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On today’s Daily Deal, the coalition of California casinos clarifies its stance on internet gambling legislation, 888 reports its financial results for the first half of two-thousand ten, the World Series of Poker Main Event continues airing on ESPN and we find out who the final nominees are for this year’s Hall of Fame. It’s all ahead… faster than you can say, “I can dodge bullets, baby.”
Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.
Recently, the Commerce Casino, Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, Hollywood Park, and the California Gaming Association joined in opposition Congressman Barney Frank’s HR 2267, which would create a full licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States.
The four casinos have found themselves in a war of words against the Poker Players Alliance, which has launched an online petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse their stance against the groundbreaking legislation. Poker News Daily sat down with card room coalition spokesperson Waltona Manion to explore the coalition’s resistance.
Manion argued,
“We’re looking for Federal enforcement of the same strict licensing and regulation for online poker as U.S. land-based casinos abide by. This means that they have to license all of their employees and the physical operations should be in the U.S. In addition, the hardware and software should be tested and certified.”
She added, “Frank’s bill provides fewer industry regulations and player protections. It imposes lower taxes for foreign online companies than what U.S. casinos pay. It would enable illegal offshore companies to export significant money from our economy.”
We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.
888 Holdings, the gaming operator that owns 888 Poker, announced Tuesday that it will be cutting costs in order to address a loss in profits for the first half of 2010. The company has also decided to scrap its dividend in order to pay for acquisitions after the weak economy and World Cup caused a decline in poker revenue.
888’s first half financial results showed revenues were up 10.5% to one-hundred thirty million dollars, but pre-tax profit dropped by 56% to four point three million dollars. Poker revenue dropped 25% to nineteen point six million.
The WSOP Main Event continued airing on ESPN on Tuesday night with Day Two-B. Two one-hour episodes were devoted to the second Day Two and the feature table included Dan Harrington and Jeff Shulman, who were seated next to each other. Prahlad Friedman and Allied Network Solutions CEO Ted Bort tangled in a hand in which Bort called the clock after pushing all in. Friedman waited until the count reached one and quietly said, “I call,” but floor officials ruled that the clock had expired. Bort turned over top two pair and Friedman mucked.
A maelstrom of yelling ensued. ESPN aired a replay clearly showing that Friedman had called at the one-second mark and the dealer promptly said, “He called.” Nevertheless, another floor supervisor was summoned who also said the hand was dead. Don’t forget that Friedman was also involved in “Ante-gate” with Jeffrey Lisandro.
Finally, the nominees as voted by the fans are in for the Poker Hall of Fame. This year’s class is a who’s who of the poker world, all of whom have distinguished careers warranting their nominations. This year’s class of nominees, who will be voted on by the 16 living Hall of Fame members and a 17-person media panel. Only these 33 individuals cast votes for induction. The nominees are:
1. CHRIS FERGUSON
2. BARRY GREENSTEIN
3. JENNIFER HARMAN-TRANIELLO
4. DAN HARRINGTON
5. PHIL IVEY
6. LINDA JOHNSON
7. TOM McEVOY
8. DANIEL NEGREANU
9. SCOTTY NGUYEN
10. ERIK SEIDEL
Well, that does it for today’s edition of The Daily Deal, and we’ll be back with you on Tuesday of next week. Be sure to visit Poker News Daily every day for the latest poker headlines, and be sure to check us out at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, thanks for tuning in, and we’ll see you next time. Now go crush those fish at the tables!
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On Tuesday, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Seated onstage alongside reality television icon Kim Kardashian, Frank discussed, among other topics, the recent success of HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, in Committee. A lively debate with Leno ensued. Watch here.
The portion of Frank and Leno’s debate focusing on online poker and internet gambling spanned about four minutes. Frank opened the conversation by asserting, “If you have some guy who wants to play poker on the internet, we say it’s illegal… We could make billions of dollars a year by making it legal and taxing it.” The Federal Government could stand to rake in up to $42 billion over a 10-year period by legalizing and regulating the internet gambling industry in the United States.
