in Event #9, the 2-7 Draw Lowball.  This win is worthy of an article in itself, Perrins had never played the game before and finding himself still in the competition at the end of the first day, decided he should read up on some Lowball strategy.  Clearly it worked and he beat Londoner Chris Bjorin into second place, winning a bracelet and $102,000 in the process.

Darren Woods is the third bracelet winner so far and his victory came in Event #19, Six Handed Limit Hold’em.  This was as straightforward a triumph as you’ll see in a big knockout tournament.  Woods blasted through the 354 strong field, scooping $213,000 and the WSOP winners bracelet.

The British in general have made a good showing at the Rio this year, many of the final tables have featured British players who have made the trip across the pond.  Whether they regard it as an advantage or not, they and other non-Americans are also able to spend their spare time at online poker rooms if they so wish, something the Americans are currently not able to do.

The Americans won’t be too discouraged though, they’re still miles ahead in the overall winners table and next week we’ll bring you a comprehensive list of the results.

Ira Rubin, one of the indictees connected with the Black Friday events on 15th April, has been denied bail by a magistrate judge in the United States.  Rubin is believed to have been trying to evade capture using a fake passport to flee to Thailand when he was arrested.  This is clearly the reason why bail was denied.

Rubin is believed to be the man behind the payments processing system set up to try to bypass the federal ban on transferring money to online casinos.  Not surprisingly Rubin’s lawyer, Stuart Meissner, thinks the prosecution is all a waste of time and that the money the trial will cost would be better spent on, for example, the war on terror.

WSOP Attendance Defies Expectations

Phil Ivey may not be attending this year’s World Series of Poker but many others are, despite the problems and bad publicity resulting from the events surrounding Black Friday.  Many prospective players still have significant amounts of money tied up in the various affected websites and it was thought that this would mean players would be short of buy-in money.

Non-U.S. poker pros were also thought to be having second thoughts about attending due to the lack of online gaming available when the live tournaments were not being played.  Is there any reason why a European cannot connect back to a European based website at which they have funds already deposited?  This reporter is not sure.  After all the gaming itself is not illegal, just the money transfer.

There was also supposed to be a shortfall of sponsorship due to the problems affecting some of the biggest prospective sponsors – PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker – and although that may be the case there are plenty of pros wearing clothing sponsored by the various disgraced companies, despite the Nevada Gaming Board having prohibited the displaying of these logos.

The WSOP has a history of variable attendances and the decrease in this year’s numbers is so small as to not be noticeable.  It’s been in far worse predicaments before and presumably will be aginf at some point in the future – this year’s tournament however, is fine.

Well at least someone has benefited from the domain seizures and the closing down of almost a dozen online poker sites a couple of weeks ago.  The story of Blue Monday began when investigators in the U.S. state of Maryland began issuing arrest warrants and closing down websites suspected of being involved in taking payments from players in an underhand way.

Probably the best known site to be hit was Doyleroom – wisely, Doyle Brunson had parted company with them several days earlier.  Anyone attempting to access this site or the others involved was met with the now familiar DOJ warning:

The accused sites are all suspected of money laundering and wire fraud by which the authorities mean that they used “inventive” methods to accept money from U.S. players, which, as we all know, is not allowed.  Online poker is legal, gambling on it is not.

As part of the seizure of assets and domains, 11 bank accounts were acquired and the funds seized.  The Anne Arundel County Police Department will receive around $470,000 as their share of the seized funds following their part in the operation.  County Police Chief James Teare Sr. said that the department normally receives around $250,000 per year via this avenue and that this was the largest one-off payment they had received.

It’ll be a good Christmas party for the Anne Arundel police this year.  Poker players are not welcome.

U.K. – Betfred Acquires The Tote

Not strictly poker related but it’s important news nonetheless – Betfred, the online sports betting venue, has reached an agreement with the U.K. government to buy the Tote.  The Tote (Horseracer Totalisator Board) is the betting service set up in 1928 by the government to provide a trusted alternative to on-course bookies and other betting venues.  It also donates a percentage of its revenues to the horse racing industry.

The preferred bidder was chosen by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and the price is believed to be around £265 million.  The Tote is much more than a service for horse racing betting and in recent years it has branched out into online bingo and sports betting.  The only criticism of the move has come from within the racing industry who fear for the future of their percentage.  Betfred have said that there is no danger to this contribution.