Archived US Gaming News for August 2007
Updated August 31
2:27pm – Bloomberg posted a UK-US Gaming article this morning in regards to the licensing of UK online casino operators. There were a few excerpts that pertain to the licensing of sites that take bets from US citizens. The very first paragraph states that they will be licensing operators that take bets from US citizens. The way it is worded is very strange. Here are the two quotes I found quite interesting.
“Britain’s new gambling law comes into force at midnight, legalizing U.K. advertising campaigns for the first time and licensing online casinos that can accept bets from gamblers worldwide including the U.S.”
And also a direct quote in the article by a spokeswoman on gambling for the ’s Department for Culture.
“We aren’t banning people from using Web sites based in the ,” Julia Smith, a spokeswoman on gambling for the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport, said in a telephone interview. “It is up to the consumer what they do.”
Updated August 30
11:45pm – The court date for the iMEGA vs Gonzales case has been moved to September 26th. I have updated the event calendar to reflect the changes.
7:54 – 10:55pm (modified) – While this doesn’t relate much to the US situation I find it kind of interesting. There is a developing story that Absolutepoker.com is going to be issuing 9% interest on funds in their player account only for “Elite” VIP members. Not much details have been released yet. A VIP manager finally got back to us and said all details will be released on September 1st, when this will officially go into effect. I’ll update the AbsolutePoker interest rumor page as things change.
2:34pm – A few reports are being written on the Bodog incident. Nothing substantial has been said but supposedly Calvin Ayre isn’t going to pay the $49million to get the domains back. He lost not only Bodog.com but Bodogfight and Bodogbeat.com. It sounds as if Calvin is just being stubborn saying, “They’re not going to pay one dime to the man who uses the US legal system to steal the Bodog domains” according to Gambling911. Just from a Search Engine standpoint alone they will lose more than $49million. They rank in the top 4 for “online poker” “online sportsbook” and “online casino” three of the most lucrative Search Engine rankings there are in the gaming industry. All this will soon disappear if the domains aren’t recovered. I say pay the man Calvin and for once don’t let your ego get in the way.
Updated August 29
5:01pm – I saw on Pokerstars.com they now have a multilingual software button in the lobby. In the interview with PartyGaming’s CEO Mitch Garber said that PartyPoker was the global leader in online poker. If you ask me PokerStars is the leader. The option to change languages in one lobby seems far superior to PartyPoker where you have to download a whole new program to play your language specific program. I can only see the games getting looser at PokerStars. You see what a big impact non-English software had on PartyPoker so one could only imagine PokerStars will get even bigger.
3:45pm – Partygaming.com has issued their 2007 Interim results. There are two interviews, one with Partygaming CEO Mitch Garber and the other with Martin Weigold.
3:19pm – In regards to my last post. If you tried to view the “Google Hot Trends” link they seem to be having server issues with that page. The link is not broken. Anyways, PokerStars is back up and running after their late night crash yesterday.
3:39am – Looking at the numbers for Bodog Poker at pokersitescout it doesn’t seem like the domain funk up is hurting “peak player” volumes all that bad. At least not what you’d expect. They have peak players at 1,894 for yesterday. The norm is 2000-2700. Bodog did make Google’s “Hot Trends” which details the hot searches for the day. It took the 33rd position, 82nd, and 84th positions for yesterday.
1:11am – Add-funds is no longer an option to new players at Absolutepoker. When we asked live support if this was temporary they said this.
“We still don’t know. The situation is that add funds only allows its use to customers who used it before Augusth 17th. Anyone who used it before then still shows “add-funds” in the cashier. Those who didn’t use it before then won’t see add-funds as an option.”
12:04am – PokerStars has just crashed. Eshhh, a bad day for poker players combined with what happened to Bodog. Good thing other sites are still open.
Updated August 28
2:22pm – More news fom Bodog. They set up a new domain, Newbodog.com where you can access your account and play. Calvin Ayre said on the site they are having legal disputes over the domain. I also talked to Pete a manager and they will issue a full press release shortly. 