Not everyone was onboard with Frank’s plan, including Leno, who argued, “Vegas works because you have to go to the desert to get there. You lose your money and you come home. You can’t go to the desert again until you get more money. If you’re sitting at home and you’re up late at night and you got your little credit card, next thing you know, it’s like a mini bar.”
Leno began saying something about potato chips, but Frank cut him off by noting that there are casinos everywhere in the country, not just Las Vegas. No desert surrounds Tunica and Atlantic City, for example. In addition, HR 2267 only allows for debit card and prepaid card payments.
Leno then reminded Frank that residents of many states were sold the lottery because all of the money that would go toward schools. Now, educational institutions across the country are struggling despite the influx of cash. Frank explained, “The problems that teachers and others face in schools can’t always be solved by money… The fact that someone oversells an idea doesn’t make it a bad idea, it makes them a bad salesman.”
Frank continued by arguing, “If you want to hit somebody or you want to burn somebody’s house or steal somebody’s car, then I want to stop you because you’re doing it to somebody else. If you want to be foolish with your own money, if you want to gamble, if you want to drink, if you want to smoke, I will tell you it’s a bad idea, but I think it’s a mistake for the government to try to stop you.” Frank has routinely argued that adults should be able to do what they want within the privacy of their own home.
The conversation then quickly digressed from internet gambling, with Leno explaining that smoking marijuana is essentially legal because everyone does it. If you’re caught, it’s only a small slap on the wrist. Frank responded, “I don’t want to say to the cops, ‘We say it’s illegal, but wink at it and go after this one.’ There’s also an element of racial discrimination in the way it’s enforced.”
One amendment to HR 2267 outlawed advertising internet gambling sites to children. The topic of kids not being exposed to internet gambling came up on “The Tonight Show,” with Frank claiming, “I do agree you can limit this to kids and in fact we’ve done that. Joe Camel has disappeared. As a general rule, the government shouldn’t be trying to live people’s lives for them. You protect people from other people hurting them.”
Congress is currently on recess until September 13th. Its target adjournment is October 8th in advance of the general elections in the United States, meaning that the legislative body will have just 20 days to tackle the internet gambling issue before elections. In all likelihood, a “Lame Duck” session will occur as well. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest headlines from Capitol Hill.
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World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Blair Hinkle came out on top of the pack in the Circuit Championship at Council Bluffs, Iowa. The $1,600 buy-in poker tournament attracted a field of 251 players.
Hinkle’s reward for winning the Circuit Championship was $88,000 in cash, a diamond and gold ring, $10,000 to buy into the 2011 WSOP Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas, and a seat in the Circuit National Championship in Sin City, the brand new $1 million tournament. The latter event is capped at 100 players and awards a WSOP bracelet to its winner. The price tags of the Main Events at each Circuit stop have been lowered to $1,600 and four Regional Championship sites feature $10,000 finales.
Hinkle’s bracelet came in 2008, when he took down a $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event to the tune of $507,000. He became one-half of the first set of brothers ever to win bracelets in the same year after his sibling Grant landed in the winner’s circle of Event #2 that year, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament. Grant faced some stiff competition at the final table of his bracelet event, including former November Niner James Akenhead, Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson, Theo Tran, and 2009 WSOP HORSE champ David Bach.
In the defining hand of heads-up play, Shiva Dudani bet 400,000 with the board reading 10-9-5-9. Hinkle called and the river was a benign deuce. Both players checked and Hinkle tabled A-8 of spades for ace-high, enough to take down the pot against Dudani’s king-high. Then, Dudani committed his chips on a board of 9-6-7-4-K with J-8 for a busted straight draw, while Hinkle made the call with K-6 for kings-up. The pot earned him $88,000 in cash and his first WSOP Circuit title.
The final table bubble boy at Council Bluffs was Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee, who moved all-in pre-flop with A-K. Dudani looked him up with a wired pair of kings and the better pre-flop hand held. Lee, a sponsored pro of Foxwoods, walked away from the Midwestern casino with $6,500 for his 10th place finish.
