April 2010 Updates
Updates for April 2010 US Online Poker Site News
More up to date info can be found at our us poker sites webpage.
April 28
11:10pm – The CEO of Harrah’s, Gary Loveman told Reuters today that he was optimistic about poker in the US becoming legal online. Considering the fact they are losing almost a couple hundred million per quarter and increasing, this can only hope the cause. They currently own poker.wsop.com which is active in the UK, but in order to generate any significant income they would need online poker to be legalized in the US. Considering they put money into the campaign to ban online poker in 2006, I sure hope they donating for a reversal….or at least doing what needs to be done…
April 26
12:12pm – The Vice President of the American Bankers Association issued a statement regarding about depositing into poker sites, casinos and sportsbooks. To sum things up he said they will be able to enforce the law, but says only for credit and debit cards that are clearly labeled as “gambling”. A site like Pokerstars I assume will be hit hard because they don’t decode these transactions but most US poker sites will follow the models of online sportsbooks and simply decode the transactions. The VP also stated that there would be no way for the banks to stop checks or making wire payments. When talking about “wire payments” this would refer to Moneygram and Western Union type transactions because as of now, nobody wires money to a gambling site, they only receive money from a gambling site.
I want to say sorry for not updating the past two weeks. My dad, Joe Shriver age 58 just passed away April 13th due to causes unknown. It’s hard for me to stay updated on gambling right now, but I will try.
April 12
7:26pm – The post below regarding the hearing has been delayed. Sighhhhh
April 12
1:06am – Right now the main thing happening is the announcement by the House Financial Services Committee to discuss two bills (HR 2266 and HR 2267). The first would delay the UIGEA for a year, the latter is the bill to regulate online gambling. It will happen April 16th at 10:00am EST. You can listen in by viewing the link on this page http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/hr_040910.shtml
April 5
12:01am – According to Pokernewsdaily, John Pappas of the Poker Players Allianced has asked Senator Jon Kyl, the man who is known for pushing the UIGEA through at last moments time, to exempt online poker or as Pappas called it “Peer to Peer” gambling. Also excluded from the UIGEA would be partimutel dog and horserace betting in the US. I give this a 0% chance of Senator Kyl approving it. Once again, it would create an even further logistical nightmare for banking systems. I see no motive for Kyl on this one. Also the bill to delay the UIGEA by another year is being looked at (HR 2266). Considering Bill Frank of the PPA actually wants the UIGEA to go into affect to create an “outrage” I give this bill very little chance of passing as well.
Here is J. Todds Perspective Weekly Video for last week recapping iMEGA and the Kentucky domain issue and the upcoming UIGEA.
April 5
4:07am – According to the Financial Times, a Federal Grand Jury in Manhattan is looking into money laundering acquisations by Full Tilt Poker and the poker pros behind Full tilt, most of them which live in the United States.
April 1
2:55pm – I am still digesting this, but we just got word Party Poker and 888 are merging to form a seperate poker room from their privately held companies which will serve all US players. Here is our news release on the subject. “Party Poker and 888 Back in USA“.