December 2009 US Poker

For the latest information on poker in the US please visit our US poker sites webpage.

December 20

7:13 – I am out of the country surfing in Puerto Rico for an unspecified time so updates will be short.
December 18

7:46am – Yesterday the PPA released some census information about poker players in the US, and members of their site. In it, the only thing I really found to be of use or interest was that 15 million people play online poker in the United States. This is 33% more than what was earlier reported by the GPWA. The closest competitor is still the UK with 1.9 million poker players. The other information in the PPA survey didn’t really prove useful, because its variables included those of only PPA members and not of the US entirely. For example it said poker players tend to have a higher average salary than the US population, but this information is inaccurate because it only takes into the account of “contributing PPA members” whom would more than likely have discretionary income to donate.

December 17

8:47am – Kentucky is at it again with some kooky stuff, now going after individual US citizens. Here is a direct quote from Gaming Intelligence.

“In the course of the litigation and the Commonwealth’s continuing investigation, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has learned the identity of certain entities and individuals involved in internet gambling operations, some of whom are U.S. citizens,”…..”The Commonwealth asks for leave to amend its Complaint to add causes of action against these individuals and entities in personam.”

Who they are after, God if I know. Possibly affiliates, poker pros with stake in poker sites, gaming affiliate managers working out of the US, who the hell knows. If the updates stop for a month you know where I am. In all honesty, the “Commonwealth” is full of morons. The Kentucky attempted 141 domain seizure proved that.

December 15

9:11am – I have added both Lock casino and Lock Poker to the list of reputable casinos and poker sites. Im working exclusively with the company because I truly believe they will grow very large, at least the casino will. When Bodog went downhill, among other things it was mainly due to the people who helped build the company leaving. They have joined together to build their own programs. The casino is the first you can download on a Mac, and the poker client is Mac and Linux compatible which runs on the Cake Network (which is hard to find a client on Cake that is compatible with those OS’s). Anyways that’s my reasoning behind adding Lock. Reputable people to work with these days is like a needle in a haystack and I’ve been working with some of them for over 5 years. Pete, one of the managers was kind enough to give us one of the rare exclusive rights to work with the company.

8:28am – The President of Poker Voters of America said they WILL pass a bill in California for online poker. “We have the bill and we will pass it”. She is also working on other states such as Florida. I’ll believe it when I see it….

December 11

9:43am – In an interview done with Egaming Review, John Pappas of the PPA said if a vote was held tomorrow, Barney Franks bill would pass. He said they want it to pass by 10 votes so they will continue lobbying as it will only help when it comes time to vote the bill into actual legislation.

On Withdrawing: Some issues seem to have continued with the Merge Network (Carbon Poker etc). Lots of complaints are coming in at 2+2 about 2+ weeks for payouts. It seems like all methods are taking longer than they are saying.

On Depositing: Everything seems to be as normal. AP and UB still haven’t added echecks back in their que. We haven’t lost any deposit methods at various sites since last update.

December 10

4:18am – On December 16th CNBC is going to air an episode called, “CNBC Investigates: The Big Business of Illegal Gambling“. John Pappas of the PPA did an interview for the show but it will not air. The focus on the show will not be primarily about internet gambling (more about land based stuff), but they do plan on covering the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker cheating that went on. Talk about beating a dead horse. Anyways the show will be on this Wednesday at 9pm. Thanks to Uglyowl at 2+2 forum for posting this info and John for posting how the buggers rejected his interview, probably because it wasn’t controversial enough. Ask me and I say this show will be good for internet gambling that is regulated. Regulate and some of the scum will be forced out.

December 4

3:32am – I was going to do cliff notes about the hearing yesterday but there is no point. Its something you need to listen to in order to get anything out of it. Same stuff different day. Bauchus – Internet is bad, hurting our youth and is against the will of the American people. (huh?). From people who know what the hell they are talking about and have credentials – No, internet gambling doesn’t cause an increase in underage gambling, without legalization you can’t regulate it, and no, legalization is the only way to prevent money laundering and fraud. These morons against legalized online gambling will go around all day spitting lies while people with authority in their respective subject shut them down every time. It’s just amazing Bauchus can say it’s against the “will of the people” to shut down internet gambling just because they slipped the bill through 3 years ago in such a slimey way it makes any American scratch their head. That goes against everything thing the “will of the people” and America stand for!

December 3

5:49pm – You can see the video hearing held this morning about regulation of internet gambling here http://financialserv.edgeboss.net/wmedia/financialserv/hearing120309.wvx (when I direct link to the url it doesn’t work so just copy and paste it). I’ve yet to have time to listen to the whole thing but will have cliff notes later tonight. The PPA issued a statement about it also if you want to read that, theppa.org.

1:53am – There will be some news coming out as today is the day the House Financial Committee will discuss the regulatory bills to legalize online gambling in the United States. They begin their meeting at 10am.

1:43am – I’ver heard a couple reports of a few people who used to be able to use Visa to deposit no longer can since December first, and a couple bank accounts closed [banks cited the UIGEA] but other than that, only some isolated incidents.