Thirty-three events played out at Council Bluffs with a total attendance of 4,056 players, a 12% growth year over year. The last time the WSOP Circuit came to the Iowa casino was in February, when the $5,150 buy-in Main Event drew a crowd of just 46 players for a total prize pool of $212,100. This year, attendance increased five-fold, with the prize pool mushrooming by 70%.
Also making an appearance at Council Bluffs was Doug “Rico” Carli, who has a ridiculous 42 Circuit cashes, the most of any player. Carli recorded five in the money finishes on the big stage during the WSOP in Las Vegas this year, including a $42,000 haul for taking 259th in the Main Event. He has nearly $900,000 in WSOP and Circuit Event earnings spread across 64 cashes, an average of $13,000 each, and is a two-time gold ring winner.
Here were the final results from the WSOP Circuit Championship at Horseshoe Council Bluffs:
1. Blair Hinkle – $88,555
2. Shiva Dudani – $54,715
3. Dwyte Pilgrim – $39,531
4. Matthew Lawrence – $29,092
5. Charles Moore – $21,795
6. Jack Do – $16,608
7. John Wakeen – $12,867
8. Daniel Biddle – $10,131
9. Kevin Calenzo – $8,103
Next up for the WSOP Circuit is a trip to Horseshoe Southern Indiana, located on the Ohio River just downstream from Louisville, Kentucky. The festivities get underway on October 2nd, with the Circuit Championship kicking off on October 10th and crowning a champ two days later. The buy-in for the Main Event is once again $1,600.
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Let’s pretend you’re a brand new poker player. Maybe you’re in Las Vegas for a buddy’s bachelor party, you’ve seen some poker on TV, and although you’re saving a little for the strip clubs, you’ve still got an extra $500 for “discretionary expenses” in your pocket. So, you sit down at the smallest game spread at the Venetian, fumble a big blind onto the felt, and play your very first hand of big-kid poker.
In this scenario, what would you say might be the very worst thing that could possibly happen to you? You get stacked? You get cheated? You get into a drunken brawl with a guy nicknamed “Fancy Fists”?
What if I told you the very worst thing that could possibly happen to you that night is that you win? And win big?
It seems counterintuitive, but there’s a very good reason why it might be dangerous for a budding poker player to have a wildly successful first session: the Primacy Effect. The Primacy Effect is a cognitive bias – a psychological tendency for us to draw incorrect conclusions based on the ways our brains are wired rather than on the objective evidence.
This particular bias is the tendency for the first items presented in a series to be remembered better or more easily, and for them to be more influential than those presented later in a series. For instance, if someone rattles off a long distance phone number, you’re most likely to remember the first few digits. Job applicants seen early in the hiring process are often given higher marks than those in the middle, and all applicants are best remembered by their “first impressions.”
Opening scenes are critical to the success or failure of a movie or book. And you probably have strong memories of and a special fondness for your first girlfriend or boyfriend. Thanks to the Primacy Effect, anything that comes first in a series serves as a powerful anchor in our memories, indelibly etched and coloring our perceptions of everything that comes after.
There’s even evidence now that the Primacy Effect has considerable power over the results on “American Idol”-style shows that rely on votes from the at-home audience. Over and over again, the contestants who appear first (and last, thanks to a different bias, the Recency Effect) get more votes than those appearing in the middle of the program.
Fans of these shows have occasionally voiced concern over potential voter fraud or judging biases, but if research on the Primacy Effect is correct, then results could actually be rigged in an even more diabolical way. All the producers would have to do to make sure their favorites are well-received by the voting audience is put them first or last in the evening’s lineup.
And isn’t a poker career just a long series of individual sessions? If we have this tendency to be overly influenced by the first item in a series, isn’t it possible that our entire perception of the game of poker could be distorted by what happens in the first few sessions?
