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The aftermath of the Full Tilt Poker fiasco has dealt some serious blows to the reputation of some of the room’s professional poker players. The US Department of Justice imposed a $42.5 million lawsuit against the former director of the defunct Full Tilt Poker, Howard Lederer. Somehow the lawsuit has been settled with Lederer agreeing to pay The Department of Justice over $2.5 million in cash and assets for a negotiated settlement in the dispute.

The agreement included forfeiture of a 1965 Shelby Cobra Roadster, two pieces of Las Vegas real estate worth an estimated at $975,000, $168,000 in cash from a number of bank accounts. The arrangement included the $1.25 million money-laundering penalty with the entire transaction to be completed in two eighteen month instalments. Howard Lederer has never been charged by the Department of Justice with any criminal activity and has not admitted to any wrong doing.

The 49 year old Lederer has agreed in return for the funds forfeited not to work or have any financial gain from any online gambling website in the U.S.A. Additionally, he admitted no wrongdoing in the case while he maintains the business he conducted in the States was “legitimate business providing services to its customers within the bounds of the law, and that prior to April 15, 2011, he was unaware of any wrongful activity at Full Tilt including that the company had become unable to satisfy its player account liabilities.” The Department of Justice called the Full Tilt Poker fiasco a Ponzi Scheme meant to bilk players out of their money. The purchase of Full Tilt by PokerStars with $300 million allocated for a refund of players accounts solved the legal issues even though Chris Ferguson has yet to settle his problems with the D of J and Raymond Bitar after surrendering himself to US authorities faces the prospect of life in the slammer.



Lederer Off The Hook for Online Poker Fiasco

According to a report at Poker-Red, some of Spain’s top poker players are currently being pursued by their government for past taxes. In Spain poker players are required to pay income tax on their past winnings and apparently the tax authorities have recently been searching through online poker tournament database Hendon Mob to ensure players’ declared earnings are the same as their results.

At present 2001 WSOP Main Event winner Carlos Mortensen tops Spain’s all time money list with a massive $10,811,436 in live tournament earnings. There are then several other players with cashes ranging from around one and a half to three-quarters of a million dollars each, including Raul Paez Corral, Juan Maceiras Lapido Jr, Dragan Kostic, Raul Mestre, Tomeu Gomila, Jesús Cortes and Leo Margets.

It would also seem just a matter of time before online poker players will be subjected to the same level of scrutiny. Originally when online regulation first came to Spain, online poker operators were less meticulous with their records and as PokerStars’ Steve Day stated at the time: “The data sent to our data vault in Spain is not summarized to provide per player gambling winnings but this information could be calculated from the data provided. We do not actively provide any information in respect to per player gambling winnings to the Spanish tax authorities.”

That situation has now changed, however, with both Spanish regulated sites, as well as the players themselves, expected to maintain precise records for tax purposes. This situation seems to be following a recent trend in Europe, as only last month Swedish poker players were targeted by tax authorities with many homes being raided across the country.



Spain Goes After Poker Player Taxes

Getting an early start, California State Sen. Roderick Wright introduced another bill to allow online poker in California.

Wright is the sole author of Senate Bill 51, which was introduced Thursday. No action can occur on the bill until after Jan. 19.

In June, proponents of legalizing online poker folded their hands and had waited for another deal as Wright’s previous effort, SB 1463, was pulled before its first major hearing.

That last effort was introduced in February by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Wright, D-Inglewood.

All online gaming efforts raise interesting questions in California, where tribal gaming operations have the exclusive right to offer gaming on video devices.

Back when tribal gaming began in California in the late 1990s, video gaming devices meant slot machines. Now a video gaming device could be a desktop computer — or the phone in nearly everyone’s pocket.


Online poker bill gets another deal with legislation - Sacramento Business Journal

You can add Caesars Interactive Entertainment—and the World Series of Poker—to the growing list of online poker businesses in Nevada. The Nevada Gaming Commission officially granted Caesars a license Thursday to operate in the Silver State.

The state’s gaming regulators have already approved a partnership with Caesars and European operator 888 Holdings. The joint venture already runs real money World Series of Poker-branded online poker rooms in the European market.

