Poker rooms open, slot machines are rejected, and legislation goes every which way – here is a brief overview of the poker and iGaming news in Europe. Read more »
Digest – The State of iGaming in Europe
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World Poker Tour Heads to Fox Sports Net
The World Poker Tour announced on Thursday that it's packing up its bags and heading to Fox Sports Net after a one-year stint on GSN, the Network for Games. Last month, GSN elected not to pick up its option for exclusive rights to the seventh season of the WPT, prompting a last-minute effort by the California-based poker tour to seek out a new television partner. The latest news came as the Bellagio Cup, which is the first tournament that will be aired as part of Season VII, played its final table. PokerNewsDaily spoke to Steve Lipscomb, CEO of the World Poker Tour, and George Greenberg, Executive Vice President of Production and Programming for Fox Sports and Fox Sports Net. Read more »
Internet Gambling Bill HR 6501 to Bring $40 billion to Underserved Populations
Internet gambling has been thrown under the bus by the Republican leadership in the United States. Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL), who has been directing the opposition to the return of the industry to the United States, has claimed that allowing online poker to exist will do nothing more than bring this social ill right into our children's bedrooms. Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) has struck back, introducing HR 6501 on Wednesday. The bill offers up to $40 billion over the next ten years to individuals currently or previously in foster care as well as workers in declining economic industries. With this new money, these individuals can seek out job training and secondary education opportunities in order to improve their skills in the workplace. All of the money comes from taxation of the internet gambling industry in the United States, assuming Congress decides to regulate it. Read more »
Ultimate Bet vs. Tiffany Michelle – who’s right?
As young poker pro Tiffany Michelle made it deep into the WSOP Main Event and became the last woman standing at spot 17, some noticed a change in her sponsorship patches: while she started out wearing Poker News gear, she ended her Main Event run in Ultimate Bet logos. Poker News issued a strongly worded statement regarding what they see as a breach of trust, while Michelle states she never had an exclusivity deal. Here are both sides of the story. Read more »
Former Ultimate Bet Owner Implicated In UB Cheating Scandal
To say that the last six months have been busy for the customer service department at Ultimate Bet would be quite an understatement. Rocked by a cheating scandal involving the former owners of the company, Ultimate Bet has struggled to maintain its customer's trust as it moves forward. Recent threads on several of the major online poker discussion forums, including TwoPlusTwo and PocketFives.com, have implicated one of UB's former owners, Russ Hamilton, in the cheating scandal. Although the information is currently nothing more than pure speculation, the online poker world is gradually beginning to learn more about just what caused the larceny to occur. Read more »
The “November Nine” are ready
The WSOP has now come to a standstill, as the final table of the Main Event is finally determined. Now we all must wait for November 9 to find out who will win poker's most coveted prize and over $9 million. Read more »
Tournament Recap for WSOP Main Event Day 5
Several major names in the world of poker have advanced to Day 6 of the Main Event. One of them, however, won't be able to sit at his table when play commences at noon PT on Sunday. Read more »
Tournament Recap for WSOP Main Event Day 2B
A significantly larger field packed the Amazon Room and several surrounding rooms for Day 2b of the Main Event than Day 2a. The reason being the number difference between Days 1a/1b and 1c/1d. Read more »
Ultimate Bet Releases More Scandal User Names
Ever since the scandal erupted at Ultimate Bet, the site has been quick to take action. On May 29th, the company issued a statement regarding the findings of its investigation, which had been ongoing since UB was made aware of the abnormalities in January of several of its user accounts. In response, UB issued a statement last week outlining other screen names that were involved in the scandal, which rocked UB and caused many to question its security measures. The list of newly-named user accounts follows: Crackcorn55, WhakMe, GrabBag123, gravitation, Bgroup, H_Curtis, Twenty 1, WacoManiac, Broke_In_L_A, ShaqTack, BlueBerry101, HolyMucker, 55WasHere, Xnomas, dannyboy55, Indy05, and SlimPikins2. It's the latest news in the scandal, which is currently still being investigated by UB's parent company, Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG. Read more »
WSOP Main Event Day 1c
Henning Granstad finished a frenzied Main Event Day 1c as the chip leader with 249,950 as play concluded Saturday night. Granstad surpassed Day 1a chip leader Mark Garner's 194,900 to become the overall leader going into Day 2. Read more »
WSOP Main Event Day 1b
2007 Main Event Champion Jerry Yang got Day 1b underway with a speech along with the customary "Shuffle up and deal!" as 1,158 players began play on Friday. The field was smaller than day 1a, as was expected with it being July 4th. Americans, along with players from countries all over the world, wore flags in their caps provided by the staff to celebrate the holiday. Read more »
Marty Smyth Wins $10,000 PLO Event
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi was unable to make history Monday evening. Mizrachi was attempting to claim victory in the same event that his brother Rob won last year, the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship, but his goal fell short as took home third place for $331, 279. Read more »
J.C. Tran Wins First WSOP Bracelet!