The first time you played poker, you sucked. We all did. But thanks to the element of chance built into the game, there’s a very real possibility that you won in spite of your suckitude. And if you won big, the Primacy Effect will make sure that you remember that session and let it influence your perception of the game for a long time to come.
You’re likely to believe that the game is easier than it really is, and that it requires less work than it really does, and that you’re naturally more talented than you really are. The Primacy Effect will cause you to weigh the results of that first session more heavily than subsequent sessions, so even if you go on a long losing streak, you’ll constantly be comparing your results with that first success.
“How can I lose ten sessions in a row if I destroyed the game the first time I played? I’m a great player with natural talent. I must just be getting unlucky!” And you may find it more difficult to accept the brutal realities of poker: the game is hard and to master it, you must put in a lot of time and effort. What a glorious world it would be for the professional player if everyone won big the first time they played! The experience would likely stunt the growth of their abilities and yet get them hooked on the game itself – a recipe for long-term donations.
What about the players who lose their shirts the first time they play? They’re probably more likely to believe the game is more difficult than it really is – perhaps even unbeatable. For many people, a big initial losing session is enough to make them quit forever. But ironically, these players might be better situated for long-term success since they’ll likely have a better grasp of the amount of work necessary to master the game’s strategies.
There’s another way that the Primacy Effect skews our thinking on a daily basis. After all, isn’t each individual session a series of hands? So, by the same token, the results of your first big pot might influence your perception of the entire evening. Personally, I have an irrational tendency to get into a very negative and self-destructive mindset if I lose a big pot early in a session.
And how often have you heard players say, “I can tell it’s going to be a great night” after raking a massive pot soon after sitting down? Even though each hand is an independent, random event, psychologically speaking, we’re susceptible to letting our first impressions affect us long after the first hand has hit the muck.
Whether you won or lost in your rookie season, be aware that your perception of the game has likely been distorted by your initial experiences on the felt.
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The International Poker Players Association (IPPA) will present a championship event later this year with the biggest buy-in the world has ever seen. The Monte Carlo IPPA Championship, scheduled for Nov. 29 to Dec. 2, will be a $250,000 buy-in No Limit Hold-em Shootout featuring a prize pool of $12 million, with the winner taking home $5 million. Players participating in the televised event will be referred to as the “Elite 48.”
“This is the player’s championship, the pièce de résistance,” said IPPA President and CEO Yosh Nakano.
Thirteen of the biggest names in poker have already registered for the highly anticipated event: Johnny Chan, Freddy Deeb, Tony G, Bruno Fitoussi, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, John Hennigan, Phil Ivey, Huck Seed, Robert Mizrachi, and 2010 November Niner Michael Mizrachi. The field is also expected to consist of three sponsor exemptions and two qualifiers, including one from Los Angeles’ Bicycle Casino.
Players will have the opportunity to qualify for the high-roller event in a new satellite format called the Equity Rebuy Shootout. The first round of the shootout is played 10-handed, with the winners getting their $1,000 buy-in back and moving on to the second round. Players that busted out then have the option to rebuy for the value of a second-round seat.
“For as little as $1,000 – less if you win a satellite – a player can play in a qualifier and have an opportunity to win the $5 million first-place prize at the Monte Carlo IPPA Championship,” said Nakano, who worked several years as the poker manager at the Bicycle Casino.
The inaugural $250,000 IPPA Championship was supposed to take place last year, but ended up being canceled. The 2009 version featured H.O.R.S.E. and two rounds of No Limit Hold’em, but in order to gain more interest from players and television viewers, this year’s tournament will be No Limit Hold’em only.
According to Nanoko, the goal is to create a tournament with a deep structure that will allow the cream to rise to the top. “We wanted to produce a high-end poker tournament that offered a big buy-in event with quality play. We felt that we could do a good job at putting an event together that would provide the best all-around player in the world.”
