During a budget speech in Bermuda, Shadow Finance Minister David Burt proposed that Bermuda establish a regulatory regime for online gaming.
Burt told the House of Assembly, “online gaming is a $35 billion global industry, and Bermuda already has the infrastructure to be player.” He cited job creation and revenue as the reasons to “to move forward with creating an online-gaming industry in Bermuda.”
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic with the nearest landfall at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Tourism is a major industry, and regulations for casinos on cruise ships were relaxed last year. The success of that measure has led the government to propose the establishment of casinos to take advantage of the tourist market.
Burt argued that the government was not going far enough in its ambitions. “Last year, online gaming provided over $80 million in tax revenues and directly supported 2,600 jobs in our sister overseas territory of Gibraltar,” he stated.
In addition to seeking a liberalization of online gaming, Burt called for the regulation and taxation of cannabis. His speech clearly lived up to the island’s motto “Quo Fata Ferunt”—wherever fate takes us.
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Poker News
In a conference speech on Monday, Zynga’s CEO reversed a decision not to extend their real money poker operations—he told investors that later this year Zynga would launch pilot programs for real money poker in several parts of the world.
ZyngaPlusPoker launched as a UK-restricted download client on the partypoker network in 2013. Earlier this year, the company quietly added a real money Facebook client.
ZyngaPlusPoker did not set the online poker world alight, and its lack of impact was seen as one reason why Zynga decided to end plans to expand its real money gaming ambitions.
The company became huge with applications on Facebook—it is estimated that 350 million people have played Zynga Poker—and the game is Zynga’s top money spinner. Unfortunately for Zynga, gamers moved on to mobile devices and the company was slow in making its key titles available on the new media.
Zynga’s share price has plunged over the last couple of years, and it now has a new Chief Executive, Don Mattrick. “Did the company miss a beat with the transition to mobile? Absolutely. Are we fixing that? Yes, we are,” Mattrick said.
Zynga’s newly released mobile poker game is packed with features that are designed to appeal to recreational players and establish Zynga as a major force in mobile gaming.
The industry has long been ambivalent about Zynga’s real money gaming ambitions. On the one hand, the game technology and ability to attract a mass market of recreational players has been seen as a threat, on the other, there is a massive leap between offering a free-play poker app and managing real money gaming in a regulated environment. Amaya Gaming’s CEO, David Baazov, has said that he sees the two business areas as being completely separate.
The financial markets showed their appreciation of and confidence in Zynga’s ability to make real money gaming a success—the company’s share price soared 9% on the news.
Devoid of “Durrrr”, Full Tilt is looking to its two remaining headline Team Pros, “The Professionals,” to headline a heads up promotion. Gus Hansen and Viktor “Islidur1” Blom will lead two teams in a series of heads up matches.
The “Team Pro” promotion culminates in a Team Viktor and Team Gus face off where the qualifying members of each team play each other heads up and Viktor and Gus engage in a “battle of the titans.” The team which wins most heads up matches wins $2,000 per player.
There are eight slots in each team, and they can be won via separate Team Gus and Team Viktor flip freerolls. Each has a $5k prize pool, and follows the format established by PokerStars where players do not need to turn up for the freeroll to win. The structure is set so that blind and ante sizes are large enough to put every player all-in every hand until the finishing order is determined. A relatively standard payout structure awards prizes in what is in effect a lottery.
To qualify for the freerolls Full Tilt is following the recreational player feature of setting a list of “achievements” for players to complete. There are seven achievements in total, and the completion of any four of them is rewarded with a freeroll ticket.
Only one achievement per day qualifies, and players must choose whether to use their ticket to join the flip freeroll for Team Viktor or Team Gus. The four achievements must be completed between March 10 and March 16, so players can only qualify for one team. Teams will be comprised of the eight players who finished at the top of each freeroll tournament.
Although described as “training” for the final series of heads up matches, there is in reality a bonus prize. Each of the eight team members will get to play a heads up match against their Team Pro captain, with Full Tilt contributing a $1,000 prize for each match.
The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) is running its annual Problem Gambling campaign during the month of March.
The campaign traditionally runs during the first week of March to remind the public of the dangers of gambling prior to the NCAA basketball tournament. The three week period in which the tournament runs is commonly known as March Madness and is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year for gambling. This year organizers have extended the campaign to run during the entire month of March.
The campaign aims to educate and inform healthcare professionals and the public about the warning signs of problem gambling and to “raise awareness about the help that is available both locally and nationally.”
