Two New G-fed Poker Reviews Added
October 29, 2006
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We’ve added two new poker rooms to Games and Casino. Commodore Poker and Scarlet Poker run on the Gambling Federation software platform and come recommended by Games and Casino. Both new poker rooms accept all poker players from the US and offer excellent new player poker deposit bonus offers. Click the links below to read their full reviews.
* Commodore Poker Room
* Scarlet Poker Room
NEW LAW MAY AFFECT WSOP
October 25, 2006
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BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE
The Associated Press/LAS VEGAS
By ADAM GOLDMAN and RYAN NAKASHIMA
OCT. 24 3:16 P.M. ET Observers say the recently enacted U.S. law that bans gambling online could cut into the number of entrants to the planet’s richest card game — the World Series of Poker.
The number of players in the tournament, run by Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., has ballooned thanks largely to the online game. In 2003, a mere 839 participants took part when accountant Chris Moneymaker emerged from a $40 Internet tournament and went on to win the $2.5 million grand prize. This year, 8,773 players gambled for part of an $82.5 million prize pool and more than half are estimated to have won tournaments over the Web to play.
With the law banning banks from processing Internet gambling transfers set to be enforced before next year’s tournament, the well of poker players is expected to dry up.
“It’s going to affect the average player most dramatically. And those players are the ones that have kind of filled the ranks,” said Michael Bolcerek, president of the Poker Players Alliance, a 130,000-member group that fought the legislation.
“The hardcore ones will find somewhere, they won’t care whether it’s regulated,” said Bolcerek. “That’s what a prohibition does. It drives everything underground.”
Mike Sexton, who hosts the popular World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel, said the ban would hurt what has become considered a sport.
“I wouldn’t say it would put poker in a death spiral but in the long run it will hurt the growth of poker,” Sexton said. “The World Series of Poker is going to be devastated over this.”
Casino operators, however, were holding out hope.
“Poker’s enormous popularity won’t be changed,” said Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM Mirage Inc.
The number of poker tables in Las Vegas has surged from 142 in 2003 to 405 in 2006, with many citing the growth to Internet players seeking to test their skills on the felt.
Organizers for the World Series of Poker, televised by Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, also said they were not daunted by the new law. Before the legislation was enacted, ESPN, which has covered the tournament since 1993, signed on to cover it through 2010.
Tournament spokesman Gary Thompson said since 2005, organizers have not accepted third-party registrations for the $10,000 buy-in main event from online gambling companies with U.S. operations, and that hasn’t stopped it from attracting record fields.
“In 2005 and 2006 we had record fields each year. We’re confident again that 2007 will be the best one ever,” he said.
Thompson suggested that a loophole that allowed players who qualified online to pay their own entry fees directly, after being given the fees by online poker companies, would continue to pass muster with regulators.
PokerStars.com said it paid the way for 1,600 players who qualified online this year, while Bodog.com said it sent more than 500.
“We’re planning to accommodate a larger field than we ever had before,” Thompson said. “But whether or not we’ll have a larger field, nobody really knows.”
READ THIS ARTICLE AT BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE
DOYLES ROOM POKER SPEAKS OUT – WILL ACCEPT US PLAYERS
October 13, 2006
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Statement from DoylesRoom.com to Online Poker Players Following Signing of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006
San Jose, Costa Rica (PRWEB) October 13, 2006 — DoylesRoom.com, the prominent online poker room endorsed by legendary World Poker Champion Doyle Brunson, released an official statement following the signing of the Safe Ports Bill.
In the wake of the Safe Ports Bill – now signed by President Bush – DoylesRoom.com released a statement confirming to all existing and potential poker players its intention to continue to accept players from all over the world including the United States of America.
DoylesRoom.com has taken extensive legal advice and believes that it is far too early to fully understand the implications of this bill. According to this legal advice, the new bill does not make internet poker expressly illegal nor does it take aim at players who enjoy online poker. However, there are some US States that have existing regulations in place that may prohibit online gaming, so DoylesRoom.com encourages its players to review the laws of the State in which they reside.