Caesars executives have said their Nevada site could launch early next year. The next step is 888 receiving a license as an interactive gaming provider.

12 other companies have already been approved as online poker operators in Nevada, including MGM, ACEP, South Point, Boyd and Golden Nugget. Five more have secured licenses related to online poker, including IGT and Shuffle Master, to provide services and infrastructure.

South Point initially hoped to go live by the end of 2012, but delays in testing have reportedly pushed back the launch date. The industry now looks to Spring 2013 as a likely launch date for at least two or three operators.

Late last month, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and Treasure Island joined the list of applicants for online poker operator licenses, which would make intrastate poker nearly as prevalent on the web as live poker rooms on the Las Vegas strip.



Caesars Approved for Online Poker License in Nevada | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

The Italian Poker Tour gets a two-time winner in the form of Oleksii Kovalchuk while French rapper Bruno “Kool Shen” Lopez wins the Euro Finals of Poker Diamond Championship.

In industry news Spain decided to hasten its move towards the regulation and liberalization of its online gambling market and PokerStars established a .eu site with a Maltese license to assist Swedish and Finnish players who now would not have to pay tax on winnings from the new site.

The news was not all good thought as Unibet Poker revenue declines by one-third in 2011 while Betsson was down by just over one-fifth and Ladbrokes was down one-quarter.

888 bucked the trend and saw poker revenue grow 58 percent in 2011 after many quarters of decline.

Chris Ferguson was hopeful he would settle his case with the Department Of Justice soon while Layne Flack, Phil Ivey and Mike Matusow were among those who were revealed to owe Full Tilt Poker around $18 million .

Vadzim Kursevich wins the European Poker Tour Deauville for €875,000 while over the border in Belgium an online gambling blacklist is created.

Phil Ivey entered his first poker tournament on US soil since Black Friday and Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen wins EPT Copenhagen.





The Poker Year In Review - February 2012 - Poker News

The Bodog Poker Network has announced that it will be hosting an Anonymous Poker Series in 2013 to give players the chance to win thousands in guaranteed prize money under the veil of anonymity.

The year-long poker series will run for the duration of 2013 and will comprise of both live and online legs, with a $100,000 guaranteed Grand Final scheduled to take place in Manila in January 2014.

The Anonymous Poker Series will offer qualifying events for the Grand Final in both European and Asian markets, with satellites taking place online and at scheduled live events, and Bodog will also be inviting a special selection of “poker heroes” from 2013 to come and take part in the exciting event.

“This series will help highlight exactly how and why we feel our network is the best and safest place for both recreational poker players and operators alike,” said Jonas Odman, managing director of BPN. “Operators who service sports bettors and casino players do not want their customers leaking money to non-depositing poker pros who are using sophisticated software in order to win.”

Odman went on to say that “this model has been specifically designed to appeal to the Asian market where the trust-factor is the single most important reason for choosing one operator over another. In the Asian market we believe our product will be the preferred poker option.”

Caesars Interactive Entertainment is readying to enter the New Year with its new online poker license issued by the Nevada gambling authorities. The license, which was issued only this week, will form the framework for the new Caesars online poker offering, which will use software from the group’s World Series of Poker brand, as well as games and supportsupplied by 888 Holdings, with whom Caesars has a partnership deal. While the games will initially be offered for free, the plan is to eventually create a real money gaming platform.

Under the terms of the license issued by Nevada, the online poker platform will only be availble to the state’s poker players on an intrastate basis. The player pool could widen if Nevada signs deals with other states to share their pools in a bid to increase competition and make their smaller offerings more attractive. Caesars, as well as other online gambling providers who have successfully applied for a license in Nevada, are hoping that a federal bill will eventually be passed to enable nationwide, regulated online poker to be offered. It is estimated that the US online poker market has the potential to be worth up to $6 billion in the future under certain conditions.

The only minor hurdle standing in Caesars’ way of actually getting its planned online poker site up and running in the New Year is the fact that 888 is still waiting for its license application to be approved by the Nevada regulators. This is only a technical matter, and it is believed that the group should be receiving the green light soon. 888 will be providing the back end support to the new site, while the WSOP brand will be used as Caesars’ major marketing tool to attract players.



