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Alligator Blood Spills Over to Hollywood

 One of the most fascinating stories to emerge following the DOJ’s attempts to close down online poker was that of Daniel Tzvetkoff, which James Leighton set out in detail in his book Alligator Blood.

The story of the young Australian’s rise and fall has attracted the attention of Hollywood director Robert Luketic.
Luketic shot to fame in 2001 with his film “Legally Blonde”, and found his interest in gambling from filming “21”, based on the experiences of the MIT blackjack ring.
Luketic is now buying the movie rights to Leighton’s book. The script has already been written, although progress will have to wait until he has finished his current project, “The Expendabelles.”
Pokerfuse asked Leighton who he would like to see in the leading roles. His ideas ran to great actors such as “Andrew Garfield as Daniel Tzvetkoff, Mickey Rourke as Curtis Pope and Emma Roberts as Nicole Crisp.”
His choices indicate something of the dramatic nature of the story. Daniel Tzvetkoff started a payment processing company that grew and grew, particularly after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed, and poker operators had difficulty with both deposits and withdrawals through the US banking system.
In 2009, the company collapsed, after a schism between the directors, and all the wealth that Tzvetkoff had built up was lost. Facing up to 75 years in prison for violations of the UIGEA, Tzvetkoff chose to become a government informant.
It is believed by some that it was Tzvetkoff’s evidence that led directly to the case United States v Scheinberg at al, the centerpiece of the DOJ’s Black Friday legal strategy.
The case against PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet sought $3bn in asset forfeitures.
According to Leighton, Daniel Tzvetkoff is no longer in the US, “and is now considered a free man.”
Leighton added that “I believe he is now spending lots of time with his family, trying to rebuild his life, and his fortune. There is no doubt he made some reckless business decisions but as the book shows, he was only one of a number of people who were responsible for Black Friday and he was also tremendously unlucky.”
An issue which has not been resolved is that $50m of players money remains unaccounted for—Leighton told pokerfuse that “the money that was tied up in Trendsact (Daniel Tzvetkoff and Curtis Pope’s pay day loan company) was never paid back to PokerStars as Pope had promised.”
 
Author: Ekaterina
15 . 05 . 2014 y.
Borgata Players File Claim over Chipgate Settlement

 Six players of the final 27 remaining when the Borgata Winter Open was cancelled after counterfeit chips were found to be in play, have filed a Civil Action Complaint against the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa.

Duane Haughton, Michael Sneideman, Cuong Tran, Alvin Vatanavan, Christopher Korres, and Cuong Phung are each claiming over $33k in damages, accusing the Bogata of negligence and breach of contract according to a report by PokerNews.com.
The Decision Following the Incident
A month ago, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) issued its final order which detailed how the prize pool should be distributed. The distribution took a proportion of the remaining prize money and used it to reimburse players who had been affected by the fake tournament chips.
Each of the final 27 players were awarded $19.3k, but the six players who have brought the case, say that a straightforward division of the remaining funds would have given them $53k each. They are claiming the difference between the $19k they have received and the amount they would have received had all the remaining prize pool been distributed between all the remaining players—plus interest plus legal costs.
Plaintiffs Seek Additional Players
One of the attorneys representing the six players asks that any other member of the 27 remaining players who has not signed such an agreement join in the legal action.
PokerNews obtained a copy of the complaint, and reported that the players are also accusing the Borgata of having quietly paid some of the remaining players an ex gratia sum in exchange for signing a confidentiality agreement.
“Upon information and belief, the Borgata has privately agreed to pay monies over and above the Paid Sum to various members of the Final 27, in exchange for each such recipient executing, inter alia, a confidentiality agreement, and the Borgata has intentionally set out about ensuring the various members of the Final 27 not know how much money has been paid to select colleagues of theirs.”
Prior Litigation
In February, before the DGE investigation was completed, a separate class action lawsuit was filed, claiming a refund of players’ entry fees together with compensation for food, travel and accommodation costs.
In the order following its investigation, the DGE expressly stated that the Borgata was in compliance with the Gaming Act, “and the regulations promulgated thereunder, specifically regulations related to the conduct of tournaments”
Since the incident, for which Christian Lusardi has been charged, the Borgata has introduced new tournament chips which feature security enhancements, and announced that there will be closer monitoring and checks to reduce the chance of such an issue happening again.
Author: Ekaterina
15 . 05 . 2014 y.
GBGC Stock Index Shows iGaming Outgrowing Land Based Gaming

 GBGC’s revision of its gambling industry stock market indices shows that iGaming company shares continue to outperform their land-based equivalents.