Until such time as the law becomes clearer, DoylesRoom.com will operate as normal with its full exciting range of games and tournaments at all limits.
Contact: For PR inquiries, please contact Alejandro C. toll free 800-326-6024.
About DoylesRoom.com:
DoylesRoom.com is powered by DBPN (Doyle Brunson Poker Network), a company incorporated and licensed in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles.
Congress Sends Port Security Legislation to Bush for Approval
October 6, 2006
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By Elizabeth Kelleher
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington — Legislation passed by Congress would enhance U.S. efforts to protect its ports from terrorist attack, but the lawmakers already have voted not to fully fund some plans that would be authorized by the bill.
Congress passed the Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act of 2006 (H.R. 4954) in the early morning hours of September 30 before leaving Washington to campaign for fall elections. The bill was presented to President Bush October 3; the president has indicated he will sign it into law.
FURTHER IN THE ARTICE….
A Senate staff member familiar with the bill said that the White House has indicated it will schedule a signing ceremony soon for the SAFE Port Act but has not specified a date or indicated whether the ceremony will be held in Washington or at a port. Such bill-signing ceremonies typically take place within a few weeks of a bill’s passage.
Online Poker Room Takes Big Hit From Congress
October 6, 2006
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Congress Busts The Online Poker Boom
CBS NEWS
Ken Adams: New Internet Gaming Law Will Squash Underdog Dreams Of Scoring Big
(CBS) Ken Adams writes about poker for CBSNews.com.
In 2003 an anonymous Tennessee accountant with the unlikely name of Chris Moneymaker invested $100 in an online poker tournament in which the first prize was a $10,000 entry in the annual World Series of Poker championship in Las Vegas.
Moneymaker went on to win the World Series championship bracelet and $2.5 million, igniting the spark that fueled an astounding three-year boom in the business of tournament poker. The combination of widespread television coverage (made possible by the invention of the “hole card” camera that enables viewers to see each player’s hidden cards as the play of each hand progresses) and Internet poker, led millions of new players to enter the tournament arena, hoping to duplicate Moneymaker’s success.
The simplest way to measure the explosion in tournament poker in the United States is by the number of contestants in the annual World Series of Poker championship event. During its 33-year history prior to Moneymaker’s win, the average number of contestants was 181. Three years after Moneymaker appeared on the David Letterman show to talk about his leap from small-stakes online player to world champion, 8,773 players put up $10,000 apiece to compete for the 2006 world championship bracelet and $12.5 million in first-prize money.
Nearly 80 percent of them won their seats by entering inexpensive online tournaments.
A high proportion of the newly minted Internet players are in their 20s and early 30s. Whereas the World Series field used to be composed of grizzled veteran professionals, during the last few years it has been dominated by young neophytes playing in only their first or second World Series competition.
The huge explosion in tournament poker generated a mass market for poker-related products and services. Poker books and television shows proliferated. My TiVo — which is set to record all shows relating to “poker” — used to record a few shows a week. Now it records dozens.
When Greg Raymer won the World Series championship in 2004 after qualifying in an online tournament on PokerStars, he promptly quit his job as an in-house lawyer at Pfizer. PokerStars signed him to an exclusive marketing contract that paid him much more than his law job.
For the last few years, Greg has been featured in PokerStars’ television and print ads, encouraging the rest of us amateur players to indulge the fantasy that if we play on PokerStars and win a seat in the World Series, we, too, might be able to quit our day jobs, play poker full time and sign a lucrative endorsement deal with a company marketing to the expanding population of worldwide poker players.
All of this came to a screeching halt last weekend, when an unexpected confluence of political events led Congress to stick a provision into a port security bill at the 11th hour — one that’s designed to shut down Internet gaming in the United States.
There were no hearings and no debate in the Senate, originally created by the Constitutional framers to be the “world’s greatest deliberative body,” where the potential passions of the mob as expressed by the larger, more populist House of Representatives, would be slowed down and moderated by the careful consideration intended by the rules of the Senate.
Not this time.
