Let your mouth speak archive

The legislature of the central Russian region of Tatarstan has drafted a bill that, if passed, would introduce fines for users of online gambling sites and for parents and guardians whose children get hooked on gambling.

The draft contains amendments to the Russian federal laws of organization of gambling and on licensing of certain types of businesses. It proposes that starting from next year anyone caught gambling on the internet should be fined between 10,000 and 20,000 rubles (about $150 - $300). The bill also orders separate fines of between 5,000 and 10,000 rubles ($75-$150) as punishment for involving underage persons in online gambling. Similar fines are suggested for parents or guardians who allow children to gamble on the internet.

One of the bill’s sponsors, Rafil Nugumanov of Tatarstan’s State Council, told the Izvestia daily that he and his colleagues were moved by the fact that people with gambling addiction get into dire straits even when they know they are violating the law by using gambling sites. At the same time, the lawmakers maintain it is impossible to curb illegal gambling websites without introducing responsibility for their users.

The bill also introduces punishment for landlords who allow gambling on premises they rent out. “If owners or sub-renters of real estate fail to take measures to prevent gambling by renters they should be fined up to 150,000 rubles (about $2270),” the document reads.

Kirill Grinchenko of the Media Guards project affiliated with the parliamentary majority United Russia party told reporters he thinks the Tatarstan lawmakers’ proposal is redundant.

“We are actively fighting online casinos and other websites that violate Russian laws. About 30 percent of all complaints we receive from our citizens are about such websites and access to these sites is usually blocked straight away. When owners launch mirror sites we take care of them as well,” the activist said.

The existing Russian law forbids gambling in the country, including through the internet, with the exception of several areas called special economic zones. The current law allows the state internet watchdog to block gambling sites without a court order, but also permits site owners to contest the decision if they deem it unjust.

Also, in early 2013, Russia introduced a law restricting the rights and freedoms of people officially recognized as gambling addicts; they would be put under guardianship. The guardian would have the responsibility of dispensing that individual's income, whether it was a salary, pension or other form of income. The individual would still be allowed to carry out minor daily transactions.



www-rt-com/politics/342463-lawmakers-mull-fighting-online-gambling/

Online payment processing service Paypal announced that it will soon stop protecting payments for transactions related to gambling in several countries.


The online payment platform recently issued a statement, where it outlined the changes it will make to its Payment Protection policy and User Agreement, impacting buyer and seller protection as well as dispute resolution.

According to the company, “gambling, gaming and/or any other activity with an entry fee and a prize” will be included in Paypal’s updated list of “ineligible items” for protection starting June 25 in a number of countries, including the United States, Canada and Brazil.

Aside from gambling, other items that will no longer be eligible for payment protection include payments on crowdfunding platforms and payments made to any government agency.

“This is consistent with the risks and uncertainties involved in contributing to crowdfunding campaigns, which do not guarantee a return for the investment made in these types of campaigns,” Paypal said, according to a BBC report.

The online payment giant made its way back into the choppy waters of U.S. online gambling in 2015, when it quietly agreed to a deal with WSOP-com to offer its deposit and withdrawal services via its Nevada- and New Jersey-based online entities.

In a statement to CNBC, Paypal said the partnership was part of a pilot program to support four real money gaming operators that want to offer their players a way “to fund their online accounts.”

Paypal was once the largest online payment processor for online gambling in the United States, but that all changed in 2003 after the company merged with eBay.

Aside from the Nevada-licensed poker site, Paypal also processes payments for daily fantasy sports related businesses. Early this year, internet giant Yahoo scrapped credit card deposits for its daily fantasy sports platform, but still continues to accept DFS payments via the online payment processing service.



Paypal ends payment protection for online gambling : CalvinAyre-com

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Read more: WWE Stock | Strong On High Relative Volume: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) - TheStreet

Despite the suspension of its sitting president, Brazil could vote on its new gambling bill as early as next month.

The Brazil Gaming Congress 2016 kicked off on Wednesday, and the progress of the country’s long awaited gambling legislation was front and center. Herculano Passos (pictured), a Social Democratic Party member of the Chamber of Deputies, said he expects the final draft of the gambling bill will be delivered next week, with a vote following in June.

