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Merge Gaming is a large online poker network where many of the top online poker rooms call home, including Carbon Poker. Carbon has recently announced that they will no longer be offering the Bad Beat Jackpot option. When the current jackpot is hit, the option will cease to exist at the site.

According to a report at Card Player, a site representative has announced that the decision was made to ensure ‘a healthier poker room ecology’. The site released a statement on the subject which read:

“Effective Immediately: This promotion is ending, the next time the Jackpot goes off. All of the tables will shut down automatically within a few minutes for the Jackpot being awarded. We will manually reimburse any BBJ rake paid between the time that the jackpot goes off and when the tables can be shutdown.”

Right now, the Bad Beat Jackpot sits at just over $322,000 and normally, 20% of the jackpot would be re-seeded to create the new jackpot. However, this time, the 20% will be added to the overall jackpot. When the jackpot is activated, the player with the losing hand will earn the largest portion of the jackpot. The losing player has to hold quad sevens or better.


Read More: Merge Gaming Removes Bad Beat Poker Jackpot

Passage of an online gaming bill at the federal level is not going to happen in 2012.

That’s the assessment of Fitch Ratings Service in a report on Online Gaming that was released Thursday. The bond ratings service said political gridlock in Washington and retirement of key proponents of online gaming could push discussion of the issue into 2013.

“The Republican Party included ‘prohibition of gambling over the Internet’ as part of its 2012 platform, making passage of online gaming bill through the Congress unlikely in the near term,” Fitch analyst Michael Paladino said.

Putting politics aside, Paladino detailed the momentum for proliferation of online gaming on the state-by-state level. He believes federal approval will eventually take place.

He cited the U.S. Department of Justice’s reversal last December of its stance on the Federal Wire Act of 1961. Justice Department attorneys said the Act applies only to sports wagering, which has allowed states to freely pursue intrastate online gaming regulations.

Last month, a federal district judge ruled that poker relies more on skill than chance.

“Because the 2006 federal ban (the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) applies only to ‘game[s] subject to chance,’ the ruling, while not binding, suggests that the ban does not apply to poker,” Paladino said.

Read More: www-lvrj-com/blogs/stutz/Fitch_Ratings_federal_approval_of_Internet_poker_wont_happen_until_next_year-html?ref=976

The State Gaming Control Board made history again Thursday with the first approval for a marketing company to participate in online intrastate poker in Nevada.

After initially approving applications for poker website operators and system manufacturers and providers this summer and earlier on Thursday, the board for the first time considered an online poker marketing affiliate application during its meeting in Las Vegas.

It recommended approval for PokerTrip Enterprises Inc. of Las Vegas, which has marketing contracts with local poker rooms and has websites promoting poker called AllVegasPoker-com and ThePokerAtlas-com. The Nevada Gaming Commission will have the final say on the application and could consider it as early as Sept. 20.

As a marketer that will refer players to online poker rooms, PokerTrip Enterprises will be paid on a fee basis as opposed to sharing in poker revenue. For that reason, the company and its investors were subjected to a licensing review but not the full investigation reserved for entities that are entitled to gambling revenue.

Jon Friedberg, CEO of PokerTrip, said the company launched in June 2011 and now has seven employees, with plans to expand thanks in part to the launch of online poker.

He said the company is like the “TripAdvisor of the poker industry,” where people can obtain information about casinos, games and poker tournaments “and ultimately plan where and when they would like to play poker.” The firm also sponsors poker tournaments and events.


Read More: First Nevada online poker marketing affiliate gets OK - VEGAS INC

Cool Hand Poker recently reported that online poker remains the most popular online casino game in the world today. Their findings were based according to figures published by leading gambling market research firm H2 Gambling Capital.

In addition, the findings claim online gambling revenues increased 3.4 per cent increase over 2010 revenues to €24.6bn in 2011.

The report also found, online poker remains popular in America and Norway, accounting for 19 per cent of US online casino gambling revenue (despite remaining illegal in the United States), and 28 per cent of the Norwegian online market.

In addition, growth in online poker player numbers in recent years can also be partly attributed to the recent legalisation and regulation of the game in major European countries like France and Italy, the latter being the biggest online poker playing market in Europe in 2010.



Cool Hand Poker, Poker Still Most Popular Casino Game Online | Casino Scam Report

In recent months we have seen online operators merge with prominent online poker rooms on the iPoker network altogether. The BetClic Everest Group is now on the move to join Playtech’s network with their online poker offerings, EverestPoker-com and EverestPoker.fr.

Mor Weiser, chief executive of Playtech, said, “The French market remains a priority market for us. We believe that the combination of BetClick-Everest Group, one of the leading operators in the French market, our technology solutions reinforces our strategy on regulated markets.

