Online poker bills previously introduced at the federal level by the likes of Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Joe Barton have failed to gather enough support, leaving poker players in the U.S. resigned to a slow-moving state-by-state scheme that may force a majority of the country to watch online poker from the rail for years to come.
But new hope has emerged in the form of a U.S. subcommittee hearing slated for Tuesday, December 10, 2013. “The State of Online Gaming” will be reviewed by the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. at 5:45 p.m.
The hearing will focus on the "current regulatory landscape" that was influenced by the DoJ's clarification of the 1961 Wire Act issued two years ago. That DoJ reinterpretation of the statute permitted individual states to create their own Internet gambling schemes as long as sports betting was not among the offerings available via computer and mobile device wagering.
Also on the agenda at next Tuesday's hearing will be Barton's HR 2666, known as the Internet Poker and Freedom Act. That bill was introduced in July and identifies poker as a game of skill. Its aim is to regulate poker and permit each state to opt in or out. HR 2666 also strengthens the UIGEA with regard to online casino games.
An expert witness list of those invited to testify has not yet been made public. However, representatives from Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware may be asked to provide insight regarding the online poker and gambling regimes that each has already launched.
U.S. poker players are overwhelmingly frustrated at the lack of movement with regard to online poker regulation at the federal level. Each new hearing or federal bill introduced brings a spark of hope, but that possibility is seemingly quickly dashed by federal legislators without the foresight to see that Americans want to play online poker and that a tremendous amount of tax revenue would be generated as a result.
Whether next week's subcommittee hearing will be the catalyst for the eventual approval of a federal online poker bill is yet to be decided. But past history tells us that it will likely be a meeting a couple hours in length with no progress made beyond that point.
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Poker News
Full Flush Poker today announced the launching of a new affiliate program for those wishing to align themselves with one of the industry's newest poker sites.
Full Flush launched last month as a skin on the Equity Poker Network (EPN) along with fellow skins IntegerPoker, GearPoker, PokerHiro and Heritage Sports. Just a couple days after the Nov. 8 real-money launch, the 5Dimes Group also became part of the EPN family.
EPN operates as a non-profit cooperative, ensuring a greater allocation of profits to the skins that make up the network. Those skins are also given considerable leeway in offering various bonus deals and rakeback.
The new affiliate program at Full Flush Poker is known as "Flush Affiliates" and its launch comes as part of an aggressive marketing strategy designed to increase the player base. Up to a 35% share of revenue is available to top affiliates of the upstart poker room. EPN accepts players from throughout the world, including the U.S.
“We’ve received numerous requests from affiliates interested in promoting FFP, so we’re delighted to launch the affiliate program for the brand,” Full Flush founder and CEO Clive Archer told PokerUpdate. "We are dedicated to providing the finest overall affiliate experience available, with user-friendly back-end technology and a superior support team on call 24/7.”
Full Flush is based in Costa Rica and is geared toward recreational players. Its player pool and that of the network has been increasing since launching almost one month ago. Those wishing to learn more about affiliate opportunities are encouraged to check out www.flushaffiliates.com.
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The Pennsylvania Senate Committee for Community, Economic and Recreational Development voted 14-0 on Tuesday to advance a resolution calling for a study of the viability of online gambling in the state.
A full senate vote on the measure is expected on Wednesday.
If approved, the study would be completed by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee with a report of findings and recommendations due to the General Assembly by May 1, 2014, allowing lawmakers time to include it in the 2014-2015 state budget.
State Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph B. Scarnati III (R-Jefferson) is the primary sponsor of the measure that cites the plateau and decline of state gaming revenues at select facilities. It also addresses “growing regional competition” as the reasons for assessing the potential for growth of gaming in the state.
“The introduction and expansion of gaming in the states that border this Commonwealth have caused the Mid-Atlantic region to become an extremely competitive market,” according to the resolution.
Bordering states New Jersey and Delaware have both recently added online gaming to their gaming offerings as land-based gaming continues to grow in New York, Ohio and Maryland.
The proposal is likely to face opposition from at least one of the current casino license holders. The Sands Casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corp. whose CEO, Sheldon Adelson, plans to ramp up his war on online gambling in January with the launch of the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG). The CSIG plans to lobby at both state and federal levels to prevent the proliferation of online gaming.