Should the event happen this year, it will be the largest buy-in poker tournament by a long shot. The current leader took place in January 2010 at the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge, where 24 players participated to create a prize pool of $2.4 million. Dan Shak bested Ivey heads-up to win a prize of $1.2 million. Ivey took home $600,000, while Billy Jordanou ($300,000), Tony Bloom ($200,000), and Tony G ($100,000) also cashed.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for further news on the Monte Carlo IPPA Championship.
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After a two-month long public voting period, Harrah’s officials unveiled the top 10 vote getters for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on Wednesday. Now, the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council will review the list and axe anyone deemed not eligible to enter.
Four criteria are required for a person to be considered for the prestigious Poker Hall of Fame: “A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.”
Each of the 10 finalists appears to foot the bill. Last year, no women were among the final ten. This year, two are up for consideration, Linda Johnson and Jennifer Harman. Johnson, a Guest Columnist here on Poker News Daily, was an inaugural inductee of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame. Harman, meanwhile, will be enshrined on Friday as part of its Class of 2010. Johnson and Harman have taken up a considerable amount of charitable work and been responsible for the growth of the game among women.
Four former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champions will be considered as well. Full Tilt Poker’s Chris Ferguson (2000), Dan Harrington (1995), Tom McEvoy (1983), and Scotty Nguyen (1998) may find themselves as the center of attention at the Poker Hall of Fame’s induction during the November Nine weekend at the Rio in Las Vegas.
ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman, who will join this author on the 17-member media panel that will vote for the Class of 2010, told Poker News Daily, “The nominees this year show the amazing diversity that we have in the industry and there are definitely some names that stick out above the rest. Every player on the list will definitely deserve some credit.”
Several younger players also grace the top 10, including Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey. The two are a combined 70 years old, nearly the same age as both McEvoy and Harrington. Ivey has eight WSOP bracelets, tied for the fifth most overall with fellow nominee Erik Seidel. Rounding out the list of 10 finalists for the Poker Hall of Fame is Barry Greenstein, whose generosity off the felts has not gone unnoticed.
WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla shared many of Feldman’s sentiments, telling Poker News Daily on Wednesday, “I can’t imagine a better or more qualified group of 10 nominees than this. The only question I see on each of these names is not if they will make it into the Poker Hall of Fame because in the long-run most of them will inevitably be inducted. The real question is which one or two candidates will be inducted this year. The best thing about this list is there’s no question that he or she will be most deserving.”
A total of 102 “valid unique names” received nominations, 44 of which garnered multiple votes. On September 13th, the 16 living Hall of Fame members and 17 members of the media will receive a final ballot. The group of 33 will rank who they deem worthy of admission and the top two vote getters will be inducted in November. Each of the two finalists must have received at least 50% of the vote. Last year, World Poker Tour host Mike Sexton was the Poker Hall of Fame’s lone inductee; the threshold for enshrinement in 2009 was 75% of the vote.
Here are the 10 nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 following the two-month public voting period:
Chris Ferguson
Barry Greenstein
Jennifer Harman
Dan Harrington
Phil Ivey
Linda Johnson
Tom McEvoy
Daniel Negreanu
Scotty Nguyen
Erik Seidel
Visit WSOP.com for more details. I look forward to being part of the voting process once again this year.
Go to: Poker News Daily
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On Tuesday night, action from Day 2B of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event aired on ESPN. Two one-hour episodes were devoted to the second Day 2 and the feature table included Dan Harrington and Jeff Shulman, who were seated next to each other. The former has recorded four WSOP Main Event final tables, while Shulman was a member of last year’s November Nine.
Four former Main Event champs were in action along with four members of last year’s November Nine. One of the first eliminations of the night went to “Seinfeld” actor Jason Alexander, who ran pocket jacks into pocket kings on his final hand. Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey was crippled after running pocket queens into pocket kings. Ivey turned a queen to take the lead in the hand, but his opponent rivered a king to send his chip stack diving to less than five big blinds. He’d later be eliminated after an opponent flopped a set.