“Playtech is the best way to improve the experience of our customers and our liquidity and to offer our community a better interface to the latest industry standards, Ignacio Martos, chief executive of BetClick Everest Group added.

“With this partnership, we continue our strategy to offer the best online gaming experience to our players and to consolidate our position in key European markets where we are present.”

Playtech CEO Mor Weizer said of the deal: “Playtech is delighted with the decision of BetClic Everest to join the iPoker network in its main markets. The French market remains a priority market for us…[but] his partnership extends beyond France, and will benefit our two groups with greater liquidity, advanced technology and a closer relationship.”


Betclic Everest Group Joins Playtech's iPoker Network | Casino Scam Report

If you're looking for ways to manage your bankroll for poker, casino, sports book, and bingo betting, Bet Bind offers a free service for online record keeping. Bet Bind takes away the need to track your bets manually over multiple sites and makes it simple to keep a log of your previous wagers.

Bet Bind stores your wins and losses on the online sites you play at and allows you to sort wagers by company, game, and time frame. The poker tracking software also stores various pieces of information like the date of your wager or gaming session, your starting bankroll, and the outcome. By storing everything in one place, the program makes it easy to see what is making money for you over time and helps you identify loss-leading activities.

Bet Bind also will assist in finding the best poker site, sports book, online casino, or bingo company for you by comparing a variety of different sites.

Bet Bind also allows you to see what other members have been betting on if they decide to make their bets public. If you find someone who seems especially good at handicapping sports or horses, this can be a huge money making tool.

It shows both current activity and closed bets so you can see a history of what a person bet on. The detail also shows what site a person bet on and the odds they received. You can also brag about your biggest wins to friends and family.


Read More: Keep Complete Poker Bet Histories with Bet Bind

Cool Hand Poker recently reported that online poker remains the most popular online casino game in the world today. Their findings were based according to figures published by leading gambling market research firm H2 Gambling Capital.

In addition, the findings claim online gambling revenues increased 3.4 per cent increase over 2010 revenues to €24.6bn in 2011.

The report also found, online poker remains popular in America and Norway, accounting for 19 per cent of US online casino gambling revenue (despite remaining illegal in the United States), and 28 per cent of the Norwegian online market.

In addition, growth in online poker player numbers in recent years can also be partly attributed to the recent legalisation and regulation of the game in major European countries like France and Italy, the latter being the biggest online poker playing market in Europe in 2010.

Cool Hand Poker invites you to join them in the continued growth of online poker by visiting their poker room and receiving 200% Match Bonus on your 1st Successful Deposit up to €200!€10 will be paid instantly, the remaining of your bonus will be rewarded as you play…please note, your 1st deposit determines the size of your bonus.

Cool Hand Poker boasts a “no pressure” poker, and invites everyone (and that’s you!) to sit down, relax and play poker.

The Great American pastime isn’t just one thing, it is lots of things. There is the game of baseball. There’s eating apple pie. And there is poker. It is the card game played by millions of Americans in nearly every community in every state of the union.

The first two activities are perfectly legal, but poker? Well, that depends on where you play the game — at a card table or via the Internet — and the state in which you live.

I have such fond memories of playing poker that I can’t imagine why some states still have laws labeling it as illegal gambling. When I was a kid growing up in Albuquerque, my cash-strapped parents often had friends over for a rousing poker game. They threw modest New Year’s Eve parties where two-bit limit poker games were the centerpiece. After I moved out on my own, playing poker was a fun and inexpensive way to make new friends and interact with colleagues outside work.


Read More: Diane Dimond: Playing Poker Shouldn’t Be a Crime — But It Is

After being shut down by the Department of Justice, by what people in the poker business call Black Friday on April 15th 2011, Full Tilt Poker has never repaid any of its players who had money on the site. The site eventually folded and stopped offering its games in any markets. At the time of the shut down, Full Tilt Poker was the world’s second biggest online poker site. Next to PokerStars. At the time of the shutdown, Full Tilt had an estimated 334 million in players accounts seized and unavailable to be repaid.

At the end of July, PokerStars swooped in and bought up all of this debt and settled with the DOJ and now is set to operate both of the top two sites in the world.


Read More: Poker Stars Buys Full Tilt Poker. Players To Be Repaid! | Annapolis Valley News

Everest Poker will be moving to the iPoker online poker network, it was confirmed by the poker room’s parent company, BetClic Everest Group. It is believed that players on the Everest Poker platform will find themselves part of the iPoker network by the end of this year.

The Chief Executive Officer of BetClic Everest Group, Ignacio Martos, said about the move: “Playtech is the best way to improve the experience of our customers and our liquidity and to offer our community a better interface to the latest industry standards. With this partnership, we continue our strategy to offer the best online gaming experience to our players and to consolidate our position in key European markets where we are present.”