Caesars Moves into 2013 with Online Poker License

A deal has been struck between Facebook and 888 Holdings which will see the two businesses join forces and offer real-money games in the U.K at the start of 2013. Commenting on the new partnership, 888 CEO Itai Frieberger said: “Our Facebook freemium offerings have found a significant audience, and we are very excited by the opportunity that real money gaming on Facebook provides. We are working closely with Facebook on this launch, ensuring we introduce the best of both worlds of real money and social gaming.”

As part of the deal, Facebook will be offering its users the opportunity to participate in casino games such as roulette, blackjack, bingo and slot machine. Allowable stakes are believed to be as high as £500 with five-figure potential winnings possible.

Apparently, Facebook will put in place strict safeguards to ensure only players over 18 will take part in cash games. The social media site will then receive a 30% commission on all wagers and as Facebook European Head of Games Partnerships Julien Codorniou explains: “Facebook is a great platform for playing games with your friends and we are really pleased to be working with 888, who have a strong reputation on both the quality and safety of their games.”

However, this is not the first time Facebook has moved into cash games and last August it launched its real-money bingo offering called Bingo Friendzy, followed by slot machines after partnering with software developer Gamesys. Facebook’s previous games partner Zynga has also taken steps to penetrate the UK’s real money games market and has teamed-up with bwin.party Digital Entertainment to offer its products next year. These will also be available on Facebook.




Facebook and 888 To Offer Cash Games In 2013

First poker site where I make some mony. Thanks Americas Cardroom!!

Nevada legalized web poker in June 2011 and adopted the rules for the industry in December 2011, all of which provided casino companies the sole power operate poker sites.

The Silver State business landscape is dominated by its longstanding gambling industry, which lawmakers and regulators wanted to protect as gaming reaches a new frontier. It likely didn’t hurt that the major offshore poker sites were booted from American cyberspace a couple months before Nevada’s governor signed the “interactive gaming” bill.

Some decided to develop their own software, while others wanted to partner with “service providers” in order to run the games. An existing foreign-based online poker site, for example, could come into Nevada and seek licenses to provide the platform to a brick-and-mortar. Some have already done so and could one day provide access to a global player pool.

The year 2012 didn’t see dreams of a federal online poker bill amount to anything more than sand from the Mojave Desert, but while efforts on Capitol Hill have been fruitless, Nevada regulators saw many of its casino firms apply for permission to run poker sites. Some have already been licensed, while others will have their hearings sometime in 2013.

Not every Nevada casino company has definitive plans to offer real-money poker. Some are targeting free-play web gaming in order to bring more customers to their properties. Given Nevada’s small population, there isn’t a whole lot of room in the market for many real-money sites. In this sense, some casinos are just getting things in place for what 2013 and beyond could bring in terms of web poker liquidity. Other states are expected to legalize next year, and if the feds don’t act, many think that state compacts will eventually form.

While nothing materialized from the noise that Nevada’s first real-money site could flip on the switch this fall, 2012 was a very productive year for the upcoming industry.

Here’s a look at all the casino companies that declared an interest in web gaming.


Read More: Nevada Casinos Take Giant Step Toward Online Poker

The German state, or Land, of Schleswig-Holstein issued its first online gambling licenses last week, allowing a dozen operators to offer casino games on the internet, including poker.

The licensees include several familiar names as well as some that are not quite as well known: Ladbrokes, 888 Holdings, Betfair, bet365 (through subsidiary REEL Germany Limited), PokerStars (through subsidiary ElectraWorks), bwin.party, Bet-at-home, Mybet, Cashpoint, Online Casino Germany, Tipico, and Skill On Net.

These companies are free to host a bevy of casino games on their sites, which is an important detail considering how it contrasts with the rest of the country. A year ago, the new State Treaty on Online Gaming was ratified and in July of this year, it was adopted by 15 of the 16 German Länder. Schleswig-Holstein was the lone dissenter. That gambling treaty runs almost completely opposite to Schleswig-Holstein’s laws, permitting only online sports betting and not online casino gaming or online poker. The national treaty also limits the number of licensees, while there are no such restrictions put on the number of licensees in Schleswig-Holstein. The dozen licenses awarded last week brings the total in Schleswig-Holstein to 27, with the rest being sportsbook licenses.