GBGC provides data and consultancy on the global gambling industry and maintains two indices of gaming company share prices.
The GDGC 50 index tracks companies which receive at least 35% of their revenues from gambling, while the iGBGC tracks the ten largest internet gambling companies.
The Federal Reserve induced stock market boom of the last few years has pushed both indices to all time highs. The GBGC 50 is up 60% over the last year, while the iGBGC has gained 42.8%.
GBGC also calculated the market capitalization of the companies in the index, extrapolating from the proportion of their revenues which come from gambling. The value of the top 50 companies—based purely on their gambling revenues—has reached $351bn, up 46% in a year.
The largest company in the GBGC 50 is Sands China, followed by the Las Vegas Sands, which explains why founder Sheldon Adelson is now the 8th richest person in the world.
The value of the top 10 internet companies is $15.4bn, a gain of 75% in only a year. $5.7bn of that valuation is accounted for by Playtech. It is followed by Betfair, bwin.party Digital Entertainment, Betsson and Unibet.
Since the index start point set at 100 in Jan 2005, the GBGC 50 has grown to 237—that is, more than doubled—while the iGBGC has reached 406, a quadrupling. Notably, the iGaming company shares have quadrupled during a period that has seen the largest financial crisis since the depression, and the effect of Black Friday which largely closed the US market.
Author: Ekaterina
15 . 05 . 2014 y.
Liverpool Football Star Luis Suárez Signs with 888poker

 Uruguayan and Liverpool soccer player and 2013-2014 Player of the Year Luis Suárez has signed with 888poker as a global brand ambassador, the online poker room will announce at a live press conference later Wednesday.

Suárez is considered one of the sport’s best strikers. He is Uruguay’s all-time goalscorer, notching up a career 35 international goals. Last year, The Guardian newspaper ranked him the ninth-best footballer in the world.
He has a number of world records under his belt. In April, he was named PFA Player of the Year, and earlier this month the Football Association Writers bestowed upon him the same award.
He played an instrumental role in Uruguay’s World Cup campaign in 2010, his three goals helped the team secure a fourth place finish.
The country has high hopes this summer for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, assuring substantial exposure for 888’s latest signing. Suárez was South America’s top goal scorer in the playoff period, scoring 11 goals.
At a press conference later today, to be livestreamed on YouTube (see below), Suárez will discuss the 888poker signing, his Premier League season, and the upcoming World Cup in Brazil.
Online poker operators have for a long time courted stars from the world’s most popular spectator sport. Perhaps the biggest signing to date was in early 2013, when market leader PokerStars signed Brazilian Football Legend Ronaldo. It is a central part of bwin.party’s marketing strategy throughout Europe, and many other online gambling firms signed deals ahead of the 2013-2014 season.
888poker operates the second largest online poker network operating in the dot-com market. It also operates a successful regional poker room in Spain and New Jersey, and provides the software for regulated online poker in Delaware.
Author: Ekaterina
14 . 05 . 2014 y.
NJ Online Poker Revenues for April Follow Seasonal Trends: Decline Over 19%

 New figures published by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) show that online poker revenues for April 2014 reflect a well-established trend at the virtual tables.