As written, the SB 186/2014 legislation would authorize the introduction of up to 35 brick-and-mortar casinos, 1,200 bingo parlors and 600k video bingo terminals, as well as an unspecified number of online sports betting, casino and bingo licenses. A separate bill, PL 442/1991, would repeal the ban on the popular numbers game jogo de bicho aka the ‘animal game’ lottery.

The Congress is being held during the biggest political upheaval the country has witnessed in years. Early Thursday morning, Brazil’s senate voted 55-22 to suspend President Dilma Rousseff ahead of an impeachment trial on charges of corruption. Vice-president Michel Temer will act as interim president while Rousseff’s legal fate is decided.

Quite what Rousseff’s suspension might mean for Brazil’s gambling legislation is unclear, but Latin American gaming news portal Yogonet quoted Passos saying he had “full confidence” that Temer has “a very positive view on this issue, and will be one of the factors that will end the prohibition of gambling in the country.”

Brazil is considered the great white whale of Latin American gaming markets and Wednesday saw a presentation that attempted to quantify just what’s up for grabs. According to Magno Jose Santos de Souza, president of the Legal Gaming Institute, the country’s approved gambling options are worth $4b per year, with the vast majority ($3.85b) coming via the Caixa Economica Federal Lottery, with state lotteries adding $111m and turf (aka racing) worth about $86m.

Brazil’s illegal gambling market is said to be worth around $5.7b, of which $3.24b comes from jogo de bicho. The country’s estimated 220k illegal slot machines are reportedly generating over $1b per year, while online gambling sites contribute around $875m and illegal bingo operations produce $370m.

De Souza claimed that the proposed regulation of heretofore illegal gambling products could boost the country’s annual market value to $16.8b, from which the cash-strapped government could reap around $5b in annual tax and licensing revenue.



Brazil Online Gambling Bill Vote Expected in June | Online Gambling News : CalvinAyre-com

Not even an impressive list of guest stars could save Nashville. ABC has canceled the series after four seasons. The country music series has a devoted fanbase, but ratings just weren't high enough for the network to grant the drama a fifth season. It will be a sad addition to the shows that have been canceled this year. It remains to be seen whether star Hayden Panettiere's ongoing battle with postpartum depression had an impact on the show's fate. Regardless, we wish her (and all the stars of Nashville) the best of luck!

The network has also canceled Agent Carter after two seasons.

Spain’s regulated online gambling market reported revenue rising nearly one-third in Q1 following last summer’s legalization of online slots play.

According to figures released this week by the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), gross gaming revenue in the three months ending March 31 totaled €102.3m, up nearly 8% from Q4 2015 and up a whopping 32.1% from the same period last year.

Sports betting continued to dominate the market, capturing 50% of all online turnover and 57.3% of all revenue. Betting stakes were up 33% year-on-year to €1.33b while revenue improved 29% to €58.6m.

Pre-match betting accounted for 29% of online sports stakes while live in-play wagers claimed 71%. Betting revenue was more evenly split (pre-match 41%, live betting 59%). Exchange wagering, which was approved last summer along with slots, garnered stakes of €7.5m.

The casino vertical enjoyed serious gains, with stakes rising 90% to €899m and revenue up 104% to €25m. Much of this boost came courtesy of the newly authorized online slots, which generated stakes of €247.7m and revenue of €9.5m, the latter figure up 12% from Q4 2015. The other authorized casino products appear to have enjoyed a spillover from slots players, with roulette (live and conventional) stakes up 42.3% and blackjack up 27%.

Poker continued its role as the ugly duckling of European regulated markets, with revenue down 12% year-on-year to €14.8m, split evenly between cash games and tournament. Overall poker stakes fell 18.2% to €411m, with cash games off 19% and tournament fees down a mere 16%. Basically, liquidity sharing with France can’t come soon enough.

Bingo managed to pull off some healthy gains, with stakes up 10.3% to €18.9m and revenue rising 9.8% to €2.2m.

Spanish-licensed online operators spent €32.7m on advertising during Q1, a 46% increase from Q1 2015. All this shilling appears to have paid off, as the categories of active users and total deposits were each up 40% to 550K and €271m, respectively.



Spain’s Online Gambling Revenue Soars Despite Poker Decline | Online Gambling News : CalvinAyre-com

Hopefully it will be god for all gamblers.