Making matters even more interesting is the fact that in June, the new ruling coalition in Schleswig-Holstein proclaimed that it will attempt to repeal the Land’s Gambling Act and sign on to the national Treaty. It even wanted to revoke all existing licenses, though eventually backtracked on that, as it realized it could not legally do so; all licenses issued in Schleswig-Holstein are still good for six years and applications will continue to be processed.

The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) submitted a formal complaint to the European Commission (EC) claiming that Germany’s Treaty violates European Union law. Many online gaming firms continue to offer their services to the country’s residents, as they share the EGBA’s beliefs. The EC also agrees, but rather than coming down hard on Germany, it instead opted in March to simply give the German state governments two years to prove that their gambling laws jive with EU regulations.

In an odd turn of events, Mybet was issued a warning by Schleswig-Holstein less than 24 hours after being granted its online gambling license. Mybet CEO Mathias Dahms told the newspaper Kieler Nachrichte, “We believe that we can use the license immediately for all of Germany,” a statement that likely made the state shake its figurative head. The Land sent a letter to Mybet, telling the company that it was only allowed to offer its games to those “who are resident or ordinarily resident in Schleswig-Holstein,” not people all around Germany.



Germany

Sometimes only a Star Trek metaphor will do. Remember the episode about a primitive people who developed a planet-girdling civilization based on the principles of the Chicago gangs? Many modern economic anthropologists would tell you that the state begins as organized crime, dividing up rackets and controlling turf.

Case in point: anything having to do with Internet poker.

It starts with the enterprising activities of the Justice Department. Seizing on a 2006 law making it illegal to process U.S. payments for online gambling, federal prosecutors last year brought charges against three offshore poker websites. While admitting no wrongdoing, the sites quickly settled and agreed to hand over substantial sums of money to the department.

Some of these funds were supposed to reimburse the "victims," U.S. poker players who had money in their accounts when the sites were shut down. But so cumbersome and legalistic is the process created by Justice that many lawyers say they don't expect their clients to find it worth the trouble or legal fees. Justice may end up keeping much of the loot itself under asset-forfeiture rules.

Don't expect a hue and cry from gambling interests, however. Bigger stakes are up for grabs, not unlike the turf war Captain Kirk found when he beamed down to the gangster planet Sigma Iotia II.

Having cleared the online poker marketplace of its incumbents, Justice decided that under the 1961 Wire Act most Internet gambling isn't illegal after all. This new "interpretation," which came at the behest of Illinois and New York, has inspired a new light in the eyes of state officials looking for ways to fund the welfare state. Dancing in their heads are visions of new state-sponsored gambling empires built on online poker, online slot machines and online lottery-ticket sales, with politicians collecting most of the vig. Not everyone is pleased by the prospect. Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican who is retiring this year, doesn't like gambling; Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, doesn't like gambling when it's not controlled by Nevada casinos.

During the lame-duck session, these improbable bedfellows promoted a bill to halt the online gambling stampede, except for online poker. Why the exception? Poker is a great American tradition, say supporters, including former Sen. Al D'Amato, representing something called the Poker Players Alliance.

More to the point, stopping Americans from playing Internet poker is probably impossible. Under the Kyl-Reid proposal, at least players would be pitted against each other, not the house, which is deemed less iniquitous and corrupting.

The bill satisfies Mr. Reid, meanwhile, because Nevada is already pushing ahead with in-state online poker. Nevada's casinos and Nevada's gaming regulators see a federal law as a way to give themselves a headstart in marketing a government-endorsed version of the game to the masses nationally and internationally.

The Kyl-Reid bill, as Captain Kirk would quickly suss out (aided by the deductive powers of Mr. Spock), was destined instantly to become a bone of contention among the various gangs jostling for a piece of the online poker action.

The state lottery commissioners and governors opposed the bill because it would prevent them offering an array of tantalizing new online games to suckers, er, citizens of their states.

Convenience-store owners opposed the bill, fearing it would clear the way for online lottery ticket sales, which would cut into their lucrative piece of the over-the-counter lottery racket.

The Nevada casinos naturally favored any law that would give them a leg up in the emerging marketplace for legal online poker.