Pennsylvania lawmakers have been divided about the issue of online gaming in the recent past as Pennsylvania State Representative Tina Davis (D-Bucks County) introduced an online gaming bill in April, and in May State Representative Paul Clymer introduced a bill to ban all forms of internet gambling. However, neither measure was able to gain any traction during the legislative session.
Norwegian language advertising videos from unlicensed operators prompted complaints from Norway’s regulator.
YouTube has agreed to block Norwegian language gambling advertising following complaints by the Norwegian regulator, the Gaming and Foundation Authority. The regulator complained about 122 videos which breached national anti-gambling laws.
Gambling is strictly regulated in Norway—Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto have monopoly licenses to offer gambling and horse racing respectively. Advertising by overseas operators is banned, as is online poker.
Norway’s current laws have proved ineffective in blocking advertising by, or financial transactions related to, overseas gambling sites. A report produced by the regulator in 2012 recommended legal reform as the best solution.
Online high stakes pro Ola “Odd Oddsen” Amundsrud recently offered to play 10k hands of heads up PLO against any Norwegian politician and, to his surprise, Progress Party politician Erlend Wiborg accepted.
Unibet has announced that it will depart Microgaming's MPN network early next year to launch its own online poker offering in tandem with Relax Gaming that aims to focus on attracting recreational players.
The decision was partly prompted by a Q3 earnings report that saw gross winnings revenue fall 26% from last year's pace. Also a factor in the move was an overall industry trend that is geared toward catering to casual players.
“The environment in the online poker industry has changed over the years and we have come to the insight that being part of a poker network is not sustainable for Unibet in the long term,” Unibet head of gaming Daniel Eskola said.
The new software being designed by Unibet will be rolled out in Q1 of 2014. A number of new features include the option to change screen names and avatars, rich 3D graphics, and a bent toward gamification that urges players to strive to complete missions and achievements.
Such an online poker model has become all the rage as of late, with many poker sites realizing that net-depositing players are needed to sustain a proper balance in a poker room's eco-system. None have yet gone so far as to post blatant marketing efforts such as "grinders need not apply," but that is clearly the message being relayed when one reads between the lines.
"In a way, our goal is to bring the fun back to poker by creating software with a clear focus on the casual player,” Eskola told eGR. “This project has given us the possibility to start from a blank piece of paper and define everything we believe is important for a fun poker experience.”
That fun experience for recreational players has often been shattered by online poker pros armed with poker-tracking software that provides an advantage that is not available during live play. It has taken the enjoyment out of the game for some of those who wish to play online, but desire to have a level playing field against others seated at the virtual table.
The new endeavor will see the Swedish-listed Unibet invest €1.25 million in the online poker project with Estonia-based Relax Gaming. A strong working relationship will still exist with Microgaming, as Unibet will continue offering the network's Quickfire games in its online casino.
Relax Gaming operates Fast Poker, a fast-fold product similar to other industry product offerings such as FastForward, Blaze Poker, Rush Poker, Speed Poker and Zoom Poker. Unibet did offer Fast Poker to its players as an alternative since early 2012, but decided to drop the option last month and encouraged fast-fold enthusiasts to continue playing online poker quickly at Blaze Poker.
The online gambling hard launch in New Jersey is one week old and state gaming officials have indicated contentment with how the regime has progressed to this point.
Despite a number of issues in the early going that centered around in-state players being labeled as out-of-staters and credit card deposits being improperly flagged by some financial institutions, New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) Director David Rebuck told AP that he is "pleasantly pleased" with the progress made since Nov. 26.
Player accounts now total some 32,000 spread out among the dozen gaming sites that are up and running. As reported by the Daily Journal, 5,000 of those were created on Thanksgiving. After loading up on turkey and getting an equal fill of NFL football action, New Jersey residents and visitors fired up their laptops, desktops and Smartphones to enjoy online poker and casino games over the holiday.
Early numbers from PokerScout reveal that PartyPoker leads in online poker market share in the Garden State, with the WSOP brand of Caesars not far behind. Remember that promotions tied in with wagering restrictions are not allowed for 30 days from launch.
Poker rooms typically offer first-time deposit bonuses that require a certain amount of play before releasing the bonus and these are not yet permitted under a directive from the DGE. Expect marketing efforts of the New Jersey poker sites to kick into high gear after the month-long wait is over.
State officials are hoping that Internet gambling revenue numbers also kick into high gear as time marches on. Reversing a seven-year swoon in the amount of revenue generated by Atlantic City casinos is a high priority and a major reason why Governor Chris Christie signed the igaming bill in February.