Here is the Bodog news release we just wrote that sums up our conversation we had with Pete from Bodog and what exactly happened and also how it concerns affiliates.
11:59pm – Bodog is having DNS (Domain Name Server) issues. It’s been going on for almost 24 hours now and players can not log on nor visit the site. Customer support said they were working on getting things fixed but had no time frame. I’m not a big techy but it would seem since some people can view it from certain countries that things just need to re-propogate which generally takes up to 48 hours…but usually less.
Updated August 27
4:25pm – The Antiguasun is reporting that Antigua and Barbuda will be asking for more than the $3.4 billion originally sought in trade sanctions from the US because of the gambling law passed in October. As reported they will now seek a minimum of $7 billion, quite a large sum considering the European Union is seeking $15 billion.
12:01pm – The Attorney General Gonzalez has resigned today. What implications will this have on the UIGEA? If you read the press release it says Bush will likely nominate Michael Chertoff. In the past Chertoff wrote a letter to the Nevada Gaming Board stating that all internet gambling was illegal under Federal Law. This was an interstate issue but it looks like Chertoff doesn’t look to fondly upon online gambling. I can’t see this as being a good thing even though it seemed like Gonzalez and Frist were on the same page when it came to online gambling.
Updated August 26
8:08pm – Poker.com the software and Carbonpoker introduce Fonelinx to their US players. Yet another pre-paid teleco clone (www.fonelinx.net) taking the same form as Nucharge, add-funds, and makeadeposit. It’s starting to look like every site will have their own custom pre-paid teleco deposit option. Support also confirmed they will introduce Quicktender to replace Ecocard for US customers.
3:00pm – Per the norm, not much happening over the weekend. Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet are now allowing interaccount transfers from one site to the other. I asked the manager if this was leading into player database mergers where people from AP will be able to play people from UB and vice versa. No reply was given as of yet if this was still in the works. Besides UltimateBet.com having Tournament Blackjack, which is actually pretty popular, it seems like Absolutepoker.com has superior software anyways, especially with the 8.0 version they just released. The Mac “no download” version didn’t get any upgrades. Hell they’re still waiting for Sit and Go tournaments to be added.
Updated August 24
11:25am – J. Todd video – He makes a good point about mainstream media like USA Today and The Wall Street Journal covering old topics (Neteller, WTO, etc) months after the “news” came out. Also, he talks to Dan Starr of Neteller and asks why some Neteller checks are bouncing.
Updated August 22
1:12pm – Michael Bolcerek has stepped down as the President of the Poker Players Alliance as announced today. John Pappas will take his place. In the announcement, the PPA said they will also be moving headquarters to Washington DC, previously based out of California. Also, on a side note, according to our event calendar there is now only 2 weeks until the iMEGA vs Gonzalez court date in an attempt to place an injunction on the UIGEA set for Sept. 4.
Updated August 21
3:29pm – Poker Stars is re-introducing echecks on a trial basis. They seem to be phasing it back in the same way they did with Paytru…a few players at a time. It seems the second wave has been issued as a few people have mentioned seeing a pop-up allowing them to use the option today. The games will get a whole lot easier if echecks become widely used. How they are able to re-introduce it, I have no idea but so far it’s on the comeback.
Updated August 20
11:23pm – Imega.org issued the following press release 5 minutes ago stating that the US District Court of NJ will be giving the US DOJ/FTC/ & Federal Reserve Board the extension they were looking for to respond to iMEGA’s complaint. They have been given until September 4th. This is the same day as the iMEGA hearing seeking an injunction against the UIGEA.
3:40pm – Gambling911 had a “Part II” interview with Alfonse D’Amato on their website late last night and early this morning but for some reason it’s no longer linked on their site last time I checked. Also, in the second paragraph the quote below was posted about the possibility of the Regulation of Online Gambling (HR 2046) passing. One can only guess who the anonymous person is, given the title of the article. 
I don’t think saying indirectly ”Keep supporting the PPA even though the main Bill we are pushing isn’t going to pass,” would help member registrations. Barney Frank has been basically saying the same thing so most people understand by now it’s not likely to pass anyways.