In hearings before Congress last year, a Native American spokesman argued that tribes must be allowed to offer online poker on grounds that his 101-year-old grandmother had been a reservation schoolteacher fighting to preserve native culture. Therefore, "if anybody deserves to be at the front line in this industry it's Native American people."

Captain Kirk, it will be remembered, invented the deliberately convoluted card game "Fizzbin" as a ruse to distract the gambling-mad, gangster inhabitants of Sigma Iotia II. The Reid-Kyl gambit may have run out of time, but the feds aren't likely to desist from trying to control so profitable a new racket. State-sponsored gambling is the one acceptable way of raising taxes on lower-income folks to help fund the welfare state. With or without federal regulation, legalized online poker is likely coming your way in 2013. Don't be surprised if one of the games is called Fizzbin.



Jenkins: D.C. Plays Fizzbin with Online Poker - WSJ-com

Nevada is still rolling ahead with its online poker plans, as recent comments by former Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman, Mark Lipparelli, have revealed.

He may be out of the regulations business, but Lipparelli is still a key player in the collective push for federal legalization of online poker. The former regulator was at the helm of a gaming regulatory body in the Silver State when he joined the process that resulted in the United States’ first-ever regulations for online gaming to be adopted.

He was the spokesman for the regulatory body at a US Online Gaming Law conference in 2011, whereby he unveiled the agency’s plan to start accepting licensing applications in Nevada for Internet poker operators as early as February 2012. This was an application allowance made in accord with the legislation Governor Brian Sandoval had signed that summer, calling for license holders and gaming regulators to adopt the licensing rules.

Lipparelli was a pillar of Nevada’s front position as other states now look to legalizing poker. However, a new law needs passing. The Nevada market may be open, but Lipparelli and the state now want a nationwide market, as this brings a host of benefits including the creation of liquidity.

He argued for poker legislation at Capitol Hill, saying that it is an excellent idea because “without congressional action, slot machines and roulette wheels will soon be spinning inside every computer and cellphone in America.”

This is not the first time Lipparelli has broached the federal issue. The fall of 2011 saw him testify on the possibility of intrastate online gaming during a House hearing.

Meanwhile, Lipparelli is poised to spend the first year of retirement following the step-down from the Control Board cooling off before re-entering the private sector.



Mark Lipparelli Gives Insight into Online Poker Regulations

Australian’s enjoy a flutter but their gambling spend seems to be diminishing over recent years and in 2012 fell to $16.9 billion compared to $20 billion in 2010. However, whereas land-based casinos have been losing custom, Australia has seen a rise in its online gambling activities reflecting the wider global trend.

From 2010 to 2011, for instance, Australian spending on traditional gambling activities declined by $1.6 billion, including spending $1 billion less on pokies. By contrast, during the same period online gambling spending, including sports betting, surged $928 million a year and in 2011 reached $1.1 billion. As Jane Ianniello from Morgan Research explains:

“Most forms of gambling have become less popular over the past decade. However, online gambling options are growing in popularity, including sports betting, online casino table games, and online poker machines.”

The difference between the two sets of figures suggest that many players have been lured by the convenience of gambling from home and taken their gambling online. This is an interesting situation considering that online casinos are essentially illegal in Australia. As explained on casinolistings:

“On the one hand it is not illegal for a person to play poker or casino games online, but on the other hand it is specifically illegal for any enterprise to offer online gambling services to Australians..The reality is that the vast majority of online casinos and poker rooms happily accept Australian players as they do not operate under Australian law, and are apparently unconcerned by threat of prosecution in Australia.”

This unusual situation means Australians of legal gambling age continue to wager online and the Australian online market is now one of the fastest growing in the world. Presently around 480 online casinos operate in Oceania, the vast majority of which are in Australia.



Australian Online Gambling On The Rise

Iowa politicians may soon be taking a second look at regulating online poker for Hawkeye State residents and Iowa regulators want it to be known that they are up to the task, according to recent statements made by the head of the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission in taping an upcoming episode of “Iowa Press,” to air December 28th.

As first reported by RadioIowa, Jeff Lamberti, chairman of the IRGC, confirmed that if Iowa legislators decide to move ahead with online poker, his department is ready.

