July/August 2010 US Poker

August 23

10:27pm – This week J. talks about legal regulated poker and also about the $13 million dollar forfeiture of an online gaming processor. I was going to make a post about it but it’s pretty minor in the scale of things as these things are continually happening, but it only seems like the big dollar ones get published when it involves a large gambling site.

August 9

10:32pm – Here are a few updates regarding poker in the US. The WSOP.com poker site, which was previously geotargeted to block players from the US is now accepting free play from Americans. Also, Party Poker announced they are fully ready to enter the US market if it opens despite the position on various billionaire shareholders. Both Full Tilt and Pokerstars have claimed they will be allowed to enter the US poker market despite many legal questions because they continued accepting US players during the UIGEA, the PPA seemed to back these statements. Lastly the PPA issued a “timeframe” on the US legalization. They believe the time will be ripe from November – January of 2010 as an attachment bill.

July 29

10:00am – There’s been sort of an online poker media “uproar” about the Internet Poker Legislation Bill passing Committee. It now goes to the House, then if it passes there, the Senate. Some sources are saying we could have legalized online poker in months, I just want to know what they’re smoking! As I continue to say, it will take a long long time to figure out all the logistics of licenses, banking and onshore/offshore regulations. The vote was 41-22.

July 23

2:42pm – I talked with a few online gambling sites. Bodog is still having trouble with new depositors, but existing players are having no problems as they were given priority for withdrawing and depositing. Absolutepoker is get whacked with fraud in their echeck area. Full Tilt Poker is experiencing significant processing problems as well. On the legal front the bill to legalize online gambling HR2267 is expected to get marked up next week, which would just mean the committee will discuss it before voting on it, where it would then go to the house to be voted on, them senate, then hopefully signed into law by the president. Somewhere along those lines……

For updates on the current situation in the US please visit our main US page.

July 15

1:18am – The Antigua Sun wrote an article on how easy it was for Americans to deposit these days. I can say for sure, there has been a decline in deposits. There’s been a major affect on many processors (obviously credit cards) so the article is quite biased although it does support the use of ewallets which is positive. Also, Full Tilt Poker is working with the PPA to help promote legalized internet gambling with Barney Franks bill. I see this more as a publicity stunt because if online poker was legalized in the US, it would not be a good thing for Full Tilt. A huge increase in competition, heavy taxes, and massive amounts of regulations they’d have to follow. Chances are their best bet would be to sell if legalization ever came about.

July 10

11:40am – Antigua’s Gaming part of the Government look to be seeking sanctions against the US because of their financial crisis and an effort to get money from online gaming. Also, according to what pokerscout posted, online poker has seen its first decline in player traffic since inception, a 2% decrease. This does not seem like much until you consider in that online gaming is usually on a growth. Pokerscout reports a 15% decrease and a 19% decrease for Pokerstars and Full Tilt respectively for the past 3 months. The legislation recently passed in France is also likely to hurt player traffic drastically for the next year at least due to taxes being passed onto players. Also, here is J. Todds Perspective Weekly recap video. Have a good weekend!