J.C. Tran finally accomplished Monday night the one thing that had avoided him during his professional poker career: He earned his first World Series of Poker bracelet. Read more »
Scotty Nguyen Wins $50,000 H.O.R.S.E and More
After five grueling days of play, the $50,000 HORSE has finally crowned a champion who will be the inaugural recipient of the David "Chip" Reese Memorial trophy. The final table kicked off at 3pm and, fifteen hours later, only one man, Scotty Nguyen, was left standing. Nguyen began the day second in chips and remained towards the top of the leader board all day. Along the way to his victory, Nguyen knocked out Barry Greenstein in 6th place, Matt Glantz in 4th place, and Erick Lindgren in 3rd place. Read more »
WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E Final Table and More
After four lengthy days of play, the $50,000 HORSE final table was set late last night with the elimination of Ralph Perry in 9th place. Erick Lindgren is the chip leader going into the final table today with 3.85 million, but Scotty Nguyen is not far behind with 3.55 million. Read more »
WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E Day 3 and More
The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event reached its final 24 players and stopped play late Friday evening during Level 17. Action will pick back up at 3:00 PT Saturday and won't end until the final table of eight is decided. Michael DiMichelle (1.35 million), Barry Greenstein (1.31 million), Daniel Negreanu (1.22 million), Ralph Perry (1.04 million) and Scotty Nguyen (1.03 million) will enter Day 3 as the chip leaders and the rest of the field will be playing catch up. Read more »
WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E Day 2 and More
The media and spectator circus died down a bit during Day 2 of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship but many of the big names in the field were still very alive as play concluded for the evening. Read more »
The Seniors Are Coming! WSOP Event #42
They came out in droves to Event #42 of the 2008 World Series of Poker. June 25th marked the stirring conclusion of the $1,000 buy-in Seniors World Championship. A tournament designed with the over-50 crowd in mind, the Seniors World Championship is always one of the highlights of the WSOP. This year’s tournament was the… Read more »
House Financial Services Committee Halts HR 5767
In an unexpected turn of events on Wednesday, HR 5767, a bill proposed by Congressmen Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) that would have stopped the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve from implementing the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, was defeated in the House Financial Services Committee. A vote for an amendment by Congressman Peter King that would have required cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice to identify what "illegal" and "legal" transactions were under the UIGEA ended in a dead heat largely along party lines. When the smoke cleared, the 32-32 vote meant that the amendment was defeated. The Committee then turned to a verbal vote for HR 5767, which was defeated when the "Nays" greatly outnumbered the "Yays." The news came as a shock to many in the internet gambling industry. Read more »
Bodog Beta Software Available to Public
While not as dramatic an update as the one this past November, Bodog Poker has released a new beta version of its poker software to the general public. Typically, beta software is distributed on a limited basis to preselected testers, but in this case, Bodog is looking for as much feedback as possible. Read more »
Update on European Commission Questionnaires to USTR
In March, the Remote Gambling Association filed a complaint with the European Commission. The issue stemmed from the United States allowing domestic operators of sites that allow U.S. citizens to wager on horse racing, fantasy sports, and lotteries, but prohibiting operators like PartyPoker from soliciting U.S. customers. This inconsistency prompted the RGA, whose membership includes the major online poker companies like Victor Chandler, Unibet, and Ladbrokes, to file a formal complaint. In response to the RGA's complaint, the Commission sent the U.S. Trade Representative a formal questionnaire. Read more »
Belgium Notches its First WSOP Bracelet
If you're like many of the people looking at this article, you just read that headline and thought, "Really?" Well, it's true. No one from the country of Belgium had captured a World Series of Poker bracelet, until late Sunday night, that is. Brussels native Davidi Kitai became the first Belgian player ever to win a World Series of Poker bracelet in Event #38, a $2,000 pot limit hold'em tournament. He bested a field of 605 of poker's elite, cashing for $244,583. More importantly, he put his own country on the WSOP map. For one night, it seemed, Belgium was on top of the world. Read more »
HR 5767 to be Marked Up; Now Has 20 Co-Sponsors
While you were busy hitting the links or just taking it easy this weekend, two big developments occurred on the legislative front in the United States. To catch you up to speed, back in 2006, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, from Tennessee, pushed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act through Congress. Read more »
David Benyamine Wins First WSOP Bracelet
The break room at the offices of Full Tilt Poker was buzzing on Monday morning with news that one of its pros, David Benyamine, had won his first World Series of Poker bracelet over the weekend. Read more »
PartyGaming might be close to a deal with US authorities
Shares in PartyGaming (PRTY.L), parent company of PartyPoker, were up over 10% Friday amid rumors that it has come to an agreement with U.S. authorities over its prior U.S.-facing activities. Read more »