It is understood that Everest Poker will certainly be counted among iPoker’s top tier sites and will be able to join the other larger sites on the network. iPoker recently split the top sites, which have a large player base from smaller, less profitable sites.


Read More: BetClic Confirms iPoker Move

It is now the time for the elections and each party is breaking out a campaign designed to get the most votes. When the Republican Party took the stage, they spoke about reforms and did not seem to be too much in favor of any bill promotion online poker legally in the US. In fact, they went one step ahead and looked to cut online gambling. “Millions of Americans suffer from problem or pathological gambling that can destroy families. We support the prohibition of gambling over the Internet and call for reversal of the Justice Department’s decision distorting the formerly accepted meaning of the Wire Act that could open the door to Internet betting,” their report said. It must also be argued that the Democrats are taking a stance where they want to regulate the internet and prevent horrors like child pornography and human trafficking and games associated to such terrible acts.


Read More: Democratic National Platform In Favor of Internet Poker?

As of now, the WSOP or the World Series of Poker is owned and managed by Caesars Entertainment. However, since Caesars Entertainment has had a bad report of fiscal profit from the company, it is quite possible that Caesars will decide to sell some of its problematic sectors. And, according to analysts from Fitch, the WSOP might just be one of these. They claim that it is a “possibility” that Caesars Entertainment will sell the World Series of Poker and reorganize its debts to maintain its financial strength. The report from Fitch pulled Caesars Entertainment stocks rating from stable to negative. This is not a good sign for the company or its stock holders. The report based its decisions on the $241.7 million loss incurred in the second quarter of 2012.


Read More: Fitch Report Claims that the WSOP Could Soon Be on Sale

Chartwell Games is good!

That's really nice to read.

Nevada gaming officials have been busy crafting new rules for online poker sites to follow that are somewhat different than current industry standards.

Player-to-player transfers have long been a staple of online poker that allowed players to loan money to others or arrange various staking agreements. The practice will be disallowed in all online poker sites in Nevada in new regulations set forth by the Nevada Gaming Commission. In an effort to avoid any impropriety, including concerns of money laundering, Nevada will allow each player to make transactions only with the sites’ own system for deposits and withdrawals. This is a vast difference from practices used since the early 2000s in which several sites actually seemed to encourage the transfer of funds among players.

Gaming officials have also created new rules for players who are endorsing or have a sponsorship agreement with any Nevada online site. Players binded by such agreements must be fully identified while playing at online tables, which will seemingly prohibit players from perhaps receiving endorsement benefits under secondary accounts. A whole new market for popular poker professionals is expected to be available upon the launching of the new online poker sites in the Silver State.

Read More: Nevada Fine-Tuning Online Poker Rules

A rift between Nevada's senators widened Monday over a high stakes bill that would clear the way for Nevada casinos to offer legal online poker to gamblers nationwide.

The split between Sens. Harry Reid and Dean Heller elevates the already steep odds that Congress could pass a lucrative yet controversial gaming bill in the waning days of this year's session.

Reid, the Senate leader, has readied an online poker bill and has been seeking a way to get it passed, even as Senate officials acknowledge it is 15 votes or so short of the necessary majority.

Reid had set a deadline of Monday to see if enough votes could be gathered for the bill to move in the fewer than three weeks remaining before Congress recesses for the November elections. It is expected to return for a lame duck session after Election Day.

In a letter Monday evening, Heller objected to the deadline, saying "this was not a strategy we discussed." He said it would be best for the Senate to step back and let the House of Representatives act first on web poker.


Read More: Reid-Heller rift widens over web poker - News - ReviewJournal-com

The Democrats’ silence about any support they may have for the passage of online poker and gambling laws in the United States was deafening at the party’s National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina recently. Many felt that if there was ever a time for the Democratic Party to vocalize its support for a legalized and regulated online gambling industry in the US, this was it. However, unlike the Republicans, who came out forcefully against the the idea of online gambling, the Democrats’ only mention of the internet was the fact that “the Obama administration has led the world to recognize and defend internet freedom – the freedom of expression, assembly, and association online for people everywhere …” and, if Obama wins the next Presidential election, he would “preserve the Internet as a platform for commerce, debate, learning, and innovation in the 21st century.”

Compare that the the very loud and clear, albeit anti-gambling, message set out by the Republicans in their report, which read: “Millions of Americans suffer from problem or pathological gambling that can destroy families. We support the prohibition of gambling over the Internet and call for reversal of the Justice Department’s decision distorting the formerly accepted meaning of the Wire Act that could open the door to Internet betting.”

