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Online poker players in Belgium heard good news on Friday as Bwin-com announced a partnership with Belcasinos, giving Bwin-com-owned Party Poker access once again to the Belgian market. The Belgian gambling authority had placed Party Poker on its blacklist in May due to its failure to partner with brick-and-mortar operators in Belgium, and fined the company $100,000 for continuing to offer access to Belgians without a license. Belgian law mandates online poker companies form partnerships with Belgian casinos in order to win a license for online poker, casino and sports betting.

Party Poker now joins three other groups offering online poker to Belgians. Pokerstars/Circus Group controls one license. Golden Palace/Casino De Spa owns another, with Partouche/Casino de Dinant owning the third.

This agreement should put an end to the long-running battle between Bwin and Belgian gambling commission. ISPs in Belgium had blocked access to Party Poker, briefly detained BWin’s CEO Norbert Teufelberger in Brussells in November, with Belgian players facing stiff fines if they continued to play online with Party Poker. Party Poker in turn filed a lawsuit against the gaming commission, claiming the license requirements were against EU law.

Teufelberger and his bwin.party co-chief executive Jim Ryan, said in a press release, “We are excited to have reached an agreement with Partouche to offer our market-leading products under license to consumers in Belgium. Following recent developments in Belgium and after further dialogue with the local regulator, we have put our differences of opinion behind us and are now focused on the immediate commercial opportunity.

“Together with our new partner we are now in the process of securing the necessary approvals to meet the requirements set by the BGC and do not expect any interruption to our service for customers in Belgium.”

Jacques Frojman, CEO of Belcasinos and Partouche Belgium, said:
“bwin.party is a market leader in online gaming with strong brands in sports betting, poker and casino. We are thrilled to be working with such a quality partner in Belgium.”



Party Poker Reaches Deal, Now Legal In Belgium || Roulette News – Online Roulette and Online Gambling News

The no-limit poker game between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio rolls on, with the threat of a return to recession on the table. Although there’s no resolution in sight, barely two weeks before nearly $700 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts are set to afflict us, I’d rather be playing the President’s hand.

Mr. Obama argues persuasively that voters gave him a mandate last month for his insistence that tax rates on the wealthiest Americans must rise as part of any deficit-reduction deal. Mr. Boehner continues to counter with vague — at least in public — ideas for higher revenue, along with demands for slashes in entitlement programs and other spending that are louder than they are specific.

Public opinion polls suggest that Americans will primarily blame Republicans if the nation tumbles off the fiscal cliff. Mr. Boehner surely cares about that, even if the reckless extremists in his caucus don’t. But the stakes are too high for all of us for the budget talks to become merely a matter of who blinks first.

A report in The Blade last week detailed the impact on Ohio of a plunge off the cliff. About 47,000 unemployed Ohioans would lose extended jobless benefits. Some local teachers and other public employees would quickly lose their jobs.

Fewer poor children would be served by the local Head Start preschool program. Public schools with large numbers of low-income students would get less remedial aid for tutoring and other services. Schools would have less money to train and support teachers, and to provide special education. Class sizes would get bigger.

There would be fewer home-delivered meals for needy old folks, fewer trips provided to their doctors’ offices, and less assistance to buy nutritious food at farmers’ markets. Impoverished households would get less help with their heating bills. There would be less money to help pregnant women and nursing mothers eat better.

The City of Toledo would lose federal grant money for community development and emergency services. Local preparedness and public-health safeguards would take a hit. Fewer Lucas County residents would be trained as nurses, truck drivers, and information technology specialists.

Air safety, food safety, federal law enforcement — all are threatened. If a budget stalemate brings back the recession, the overall unemployment rate, in Ohio and across the country, certainly will rise. Do we really want to risk all of these things to preserve tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires?

Mr. Boehner and other Republican members of Ohio’s congressional delegation assert incessantly that the problem with the federal budget is not revenue but spending. Would they like to defend these specific spending cuts, which would affect many of their constituents?

A new report by the education fund of the liberal advocacy group Innovation Ohio concludes that the GOP revenue proposals would not raise enough money to meet deficit-reduction goals, and could mean higher taxes for poor and middle-income Ohioans.