Said Lamberti, referring to online poker, “That’s really where the next step in gaming is moving. We’ve seen some states approve it and are moving in that direction.”

Iowa Senate File 2257 passed on a 29-20 vote last March before being tabled by the Iowa’s more conservative, Republican-dominated State House, where it did not come up for a vote.

The prior bill calling for an Iowa intrastate online poker network would have operated in conjunction with the state’s approximately 20 brick-and-mortar casinos. A similar cooperative effort involving those casino operators seems to be behind the latest push.

According to Wes Ehrecke, the executive director of the Iowa Gaming Association, “We’d like to have [online poker] offered through the website portals of the casinos on a platform regulated by the Racing and Gaming Commission so you’re assure that when you play that we can keep the minors out.”

No timetable has been set for any reintroduction on an Iowa online poker measure, which would also face questionable prospects if it reached the desk of Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, who was “skeptical” about the early bill’s merits.



Iowa Regulators Prepared to Oversee Online Poker | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

After failing to pass legislation this year that would have brought the state into the online poker arena, reports are coming from the head of Iowa’s gaming commission that the state is ready to take another look at passing the legislation.

The chairman of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, Jeff Lamberti, was interviewed by the Iowa public television program “Iowa Press,” where he commented that his board was ready for the Iowa legislature to act. “That’s really where the next step in gaming is moving,” Lamberti stated during the program. “We’ve seen some states approve it and are moving in that direction. In actuality, our administrator is very knowledgeable (on the subject) and did a paper regarding internet poker specifically.”

If the Iowa legislature was to pass laws for online poker, Lamberti stated on the program that his department is ready to implement those laws quickly. “We want to do like we do with our current facilities, have a high level of integrity,” he said in the interview. “We want to regulate it so the people who engage in that can trust the product.

Although the framework isn’t in place at this point, the executive director of the Iowa Gaming Association, Wes Ehrecke, has offered some suggestions on the subject. “We’d like to have it offered through the website portals of the casinos, regulated by the Racing and Gaming Commission, so you’re assured that, when you play, we can keep the minors out,” Ehrecke stated.

Ehrecke also indicated that the potential framework would allow for interstate play. He estimates that there are 150,000 Iowa residents that currently play online poker on off-shore sites and that number would grow considerably through the ability of interstate play.

Finally, Ehrecke believes that regulation of the industry is critical from a customer service standpoint. “If you’re playing (on an off-shore site) and had a straight flush and win $5000, what happens if you don’t get paid?,” he queried. “Who do you complain to if the site is in Antigua? That wouldn’t happen if it is regulated by the Racing and Gaming Commission and offered through our casino platform.”

Earlier this year, the drive for legislation of online poker began to take shape in the Hawkeye State. In late February, the Iowa Senate State Government Committee debated the regulation of online poker, passing the bill out of the committee by an 11-4 vote. Roughly two weeks later, the Iowa Senate then took up the question on Senate File 2257, passing it by a partisan 29-20 vote (only eight Republican legislators voted for the measure, while 15 voted against it).

Two days after the Senate vote, however, the Iowa House would shoot down the legislation. Citing the speed in which the Senate moved on the proposed legislation, the House chairman, Peter Cownie, said at the time, “We really didn’t expect it to come over (from the Senate),” and there was never a vote held in the House on the proposed online poker regulatory bill.

As we reach the end of 2012, there are only two states that have passed measures for online poker or online casino gaming. In Nevada, the regulations have been in place for some time for online poker and licenses have been granted to several operators, but it isn’t expected until March 2013 that the first “real money” sites will go online. In Delaware, full online casino gaming has passed but there has been little action in moving forward with actually bringing sites online.

There is action pending on the online gaming issue in two other states. Currently in New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie has a proposed online casino gaming regulatory framework on his desk for his signature, but there have been no indications of what Governor Christie will do with that bill. He can sign it into law, veto it (as he has done previously) or let it sit for its required 45 days, at which time it will become law without his signature.

California is also working to get online poker legislation passed through the halls of Sacramento. After slow movement on the issue – and divisive infighting among the poker rooms, Indian casinos and horse racing tracks inside the state – it appears as though the bill is gaining traction as the close of 2012 looms.