It is interesting to see how the online poker industry is interpreting the Democratic Party’s silence on the issue. Some consider it a good sign that there was no comment on internet gambling and that when the elections are over, the Democrats will continue working to change the landscape, while others, such as John Pappas of the PPA say: “I think they missed a golden opportunity to reach out to America’s poker players and supporters in what is sure to be a very close election.”


Democrats Remain Silent on Internet Poker Issue

Despite the fact many believe gambling’s revenue-generating potential is usually over hyped in the state of California, Senator Rod Wright is still continuing the fight for online poker in the state; although the uncertainty of this accomplishment continues to face significant opposition from Native American groups.

The state lottery, for example, has hardly been the save all to all means for education that proponents promised in 1984; it provides just about 1.5 cents of every education dollar. And the tribal compacts that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed in 2007 have not resulted in anywhere near as much revenue as the governor predicted.

In June, Senators Wright and Steinberg, authors of SB 1463, California’s bill created by the two senators to establish a framework to authorize intrastate Internet gambling was pulled from the voting floor due to lack of support.

Since that time Wright has continued his fight for the bill. However, lack of unity among tribes and failure to agree upon on what is best for tribal factions have left Wright with many deals failing by the wayside.

Senator Wright states, “Nobody trusts anyone right now, “Fear is a very difficult emotion to overcome. I’ve had agreements three or four times but they have fallen apart. “But if federal government makes any modifications to intrastate online gambling law then we will all feel very stupid as our opportunity to compete will have gone.”

Wright also is facing the California Online Poker Association (COPA), which is still insisting on excluding the state’s horse-racing associations from participating in the license application process, which does not sit well with Sen. Roderick Wright, the bill’s co-author.

“I believe SB 1463 is now likely unofficially dead,” said Harsh Parikh, an attorney with Snell & Wilmer L.L.P., who is monitoring the bill’s progress for several clients.

“Going forward, it is important to remember that SB 1463 was introduced on the last possible day this year,” Parikh said. “It will likely be introduced earlier in the session next year and, because of the ‘urgency’ clause, the bill can be enacted as soon as it is passed.”


Sen. Wright Continues Fight for Online Poker Bill SB 1463 | Casino Scam Report

In one way, 24-year-old Greg Merson is the most experienced player to ever make the World Series of Poker main event final table in its more than 40-year history.

The Maryland native, who has made a living from online cash games, said he’s played about seven million hands on the virtual felt. Has Merson played more than any other finalist?

When asked about it, Merson said: “I’ve never really thought about it, but I’d certainly think that it’s not even close. I’ve been playing 20-24 tables at time, putting in 1,500-2,000 hands an hour, for the past four or five years. There aren’t many people who do that.”

Christian Harder, a fellow poker pro, said that Merson is likely in the “top 25 all time in terms of hands played.” Poker on the Internet has been around since the late 1990s.

To rank Merson, also a recent bracelet winner, up there in experience level with other great finalists of their time, such as Dan Harrington in 2004, Phil Ivey in 2009 or Stu Ungar in 1997, might sound crazy, but by factoring in volume of no-limit hold’em hands seen, it’s not a stretch.

Although winning the main event would be OK, Merson is trying not to be like Ungar in one way — falling victim to the perils of drug use. Ungar passed away in 1998 after years of addiction. Merson was abusing a slew of drugs in 2011, before fearing death en route to getting clean about 10 months ago.


Read More: World Series Of Poker Finalist 'Lucky To Be Alive' After Drug Downswings

The British Poker Awards that is going to be opened for voting on the internet has added another award to its long list of awards.

Apart from the ability that the people have to vote for their favorite personalities in the poker industry or players to win the “Best Cash Player”, “Best Online Player” and “Best Tournament Player”, the people will also have the ability to vote on the newest award to be added which is the “Biggest Contribution to growing and promoting poker” award.

This award joins the list of awards that the players can vote on through the official website of the British Poker Awards. This award includes promoters, players, organizers who have made significant contributions in developing the poker industry of the United Kingdom. The nominee for this award includes the founder of the Genting Poker series, Kevin Proctor and Gary Oakes, the person behind the UKIPT, Kirsty Thompson and BlondePoker’s Rich Pre among others.

The organizer of the event, Michael Caselli commented on this new award by saying that it would be a great honor of the British Award to honor the players and the stars of the game but it is also honored to show its appreciation to the people who helped promoting the game. It is because of these promoters that the poker industry of the United Kingdom is flourishing.

The British Poker Awards ceremony is going to take place on the 17th of September of 2012 on the HMS President. Tickets are already available on the website.


Internet Gambling News, New Award Added to British Poker Awards : ADI News