US Poker Updates for October 2007
For more recent information please view the US poker section which is updated daily. This is the archived version for October 2007.
October 29
2:59pm – The Stephen Lawrence (Neteller Co-founder) sentencing which was scheduled for today was pushed back a minimum of another 30 days. Suprise, suprise. The iMEGA results are expected “any minute” says founder Joe Brennan in a G911 interview.
4:17am - Barry Greenstein posted an interesting audio blog about the PPA Fly-In. I was a little shocked when he said, “I would be suprised if the bills to legalize online poker don’t pass in less than 6 months.” It sounds like the WTO issues are really helping our cause the most.
3:25am – According to our events calendar Stephen Lawrence of Neteller goes to court for sentencing today. Also still no word on the judge making her decision on the iMEGA case.
3:08am – A couple months ago I mentioned a deposit method called Pic-Club. According to the CEO they’ve begun expanding and they seem really excited over this deposit method and its UIGEA compliance. The CEO also said 3 of the top 10 major poker rooms will be adding their services. He didnt say which ones but said they would be added, along with 13 other rooms within 3 weeks. I also emailed the owner, Chuck, to see if he could give us any more info on which 3 major sites were being added. Here is a brief review of Pic-club and how it works. This information is coming from ”live support” and also from a lawyer who did some work for the company so it should be accurate but I can’t guarantee it. I’m not endorsing this company nor am I affiliated with it but there is a chance this option could become pretty big.
October 26
7:47pm – J. Todd released his 1 year anniversary videos (2 parts) of Perspective Weekly. They are recaps of the year and no real breaking news. Some funny bloopers though!
1:53pm – Judge Mary Cooper has not yet released her decision on the iMEGA case seeking an injunction against the UIGEA. Today marks the 30 day deadline. iMEGA hopes to see a decision by the judge by the end of the day but there is no guarantee. The judge can basically take as long as she wants.
October 25
2:15pm – Checking up on the events calendar shows that tomorrow, barring any changes that I haven’t heard, is the outcome of the iMEGA case. We will post the press release as soon as Joe Brennan of iMEGA sends it out.
2:01pm – Partygaming announced that 1 year after the UIGEA they have experienced a 24% increase in revenues. Also rumors in the affiliate industry are that there is a very slight possibility that Party Poker wants to return to the US. First they would have to be bought out by someone and then delist themselves from the LSE. I guess this is always a possibility but it’s just speculation and I wouldnt bet on it. If it ever were to happen would you return? So far those who had accounts at Doyles Room are not returning after closing then re-opening their doors to US players. But that is comparing apples to oranges.
October 23
12:45am – The United States and trading partners have come to an agreement in the WTO dispute over online gambling. Unfortunately the agreement is not about how much the EU and affected countries will get but instead and agreement on another extension. Trade officials are reporting that the new deadline is December 14th and say the $100 billion in sanctions that the US was going to pay was ”exaggerated” said US trade officials.
October 22
11:32pm- The Poker Players Alliance is doing citizen lobbying and holding a policy conference in DC today through the 24th. They are flying in 8 poker pros from Barry Greenstein to Vanessa Rousso. What’s amazing about it so far is the Washington Post wrote an article on it today….and they actually got something right about the new law (about online poker being legal). Here is a quote from the Washington Post article posted on PPA.
“It’s legal to play poker online, but the law made it illegal for U.S. banks and credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling businesses outside the United States.”
October 20
7:08pm – This coming week should be an interesting one. If you take a look at the important upcoming dates chart you’ll notice 3 important events will occur next week including the iMEGA case, PPA lobbying, and very important WTO issues.
There’s some pretty funny drama going on over at Calvin Ayre’s blog with the “patent trolls” as he calls them. Latest development is that he’s challenged Scott Lewis of 1st Tech (patent trolls) to a fist fight for $1 million dollars. If Calvin wins, he gets his domains back. If he loses, he pays out the $1 million. Im not going to go into details but you can read about it at calvinayrelife.com.
October 19
4:38pm – For those players who’ve had money held hostage by Betonsports, Gambling911 is reporting that there is a glimmer of hope that payments may be made.
3:55pm – It’s always nice to get some main stream press over the online gambling issue. Today there was an article in bloomberg.com with the title Internet Gambling Act Should be Scrapped“. Not much new was presented in the article but it was great to see a well written piece as to why the gambling ban outright sucks. Talking points of the article included less safety with privately owned companies (we’re seeing that now with Absolute Poker), gambling addiction not growing like our opponents say, and he says the US should use the WTO problems as an excuse to reverse the ban nobody really wanted in the first place.
2:43pm – In this weeks Perspectives Weekly video. J. Todd talks about the Absolute Poker cheating issue, updates on Betcha.com (including false rumors) and also some affiliate issues.
October 18
9:44pm – Doylesroom.com has prematurely re-opened to the US market. It wasn’t supposed to happen until tomorrow but I checked it out and they are up and running. Tomorrow they will likely email their player database to tell them the news. Doyles Room is now on the Microgaming (ex-Prima) Network after being on the Tribeca software previously. Microgaming follows the 11 state ban policy.
9:23pm – Echecks are once again a deposit/withdraw option listed at Pokerstars.com. Again, this option seems to be on a limited player basis. When Pokerstars first relaunched echecks they had all sorts of debit and crediting problems. No reports have been made as to whether or not it’s working better now because it was just relaunched….but it’s back.
9:00pm - I am archiving the I. Nelson Rose article about the proposed regulations to the “FAQ” section (question #4) of this page if you want to view it later down the road.