Compared to March, overall revenues for online poker operators in the state fell 19.27%—or $618,824—to $2,591,839.
Taking into account the extra day for March, online poker revenues in the state were off 16.6% daily—down $17,175 to $86,395.
Ultimate Poker Loses Market Share
Ultimate Poker, which is partnered with the Trump Taj Mahal, saw its monthly Market Share drop from 3.12% in March to 1.9% in April—a 39% month-over-month decline. This coincides with the poker site’s 50.9% shortfall in revenues from $100,289 (March) to $49,252 (April).
The partnership of Borgata and partypoker picked up 2.52 Share points (a 4.9% monthly improvement) despite a 15.3% overall drop in online poker revenue for the month while the WSOP and 888 combo shed 1.28 Share points—a 2.8% month-over-month dip—that is in line with its 21.5% decrease in revenues compared to the month of March.
Online Gaming Accounts Up 10.6%
According to the New Jersey DGE, as of April 30, 322,423 Internet gaming accounts have been created, up 10.6% from the 291,625 accounts on March 31.
Although the numbers reinforce a yearly trend for online poker performance during warm-weather months, it will be interesting to see how industry insiders and news outlets react to the figures in upcoming days.
 
Author: Ekaterina
14 . 05 . 2014 y.
Partypoker NJ Update Allows Players to See Individual Cash Game Tables

 Last Wednesday, partypoker NJ updated its lobby to give players the option to see individual cash game tables.

The new feature is called “ungroup”—to activate it players simply ensure that the “Group Tables” checkbox above the “Type” column header is unchecked.
The partypoker lobby had previously not had the functionality to sort cash game tables so that players could select which table they wanted to join.
The New Jersey poker room uses the new partypoker software client released for the dot-com poker room last August. A major lobby upgrade targeted recreational players, simplifying and speeding up the process of sitting them at the game and stakes where they wanted to play.
Partypoker explains that seating players randomly at open cash game seats “offers the fairest gameplay,” but for regular players who want to avoid sitting with too many other regular players, the system did not allow any table selection.
Together with the introduction of Palladium Elite VIP status, the latest enhancement suggests that partypoker is actively looking to encourage more high volume players to play at its New Jersey site.
Author: Ekaterina
13 . 05 . 2014 y.
Purple Lounge Update – Media Corporation Creditors Approve CVA

 A group of players who lost online poker funds as a result of Purple Lounge’s collapse are at risk of receiving no compensation under the terms of a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), according to sources within the Player Claims Group.

The group is attempting to recoup approximately $600,000 in losses related to the collapse of Purple Lounge.
The CVA allows Media Corporation to restructure its debt with creditors and continue to operate. Purple Lounge players are not considered creditors of MDC because the now-closed online poker room is incorporated in Malta as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
CVA Narrowly Passes
According to a source within the Player Claims Group, the CVA “narrowly passed” in a May 8 vote in which players’ votes were not counted.
“A legal challenge is being prepared. It remains the aim of the players to regain their funds and fully expose what they consider to be blatant theft,” the source told pokerfuse.
The Player Claims Group representative also stated that “[they] would have preferred the CVA not being passed and go straight to a independent liquidator.”
“Nonetheless we are not too downhearted as the challenge will allow us to get this matter in front of a Judge in an English courtroom in the not too distant future. We want matters out in the open and an open court hearing of any description is certainly one method of doing this.”
One Percent Settlement Offer In Jeopardy
Media Corporation’s current director John Botros previously offered affected players a settlement of one penny on the dollar, with the possibility of a 5% payout if the company is successful in recovering funds from pending litigation.
However, that offer now appears to be off the table with the CVA passage, as the Arrangement encompasses all of the corporation’s formally-recognized creditors, but does not include the players whom are considered to be creditors of the subsidiary.
Purple Lounge was an online poker website that offered real money games. It closed suddenly in April 2012 without providing notification or cashouts to its customers.
Its parent company—MDC—ceased trading roughly 16 months later.
Author: Ekaterina
13 . 05 . 2014 y.
Partypoker NJCOP Statement Denies Error

 Last month’s High Roller Event #14 of partypoker’s New Jersey Championship of Online Poker (NJCOP) caused consternation when some players discovered during play that only two places would be paid.