The study asserts that the Republican plan to raise revenue without increasing tax rates, by closing tax loopholes and limiting deductions for wealthier taxpayers, also could hit Ohioans who aren’t rich, depending on how those restrictions are defined.

“They’re basically promoting Mitt Romney’s plan,” says Dale Butland, Innovation Ohio’s communications director. “That’s compromise Republican style — adopt the loser’s platform. People who voted for Republican congressmen didn’t vote for their taxes to go up.”

In Ohio, the study says, falling off the fiscal cliff and ending the George W. Bush tax cuts for everyone would cost the average family that earns less than $250,000 a year nearly $2,000 in higher taxes. By contrast, the 1.7 percent of Ohioans who earn more than $250,000 would get an average tax cut of almost $33,000 next year if the upper-income rates don’t change.

The Innovation Ohio report deliberately does not address the spending side of the fiscal-cliff talks. But it’s inevitable that a final compromise must involve not only higher revenues but also lower spending.

If you’re going to avoid the Draconian cuts in discretionary and defense spending that will take effect in the absence of a budget agreement, you have to deal with the entitlement programs whose costs consume 60 percent of federal spending and are rising faster than the economy is growing.

Some Democrats and their special-interest allies don’t want to acknowledge that. They insist that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security must be protected from cuts at all costs. Some of this argument may be for show, but it’s no more useful than the Grover Norquist no-tax-never-ever straitjacket that many Republicans have pledged to wear.

The challenge remains to develop balanced reforms to entitlement programs that would, in particular, restrain the growth of health-care costs. The answer is not to target poor, elderly, and disabled recipients, as some proposals would do. It won’t be easy, but it can be done.

You could change the way the cost-of-living index is adjusted without afflicting the neediest recipients. You could means-test entitlements. It’s hardly an ideal solution, but if you raised the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, you still could exempt poor seniors whom Medicaid wouldn’t cover. Such matters at least have to be part of the discussion.

The notion is that the President and speaker are posturing in public to reassure their political bases, giving them room to negotiate in private. Let’s hope they’re making progress. Washington can’t expect us to accept the alternative.

The man who picked the American election more accurately than anyone else says there is not enough polling data in Australia to do the same here.

Nate Silver, 34, shot to fame this year after consistently predicting a Barack Obama victory using his secret poll- weighting formula, even as others had Mitt Romney closing and right-wing pundits predicting Romney would win.

His method applies a system weighted to aggregated polling data and successfully tipped not only the US election but also the result for all 50 states.

Mr Silver will visit Australia early next year for the Aussie Millions poker tournament and is intrigued to hear there are some experts who believe Labor can still win after a such a sustained period of trailing the Coalition in the polls.

But he stops short of making any predictions because, he says, there is not the same quantity of polling material in Australia to replicate his method in this country.

Australia’s system of compulsory voting is another interesting facet which would have changed the result in America, he said.

“If that was applied to the US, Obama would have won by even more,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

“If you look at polls and surveys of American adults, then Obama led by 10 points or something in all those, so if everyone would have voted it would have been a landslide.”

There is, however, a growing similarity between the two nations’ political ******cultures, he said.

“Australia has a reputation for having a political culture that is more and more resembling the US and is becoming more heated, from what I understand,” Mr Silver said.

He expects to have further successes partly because he is competing with political pundits who still base their interpretation of polling data on “gut feel” or “inside information”.

Not to mention those who are skewed by their own political bias.

Mr Silver said there was little consequence for these observers when they were wrong.

“There was a certain level of vitriol from Republicans this year who were basically in denial of what were, essentially, the facts,” he said.

“I wish I could play poker against the political pundits. There is just no accountability in political punditry.

“People can say things and be horribly wrong about things, but there is a not a lot of public punishment for it.

“In a poker tournament you can get lucky sometimes, but at least in the long run there’s some correlation between your hard work and skill level and how much money you stand to gain or lose.”

Mr Silver dismisses suggestions he had a pro-Obama bias in predicting his win.