“Our source (who wishes to remain anonymous) said that the current internet gambling lesgislation stands little chance of passing, and that while the current climate in congress seems to be warming towards acceptance of online gaming, there was still a very long way to go.”
Updated August 17
4:52pm – This weeks APCW Perspectives Weekly video has been posted in the US video section. Goes over the online gambling issue in California and J. Todd names the biggest jackasses in the online gaming industry.
2:46pm – Sorry for the longer than normal post but here it goes. There has been mentioning of a semi-new deposit provider going around called Pic-Club (usppinc.com). As always, I’m not endorsing the company just stating the facts. The company claims to have a deposit median that allows US players to play online poker at real money poker sites all while being UIGEA compliant.
After talking to support (I’m supposed to talk to the owner for full details next week) here is how the company works without violating the UIGEA. First off, let me state that they only operate under the DGS brands (dynamicgamingsystems.com/brands.html). But if it truly is UIGEA fool proof like they say you could see a widespread use of this type of deposit means. Here is a quote from a representative about exactly why it’s UIGEA compliant and the jist of how it works.
“When you deposit money at PIC-Club and purchase shares, the shares now become the product that you are trading in. For example, if you select to sell 50 shares to a poker site to play there, that site actually buys those shares from us and those shares are transferred to the poker rooms escrow account, and then they deposit their money into your playing account. Your US deposit is never transferred, only the ownership of the shares is affected.”
To me it seems very similar to how the prepaidteleco companies (add-funds, nucharge, makeadeposit etc) are working. Buying something semi-tangible and trading it in. On a side note, the domain is registered in Florida so the owners must feel pretty confident in the fact that they are operating legally. The company does charge 2.5% on all credit deposits which is how they make money. Supposedly, money held in your pic-club account generates risk free interest as well after 6 months.
Updated August 16
2:25pm – There are delays in cashouts at Absolutepoker.com. I just got a phone call from them saying bank wire cashouts are being delayed until the 22nd. That’s about a 2 1/2 week delay. They are refunding the $50 bank wire fee and giving players free entry into the $70k weekly tournament. The free tournament ticket ( prize money amount etc.) probably varies depending on how much you have pending in cashout if you are one of the unlucky foes with a delayed cashout. P.S- Watch out for Absolutepoker/Ultimatebet. They have a history of misplacing checks. 
Updated August 15
7:03pm – According to Bookmakerreview.com, the lawyers for BetonSports founder Gary Kaplan have filed motions to dismiss charges against him. According to the article they are doing so based on treaty obligations under the GATS agreement. Man I feel sorry for all those people still owed money from BetonSports because of this crap.
7:00pm – There is still $24 million dollars that US customers have not cashed out of Neteller. In total $70 million out of $94 million has been cashed out. You still have plenty of time if you haven’t cashed out but there is no need to wait as cashouts are very quick.
2:14pm – It looks as if Fulltiltpoker.com has overtaken Pokerstars.com in the amount of monthly visitors to their website according to compete.com. (View both poker sites side by side). Pokerstars still has a larger player peak volume fluctuating around the 13K mark while Full Tilt lies around 9K according to pokersitescout.com. Despite strong presence and marketing at the WSOP PokerStars seems almost idle as Full Tilt surpasses their website visits. These are US visitors only. I believe once and if Full Tilt decides to translate their poker software and webpages into other languages they will be able to compete with PokerStars in terms of player volumes and not just website visitors barring the UIGEA regulations don’t come out before then.
Updated August 14
1:45pm – Poker.com (the poker software) and CarbonPoker said their accounts department are looking into making contact with Quicktender, the rebranded Ecocard but nothing is set in stone as of yet.
12:43pm – iMEGA.org is reporting that court documents have been filed by the US DOJ to request an extension to respond to the lawsuit iMEGA has placed on the UIGEA and US Attorney General Gonzalez. This is only 3 days before the deadline response date of August 17. If granted by Judge Mary Cooper they will have until September 1 to respond. It is unsure if this will have an impact on the September 4th iMEGA court date seeking the injunction against the UIGEA.