Partypoker NJ has now released a statement which regrets “that [it] did not advertise this structure more as a feature of the event as the actual turnout and post-event comments indicate [it] might have had even greater participation.”
The Payout Structure
The $500 event guaranteed at least $20k for first and $10k for second—within an overall guarantee of $30k. On the day, over 150 players entered generating a prize pool of more than $70k.
Many players complained during the tournament that they were unaware that only two places would be paid—a steep payout structure that partypoker said arose from “strong interest” from players.
Partypoker’s statement explains that “while [it] recognize[s] advance communication was not great about exactly what might happen once (and if) the $30K guarantee was exceeded, the prize payout details were available for players to see before deciding whether/not to play.”
The lobby for the tournament clearly showed that two places would be awarded prize money, as advertised by the guarantee, but late registration meant that it did not become apparent until later in the event, when the guarantee was exceeded, that the extra prize pool would not result in more places being paid.
Partypoker said they will not be revisiting the payout structure for the event—the results will stand—but said that they would “take greater care in the future about emphasizing special payout structures when scheduling similar events, and hope you all return for those series.”
Players React
Initial player responses to the statement were not complimentary, arguing that the partypoker tournament lobby does not explain how the payout structure will change as the prize pool increases—something that is available in the PokerStars tournament lobbies.
The general mood of player posts on forums is that partypoker made a mistake, and does not want to admit it.
A payout structure that only pays the top two spots in a relatively large field tournament is most unusual—the idea that partypoker would not have advertised it widely, if the structure was truly intended, has players perplexed.
Author: Ekaterina
12 . 05 . 2014 y.
PokerStars To Receive Patent for Fast-Fold Zoom Poker

 Fast-fold online poker games currently operating in the US could soon be in jeopardy due to a decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Late last month the USPTO decided to issue a patent to PokerStars parent company Rational Group for fast-fold poker. On May 20th, Patent Number 8,727,850 will issue as “Computer gaming device and method for computer gaming.”
PokerStars Patent Enforcement
PokerStars General Counsel Paul Telford told pokerfuse in 2012 that the company was looking to enforce its intellectual property to “ensure we have broad protection in the area of fast fold poker,” adding that “if necessary, we will use these patents to protect the inventive elements of the Rush and Zoom products.”
With Zoom Poker now expected to be published as a patent in approximately one week, it appears that the Rational Group has been awarded the means to do just that.
Although it is unclear whether Full Tilt Poker’s “Rush Poker” application is also included as part of the application to be approved, PokerStars could simply license its intellectual property for use on its sister site. This would effectively result in a PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker stranglehold over fast-fold online poker games in the United States.
Significance of Fast-Fold Poker
To put the potential impact of this decision by the USPTO into perspective, one needs only consider the effect fast-fold poker has had on the online poker industry.
Just 28 days after PokerStars introduced Zoom Poker in beta, one out of every four hands of poker being played at online cash game tables was taking place on Zoom.
In 2012, bwin.party justified its poor financial performance by citing “competitive challenges” that were “exacerbated” by the introduction of Zoom Poker by PokerStars.
Today, nearly every major online poker provider offers some form of fast-fold poker with the variant now available in several game types and tournament formats.
In addition to its popularity with players, the fast-fold variant is also used by operators to help maintain a health poker ecology.
Potential Fallout
There are several online poker sites that could suffer hefty repercussions as a result of the USPTO ruling. PartyPoker, which handles all online poker functions for Borgata’s US facing operations in New Jersey could find itself challenging PokerStars’ patent enforcement since it would affect its current fast-fold format.
A quick check conducted by pokerfuse shows that there are $.05/$.10 and $.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em “FastForward” tables currently running on partypoker's ring-fenced US player pool.
888 Poker, the software provider for all online poker in Delaware as well as WSOP.com in Nevada and New Jersey may be restricted from eventually introducing its “Snap Poker” games in the US. Although the network offers fast-fold games on its dot-com client, there are no Snap Poker games available on US facing sites at this time.
Amaya Gaming (Ongame Network) does not currently offer its Strobe Poker fast-fold games to US customers, but Zoom Poker’s patent allowance could restrict future use of those games within the American market.
Online giant Zynga added “Jump Poker” to its poker repertoire in December 2012 and may be forced to remove its fast-fold games (currently available exclusively on iOS) in the US altogether.
Bovada, which is unlicensed in the US but still accepts play from within the country, also offers a fast-fold poker product—Zone Poker. Although the patent would theoretically affect these games as well, there is no indication that Bovada would alter their available online poker services as a result of the pending publication; as the company has continued to operate outside US law.
According to intellectual property lawyer Bill Gantz of Dentons Law Firm who first reported on the pending patent issuance, fast-fold games offered outside the US will not be affected.
“Surprise” Decision by USPTO
Gantz stated recently that “it is truly surprising here that the PokerStars application survived multiple wholesale rejections, and that this patent appears to have issued because the prior art available to the Examiner simply did not teach that a game server should be configured to prevent a player who folds from playing the hand they just folded. Everyone knows a fold means you are out of the hand.”
“It is also surprising that the patent issued over prior art cited by the Examiner teaching taking a fold 'out of turn.’ The amendments which allowed this patent to issue should seem obvious to the entire poker industry, and there should be ample grounds for vigorously challenging this patent,” argued Gantz.
Patent Application History
The move by the USPTO comes after years of steady rejections of PokerStars’ fast-fold online poker applications dating back to December 2008.
In those rejections, the USPTO Examiner ruled that PokerStars’ claims were anticipated by a previous application by R. Martin Oliveras that instructs a machine to automatically move one player sitting at one table to a second table as part of its Tournament Management Method.
PokerStars received the rights to the 11/316,573 patent application when it reached a formal agreement with the US Department of Justice in July 2012 to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker.
PokerStars then requested and received an interview with a new Examiner and agreed to alter their claims to more accurately represent the “inventive details” of Zoom Poker.
Those new claims were also rejected in January of this year, but the claims were subsequently re-worded following recommendations by the Examiner to better describe the act of “folding out of turn” in reference to fast-fold action.
Language was also added to restrict the claims to poker card games.
 