“That is what the polls showed. In 2016, if the polls have the Republicans ahead . . . we will have them ahead as well. So maybe there will be the reverse case where conservatives love the site [his prediction website] all of a sudden and liberals are making critiques,” Mr Silver said.

He is now considering his next career move and rules out moving into the money markets, but would like to do something in the public interest.

His New York Times contract expires next year and there are rumours he will sink his teeth into analysing economic data or global weather statistics in an attempt to enter the global warming debate.

“I need to strike while my name is still remembered,” he says.

“A lot of people have thought they would get very rich working the markets and failed. I like to do things that are more public interest based.”

A former analyst with KPMG, Silver’s success has prompted a surge in interest for mathematics and statistical analysis in politics.

As many as one in five visitors to The New York Times website during the election campaign went straight to his FiveThirtyEight blog, sales of his book The Signal and The Noise: the Art and Science of Prediction have spiked.

Silver says he was prepared for the day he failed to predict an outcome accurately.

“I’ve been on a winning streak. But in fact you’re meant to be guaranteed of getting some things wrong,” he says, noting that making a nine out of 10 prediction meant being wrong 10 per cent of the time.

Silver’s entry into pop culture was capped with an appearance on The Daily Show where host Jon Stewart labelled him “the lord and god of algorithm”.

Poker will be part of his life for at least some of the next few months, providing a link back to a time when he earned a living almost a decade ago when he used online poker as an escape from the drudgery of his day job as an analyst at KPMG.

Silver estimates he won about $US400,000 online, enough to bankroll his foray into baseball statistical analysis with his own business before he turned his attention to politics with the Daily Kos website and then his own blog, which was eventually picked up the by The New York Times in 2010.





Silver wins political tipping poker game

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The World Series of Poker Europe is moving to Paris.

The 7th WSOPE will be held in Casino Barrière Enghien-les-Bains, France’s oldest casino, from October 11-24, 2013, tournament vice president of communications Seth Palansky announced today.

The resort, nestled in the affluent suburb of Enghein-les Bains, less than 10 miles from The City of Light, has undergone recent renovations that include a 500-seat theater for televised final tables, a spa and wellness complex.

“Part of our vision for WSOP Europe is to mix poker and pleasure – and introduce players to some of the most exciting destinations in Europe,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “Barrière’s facilities in Enghien are amazing and there are likely 12 million Parisians all trying to make sure “Phillipe” Hellmuth doesn’t win another bracelet on French soil. With our ideal dates scheduled to avoid conflicts for traveling players, expanded TV coverage and qualifiers planned, we expect to be back in record-setting mode in 2013.”

Palansky said the event “promises to be the most comfortable and conducive set up for poker players in the WSOPE’s seven-year history.”

The entire schedule of the event, hosted by BarrierePoker.fr, has yet to be finalized, but tournament officials expect at least 7 bracelet events, along with a high-rollers tournament, several satellites and the €10,000 Main Event.

Player rates at the Grand Hotel Barrière, the Hotel du Lac and additional hotels in the greater Paris area are expected to be posted on WSOP-com.

The previous two WSOPE’s were held in Cannes, France, while from 2007-10, WSOPE was held in London.

From the Gare du Nord (North Station) in Paris, players can reach Enghien-les-Bains by train in just 10 minutes. Gare du Nord connects to the Paris metro service, and also runs trains to Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom, including Chunnel service to London.


World Series of Poker Europe Moves To Paris | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

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Mark Lipparelli, former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, is out of the business of crafting regulations, but he’s still involved with the collective push to eventually legalize online poker on the federal level.

On Tuesday, an opinion piece from Lipparelli was posted on Roll Call.

While at the helm of one of the Silver State’s two gaming regulatory bodies, Lipparelli was part of the process that led to the adoption of the first-ever online gaming regulations within the United States. He helped keep Nevada out in front, as other states look to legalize as well.

However, Lipparelli and Nevada want the online poker market to be open nationwide in order to create liquidity, but also for a host of other reasons.

Lipparelli argued that a poker-only piece of legislation on Capitol Hill is a good idea because “[w]ithout congressional action, slot machines and roulette wheels will soon be spinning inside every computer and cellphone in America.”