Is anybody really care about paypal?

Brazil moves closer to launching its regulated online gambling market after committee approves comprehensive gambling bill amendments.

A proposed expansion of Pennsylvania's gambling industry would give casinos a presence anywhere there's an Internet connection.
State lawmakers are mulling a plan to allow Pennsylvanians to play casino games - such as slots and video poker - for real money on their computers, phones and other Internet-connected devices. The move comes as the state lawmakers look for ways to close a budget deficit of at least $1 billion without hiking Pennsylvania's sales or income tax.

But the plan's author, state Rep. John Payne, said his intent isn't for online gaming to be a silver bullet for the budget woes. While the games would generate some extra cash, he said, his main aim is to bring state oversight to something that's already happening illegally.

"Is that the savior for the budget problem? No," the Dauphin County Republican said. "But isn't it the right thing to do to protect our children and compulsive gamblers?"

Payne, who chairs the House Gaming Oversight Committee, said Pennsylvania won't be reinventing the wheel. Online casinos are already in place in New Jersey. He said the goal would be for the state to regulate the online gambling industry as it does brick-and-mortar casinos.

The bill would limit online casino licenses - which would cost $5 million a piece - to the state's existing casinos. The websites would be required to have security measures to verify users' identities and prohibit underage gambling. And the state would tax gross revenue at 14 percent.
That bill has cleared Payne's committee and is expected to be considered by the full House in June.

Lawmakers are also considering whether to regulate daily fantasy sports websites, such as FanDuel and DraftKings. Those sites allow users to compete for money by predicting players' performances in a given game.

Such sites have come under national scrutiny lately. While a congressional subcommittee examined the issue, the federal government has deferred to states to draft their own regulations.

The Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania, a nonprofit that offers training and operates the state's compulsive gambling hotlines, is remaining neutral on the proposal, said Jim Pappas, the group's executive director.

But he said it's important for lawmakers to remember that as more gambling options are available, there will be a greater need to combat compulsive gambling.

"Whenever there's talk of expanding gambling, we just want to see more money allocated for prevention and assistance," Pappas said.




See more at: State could enter online gambling game | Reading Eagle - NEWS

I really like good news they making my day. 😁

Ensconced in an enclave that already has acquired the nickname crypto-valley for housing over a dozen companies specializing in Bitcoin-related activities, the Swiss town of Zug will begin processing Bitcoin payments on July 1st and continue through the end of the year, at which time the city council will decide on whether to expand Bitcoin payments to more government services.

How It Will Work

The agreement to process payments of up to 200 Swiss francs ($200; £140) using the cryptocurrency is reportedly the first time a government will use the currency.

The experiment is a product of what Zug Mayor Dolfi Mueller says the city council's desire to show its "openness to new technologies" and cater to local financial technology companies.

Opposition

Some officials are opposed to the implications, as far as relying on virtual currency in any way or considering expanding its use. Zug council member Gregor Bruhn warned Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung. "The town of Zug could undermine the status of cash with its actions."

Perceptions

Some liken cryptocurrency to the credit cards, where money is being exchanged in an alternate pre-agreed upon form. Others remain unclear as to what secures a cryptocurrency, or if merely a cyber account is sufficient species of value.

Benefits?

The benefits are also unclear, but experiments such as Zug's can shed more light on the benefits and appeal of cryptocurrencies, which are barely five years old (the first Bitcoin transaction took place in 2011).

Concerns aside, if enough people voluntarily buy in, there is no doubt that governments would be willing, as well, as long as this and other crypto-experiments can show reduced processing times, lower transaction costs, and other efficiency benefits from using the virtual currency.

Mueller Far Ahead

Unconcerned, Mayor Mueller is ready to find out. He responded to Bruhn's comment thusly: "I can imagine that in the near future it will be possible to pay your tax bill with Bitcoin."



Swiss Government to Experiment with Bitcoin | Online Casino Reports

Online gambling is back in play as one of several options on the state budget negotiating table this year.

A bill proposed last spring would legalize and regulate Internet gaming in Pennsylvania, providing ease and access for casino-goers to play games of chance on their computers and mobile devices, and providing millions in new state revenue along with it, the bill’s proponents say.

“It is definitely on the table,” said Stephen Miskin, spokesman for the House Republicans, where the bill has lagged since the fall.