Events highlighted for this year include a four part webinar on problem gambling, a Gambling Disorder Screening Day provided by the Division on Addiction at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and the Rhode Island Council on Problem Gambling will be hosting a Governor’s Proclamation event.
Keith Whyte, Executive Director of the National Council on Problem Gambling set out the main issue. “A problem gambler loses control and cannot stick to limits, even when gambling is causing serious financial, family, work or other problems.”
Jeffrey Beck, Assistant Director for Clinical Services, Treatment & Research for the New Jersey Council on Compulsive Gambling, points out that “gambling is an addiction, but it is a treatable addiction. There are multiple resources across the country to provide support to gamblers and their families.”
The list of organizational members providing support includes bwin.party, GTECH, Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the National Football League, The Rational Group – PokerStars, Caesars and the Casino City Press.
The Chairman of the UK Gambling Commission, Philip Graf, gave a speech in November last year in which he exhorted gaming companies to take responsibility for the poor public image of gambling and gambling operators. Getting involved in this type of event is exactly the kind of action he was advocating.
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Michael Hajduk, CEO of Infiniti Poker broke a two week public silence with a statement emailed to pokerfuse ensuring players that they will begin to see their cash out requests processed soon.
In the next few days, people will start to receive their cash out requests after a period that we had to endure dealing with some off shore institutional bureaucracy. Yes it has been very frustrating as even our operational capital reserves were on lockdown and hence the temporary suspension of our server activity.
Infiniti Poker unexpectedly ceased its soft launch when the site went offline last month after being unable execute withdrawal requests, though difficulties processing withdrawals were not the reason for the site’s sudden disappearance according to Hajduk.
The current release of the Infiniti Poker client is in what the company calls a “soft launch” phase. However, players were able to pay real money cash game poker, depositing with Bitcoin and US dollars, and the site announced that players would be able to withdraw in Bitcoin.
Hajduk goes on to say that the problems are also delaying the test of the tournament module, “which has been ready for some time now.” He expressed his concern that posters on forums were linking the company’s problems with Mt Gox, the bitcoin exchange which has gone bankrupt, insisting that Infiniti Poker has no connections at all with that company.
The statement concluded with:
I’d like to assure as many people as I can at this point that our efforts to resolve the 3rd party issues have been ongoing and at the top of our priority list. I hope that once players start to receive their requests that this notion will be vindicated.
The difficulty Infiniti Poker now faces is that poker players have seen too many examples of online poker companies going bust to have much faith in company explanations—only actions speak. The danger of launching a genuine site before it is truly ready is that technical problems will be suspected to be more than they are.
The infinitipoker.com website remains offline, and players have not yet been able to access the poker client to withdraw their funds. Infiniti has released no new information to players via Twitter or in posts on 2+2.
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Dutch plans to block online poker players using credit card and other payment methods are expected to be in place by Spring. The Dutch Gaming Authority (DGA) is currently making agreements with financial services companies to implement the new arrangements.
Dutch players currently face few problems getting money onto or off online poker sites, but this will be much more difficult when the new agreements are implemented. Similarly, Dutch players are not blocked from accessing dot-com poker sites even though the DGA says that the sites are offering services illegally.
The intention to enter into the agreements was announced in the middle of February, but Dutch Secretary of Security and Justice, Fred Teeven’s answers to parliamentary questions suggest an implementation date earlier than expected.
In a written response, Tevven said: “There is an agreement in preparation between the Gaming Authority and financial services, which makes it possible to block payments to the provider of illegal gambling.” New laws which will liberalize gambling in the Netherlands are not expected to be implemented until mid to late 2015.
The DGA has been actively establishing procedures for reducing the ability of operators without a Dutch license to target the market. It recently set out its priorities for targeting operators in breach of the current laws—the notice came at the same time that fines of €150,000 were imposed on Mansion Poker’s owners for offering gambling illegally.
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The Garden City Group has announced that it distributed approximately $76 million to more than 27,500 US poker players on Friday.
Payments were made to former Full Tilt Poker players that did not dispute the balances in their accounts as reported to the US government, and whom filed their petitions with the GCG in an accurate and timely manner.
Perhaps one of the biggest recipients was WSOP bracelet winner Blair Hinkle who won over $1.1 million in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Main Event just months before Black Friday. Hinkle told ESPN’s Andrew Feldman that his remission payment was in excess of $1,180,000. Hinkle was unable to get his winning off the site in part due to an $8,000 daily withdrawal limit imposed by Full Tilt Poker.