His latest words aren’t the only time he has addressed the federal issue. In the fall of 2011, he testified during a House hearing on the possibility of online gaming.

After stepping down from the Control Board, Lipparelli is poised to re-enter the private sector after a year “cooling-off” period.





Former Nevada Regulator Argues For Federal Online Poker Bill

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Poker News - Online poker: Release of a software checking the fairness of cards distribution

Why Paris I hate France a lot

Whilst most of us are anticipating receiving a new jersey – perhaps Christmas themed – for Christmas, the state of New Jersey has been busy attempting to get online poker regulations passed by the state’s legislature.

Yesterday New Jersey’s internet gambling bill was approved by the state assembly who voted 48-24-4 in its favour The bill now passes to the senate, who will vote on the bill on Thursday with the bill expected to pass easily. So what does this mean?

Well if the bill passes and is passed into law by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, then New Jersey could authorize all casino games currently being offered in Atlantic City casinos to be played online. State Senator Ray Lesniak, who is the bill’s leading sponsor hopes that if successful other states will follow suit, thus far only Nevada and Delaware have approved online poker.

If the bill does pass then in the bigger picture we could see PokerStars invest in another casino as they’re rumoured to be interested in purchasing a casino in Atlantic City.

Canada is becoming a refuge for online poker players from the U.S., where money games are no longer legal.

On April 15, 2011, a day known as "Black Friday" in the world of online poker, the U.S. government made it impossible for a person to be paid money for playing online poker in that country. It's now illegal for online poker sites to pay players if they are located in the U.S.

Since then, professional online poker players have been leaving the U.S. in order to keep their careers alive.

The change in law sparked the creation of the website Poker Refugees, which, for $1,200, helps players from the U.S. to move to Canada, where online poker is still legal.

“Canada’s one of our most popular destinations — in addition to Costa Rica,” said Julie Wilson, who runs the site. “The main reasons are because it’s English-speaking and its proximity to the U.S. It’s less of a culture shock for players to cross the border into Canada than into Mexico, Central America or the Caribbean. “They really don’t want to leave the U.S. but they have to for their careers, which they lost, literally overnight.”

Players see cities such as Toronto, Vancouver and Windsor as some of the more desirable new locations.

Wilson has relocated several players to Windsor. Most of them are “grinders,” players who are simply making a living at the game. The high-rollers tend to head to Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Whistler or even Europe, she said.

“We have clients anywhere from barely scraping by to guys who are multimillionaires in their 20s,” Wilson said.

Her clients tend to be young men with deft math skills. Some, she said, will apply for tourist visas or student visas in order to stay in Canada.

The University of Windsor said it would have no way of knowing if American students are enrolling simply to play poker in Canada.

“In any case, personal information about students is confidential,” said Lori Lewis, manager of the school’s news services, public affairs and communications.

Wilson said there are plenty of players who choose not to use her site’s services and make the move on their own.

Players post ads on the free online classifieds site Kijiji and in online poker forums and message boards.

An ad recently posted on Kijiji is from someone claiming to be a player looking for a room in Windsor.

“I'm an American coming to Windsor for 4-6 months ... I play online poker for a living, but it has become much more difficult to do so in America due to new laws passed,” the ad reads. “You must have a reliable internet connection. [I’m] looking to pay around $300/month.”
Player 'never heard of Windsor'

Eric Beck, 22, from Louisville, Ky., said he was “really getting in a groove” when the U.S. government stepped in. He and his girlfriend are moving to Windsor on Jan. 1.

“Growing up I’d never heard of Windsor. When I realized it’s only about seven hours from Louisville, I realized it would be the perfect spot,” he said.

He plans on visiting Niagara Falls while he’s in Canada.

Beck, who has been playing professionally for four years, used Kijiji, Craigslist, poker forums and Google Earth to find a place to stay. He plans to stay for only six months and then head to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. For added security, Beck also got himself a Nexus card on the basis that he wants to vacation in Canada “and possibly play some poker there.”

The Nexus program is designed to expedite the border clearance process for low-risk, pre-approved travellers into Canada and the United States.