But local leaders continue to oppose the idea, which they say would expand gambling practices and is not good budgeting policy.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. John Payne of Dauphin County, said he spoke with GOP leaders at length last year about incorporating it into the budget and he hopes it will be considered again soon.

He said it’s still projected to raise more than $100 million through licensing fees — for currently established casinos to initiate online games — and taxes.

Ahead of the state’s June 30 fiscal-year deadline, that sum could be an option for lawmakers looking to reduce a looming $1.8 billion deficit, and while also facing a proposal from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to raise spending by billions.

Several Lancaster County lawmakers have opposed the idea of Internet gambling for years, rejecting any form of making the practice more accessible.

“I oppose the legalization of Internet gaming in Pennsylvania because my constituents in northern Lancaster County have made it very clear that they are not interested in making gambling more accessible,” said state Rep. Mindy Fee, R-Manheim, in a statement provided by a spokeswoman.

House Majority Whip Bryan Cutler, R-Peach Bottom, said in a statement he was “uncomfortable” with the bill that would “authorize Internet gaming and slot machines at additional locations.”

“While the legislation has the ability to generate revenue for the Commonwealth, it also comes with risks and other costs that must be addressed,” he said in the statement without clarifying what those risks and costs would be.

Payne, however, said the intent is not to expand gaming at all. Instead, it is to regulate and control what he said is already a rampant illegal and unsafe system.

“The number one misconception,” Payne said, “is that somehow we’re promoting the expansion of gaming to your cell phone. Go try it. It’s there now.”

He said minors or compulsive gamers can currently find many websites that don’t thoroughly vet the user. A 17-year-old, he said, could get rejected from entering a casino, and then five minutes later go home and lose $3,000 on an unregulated site.

Payne pointed to New Jersey as an example of a state that has allowed online gaming and gone on to “totally curtail compulsive online gaming.”

“I know there are people out there saying it’s expansion of gaming but I strongly beg to differ,” Payne said.

Longtime anti-gambling activist Dianne Berlin said she believes the risks are far greater than the benefit.

Berlin, who said she considers gambling to be unnecessary and a form of theft, said she had concerns about the security of financial transactions online, the system's ability to prevent minors from gambling and the state's use of gambling to make money.

"It’s absolutely heinous and reprehensible for government to continue to be doing what it has been doing for many years to be promoting and be complicit in promoting unnecessary harm," Berlin said.

Payne's legislation, House Bill 649, was approved by a House committee in the fall and has yet to be presented for a final vote in the House, though Miskin said he expects movement on it soon.

A spokesman for Wolf, when asked whether he would support online gaming as a revenue source, said in an email, “the governor is willing to engage leaders and members from both parties on various sources of sustainable revenue, but what a final package looks like has not yet been worked out.”


Online gambling bill back on the table ahead of state budget negotiations | Politics | lancasteronline-com

That's great news for Pennsylvania.

After a prolonged buildup, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma’s Pokertribe-com site has launched a free-play poker site, with real-money operations set to start in August.

Pokertribe-com currently displays a “play now” button to its homepage, along with a clock counting down the days, hours, minutes and (wait for it) seconds until Aug. 1, when the real-money option will reportedly commence.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Failin and a US federal judge have signed off on the Iowa Tribe’s plan to offer real-money online gambling to customers outside the state’s borders, similar to the deal Failin struck with a different state tribal group in 2013, before that tribe’s new leadership concluded the plan was really, really silly.

Pokertribe-com intends to cater to customers outside the US, who for some as yet unexplained reason will ignore the thousands of other online gambling sites currently at their disposal in order to wire money to a brand new site that looks as if it’s only accessible via the internet’s Wayback Machine, despite its claim of using “the most modern technology available.”

Pokeretribe-com’s modern technology comes courtesy of Universal Entertainment Group (UEG), the Florida-based firm that pocketed $9.4m from its previous non-operational dalliance with Oklahoma’s Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

As you may have read, UEG CEO Freridoun ‘Fred’ Khalilian‘s CV includes being ordered to pay $4.2m to settle a deceptive telemarketing case brought by the US Federal Trade Commission, one of a pair of FTC actions against Khalilian-operated firms.