October 17
8:25pm – Exciting news came in today. On October 19th Doylesroom.com will re-enter the US market. They will continue to be on the 11 state ban as before. In addition they say their software has been redesigned. Also for any affiliates out there, players that reverted to Full Tilt once Doyles Room stopped accepting US players will continue to be tracked to you if indeed they start playing at Doyles Room again.
October 16
4:05am – As promised here is Gambling Law Professor, I. Nelson Rose’s review of the proposed regulations for the UIGEA released this month. We did get access to the first rights of the article so if you decide to mention it in a forum, blog or website please reference the original article instead of copying and pasting the copyrighted material. The cliff notes are below. Overall an optomistic article.
Cliff Notes
– Nothing has changed and will not change for many months.
– The regulations do not directly restrict players from sending or receiving funds.
– Only gambling businesses can be convicted, not players.
– Bizarrely, for a law designed to prevent money transfers, the financial institutions involved in those transfers, including banks, credit card companies and e-wallets, are expressly defined as not being gambling businesses and so cannot be convicted of this new crime.
– Mr. Rose says the period of 6 months for financial institutions to implement these plans will not happen. He says that it can not be done at all.
– In the worst case scenario players will have to use paper checks to fund and receive money.
– Large payment processors will end up blocking gambling transactions whether it be legal or illegal forms because it would be too difficult to differentiate.
– Mr. Rose believes this “prohibition” will not be successful.
October 15
1:03pm – There are two debates going on today and tomorrow at Harvard University titled, “Poker – a Game of Truth in Life and Law” and the one tomorrow is “LAW as Rhetorical Poker: Antigua v. USA in the WTO“. The debates are supposed to be filmed and I will post them as they go online for those interested. A key speaker will include Howard Lederer.
October 12
11:56pm – The Nevada Judge has ruled that Bodog will not get their domains back….yet. Calvin Ayre said they will repeal the decision and still feel confident they will win. The request by 1st Tech to stop the redirecting of “Newbodog.com” to the new “Bodoglife.com” domains has been denied. The request by 1st Tech for Bodog to stop all Bodog related business in the United States was also denied. More on this is posted in Calvins Blog.
11:50pm – Oh yeah, in about 10 minutes (EST) marks the 1 year anniversary of the signing of the UIGEA. 
11:42pm - J. Todd has released his weekly Perspectives Video. In it he covers the story about Betcha.com owners being arrested, how Partygaming might be sold (and how this affects webmasters) and how Norway is looking to adopt UIGEA type legislation.
October 11
12:20am – Bodog will be going to court today over the $49 million dollar domain dispute. 1st Tech not only wants the $49 million but are also trying to seize the domain name “newbodog.com” from being redirected to “bodoglife”. If you’re interested Calvin Ayre posted about it on his blog.
October 10
8:29pm – Partygaming’s CEO Mitch Garber said that a buy-out could potentially occur with a US based land casino in Las Vegas according to PokerNews.com. This was reported during the recent Casino Affiliate Program Conference in Barcelona last week. Talk about adding fuel to the conspiracy theorists.
October 9
6:59pm – Hopefully everyone had a good 3 day holiday weekend. 
Literally no real news worth posting occurred over the past few days. I did forget to mention last week that HR 2046, the bill to legalize online gambling, gained it’s 38th co-sponsor, Congressman Raul M. Grijalva [AZ-7]. The article we requested from Mr I. Nelson Rose, Gambling Law Professor should also be done very shortly.
October 5
7:30pm – Here is J. Todd’s Perspective Weekly video for this week. The agenda includes what he has in store to change the online gambling industry, his perspective on the UIGEA regulations released this week; affects on players and also some international gambling news from France. Also, Mr. Rose, Gambling Law Professor, said he will have the article for us recapping the UIGEA regulations done within a week.
October 3
3:22am – I did get word that Gambling Law Professor, I. Nelson Rose will be writing an article about these regulations. I’ve asked him to write the article with the average poker player in mind and what ramifications the proposed regulations will actually have on their ability to play. If you have any questions please email them to me. Mr. Rose is still sifting through the regs but when the article is finished we will have the first rights to the article.
October 2
6:12pm – A few people have sent in some questions regarding specific details to the regulations which were just published. Because this involves legal interpretation it is over my head which is why I have contacted I. Nelson Rose (a well known gambling law professor) to see if he plans to, or would like to recap the regulations in lamens terms for us. I’d like to see if we can get a legal view of the regs but have them be in simple terms for the average poker player out there who may not have complete knowledge of everything that has transpired these past 12 months. Stay tuned…..
Also, a very large online gambling expo is going on in Barcelona Spain right now. Industry experts will be speaking so I’ll try to report on anything they have to say about these recent changes. I’ll leave you with one optomistic post made at pokeraffiliateworld.com coming from someone who is said to be very familiar with Federal Banks.
“I worked for one of the federal banking regulatory agencies for many years. I have seen many bank regulations, and these are probably the weakest I have ever seen”
October 1
10:24pm – I went ahead and tried to condense the 52 page proposed regulations down to cliff notes. To be honest these regulations are vague but basically what most expected. There does seem to be one victory in the proposed regulations. There will likely be no “List” of gambling related business that Senator Kyl wanted so badly. One thing I predict is that the review period will be lengthy after the December 12 commenting deadline passes. If more than a year from now we are asking the question, “When will the final regulations be submitted” I won’t be suprised.
4:28pm – The rules and regulations have been released for commenting period. The US government is allowing for this commenting period to last until December 12th. So without further ado here are the US Treasury UIGEA Regulations. I just woke up and will try to make a cliff note review of important parts and post it later tonight. It is a little disappointing that the commenting period will be less than 2 and 1/2 months. We were expecting 3 months minimum.