CBC News found two other American players living in Windsor, but they declined to be interviewed.
'Better than average job'

Beck plays eight hours a day and wins, he said, between $5,000 and $6,000 a month.

“They’re making at least what they could in a normal job and work the hours they want,” Wilson said.

Beck, who knows players living in Toronto, said being a professional online poker player in Canada is better than an average job in America.

“I’ve had my share of minimum-wage type jobs,” Beck said. “Poker’s not easy either, but it’s better than waking up at a certain time and having a boss.”




U.S. online poker players find refuge in Canada

Recently, UK pro Sam Razavi was awarded the 2012 Asian Poker Tour Player of the Year after a glorious 2012 in which he made 11 final tables and captured 2 titles, including the $4,700 ANZPT Melbourne for $339,745. As Razavi explained after winning the award:

“I didn’t realise there was actually a POY title to be won on the APT until midway through the year but as soon as I noticed, it became one of my main targets. ..I really worked hard to attend as many events as possible.”

That is truly an understatement as throughout 2012 both in Asia and elsewhere Razavi cashed in an incredible 33 live tournaments to amass a total $598,866 in winnings. However, not content to rest on his laurels with just a week left before Christmas, Razavi has once more made another final table this time at the WPT National China where he eventually finished 3rd for $47,707.

The $1,500 buy-in three day event managed to attract a total of 542 competitors including such pros as Johnny Chan, David Chiu and Phil Hellmuth. Sam Razavi then made it all the way to the final table, which he entered as the chip leader. In the end, Razavi was eliminated in 3rd spot after shoving his remaining 14bb with A-4 into the A-Q of eventual winner Zheng Hua Lei.

Commenting later on his incredible success in Asia, Razavi said: “I was disappointed not to win as it would have been an unbelievable way to cap off the year, but I’ve had such a big share of the cake that I can’t really be too upset. The top three received a package to the WPT L.A. Poker Classic, so that was a real sweetener.”

Furthermore, with the APT POY title under his belt Razavi can now look forward to playing the whole of next season free of charge.





Sam Razavi Caps Off A Golden Year In Asia

As it was announced a few days ago, the Spanish tennis prodigy, Rafael Nadal, started on real money poker tables of Pokerstars on Sunday. He was then part of the field of some 1,842 participants of the main event of € 200 buy-in of the Spain Championship of online poker or Escoop. As a reminder, during this adventure, he took the nickname 'RAFA'. And the huge success recorded by the event has probably a link with the participation of Nadal. The prizepool gathered reach then a much larger amount than that of the proposed guarantee. It reached € 339,241.14.

Nadal has just proved that he deserves a place in the world of professional poker and he can be as successful as on tennis courts. Even if he has not reached the top spot of the podium, his career at this event was remarkable. RAFA passed without any problem the first levels of the game. He was solid despite the aggressiveness of his competitors. He even contributed to the elimination of a player and was powered of the spot of leader. Unfortunately, he has not managed to win until the end. He certainly lacks the required experience to guess all the pitfalls of poker. The tennis star abandoned then the championship after a few level. He still had the right for an award. Note that the tournament ended with the victory of "tonet_1981'.


Poker News - Online poker: A rather glorious start for Rafael Nadal

Jason Mercier has been racking up the records ever since bursting onto the tournament scene back in 2008. Unfortunately, one accolade he won’t be able to claim for now is the one currently held by Erick Lindgren, who is the only player to have earned $1 million-plus from live tournament over five consecutive years.

Between 2004 and 2008, Lindgren managed to accrue $6,369,077 in winnings to set a new benchmark in live tournament results, before hitting a wall in 2009 when he won just $76,679. For his part, Jason Mercier amassed $7,587,371 between 2008 and 2011, but eventually cashed for $523,587 this year to fall just short of equaling Lindgren’s record.

At the very top of the game pros judge their results with a more critical eye than most players and back in August, when Mercier had earned just half his eventual tally for 2012, the 2 times WSOP bracelet winner couldn’t help but vent some of his frustrations. As he wrote on twitter at the time:

“Really over the ridiculous losses, beats, and #justbadluck that I have experienced at every single point in this wonderful year of 2012.I am very fortunate to be where I am today in poker..This I know. However, this year has been unbearable. Almost any pro poker player Would be completely broke if they ran like I have run this year.”