Something called “Fred’s Fan Club Team” has launched its own website – which features plenty of garbled syntax and the same 1990’s GeoCities visual aesthetic – to push back against those who continue to bring up “the 4 or 5 things that have gone wrong for Fred in his business and personal life,”

This past weekend brought a profile of Fred on NewsOK-com, which included the nugget that he’d had the damn good business sense to hire Gov. Failin’s daughter Christina as UEG’s spokesperson. Christina was quoted as saying Pokertribe-com will “generate significant revenue potential,” which we guess is true, in the same sense that Jamarcus Russell generated significant quarterback potential.

Pokertribe-com also has a clock counting down to the launch of UEG’s equally inspired airplane-based online casino project, which is apparently set to take flight on Jan. 9, 2017. Sadly, there’s no timeline for the launch of UEG’s Poker International Space Station (PISS) project, which was reportedly inspired by the number of Russians playing on PokerStars.

As we’ve indicated before when covering this story, CalvinAyre-com remains a staunch supporter of tribal governments exercising their rights to participate in gambling ventures and we sincerely hope that the Iowa Tribe isn’t too badly bunt by the time PokerTribe and UEG’s other high-flying Hindenburgs come crashing down.



Pokertribe-com Launches Free-Play, Vows Real-Money By August | Online Gambling News : CalvinAyre-com

Online gambling software firm Playtech says it remains on the hunt for possible acquisitions while its Xwise digital marketing arm lays off the majority of its staff.

Playtech held its annual general meeting on Wednesday, at which chairman Alan Jackson said the company was having “active discussions” with a number of potential acquisition targets for its gaming division, while its financials division was looking at “selective bolt-on” acquisitions.

Last month, Playtech missed out on acquiring online technology rival OpenBet, which was snapped up by NYX Gaming (with a little financial help from William Hill, who had a contentious relationship with Playtech before Hills bought out Playtech’s share of the William Hill Online joint venture).

Having been pipped at the OpenBet post, Playtech is sitting on an acquisition war chest of nearly $1b, but should no suitable acquisition target present itself, Jackson said Playtech will consider returning some of that cash to shareholders, including Teddy Sagi, Playtech’s largest shareholder, company founder and erstwhile jailbird pornographer.

Sagi made a habit of selling his other companies to Playtech over the years, including PT Turnkey Services (PTTS), which provides marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) services to Playtech’s online gambling licensees.

On Wednesday, Israeli media outlet Globes reported that Xwise, a subsidiary of Playtech Cyprus Ltd that came over in the PTTS sale, was laying off around three-quarters of its 200-strong Israeli workforce. The cuts will reportedly leave Xwise with less than 60 local staff.

Globes said “a large proportion” of of Playtech licensees that utilized Xwise’s services had “chosen to focus on a smaller number of countries in which they have a strong brand name.” As a result, Playtech was shifting some of Xwise’s reduced business back to the mothership.

Playtech issued a statement to Globes saying the cuts were part of a “a process of reorganization in all the countries in which [Playtech] operates.” Playtech said there’d been “no changes” at Xwise since the 2011 PTTS acquisition and that Playtech was granting “extra retirement benefits” to affected staff.

In February, forex industry media outlet LeapRate reported that Playtech had enacted a similar purge of over 100 employees at the Israeli and Bulgarian offices of TradeFX, another Sagi company that Playtech acquired last year.

The purge may have stemmed at least in part by UK and Irish regulators’ refusal to approve Playtech’s acquisitions of forex firms AvaTrade and Plus500. LeapRate’s sources said the TradeFX staff who remained had their compensation shifted from salary-plus-commission to fixed salaries, suggesting that Playtech was trying to operate its financials division more like a bank and less like a boiler room, in the hope of avoiding future regulatory censure.




Playtech Customer Marketing Agency Xwise Cuts 75% of Staff | Online Gambling News : CalvinAyre-com

Despite the promises made in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, members of Congress just can’t seem to keep their hands to themselves.

A new effort from Congress would override state-level laws regarding online gambling, at the behest of a major GOP donor.

Several states have laws on the books to legalize and regulate online gaming, but language quietly slipped into a Senate Appropriations Report could allow the feds to steamroll those state laws. The amendment, introduced by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, would effectively ban all online gambling, both interstate and intrastate.