2009 WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon doubled up a player with pocket jacks against pocket kings and back at the feature table, Shulman doubled up after flopping a set of jacks against Tibor Hegedus’ top pair.
Ted Bort, the CEO of Allied Network Solutions, and Prahlad Friedman tangled in a controversial hand. Bort bet all-in on the river while continuously barking like a dog. With the board reading 6-J-9-5-2, Bort called the clock on Friedman, who called at the one-second mark. However, the floor said Friedman’s hand was dead since he didn’t call in time. Bort flipped over J-9 for top two pair and scooped a 160,000-chip pot, among the largest of the night. Watch the hand here.
ESPN aired a commercial break amid the controversy and, when the show resumed, Mike Mustafa and others at the table argued with WSOP staff that Friedman had indeed called before time expired. ESPN aired a replay clearly showing that Friedman had called at the one-second mark, with the dealer promptly saying, “He called.” Nevertheless, another floor supervisor was summoned who also said the hand was dead. Friedman was also involved in “Ante-gate” with Jeffrey Lisandro.
Harrington doubled up through Hegedus after flopping top set and, to close out the first one-hour episode, Moon was all-in with 10-9 on a flop of 4-9-2, all clubs. His opponent called and flipped over pocket aces and, with neither player holding a club, the board ran out K-5. Moon told his wife while leaving the Amazon Room, “At least the pressure’s off, honey.”
To open the second episode of the evening, which also featured Day 2B play, Chris Ferguson doubled up with pocket queens against another player’s pocket fours. Then, Tom Schneider doubled up with A-K against A-J. While raking his chips, Schneider pulled out his phone and played an audio clip of his wife Julie screaming, “Stack ‘em, stack ‘em, to the top!”
Josh Arieh joined the already impressive feature table lineup and Phil Laak, who was seated at Table 2, doubled up an opponent with K-10 against A-9. In two separate hands, Laak received cash payments of $20 and $40 to expose his hand. In the second one, he bluffed a player with second pair holding just six-high. Others in the field included Jean-Robert Bellande, Gavin Smith, J.J. Liu, and Deuces Cracked front man Jay Rosenkrantz.
Arieh doubled up through Harrington before promptly giving away most of his newfound chips to Shulman. The CardPlayer executive ran A-K of diamonds into pocket aces on his final hand to exit stage right. Also departing was DoylesRoom front man Doyle Brunson, who re-raised all-in on a flop of 4-8-3 with pocket sevens. An opponent called with pocket jacks and a running 4-6 sent “Texas Dolly” home. Brunson received a hearty ovation as he headed for the exit.
Pros dropped like flies down the stretch. Schneider ran pocket sevens into pocket aces after the money went in on an 8-4-6 flop. The turn was a six and the river was a jack, sending the former WSOP Player of the Year home. Then, Arieh, decked out in Full Tilt Poker gear, was all-in pre-flop with 5-4 of spades and up against Joe Hanna’s pocket queens. Arieh flopped an open-ended straight draw, but no ace or six came on the turn or river and Arieh was eliminated from the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
Next Tuesday, action from Day 3 will air. Catch the WSOP Main Event on ESPN on Tuesdays at 9:00pm ET.
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Recently, the Commerce Casino, Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, and Hollywood Park joined in opposition Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) HR 2267, which would create a full licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States. The four casinos have found themselves in a war of words of sorts against the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), which has launched an online petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse their stance against the groundbreaking legislation. Poker News Daily sat down with card room coalition spokesperson Waltona Manion to explore the coalition’s resistance.
Many in the industry have asked what brand of internet gambling legislation the Commerce Casino and its allies in California would support, if any. Federal licensing? State licensing? Poker only? Manion explained that the coalition is not against internet gambling: “We’re looking for Federal enforcement of the same strict licensing and regulation for online poker as U.S. land-based casinos abide by. This means that they have to license all of their employees and the physical operations should be in the U.S. In addition, the hardware and software should be tested and certified.” The California Gaming Association also opposes HR 2267.
