December to January 2012
Latest news updates can be found on our US poker sites webpage.
December 30, 2011
The site operator of the forum Pocketfives has posted some information about Absolute Poker / Ultimate Bet money owed. As was quoted, the sites are being liquidated and players will receive only 25% of their money back. Some is better than none, but that sucks for so many people!
December 23, 2011
Well, probably the biggest thing for online gambling happened today. The US Department of Justice clarified its law of the 1961 Wire Act to say only sports betting was illegal and the internet poker and casino games were NOT! Unfortunately we still have to deal with the UIGEA, so technically states can still ban these activities if they so choose. Either way, a really big step forward. Here is the press release by Forbes.
December 22, 2011
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nevada will be the first state officially to have online poker. If I am reading the article correctly, it says that people within the state of Nevada will be able to play at licensed (by Nevada) poker sites, possibly allowing sites to operate in less than 60 days.
December 21, 2011
– A co-founder of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, Brent Berkley has turned himself in. He is only facing 12-18 months in jail and a $300K fine. I sure hope any money from fines goes to pay back players! Ironically, I was contacted by another co-founder about 3 weeks ago by the name of Scott Tom. He was looking for contact information for one of my previous writers, Haley Hintze whom is notorious for unvealing on her blog many of the scams Absolute Poker ran.
December 14, 2011
– The new name for Bodog in the USA is Bovada.lv. As explained earlier, it’s nothing but a name change.
December 14, 2011
– Bodog is expected to close to the US market today or tomorrow and release their new website for US players. Basically just expect a name change. That’s what the secret word on the street is…
December 10, 2011
– I have updated this page as much as I could find. Please feel free to email me if you find any errors, it is greatly appreciated.
December 9, 2011
– The Washington Post came out with an article about the ‘richest casino exec’ in the world. He came out saying he opposed internet gaming because age restrictions could not be enforced properly. And that folks is the type of bull-shit responses people will say to protect their empires. I’d put my name on it that it would be easier to get into and gamble at a land based casino than it would in a licensed online environment. A typical response from someone who has no facts to back up his claims.
December 5, 2011
After skimming some news sites it appears 5 land based casinos have recently applied for licenses to have online poker in Nevada (state only). Other than Caesars, they are brands you probably wouldn’t recognize unless familiar with Vegas: Caesars, Cantor, Bally, IGT, and South Point. Word is spreading that an Internet Poker bill could get attached to Harry Reid’s Payroll Tax Reduction.
As you may have noticed, updates have been infrequent. After the recent loss of my parents I have little desire to run my business as it should. Therefore I have hired an employee, and have also decided to sell CompatiblePoker. This includes the sale of all my other websites as well. I will continue to do updates and run the general stuff but there will be a new owner. Good news for you is that the new company will be completely redesigning Compatible Poker and I think it will be a much better resource for all my loyal followers who have supported this site for the past 7 years. It will include a much needed content update as well. Thanks to everyone out there, I will still be here, just more behind the scenes.
November 26, 2011
CNN did a video portion on the Full Tilt Poker shutdown and affect on poker pros (see video here, “Did Poker ‘Ponzi’ steal my rent?”). This story has gotten a lot of attention, unfortunately it’s bad for poker in general.
November 18, 2011
– It appears Full Tilt poker players with money stuck will be getting their money back. The news officially broke on CNN, but the story has since been removed. Here is the story from the Wall Street Journal since the CNN one got pulled. In the end FTP sold for $80 mill.
November 18, 2011
– Michael Waxman of the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative issued an email release today titled “Congressional Hearings Pave Way for Movement on Internet Gambling Regulation” in which two hearings are being held in which Internet gambling will be discussed within the hearings. One issue relates to ‘Indian affairs’ and the other one, ‘trade’. Waxman is hoping these hearings will put more pressure on Congress to legalize gambling. Also J. Todd has a good video out this week going over the Forbes magazine that explained the DOJ’s thought online internet poker. Here is the video.
November 17, 2011
– After reading a gaming forum it turns out Betonline is on the Action poker network. I’m not sure if they just bought the software or what but initially I was told they were a standalone software. Guess it really doesn’t matter but it is kind of strange they would lie about it.
November 17, 2011
– Nevada citizens will soon be able to play online poker against other poker players in the state of Nevada. I haven’t read any dates yet, but poker companies will begin to get their license this February.
– If you have money stuck in the Chargestream/Usemywallet bank, don’t plan on getting it. Only I and 3 others filed to claim monies owed, but the government said this money ‘Chargestream’ has the money, and any money taken in US accounts was not that of players. The way Usemywallet closed so abruptly it almost seems they ran with the money but it just doesn’t make sense considering they are tied to a large ewallet, Ecocard. If my assumptions are correct they are a subsidary of Ecocard. Anyways, yea that money is gone if you had any in transit or have not received the ‘Euro’ wire.
November 1, 2011
– Full Tilt Poker will be paying players according to recent rumors on a couple news sites. Apparently a deal has been struck with the US Government, and Bernard Tapie will be paying back the $300m owed to US customers of FTP. This, if true, is obviously great news… as long as it doesn’t take years to pay out!