Some Republicans in Congress — egged on by Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate and major GOP donor — have been trying to pass an online gambling ban for several years.

Adelson’s interest in such a proposal is fairly obvious: fewer online gaming options means more people have to trek to his casinos to get their gaming rush.

And in Nevada, where online poker is legal, Caesars Entertainment dominates the industry, while Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands casinos don’t offer an online poker site.

He can’t get Congress to approve an online gambling ban through traditional channels, so Adelson has been pressuring his close friends — like Graham — to sneak the language into unrelated bills.

The language inserted into the Senate Appropriations Report comes from the so-called Restoration of America’s Wire Act, which was written by lobbyists for Las Vegas Sands last year.

The Wire Act, as interpreted by federal courts in a landmark 2011 decision, only regulates sports betting but allows states to police themselves when it comes to other forms of Internet-based gambling.

As Michelle Minton of the Competitive Enterprise Institute points out, this sort of thing is just a bad idea.

The bill to ban online gambling was written by a lobbyist working for Sheldon Adelman, the Las Vegas casino magnate and major GOP donor.

“In addition to having dangerous implications for other kinds of online commerce, an online gambling ban will do nothing to protect consumers (as proponents like to claim it will), and instead only push them toward the black market,” wrote Minton. “Worst of all, it strips adult citizens of the right to decide when and how we spend our own money.”

This isn’t the first time Congress has tried to sneak gambling regulations into unrelated pieces of legislation.

In 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was tacked onto the SAFE Port Act, a largely unrelated anti-terrorism bill focused on port security.

The UIGEA prevented gambling businesses from knowingly accepting payments in connection with people making Internet wagers that are prohibited under state or federal law.

That act specifically excludes fantasy sports that meet certain requirements, which led to the growth of daily fantasy sports sites as it imploded the poker boom.

This time around, the gambling ban inserted into the Appropriations Report is a single paragraph within a 141-page bill.

Whether it’s regulating online poker — as the UIGEA did — or banning all online gambling, Congress should not be sneaking unrelated and unpopular regulations into other pieces of legislation.

And it should go without saying, but Congress should keep its hands out of the online gambling business entirely. States have been given the authority to regulate the industry — and they have done so, without problems — and adult Americans should be free to spend their money as they see fit, even if Las Vegas billionaires disagree.





Boehm column: Congress stacks deck against online gambling | Opinion | wiscnews-com

Clear regulations and plenty of betting options from leading operators have made Spain's online gambling industry huge in a short period.

Nevada’s politicians and a large portion of the state’s online-gambling industry appear poised to pursue an expansion of the state’s available offerings, according to several related reports. Of the three US states to have formally regulated and legalized one or more forms of online gambling three years ago, only Nevada initially limited itself to an online-poker-only status. The two other states to regulate online gaming, New Jersey and Delaware, also gave the thumbs-up to other forms of online casino games, and now Nevada, seeing the possible growth, may soon follow suit.

The possibility that Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware could combine forces to boost online-poker participation by joining player pools and boosting liquidity has been bandied about for years, almost since the three states themselves authorized online play. Yet such a pooling has never happened for Nevada, despite all the talk. Now, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval is back, knocking at that door, openly lobbying for his state to enter such a liquidity-sharing deal with New Jersey… if only New Jersey pols can be talked into it as well.

“It would be like putting together the Yankees and the Dodgers,” Sandoval said, speaking at a Nevada Gaming Policy Committee meeting about a week ago. Unless that’s the Tampa Yankees and the Oklahoma City Dodgers, that’s a bit of a stretch, since the “whenever it happens” legalization of online gambling for states such as California and New York will eventually be the market-changing play.

Yet what Sandoval and his backers are getting at is true: Both Nevada’s and New Jersey’s state coffers would be enriched at least by some degree if the two states can get together and pool their sites’ players.

The reasons why it hasn’t happened yet are part political, part technical/legal, though it all seems more a matter of the topic finally amassing enough momentum to move. At couple of the technical issues would have to be resolved, such as where the gaming servers would be located, and how rake generated from the poker players would be split.

The gaming-server question is easy enough to fix via legislative tweak from any of the involved states, but the rake allocation is a bit more complex. First, Nevada and New Jersey would have to agree to an in-common rake structure, then decide if the rake is deducted from the winner’s hand (and thus goes solely to the revenue pool from that player’s state), or is computed via a contributed-rake model involving all players active in any raked pot.

