US Gambling Updates April 1 – May 31
Latest US poker sites news can be found on the main page.
May 31
4:23am – Slow, slow, slow. Nothing is going on for US online players regards to legality except of course the fun in the sun over at the World Series of Poker. Kentucky is trying to fight the losing battle of banning poker sites in their state but their fate will be the same as before, not gonna happen. Also Intertops has re-entered the US market.
May 25
4:54am – For anyone in Florida here is some breaking news in regards to the Florida poker law. The extremely short article is a bit confusing and I still can’t quite figure out if indeed there was agreement with the Seminoles to raise the poker stakes in Florida. Either way it would still have a lot to go through until finally published into the Registrar. Either way, normal buy-in stakes sure would be nice in Florida even if it takes until the end of the year. I’d personally rather just go play at Pokerstars.com but Florida is also looking to make online poker legal in the state. As a player, playing at a state run online site has no draw to me, but from a legal standpoint it’s a huge opportunity going forward and setting precedents.
May 20
3:18am – Ok guys, here is the article written Gambling Law Professor, I. Nelson Rose, titled “Bills Would Bring Back Online Poker“. In it he reviews the recent bills passed by Barney Frank and others. The news is positive, and Mr. Rose believes the bills will pass but will take a couple years before they are implemented. One of the main issues I wanted addressed was regarding sites that currently are said to be violating the UIGEA or whom took bets prior to the UIGEA. Basically what Mr. Rose says is that the Secretary is likely to impose a “deliquent tax” on these sites in order to get a license to legally allow US players onto their site.
May 18
2:37pm – The not so widely used Toggle card has been removed from all poker site and casino sites list. Also echecks have been abandonded by some places due to a high fraud, commonly referred to “chargeback” issues. The deposit section has been updated to reflect this.
May 17
5:27pm – J. Todd does a little imitation of Joan Rivers about her attack on poker players. And on to gambling, J. has a nice little rant about Harrah’s and their “plans” about online gambling…
May 15
3:21am – For anyone who plays at Doylesroom I just wanted to give you an update that check payments seem to be arriving. It took mine approximately 100 days to arrive but I’ve seen various reports of people receiving their checks. On the other hand, I’ve seen other’s still who have seen nothing but it seems they are beginning to ship.
Also, Mr. Rose should be close to done with the article about Barney Frank’s bills so stay tuned.
May 14
3:49am – An interesting article came out by Bluff News yesterday. According to the website change.gov “Legalizing online poker” is the #1 concern among American people under the topic of technology. It ranked #11 for all categories. This is out of 44,000 policies under concern by US citizens wanting to be addressed by the President!
May 12
9:26am – We almost saw one of the first states in the US to allow online sportsbetting yesterday, Deleware. Unfortunately it was just 2 votes shy of passing! Im not even going to comment on the Minnesota attempt to block gaming sites anymore because that isn’t even a concern in my mind.
May 11
3:14am – Professor I. Nelson Rose has agreed to do a recap on his thoughts of the recent development bills that Barney Frank has released and what impact they will have on our industry. He currently is traveling but hopes to have the article finished by Wednesday/Thursday. I’ve also attached HR 2267 to section IX. on this page if you want to track the bill in its potential progress to becoming law. On a side note, I hate Joan Rivers. Annie Duke should have won that celebrity apprentice!
May 9
2:50am – Here’s J’s own view of the new bills that Barney Frank introduced.
May 8
6:13am – I’ve just finished reading the bills Barney Frank released for Licensing “Legal Internet Gambling”. It’s basically straight forward as you would suspect. Getting a framework to protect players and let the government make some money on the side. I’d have to agree, we do need “protection” from many rogue sites out there but then again, it’s not like these sites won’t still be accesible. I’m still under the assumption that this bill will not pass, just a hunch. I’d give the UIGEA repeal bill a much stronger chance at passing but the bill HR 2267 has too many working parts. While it may pass one day, it will be a long time before everything was in place. I’d still like a legal opinion so I am going to ask Mr. Nelson Rose to write up a recap.
May 6
9:36pm – Great news came today as not only did Barney Frank finally release the bill to regulate and license internet gambling in the US, but he also introduced a bill that would delay the implementation of the UIGEA.
May 1
9:00am – The poker and casino sites on the Minnesota blacklist are a joke. A ton of them are places that don’t even accept US players. Big name poker rooms weren’t even on the list except for Full Tilt and it was focused on casinos and poker sites, not sportsbooks. Not sure exactly what they’re trying to do here but it looks like this draft was made pre-UIGEA, lol. You can get the list at iMEGA.org.
April 29
10:18pm – Another US state is at some bogus tactic again, Minnesota. Apparently they issued a statement to Internet Providers to cease access to 200 gaming sites to citizens in Minnesota. Considering they have no legal grounds because playing online poker is not illegal, I don’t see how this one is going to fly.
4:51am – As you may have noticed if you are following it, Barney Franks new bill to regulate internet poker never came out this week. Apparently there is some sort of credit crisis that is more important. 
Anyways he announced it is being drafted now and will be out next week.
