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The UIGEA has been criticized from both the legislative and legal fronts, and recently, two of America's top Congressmen have weighed in on the dispute between the United States and European Union over internet gambling. Read more »
Republican Congressman Pete Sessions (TX) introduced HR 6663, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Clarification and Implementation Act of 2008. On the surface, the bill seems like a good deal for online poker, but the online poker industry is not convinced. Read more »
United States Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX) introduced HR 6663, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Clarification and Implementation Act of 2008 intending to diagnose exactly what should be deemed legal and illegal under the UIGEA. Read more »
HR 2140, the Internet Gambling Study Act, was scheduled to be marked up on Wednesday, July 30th, but a resolution and report on Karl Rove took center stage, making national headlines and forcing discussion of several bills on the docket to be postponed. Read more »
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission appointed former New Jersey State Gaming Regulator Frank Catania to complete "a full forensic audit/investigation of the online gaming business" of Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. Read more »
Recently, four Congressmen wrote to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Bernanke. Their goal was simple: Clarify the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act as to what is legal and illegal under its jurisdiction. Read more »
Despite being in the middle of a firestorm of controversy surrounding her ongoing battle with Poker News, Tiffany Michelle found time to sign with Ultimate Bet in a move that was officially announced on Tuesday. Read more »
Iron Duke Poker made headlines on Tuesday in the online poker world by announcing the signing of Jennifer "Jennicide" Leighwho will become the newest face of the Merge Gaming site. Read more »
Ultimate Bet has come into the forefront of the media for the past few days since the Kahnawake Gaming Commission announced that its findings on the cheating scandal at the online poker room would be announced shortly. Read more »
This week, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission released a statement concerning the improper conduct on the tables of two of its permit holders, Absolute Poker and UltimateBet. Read more »
Major news hit the wires in the online poker world on Thursday, as the management of Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker announced the launch of CEREUS, a poker platform that will combine the users and features from both sites. Read more »
It was only a matter of time before the Poker Players Alliance, the main lobbying group for the online poker industry in the United States, weighed in on the cheating scandal that has rocked Ultimate Bet, one of the world's largest online poker rooms. After all, the cheating occurred in an online environment that was not regulated by any U.S. entity, which is exactly what the PPA has been seeking ever since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was enacted into law in 2006. With regulation and oversight, in theory, future situations like the ones that occurred at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker could be avoided altogether. Read more »
You may have never heard of the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association. It's called iMEGA for short and it's leading the charge to declare the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act unconstitutional. How, you ask, could the 2006 law be overturned? iMEGA is on the verge of filing its claim in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in the Northeast United States, charging that the UIGEA violates First Amendment rights. A judge recently granted the organization standing to sue. PokerNewsDaily recently spoke with iMEGA Executive Director Ed Leyden to learn more about the Washington-based organization and the future of its lawsuit. Read more »
In a House Financial Services Committee hearing on June 25th, the topic was HR 5767, which would have blocked the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) from becoming a reality. Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) led the opposition to the bill. Bachus centered his arguments not on the merits of the UIGEA or even on whether the law could ever actually be enforced. Instead, Bachus took the moral road, focusing on the deleterious effects of gambling on our nation's youth. Read more »
Following on the radio interview she gave last week, Tiffany Michelle has issued a thorough rebuttal of Poker News' accusations against her, hoping to clear her name and to put to rest all talk of betrayal and lack of ethics on her part. Read more »
The Russ Hamilton saga has been sweeping the online poker world in the last week. Ever since January, UltimateBet has come under fire for the actions of one of its founding fathers, leading many to wonder whether he is the man who is directly responsible for cheating in the top-level games that UB offers. Recently, on a major poker radio show, Barry Greenstein, a PokerStars pro and the owner of three World Series of Poker bracelets, defended Hamilton after paying the former UB owner a visit in Las Vegas. Greenstein met with Hamilton along with his son, Joe Sebok, who is also a heralded poker pro. Read more »
On Wednesday, word broke in the online poker world that Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced HR 6501, the Investing in our Human Resources Act. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means as well as the Committee on Education and Labor. Two co-sponsors have already signed onto the bill, George Miller (D-CA) and John Larson (D-CT). The Act will provide up to $40 billion in assistance to those in foster care as well as those in declining job markets. McDermott has been unavailable for comment throughout the course of the week after the bill's introduction. However, PokerNewsDaily.com met with Mike DeCesare, the main spokesperson for McDermott, to learn why the Congressman introduced this important piece of legislation. Read more »
Just a few hours after announcing that Fox Sports Net had become its newest television poker, the World Poker Tour doled out $6.5 million, the prize pool for its fourth annual Bellagio Cup. The very first tournament that will air on Fox Sports Net as part of the new Season VII television package, the Bellagio Cup has been dominated by online poker stars in recent years. Mike Watson took home $1.67 million for the win in the Bellagio Cup IV, outlasting poker pro David Benyamine heads up. John "The Razor" Phan was also at the final table. Read more »
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 »
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 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 »
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 »
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 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 »
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 »