It is rumored that Daniel “Jungleman” Cates had even more locked up since Full Tilt went offline in 2011.
Players that had incorrect or incomplete banking information on their petitions have until March 13 to correct their petitions online. After that date, the GCG will mail checks to the addresses on file for those that have not remedied their petitions.
No date has been announced for payments to be made to players classified as “affiliates”. The deadline for their petitions to be submitted was March 2.
The GCG is still in the process of reviewing the circumstances surrounding the accounts of former Pros. An announcement regarding the review is expected soon after which any Pros deemed eligible will have 30 days to file their petitions.
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The Public Prosecution Office (PPO) in Belgium has seized €600k from Betclic Everest Group. The PPO claims that the funds are the result of carrying on an unlawful gambling business.
The French gaming company has licenses to operate in France, Italy, Malta and Gibraltar, but not in Belgium. To obtain a Belgian license, online operators must partner with a local brick and mortar casino and gaming servers must be located within the country.
The Betclic domain has been on the Belgian “blacklist” since May 2012.
The Belgian gaming laws specify harsh penalties for both operators and players who gamble online without a license. The company faces fines of up to €600k, which the Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC) can ask to be doubled if they decide the offence is serious. Players caught playing online poker at unlicensed sites could also face fines.
More worrying for their French based neighbors, the PPO can bring criminal charges against Betclic Everest board members—charges which carry prison sentences of six months to five years.
The Belgian system which restricts licenses is the subject of EU Commission infringement proceedings, After the detention of bwin.party CEO Norbert Teufelberger in 2012, gaming bosses published an extremely critical letter in the UK’s Financial Times.
“While the Belgian authorities are free to intimidate Europe’s leading online gaming groups with threats about the consequences of challenging their domestic gambling laws, the European Commission has yet to receive an answer to its own concerns regarding the regulatory regime in Belgium,” read the letter.
However, bwin.party ultimate conceded and partnered with Partouche Group to get a license. Other licensed online poker operators in Belgium include PokerStars, Unibet and GoldenPalace.BE.
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The first round of Full Tilt Poker remissions payments have started hitting US bank accounts, players have confirmed to pokerfuse.
Transactions are showing up in online bank statements and showing as “in progress” or “pending.” One player reports the transaction is named a “Preauthorized credit DOJ Poker Stars POKERPAY0” on his bank statement.
In this wave, approximately 30,000 players were on track to receive over $80 million dollars. The money is a reimbursement to US players for money lost when Full Tilt Poker went offline over two and a half years ago.
The money is being sent via ACH wire transfer. The “PokerStars” flag in the bank transaction is a convenient reminder of the money’s origins: when PokerStars settled with the US Department of Justice in June 2011 and acquired the assets of Full Tilt, it agreed to repay European players—something it achieved when it relaunched Full Tilt in November 2012—and forfeit over $500 million, a portion of which was earmarked for US funds reimbursement.
Then commenced a frustratingly long process of —a claims administrator had to be sought and claims appointed; petitions were filed, approval and contested; test transactions were made.
For many today, that wait is finally over.
http://pokerfuse.com/
The Finnish Cabinet Committee on Economic Policy has set out plans to tackle the problem of operators violating the Lotteries Act.
Finland has a monopoly based system. The state-owned Ray.Fi, using Playtech’s iPoker software, operates a poker room with a segregated player pool. Changes in the Lotteries Act brought this system in line with EU Commission demands, and in November last year infringement proceedings were officially dropped.
Charity-focused Paf also operates online gambling, including poker, under license from the Åland Islands, an autonomous region of Finland. It is legally permitted to accept wagers from Finnish and international players. It operates skins on MPN, IPN and Ongame.
Working with these licensed operators, the government will establish a “Digital Monitoring Group.” The group will recommend measures the government can take to reduce access to the market by unlicensed operators.
The government will also examine whether advertising by gray market sites can be controlled via the licensing system for TV and radio stations. It has rejected introducing any form of financial blocking at this stage. All proposals will be considered by the end of the year with a view to further amending the Lotteries Act.
Finnish players have had little difficulty playing on dot-com sites, as there is virtually no enforcement mechanism in place to prevent them.
There was a minor disruption in November last year, as PokerStrategy suddenly closed its Finnish language forum and invited players to join its English language forum instead. This followed the affiliate’s acquisition by Playtech in July—the provider of Ray.FI’s client.
Playtech’s iPoker skins Mansion Poker and Titan Poker also closed their doors to Finnish players last November.
If the Cabinet Committee gets its way, more may follow.
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