Similar questions were part of the network-based online-poker model that grew to dominate the industry last decade, a solo giant or two notwithstanding. So the questions themselves aren’t exactly new, as much as they’re a reason to argue about money.

There’s also the political environment. In a recent piece for OPR, Joss Wood argues that Nevada billionaire Sheldon Adelson may be continuing to wield influence in New Jersey, via that state’s governor, Chris Christie, with an eye toward blocking any form of online gambling expansion. Such a blanket blockade would necessarily include any liquidity-sharing deal between the two states.

It’s a possibility, and Adelson was widely believed to be the person behind the perpetual delay in approval for the PokerStars brand in New Jersey, where it has rocketed to the top of that market segment in only a couple of months.

It’s a possibility, but it’s also possible that Adelson views this as only a skirmish in a larger war, one that he still plans to win on the federal level. If so, then trying to block a simple player-pooling deal between New Jersey and Nevada might not be worth the bother.

Another factor to consider is that Nevada itself is pursuing a push to legalize all forms of online gambling, and not just online poker. At the same Nevada Gaming Commission gathering where Sandoval touted the opportunity of a liquidity-sharing deal with New Jersey, he and others in attendance also learned from where the larger money in the Garden State online-gambling market was derived.

As New Jersey’s monthly updates have shown, roughly five-sixths of the state’s online-gambling revenue has been generated from online versions of traditional casino games other than online poker. Right now, that’s money that Nevada’s casinos and online-gambling proponents aren’t seeing at all. In addition, concerns over possible cannibalization of land-base gambling and several forms of illicit or unwanted action have been largely debunked. Thus, the majority of Nevada’s casino-operating corporations have recognized New Jersey’s growing success and are thus lobbying for that expansion.

Sure, a couple of giants continue their attempts to block that path, but Adelson and Steve Wynn don’t seem to have the upper hand in Nevada. NGC chair A.G. Burnett is already on record as supporting much of the proposed expansion, though the real test won’t come until an expansion bill is floated and voted upon by Nevada’s politicians.

By the way, there’s a little catch with that, regarding Nevada: The state’s legislature meets only in odd-numbered years. So for a few months, all of this will remain just talks and plans and not much more.

Yet there’s a growing pressure in Nevada to maximize the opportunity far more than what’s been done to date. We’ll see what comes of it.



Nevada Explores Possible Online Gambling Expansion -

Online gambling legislation appears to be officially on the watch list in Pennsylvania, as chatter is ramping up regarding action in the state House of Representatives. Online poker and gambling have been on Pennsylvania’s radar for more than a year; that’s when iGaming legislation — HB 649 — was first introduced.

Late last year, that bill morphed into an omnibus gambling expansion bill. It already made it past a committee hearing and to the House floor.

The bill has been dormant ever since, but recent reports — including from bill sponsor Rep. John Payne — indicated it could see action as soon as June.

That timeline might have been accelerated, however. The Poker Players Alliance is attempting to activate players in the commonwealth. Payne had remained optimistic on the iGaming even while the bill wason the shelf, previously. At one point, it was even a part of budget negotiations during a stalemate last year, because of the amount of revenue it could generate.

If the PPA is right, it could be amended and/or voted on as soon as Tuesday.

Despite its inaction, the gambling bill has stayed alive in the House through legislative procedures that kept it active and waiting on the chamber’s docket. So, in theory, and as the PPA intimated, it could be activated for a vote in the House at any time.

And if the bill comes up for a vote in front of the House, that likely means it has the support of House leadership and would get through the roll call with a positive outcome.

In the Senate, however, it faces a more uncertain future, especially if it remains a gambling expansion bill with some potentially unpopular elements. Those include an expansion of locations that could offer video gaming terminals.

Whether daily fantasy sports is eventually included in iGaming discussions in Pennsylvania is also in question now.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board just released its report looking at how the legislature should attempt to regulate the DFS industry. That report specifically mentioned HB 649 and online gambling regulation, saying that it would make sense to handle DFS alongside that effort.

Since the report just came out, it’s unclear if DFS language can or would be inserted into current legislation that quickly.



A Pennsylvania Online Gambling Vote Could Happen Soon