It looks like Singapore may be banning online gaming companies from operating in the country sometime in the near future.
The news came after a speech by the country’s Second Minister for Home Affairs S Iswaran at the Third Singapore Symposium on Casino Regulation and Crime on Thursday.
Iswaran said that the Singaporean government was concerned about the potential negative effects they believed online gaming had on those who engaged in the activity. “The nature and design of the games, especially poker and casino-type games, lend themselves to repetitive play and addictive behaviour,” he said.
While he did not give particular examples of that occurring in Singapore, the minister did point out that online gaming had been rising in popularity in the Southeast Asian city-state in recent years. It is believed that the online gaming market in Singapore was worth as much as SG$376 million (around US$299.6 million).
The increasing prevalence of online gaming in the country led Iswaran to state that the government has aimed to put forward laws against online gaming by remote companies.
“As an extension of our current laws, the government intends to restrict remote gambling by making it illegal unless there are specific exemptions,” he said. “We will introduce new laws to give our enforcement agencies the powers to act against facilitators, intermediaries and providers of remote gambling services.
“We will introduce measures to block access to gambling websites, block payments to remote gambling operators, and prohibit advertisements promoting remote gambling.”
It is unclear when exactly the Singaporean government will move forward with the aforementioned restrictions, laws and measures. However, the intention to introduce them is not such a major surprise.
The country’s government resisted allowing casinos and gaming areas to be established in Singapore until the last decade. It currently implements strict rules on Singapore’s two casinos and Singaporean citizens who wish to frequent them. That history of tight control on gaming is what makes the latest aims toward banning online gaming unsurprising.
Investors who have been carefully watching the volatility of Bitcoin saw the value of the digital currency surpass that of one ounce of gold yesterday.
A single Bitcoin was trading at $1,242 for a brief spell Friday, while gold was simultaneously valued at $1,241. Bitcoin has since fallen to $1,138 as of this writing, but the slight dip has not deterred some investors from dumping gold investments in favor of Bitcoin.
The fact that the digital currency managed to overtake gold momentarily was viewed by certain industry observers as psychologically important. It certainly was seen as a milestone by Erik Voorhees, who sold the gambling website SatoshiDice earlier this year for 126,315 BTC.
"It means Bitcoin is really becoming a ‘respectable asset,’" Voorhees told CoinDesk. "It’s playing in the big leagues – a share being worth more than a share of Google or Apple, and even more then an ounce of gold.”
At the start of 2013, a single ounce of gold was worth about $1,700. It hit its low point of the year in July, but by September was slightly better than $1,400.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, has seen a meteoric rise of late. In mid-November, the virtual currency hit an all-time high of $400. Now at November's end, the value of a Bitcoin is almost three times more than the high it reached only about two weeks ago.
But before ridding yourself of all gold investments and backing Bitcoin, keep in mind that gold has been a long-standing and well-understood commodity. It does not have the potential to fall victim to hackers, bugs and a possible lack of support that the digital currency is susceptible to.
Even Voorhees, who has made a fortune thanks to Bitcoin, warns investors to look at the big picture when contemplating maximizing investment capital. He believes that the most prudent approach is to keep savings in gold, but to allocate the majority of spending money in Bitcoin.
Although Bitcoin has been gaining on gold and briefly passed the commodity in value, "it shouldn’t be taken as an indication that Bitcoin is better," Voorhees said. “They’re just different, and a proper understanding of the monetary virtues of both gold and Bitcoin puts one ahead of just about everyone else on earth. [Gold] is very special, and cannot be replaced by Bitcoin for a very long time.”
That being said, investment always involves some degree of risk. And a number of investors who have been willing to accept that risk by gobbling up Bitcoin have received some rather handsome returns.
The poker world has always had interesting stories that border on the lines of not being real. It appears such a situation has arisen once again with the confirmed news that Bodog has had its offices in the Philippines raided by police. That last sentence is where confirmed news stops and rumors begin to circulate about what actually did happen, the state of Bodog presently, and the future of the company in light of all of this new information. The important thing to remember here is that most of these rumors come from anonymous sources and with that there can and will be inaccurate information.
The rumors surrounding the raid come in primarily two different forms, what caused the raid and what happened during the raid. The first rumor comes from Pokernews and it primarily deals with why the raid happened. There seems to be two schools of thought that either the raid was standard police procedure because of a particular tip received, or that it was politically motivated. Many people seem to think that it was politically motivated, but “Dan_Druff” at PokerFraudAlert.com seems to think that it actually might have originated from angry ex-employees who are currently under investigation for embezzling an undisclosed amount of money from Bodog. If what Dan_Druff says is true, then that is worrisome as it would appear to indicate that the company is having issues from within in combination with the already tough nature from competitors.