Author: Ekaterina
12 . 05 . 2014 y.
New ARJEL Boss: Online Poker “Fad” is Over

 In conversation with with French financial newspaper Les Échos, Charles Coppolani, the new President of French online gaming regulator ARJEL, took a different line than his predecessor in explaining the decline of online poker under the regulatory system introduced in 2010.

It is the first time Coppolani has given an interview since adopting the post.
The “first element” in the decline, he states, is the impact of the European financial crisis. He adds that poker “has difficulty recruiting new players” and suggests that poker is too complicated for a “rather young audience.”
“The fad is over,” he stated. “Basically, the online poker market may be mature.”
Cash game traffic figures over the last two years show that the French market has fallen by around 15% more than the global dot-com market.
A New Way of Thinking
Coppolani’s conclusions are markedly different to those of his predecessor, Jean François Vilotte, who proffered his own opinions in an interview published shortly after his departure.
“We can see a decrease in the number of players in France, but this is due to the fact that big players are either moving out of the country or playing on illegal websites,” he stated at the time.
Vilotte’s solution to poker’s declining property was to allow a greater variety of games, change online gaming taxes, and introduce shared liquidity with other well-regulated national markets.
Shared liquidity is “crucial for poker’s future, in France as anywhere else,” Vilotte explained.
Priority on Player Protection
However, French politicians ultimately voted down a proposal to change the law to allow cross-border shared liquidity.
Instead, Coppolani plans to focus on preventing gambling problems and tackling the non-French licensed operators targeting the market.
“Player protection is an ongoing priority,” was his response when asked what his priorities are as the new head of ARJEL.
He follows up by saying that the “fight against illegality is an endless fight,” and backs up that statement with some big numbers describing the scale of the “gray” market.
Operator’s Expectations
The regulated operators will welcome this activity, as they struggle to retain players when the gray market often provides a more attractive proposition given the high taxes—2% of every pot, the equivalent of 37% of gross gaming revenue—in French cash game poker.
Coppolani recognizes the operators’ problems, acknowledging that “the market has not met the expectations of operators.”
However, he points out that regulation has been successful in creating a legal, safe and secure online gaming product and that this was the primary objective of the legislation.
The new President came from the government research organization responsible for collecting data on problem gambling, and he knows how to work in the politically-charged atmosphere of the French senior civil service.
Since French politicians rejected Vilotte’s prescriptions for solving the problem, Coppolani may well have decided that there is no point attempting to pursue a failed strategy.
Author: Ekaterina
22 . 04 . 2014 y.
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