March 2010 Updates

March 31

7:17pm – GamingIntelligence is reporting that the “re-introduced” tax bill would produce an estimated 71 billion dollars over ten years for the United States, $41 for the Federal Gov, and $30 for States. Maybe because I’m tired, but it’s getting stupid reporting on these multitude of bills that I’m sure nobody can track anymore because it feels they come out or are revised every month. My prediction was still 10 years (2020) before anything Federally passes so I guess I have a lot of “bill” reporting left!

March 30

8:42pm – In brief, iMEGA said they feel confident that the 141 domains in risk of being confiscated by Kentucky will soon be ruled upon in our favor.

March 27

11:01pm – J. does a good job in covering the very important events that occurred this week. In the video he talks about the AGA and how they have shifted towards being open to legalizing online gaming. Also J. discusses how the UIGEA will NOT be delayed anymore, the deadline will go into affect on June 1. Barney Frank believes this will be good as the over blocking that will occur will cause an outrage with the banks, horse racing and lotteries.
March 25

7:16pm Professor Nelson Rose wrote an article which looks very promising for us in the USA.

March 19

9:04am – There was a ruling on the 141 domains which were supposed to get seized by the common wealth of Kentucky, in which they won. From my understanding this is simply a technicality and will be overturned. Basically only one owner, of one of the 141 domains has to show up and prove they own the domain. Joe Brenan from iMEGA group representing the case is calling this nothing more than a trivial matter in which they have to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. (snippet post from him at 2+2)

March 16

2:24pm Mr. I Nelson Rose has agreed to write an article composed of a “State of the Online Gambling Industry Part II” for us and we will release it shortly. He is in travels as I will still be for the next week. No new Federal developments in the past week that I’ve been able to find as I catch up on some forums and news sites.

March 9

1:40am – I read a few really great articles on Egaming Magazine today. All 3 were basically related to US legislation. Party Gaming if you didnt know released falling revenues in in 2009, and they attributed it strictly to poker. Again they cited the US legislation and in other words, they’re throwing their hands up because they can’t compete against the giants that accept US players. With that said, they are going to be focusing heavily on pure play casino players to their Party Casino brand. As I’ve said before, I don’t see Federal Legislation happening this decade so I still predict a merger in the poker front for Party Poker. With that said, EGR had another good article that basically summed up my prediction but talked a little more in depth about state run online poker rooms as not a matter of “if” but “when” and “who will be first”.

March 6

7:06pm – I have been reading reports that the first wave of VISA deposit issues are occurring. At twoplustwo there are a few people saying that their VISA which has worked all previously is now getting declined. So far it’s hard to say if this is widespread of just randomness that has been going on all along. I recommend echecks at Fulltiltpoker to anyone having trouble.

March 2

6:46pm – Some guy (28) got busted in Naples Florida for processing deposits and payouts for online poker sites. The guy wasn’t too bright about it obviously considering he was doing it FROM the USA. On top of that he was sending out 50+ Fed Ex letters daily to random people and had (23,000) in total and had tons of bank accounts. On top of that he had about 400+ businesses under his name. :0 Anyway this guy has no chance in court…

On a side note, Full Tilt Poker’s Bank Wires used for withdraws are now available once again.

March 1

12:01am – Iowa is looking to legalize online gaming now in their state. The legislation proposes that Iowans to play online at specified casinos and poker sites, but they must actually go to the land based casino to get their money for a withdraw. Pretty damn strange. They are drafting this right now and hope for it to be up early next year…