Media critic of Feds action against online poker

May 1, 2011

There appears to be a growing media backlash to the US federal attack on three online poker sites mid-April (see previous reports), with several major newspapers carrying articles critical of the Department of Justice over the weekend. Two – an op-ed piece by former BetonSports lawyer Chris Flood in the Houston Chronicle, and a column […]

Full Tilt Poker player cash-outs to commence next week?

April 30, 2011

In the wake of Black Friday, PokerStars has commenced paying out its US players as it cooperates with the US Department of Justice, but it appears that Full Tilt Poker is still trying to organise the process. This week a Full Tilt spokesman using the handle FTPDoug used the popular twoplustwo forum to communicate with […]

Legal U.S. online poker may take a while

April 30, 2011

The respected US business ratings service Moody’s Investors entered the online poker legalisation discussion this week, commenting rather pessimistically on the recent Department of Justice actions against three major online poker sites In summary, the service advised that: * The DoJ intervention may have disadvantaged current federal attempts to legalise online gambling, but in the […]

An opportunity for online gambling to be heard

April 29, 2011

The Poker Players Alliance has revealed that it is talking to political staffers connected with the House Judiciary Committee, along with members of Congress, in preparation for a Department of Justice oversight hearing next Tuesday. It is understood that Attorney General Eric Holder is likely to testify, making the hearing an even better opportunity to […]

IOWA bill moves forward again

April 29, 2011

Despite the fact that it has been transformed from an online poker legalisation bill to one calling for a report on the consequences and advantages of such a bill, it’s still heartening to know that state Sen. Jeff Danielson’s Iowa proposal is making progress. The measure now calls for a report from the Iowa Racing […]

Turning Black Friday into an educational opportunity

April 29, 2011

CNN reports that online poker supporter and Harvard law professor Charles Neeson turned the bad news of Black Friday into a learning opportunity this week, asking his students: “The government seized online poker sites under a 2006 law that bans all financial institutions – banks, credit card companies, and online payment companies – from dealing […]

Is Kyl?s view of online poker changing?

April 29, 2011

Who would have thunk it? The possibility that online gambling?s arch-enemy in the US political system, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, may be considering the legalisation of online poker! That’s what his latest website update suggests; in a lengthy overview of his latest strategies and opinions at http://kyl.senate.gov/legis_center/crime.cfm, the Senator appears to be suggesting the […]

Bumper easter for Microgaming poker

April 28, 2011

The Microgaming Poker Network has seen some impressively large winners over the Easter period. The headline guaranteed tournament for the Easter Festival, which was the largest guaranteed tournament ever run on the network, paid out Euro 750,000 to 130 players, with a Unibet player finishing in first place and taking home a main prize of […]

Global internet poker industry unsettled by indictments

April 28, 2011

Two weeks on from the unsealing of shock US federal indictments against 11 defendants associated with major online poker firms the reverberations are still being felt by the global industry. In the latest statistics presented by the independent online poker monitor Pokerscout, it appears that player numbers globally have declined by a worrying 22 percent […]

More indictment fallout

April 28, 2011

The federal indictments against online poker activity in the United States claimed another victim this week when the US government’s National Credit Union Administration imposed a conservatorship on Vensure FCU, a $4.7 million credit union allegedly linked with the online poker sites. U.S. Judge Rosemary Collyer refused to grant Vensure a temporary restraining order in […]