Despite missing out on another feather in his cap, most pros would be happy to have enjoyed a year like the young pro’s. As well as making over half a million dollars in the live arena, on his travels Mercier also managed to notch up several high scores online, including victory at the $10,300 WCOOP 8-Game High Roller for $253,425, and 2nd at the $1,050+R SCOOP PL Omaha 6-Max for $109,120.




Jason Mercier Falls Short Of Erick Lindgren's Record

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On Thursday, Caesars Interactive Entertainment Inc. was approved for an online poker license in Nevada per Howard Stutz of the Las Vegas Review. Caesars will launch the site as a World Series of Poker brand alongside their partner 888 Holdings. The site will not launch until 888 Holdings is approved for a license, as well.

In a previous interview with PokerNews, Ty Stewart, the executive director of the WSOP, was asked what the legalization of online poker would mean for the company. His response:

“I think that we could absolutely revolutionize the category. Obviously, I feel we'll be successful because we've got smart and genuine people like [Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO] Mitch Garber, who led the No. 1 poker site in the world [PartyPoker], and we have great brands.

"Of the big casino gaming companies, we have more customers in our database, more consumer traffic through our floors, more properties in more territories than anywhere else. Obviously, one would hope we could offer an exciting product and regularly host games with significant liquidity — potentially the softest games with the highest ROI for players. I think consumer confidence has always been the No. 1 barrier to entry for online customers, and Caesars has buildings all over the world. People will know where to find us. And we're never going to turn our back on customers.”

Today, Seth Palansky, the vice president of corporate communications for Caesars, added: “We want to thank the Commission for all their efforts throughout this process. There’s no doubt they do a thorough review and will ensure that Nevada is the best regulated market for online poker. We look forward to the opportunity to serve Nevadans when we complete the necessary steps to do so.”

During the meeting, Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Pete Bernhard admitted that he had signed up to play for free on the Caesars Playtika site. Bernhard also admitted that he has played slot games on Slotomania, citing that he wants to further understand how social gaming works.

Caesars is the 17th company to receive a license for pay-to-play online poker in Nevada. Caesars and 888 Holdings currently operate real money gaming in the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.


Read more: Caesars Interactive Entertainment Inc. Approved for Online Poker License in Nevada | PokerNews

In Germany, the state maintains a monopoly on lotteries and sports betting while also ensuring a ban on online gambling activities across its 16 states. Late last year, however, the lone state of Schleswig-Holstein became the first to defy German authorities by issuing 15 sports betting licenses.

Now, the state with a population of 2.8 million has followed up by issuing a further 12 licences, this time for online casino and poker sites. The list of companies receiving a licenses included 888, Ladbrokes, Betfair, REEL (PokerStars subsidary), ElectraWorks ( Bwin.party subsidiary), Bet365, MyBet and Bet-at-home. In addition, awaiting processing are a further 18 casino and 24 sports betting application.

Germany is believed to have around 2.2 million online gamers who have continued to fly in the face of government restrictions and gamble online. Schleswig-Holstein’s new licences should now permit these German player to visit the site. In order to comply with Schleswig-Holstein regulations, the online gambling companies must first meet a number of requirements, including ensuring site security, and each hour notifying online gamblers of their winnings or losses.

Nevertheless, despite the EU Commission approving the state’s new regulations, Schleswig-Holstein new coalition government has already vowed to honour Germany’s present ‘States Treaty on Gambling’ and repeal their new gambling law. They had considered revoking the latest licenses granted but conceded it was beyond their legal power with industry experts maintaining the Germany State Treaty is against EU law.

However, others would appear more optimistic for the future of online gambling in Germany. Bwin.party, for instance, has a strong presence in the German betting market and after the state’s law was passed last year, commented: “The resolution passed today is an important and groundbreaking step on the way to an open and regulated gambling market in Germany. We are now hopeful that the other 15 German States will make the regulated amendments to their proposed State Treaty, in order to bring it into line with EU law.”



Lone Germany State Issues First Online Poker Licenses