The coalition also supports not granting Federal licenses to any entity that has violated U.S. law. Manion added, “Another criteria would be poker only. The Frank bill as it’s currently written authorizes all types of gaming. That violates Federal law and breaks agreements of states and tribal nations. It would violate the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.” One amendment to Frank’s HR 2267 prohibited online wagering on sports, leading to the NFL dropping its opposition to the bill. Manion also stated that states should have the right to continue to regulate gaming in their own jurisdiction.
Manion also expressed concern over the level of protections included in Frank’s measure: “Frank’s bill provides fewer industry regulations and player protections. It imposes lower taxes for foreign online companies than what U.S. casinos pay. It would enable illegal offshore companies to export significant money from our economy.” The tax companion bill to HR 2267 is Congressman Jim McDermott’s (D-WA) HR 4976, which has not yet been marked up in the House Ways and Means Committee.
Despite the spat playing out in the public arena, Manion told PND that the poker lobbying organization and the California casinos have not yet sat down and discussed their differences on HR 2267: “The PPA’s leadership were present during the Financial Services Committee hearing and said nothing to us. They did not contact anyone from the Commerce Casino or any of the card rooms. Had the PPA contacted the Commerce or the major card rooms in California and said they had major concerns or if they had read the testimony more closely, they would agree that most of what we’re talking about is valid.”
According to a 2009 survey by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, and Associates, 55% to 57% of Californians support the state collecting revenues from online poker. Among the most important factors to respondents were ensuring that minors don’t play, full transparency, independent audits, and cracking down on unauthorized sites. The West Coast state could be among the first to green light intrastate internet gambling given a sizable budget shortfall. California State Senator Rod Wright had introduced SB 1485 this year, but the bill ultimately stalled on its way to becoming law in July.
HR 2267 offers an opt-out provision for states and tribes that don’t want to take part in a Federal internet gambling scheme. However, Manion believes that the provision won’t stand up if reviewed by the World Trade Organization (WTO): “We don’t believe that the opt-out provision as currently written will hold up to WTO scrutiny. If they were to challenge HR 2267, that’d be the component that would be challenged. We should preempt that now so we don’t get a challenge from the WTO. It would leave state-regulated gaming vulnerable.”
Nevertheless, if HR 2267 were to become law before the end of the current legislative session, California could opt out of the legislation and go it alone in the online poker world. However, its lack of liquidity compared to the Federal model could result in its demise. Manion remarked, “Our immediate focus is amending the Federal legislation and also working with the state legislature on legislation they believe would ensure that California revenues stays in California. If the Frank bill passed, the opt-out provision would be in play and California could opt out. The California state legislature could also act in advance of Frank’s bill becoming law.”
HR 2267 was marked up and passed out of the Financial Services Committee on July 28th. Congress is currently in recess.
The PPA’s petition has lapped 7,200 players and talk of a boycott of the Commerce has arisen among poker pros. UB.com pro Annie Duke, for example, commented via Twitter, “I and some other pros are boycotting them as well. I will give my business to a place that supports the players.” What the next chapter will be in this ongoing saga is anyone’s guess.
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888 Holdings, the gaming operator which owns 888poker, announced Tuesday that it will be cutting costs in order to address a loss in profits for the first half of 2010. The company has also decided to scrap its dividend in order to pay for acquisitions after the weak economy and World Cup caused a decline in poker revenue.
888′s first-half financial results showed revenues were up 10.5 percent to $130 million (£85 million), but pre-tax profit dropped by 56 percent to $4.3 million (£2.8 million). Poker revenue dropped 25.2 percent to $19.6 million compared to $26.2 million in the first half of 2009. 888 also saw an increase in operating expenses from $41.6 million in 2009 to $45.8 million in 2010 as the search for business forced an increase in spending on marketing from $35 million to $48 million.
“Our business experienced a difficult first half against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment with trading impacted by a number of factors including general online poker weakness, adverse foreign exchange movements, and, in relation to Poker and Casino in quarter two, the FIFA World Cup,” said Gigi Levy, the chief executive of 888 Holdings.