The other set of rumors from the raid are what actually happened when the police were there. Some rumors suggest that the police ransacked the offices and stole several items from the Bodog offices. The worst of these rumors was publicized in Gambling911, which states that the police stole numerous aid packages that were meant to go to the victims of the typhoon that ravaged certain regions of the Philippines a few short weeks ago. If this rumor is true, then it has terrible implications for the nature of these raids. People with alleged connections to workers or the office claim that the police stole many other things and confiscated servers, cell phones, laptops, TVs and much more. Those allegations are harder to confirm as pictures of the destroyed office have not been circulated and Bodog has not said what was taken and what wasn’t.
There currently is some fear among players as perceived cashout times have been slower than they were even two weeks ago. The cashout times posted in the 2+2 thread don’t appear to be that much worse than they were before, but it is something that a lot of people are fearing right now and is something that players should keep their eye on. It’s possible if servers were confiscated that things might be slower until everything gets back to normal. Also, the Bodog phone support line has been down and this has people scared because indications were that it would be restored nearly a week ago. While players shouldn’t overreact to these things, it does add to all of the non-information from the situation and creates a somewhat scary environment in a market that has seen some devastating results in the past. It’s also important to note that a lot of new accounts on forums have been created lately claiming that the downfall of Bodog is near. But most indications seem to point to the creation of these accounts from one or two IP addresses with one person on PocketFives.com responsible for 11 accounts, according to a moderator.
The future of Bodog is murkier than it was a few months ago, as rumors of a civil war within the company mount. CalvinAyre.com has some colorful write-ups on the alleged activities of the former employees, and Dan_Druff seems to corroborate this information. This is further complicated by the fact that Calvin Ayre, the founder and owner of Bodog, has landed on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's most wanted list. Gaming Intellegence published an article saying that the Philippines raids were focused on finding him, but this would be different from what most others are saying. Either way, it’s possible that Ayre has a much larger target on his back now, and as a result, so does Bodog.
The rumors surrounding the raids on the Bodog offices are rich and varied and it’s difficult to find the real truth, but hopefully this article put things in some perspective. PokerUpdate will provide any and all new information as it becomes known.
A bill in the United Kingdom that would require offshore gaming companies with UK customers to hold licences and pay taxes has passed its third reading in one of the two houses of parliament.
The UK Gaming (Licensing and Advertising) Bill found favor in the House of Commons earlier this week with no opposition from any political parties.
That means that the bill will now be sent to the UK’s other house of parliament, the House of Lords, where it will face further scrutiny. Should the bill get the OK in that House, as is expected, it will likely be put into law in May of next year.
Culture Minister Helen Grant said she believed the bill would benefit customers in the UK due to more stringent licensing requirements on online gaming companies based offshore.
“The Bill is a prudential measure which will provide greater protection for consumers based in Great Britain,” she said. “It will tighten current legislation to ensure that all remote gambling, whether provided in Britain or overseas, is a licensed activity subject to the Gambling Commission’s standard and controls.”
An aspect of the bill that has gained widespread coverage is the point of consumption tax that would be introduced should the bill be enacted into law. That tax would be put onto offshore online gaming companies who have UK-based customers who use their product within the UK’s borders.
The current point of consumption tax on Gross Gaming Revenues in the UK stands at 15 percent and would be the tax imposed on companies which are affected by this bill. The tax has attracted criticism from some sections of the online gaming industry, especially from Gibraltar, which is the base of a number of gaming companies due to its low taxes and low business costs.
Such companies and industries may be adversely affected by the bill, especially if it means paying more taxes and other costs associated with being licenced to operate in the UK. While that could end up being the case, the bill does somewhat legitimize online poker and gaming and shows that the UK government recognises that many of its people engage in it.
It would have been unwise to undertake something similar to the US circa 2011 and put a blanket ban on all offshore online gaming companies with UK customers. However, it is also understandable that the UK government wishes to put online gaming companies based offshore in line with similar companies based and licenced in the UK.
It is currently unclear when the bill will be viewed by the House of Lords, but it should be scrutinized in the next few months given the government’s previous desire to have it enacted by May of next year.