Updated August 13
1:18pm – Ok, so Quicktender, (usemywallet) seems to be a legit company. It sounds like they are just Ecocard re-branded for US players…at least that is what I was told. The problem with the domain name owners appearing in the “fake bank” database was because they were privately listed on easyspacewhois, hence showing standard names and not the real owners. Quicktender is going to be used heavily on the casino side of things.
10:07am – A new APCW video was added to the US video section. I would have liked to get the video up sooner but for some reason J. Todd’s newsletter emails are still coming through delayed. He talks about how AOL is entering the sportsbook market (UK only), age verification issues and a few other topics.
8:43am – It looks like some poker rooms (not just casinos) have prepared the use of “Quicktender” when Ecocard leaves. Battlefield Poker, part of the Microgaming software, will be using it in replace of Ecocard along with casinos soon to be mentioned. I have not gotten word if Poker.com/Carbonpoker will also be putting it in place. Although I’m skeptical of this company I can’t see Microgaming using it without fully trusting and researching the company first. Since Microgaming sites like Battlefield are pre-registering players for Quicktender it “should” be pretty safe but as always use your best judgement.
Updated August 12
9:56pm – In correction to my last post. The person mentioning the possible delay of regulations is not from CGW but they are a very respected member at twoplustwo in the legislation forum. The actual time frame can’t be confirmed but any possible delay is good to hear. More details will be posted in the future.
2:26pm – A representative of Casinogamblingweb made a forum post at twoplustwo about having a reliable source telling him the regulations for the UIGEA are likely to get pushed back 2-3 months. I believe he will be writing a news story once he gets more information and I will post it once/if he gets confirmation. He stated there was a reasoning for it being such a long delay but did not comment on why as of yet. Hopefully this turns out to be non-rumors.
Updated August 11
1:36am – Nothing in particular happened today/yesterday. I was reading up on this guy named Anthony Sandstrom, “Tuff Fish” who is trying to get online poker legalized in California. Anyways, long story short he needs 430,000 signatures to be included on the ballot. I don’t know much about him to be honest but he has got to have some of the funniest poker youtube videos. I must have watched this one 10 times already. Just watch….it’ll make your day. (watch video)
Updated August 10
12:01am – A viewer sent in an article from informationweek.com about how Internet Gambling advocates were going to start pushing the same technology that the UK uses for age verification. While I think age verification is very important, I don’t think it’s as important as coming up with a mechanism to stop “addicts” from playing. A simple “blacklist me” website/program where you could enter your details, social security number, address etc. that automatically blacklists you from gambling online would be a pretty good idea? Anytime someone feels they can’t stop playing they would add their details to the program and essentially blacklist themselves from losing their house. We solve the probelms (underage gambling, addiction, and no taxes) and the opponents have no more arguments to push on us.
Updated August 9
6:12pm - I received an email today from a Casino Manager saying they were going to launch a new deposit provider to replace EcoCard called Quicktender.com aka usemywallet. A few things instantly struck me as skeptical about this ewallet. First off, on the homepage they say the website has been online from 2000-2006. After a whois search I see they registered the domain name on Feb. 22, 2007 with a registrant change only one month later. When you do a google search for the owners of the domain, Lister Pavillion and Kelvin Campus two results come up showing a title that reads “Artists against 419 Fake Bank Database”. A basic traffic search at Alexa.com for quicktender.com also show the site is not popular. The ewallet could be legit but from my research I give it a double red flag.
2:55am – There’s been talk of MasterCard’s now being accepted at some poker sites, notably Fulltiltpoker.com. I’m not sure what happened but I checked 4 different forums and noticed similar posts about Full Tilt and credit card/debit deposit successes.
1:31am – The entire page got updated today. There were only a few minor errors and outdated parts and some things were changed to reflect more of what’s going on now. If you find any errors, even if they are small, please feel free to email me.