To help alleviate the first-half losses, the company is putting in place $6 million of cost-cutting measures, reorganizing its technology divisions, and upgrading product offerings. It says the business has already started returning to seasonal trading patterns since the World Cup. “Trading in August has been significantly stronger than in July, with a double-digit daily revenue increase especially in casino and poker,” said Levy. “Poker has seen an increase of more than 15 percent in revenue in August.”
888poker had an eventful first half of 2010. The company announced the release of the sixth version of its poker software following a complete re-coding of the client with fresh new look and an online loyalty store. 888 also partnered with Microgaming, the worldwide leader in online gaming software, to gain a license to operate in the new French gaming market.
The company will continue to look for ways to boost poker revenue by upgrading its software and launching new marketing schemes. In the meantime, 888 will pay no dividend due to uncertainty about future regulation in its key European markets. France and Italy are already in the process of regulating online gambling and several others are expected to follow.
Said Levy, “In order to continue investing for future growth, and to support potential acquisitions, the board has decided not to declare an interim dividend at this time and finalize the full year dividend when the full year results are available.”
Following the recent merger between PartyGaming and Bwin, Levy stated his desire to try and consolidate 888 with other successful online companies, adding: “We look at consolidation as one of the possible routes to realizing our full value. We feel that longer term this is the direction the industry will take.”
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A bill, which is backed by one of the largest players in the online gaming industry, is up for a vote in the California General Assembly that would open up online betting on horse racing for the state’s residents.
The proposed bill, named SB 1072 in the California legislature, would up the cut for the state regarding its percentage of the take of wagers on horse racing. More importantly, perhaps, is the provision in the bill that would allow for “exchange betting,” otherwise known as internet wagering. The bill was on the fast track to being enacted before opposition to the legislation delayed its passage.
The bill has been amended by California Senator Ron Calderon, a Democrat from Montebello serving Senate District 30, to alleviate the concerns of much of the opposition, which included California horse trainers, among others. Under Calderon’s amendments and his sponsorship, implementation of the law (if passed through the Senate and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) would be studied by the state legislature and the California Horse Racing Board for approximately 20 months to set the rules for implementation. This means that the law would not take effect until 2012 at the earliest.
European gaming conglomerate Betfair was critical in getting Calderon’s amended bill voted through, along with Magna International Developments. Betfair, who is also the sponsor of the World Series of Poker Europe, is the owner of the United States’ largest horse racing wagering site, TVG.com. The company sponsors races at New York’s Saratoga racetrack and, through TVG, offers internet wagering to millions of customers.
Intrastate gaming is a subject that the state of California, currently facing billions of dollars in budget shortfalls, is examining as a means of alleviating the situation. Along with the current bill that would open up wagering on horse racing, there is an ongoing drive to push for intrastate online poker, although a bill introduced earlier this year by Senator Rod Wright fell short over the California General Assembly’s summer session.
Wright’s bill, SB 1485, would have opened up the California online gaming market, in particular poker, to control by the state. The now dead bill would have authorized three “hub operators” to provide legal internet gambling outlets to California residents for a period of five years. The state would have taken 20% of the revenues monthly, which would have been paid to a specially created internet gambling fund. California residents also would have faced stiff penalties for playing on unauthorized sites.
The intrastate gaming debate has come forward as of late because of furor over the Commerce Casino’s stance against federal legislation that would fully legalize internet gaming. In testimony in July in front of the House Financial Services Committee regarding Congressman Barney Frank‘s Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act (HR 2267), Commerce chairman Tom Malkasian came out against the proposed bill for several reasons.
Among the points cited by Malkasian was that the revenue generated by the new legislation would not stay in the United States, online companies would not face the same regulation that land-based casinos face, and jobs would be lost rather than created. His stance, which other top California card rooms such as Hollywood Park, the Bicycle Casino, and Hawaiian Gardens have stated they agree with, has angered many in the poker community.
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