April 23
2:42am – J. Todd discusses his thoughts on the possibilities of US online gaming regulation in the Tuesday edition of Perspectives Weekly video. I forgot to post last Friday’s, sorry about that.
April 21
6:29am - Bodog finally got their domain back. It is now redirecting to bodog instead of a dead page. Im sure once they get all their pages and databases in order it will once again be Bodog.com only.
April 20
6:10am – The Poker Players Alliance is planning on dishing out $3 million in lobbying this session in order to overturn the UIGEA, get an exemption for poker or whatever Barney Frank wants to do in his bill he should be releasing today in order to futher legalized internet poker in the US….
6:06am – For those Partygaming shareholders out there, Partygaming announced they are looking at Gigamedia. Gigamedia is a software provider which Everest Poker runs off of. You can see Everestpoker’s player stats above. This move would give them a strong hold on the European and surrounding markets.
April 17
10:22am – iMEGA’s challenge to the UIGEA in the Court of Appeals is expected to happen in the week of July 6th. While this sounds like a final decision it’s not a big decision. Important yes, but the Court is not going to overtun the UIGEA anytime in July. More can be read from gamingintelligence.
“The panel will determine whether there will be oral argument, and if so, the amount of time allotted for each side. No later than one week prior to the disposition date will you be advised whether oral argument will be required, the amount of time allocated by the panel, and the specific date on which the argument will be scheduled,” the Court’s letter stated.
April 13
9:29pm – Howard Stutz of the LV Review Journal came out with an article about the possibility of legalized internet gambling. He basically said what I’ve been thinking for awhile now, despite lots of people getting their hopes up with all the Partygaming stuff going on, and the upcoming legalization bill by Barney Frank, and the study that proves poker is skill. He sums it up perfectly, Congress has other things on their mind. He talked to DC lobbyists, casino company operators “dialed” in on Capitol Hill and said the odds of legalization are very, very slim. It’s a solid article.
1:46pm – You can see the writing on the wall now. Partygaming’s old CEO, Mitch Garber, is now working for Harrah’s. Hmmm, I wonder what the chances are of a Harrah’s / Party buyout sometime down the road….if they don’t go bankrupt first.
April 9
6:46pm – Barney Frank has stated his new bill to legalize internet gambling will be introduced around April 20th. He said it will be a standalone bill, not one that gets attached to “must pass” legislation like the UIGEA did. Basically Frank said he wants to do it the right way. Unfortunately I don’t believe it has a very good chance to pass this way. If a bill to make something so controversial illegal like internet gambling had to be attached as a rider bill, I’m not sure of the success for a standalone bill to make the same controversial subject legal.
April 8
3:06am – Here is the link to the US DOJ Partygaming $105 million settlement. Drawing conclusions from the press release, it would assume Partygaming didn’t want to face criminal prosecution, being a publicly traded company and all for the bank fraud and wire fraud. Having this liability hanging over their head was good to get rid of, especially for only $100mill. Two things probably frowned upon for a publicly traded company…It also probably leads to future mergers and acquisitions without any legal matters in the way for past behavior.
It’s amazing how much the stock rose today. I guess for some reason people think this is a good thing and that somehow the US government will magically let Partypoker back into the US, because that’s what most news titles are reading like. One thing is for sure. Say Partypoker sold to a US facing company, which is very possible. All the sudden Partypoker releases all their liabilities to their affiliates which amounts to huge amounts of money. Affiliates get the shaft but it’s a huge reason a company might want to change ownership.
April 7
3:21am – Partypoker has entered a “Non Prosecution” agreement with the US Attorney’s Office of NY for $105 million. They can’t be touched for pre-UIGEA law. That’s not even a slap on the wrist, it’s more like a kiss.
April 5
2:43pm – J. Todd discusses the EU/US trade dispute that’s been going on for awhile now and also reviews and older video clip of the Harvard study that online gambling is not addicting. A Harvard study and now proof that online poker is skill. Two great stats to argument in the courts for upcoming bills. Here is the Perspectives Weekly
5:33am – Stats analyzed by marketpulse are showing a continued steady increase in US online poker. For the first quarter of 2009 Pokerstars.com leads the pack with 25,000 players daily average traffic. Their average for 2008 was 18,000. Full tilt poker, the second largest US poker site is still way behind at 11,000 average for the first quarter of ‘09 with a ‘08 average of 8,500.
4:59am – Apparently David Carruthers of Betonsports, whos been on house arrest for about 3 years (long enough to go insane), pleaded guilty to federal racketering and conspiracy charges. He could also go to jail for up to 33 months instead of the 20 orignial years imposed, yikes! He will also have to co-operate with the US DOJ against Gary Kaplan.
April 2
2:20am – The PPA is still salivating over the study that was just done by Cigital Inc and Pokerstars. Basically they analyzed 103 million hands. In short the study determined that poker is actually skill, wow, who would have thought? 103 million hands….I wonder how anyone can refut this empirical evidence. I’m sure the Senators and Congressman will turn to some other BS to keep the UIGEA under law. Either way, studies like this is exactly what we need!