Updated August 7
10:29pm – Ok, so that email that I sent out to the Federal Reserve Board came back today (probing them for some information regarding the regulations). Guess what? The response was worthless. It’s always great when you write in to ask specific questions about something and they just re-phrase your question into an answer. If I asked them what their name was they would come back with…my name is a series of non-alphabetical letters my mother gave me. Anyways, here is their useless response. I’m not done with them yet. Just in case…I resent the same questions to a different FRB member in hopes of getting a different robotic response.
“The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 requires the Department of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (in consultation with the Department of Justice) to jointly prescribe regulations for designated payment systems and financial transaction providers that implement certain provisions of the Act. The Agencies anticipate that proposed regulations will be published in the Federal Register for public comment in the near future.”
Updated August 6
4:10pm – Gambling911 did an interview with the law firm representing iMEGA. Eric Bernstein, of this law firm, was the man they talked to.
* September 4th is the hearing date where Judge Mary Cooper decides to grant a restraining order against the UIGEA or not
* The US government, despite ample time, has not responded to iMEGA’s complaint. This is good news but they likely will before Sept. 4
* It’s likely that the Judge will grant the restraining order against the UIGEA if the US does not respond before Sept. 4.
Updated August 5
8:54pm – J. Todd released his weekly APCW video. Most is a recap of what we went over this week but he also did a follow up interview with Dan Starr, Vice President of Sales and Marketing that was kind of interesting. Dan Starr said there was no backlog in check withdraws so the day you request it is the day it is processed. From the stats he gave the majority of people have already requested their money in the past week.
Updated August 4
11:30pm – I have written our monthly email to Chairman Ben Bernanke (overseeing drafting of the UIGEA) of the Federal Reserve Board to see if we can squeeze any confirmation or news about rumors of UIGEA regulations coming out in the next couple weeks. They responded to our email two months ago but ignored last month’s email so maybe we’ll have better luck this time. I will post any correspondance that comes in even if it is just another form-letter.
Updated August 3
10:12pm – Two emails were sent in today. Neteller checks are making it to people’s homes already. The checks are coming from Canada and for those who got theirs today said they cashed out on July 30th. I imagine most people should get their checks Monday – Wednesday of next week.
1:46pm – Neteller has said that Check withdraws are being processed on a first come first serve basis. Sounds like bank wire was the way to go. Most people got their bank wire in a day or two. I have not read about anyone receiving their check yet. Processing for checks is supposed to be 2-3 days. It just depends on where the checks are being processed from for actual delivery dates. If you get yours and want to let us know send an email to “info AT compatiblepoker.com”.
12:17am – Epassporte seems to really be cracking down on the “no casino” but “poker only” deposit availability. Epassporte as you may know will only allow their services to be used at poker sites and not casinos, sportsbetting or horse betting. So what about poker sites that offer Blackjack? For example Absolutepoker.com. If you try to deposit with epassporte you have to contact customer support and they will block you from playing Blackjack in order to use epassporte.
Updated August 2
11:19pm - Ron Martin, the CEO of Neteller, issued a video apology to US customers on Youtube. It’s probably more of a ploy to patch their reputation…and their stock price but it’s nice to see some sort of apology other than in a form letter email. All-in-all Neteller handled things decently during the whole thing when you sit back and consider what they went through. Their share price is still down 38% today after trading resumed July 25th after more than 6 months of trade suspension.
In the video Ron Martin explains that there was a lot of information they weren’t allowed to tell us during the whole ordeal. I think the one thing that irritates me the most about the whole thing is how the customer support handled their customers. Neteller admitted to knowing that it would take at least 6 months to eventually settle things with the DOJ and get US customers their money back but insisted on lying to their customers telling them….”It will be between 4-6 weeks”.
12:15am – According to a reliable source and someone who works on Capital Hill the UIGEA regulations are just about done and should come out within 1-2 weeks. This of course is a rumor but it’s from people in DC so it’s better than someone winging it. Steve Laughton of the Treasury did say they were hoping to have them released by the end of July or the beginning of August.
For those that don’t think the regulations will mean much, I have a feeling it’s going to get pretty ugly once they are in force (after releasal and commenting period etc). Sorry, I just don’t feel too optomistic about what is going to happen. 