Iowa Ready To Take A Look At Online Poker Regulation Again

MyPokerSquad has just announced that Dutch player Noah Boeken has become the latest pro to join the swelling ranks of the revolutionary staking website. Backers will now be able to own a piece of Boeken’s tournament poker action starting with the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure on January 5th. Commenting on his latest deal, the Dutch professional said:

“Right away when I saw Mypokersquad I loved the idea to have people to be able and buy a piece of a player and sweat it like they are playing in the tournament. As a Promotion for me joining TeamPokerSquad I will sell 30% of my PCA tournament straight up so 1% is 1%.”

The 31 year old was a ‘Magic: The Gathering’ player before in 2001 turning his skills to playing poker online for a living. Soon after he also started playing the live circuit and cashed in at his first live tournament in 2003. It was at one such tournament that Boeken struck up a friendship with Dutch poker legend Marcel Luske, who subsequently became a long term mentor to the young Amsterdam resident.

Noah Boeken has since gone on to amass $1,265,192 in winnings with his greatest accolades including victory in 2005 at the Scandinavian Open for $191,355, and in 2007 a 4th place finish at the €5k Master Classics of Poker Amsterdam for €139,100 ($201,032).

As mentioned, Noah Boeken is also a prolific online player and is a member of Team PokerStars, where he plays under the screen name ‘Exclusive’. He now becomes a part of MyPokerSquad, where he joins 120 other pros, including such players as Michael Mizrachi, Roger Hairabedian, David Benyamine, Sam Trickett and Patrik Antonius. In addition, MyPokerSquad partnered up with the International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) recently and so players and fans alike will be able to stake Noah Boeken and these other pros come the €600 buy-in mega-tournament at Wembley, London in 2013.



MyPokerSquad Signs Noah Boeken

The Executive Director of the Poker Players Alliance, John Pappas, has summed up the progress made by federal online poker legislation in the United States as “disappointing.”

Pappas was referring in particular to Senator Harry Reid’s online poker bill which died in the lame duck session of Congress on Friday, essentially dashing all hopes of the US seeing a regulated and licensed online poker regime this year.

“It is an extremely disappointing end to a year where tremendous progress was made… I am most upset for the players, who have been calling on Congress for years to pass an Internet poker law that protects consumers, restores their freedoms and raises revenue,” said Pappas. “While I don’t think these voices have fallen on deaf ears, I am discouraged that Congress could not coalesce around a solution in the wake of the ongoing fiscal crisis.”

Those who back Senator Reid’s efforts believe that the US should have passed legislation through Congress before further progress is made by individual states. They believe that if these states create their own laws for intrastate online poker and gambling, it will be difficult to create an acceptable standard of fair gaming and integrity across the board. However, Nevada has already started issuing online poker licenses and the first sites are expected to be up and running early in the new year.

Chief of Staff for Reid, David Krone said that the senator would be pushing the bill once more next year, but his enthusiasm seemed to have slightly dimmed.

“Our goal is to definitely try again next year but Senator Reid’s feeling is that after a while there comes a time when you’ve lost momentum, you’ve lost the consensus you’ve built,” he said. “There will be a window next year, but I don’t see it going long.”




PPA: Disappointing Year for Federal Online Poker Legislation

Roderick Wright, a state senator in the state of California, has reintroduced an online poker bill into legislation. If passed, the bill would legalize intrastate online poker with real money gambling capabilities. The bill, SB51, was reintroduced just a few days ago; however there are currently no hearings scheduled for the bill. Legislatures will reconvene on January 7th.

The bill has been given ‘urgency statute’ and this label means that if the bill is passed by a two-thirds majority vote, the bill would take effect immediately. Despite this fact, the bill is not expected to be heard until March or later. A few changes have been made to the bill, none of which are substantial. The bill will restrict online gambling to poker, which was one of the changes made after pressure was exerted by local Indian gaming tribes and cardrooms in the state.

The previous version of the bill was co-signed by Senator Darrel Steinberg and proposed legalizing online poker to residents of the state. This version of the bill failed due to disagreements about how to divide the market. A supporter of the previous version was the California Online Poker Association. The COPA represented casinos and Indian gaming tribes and they supported the majority if the previous bill and once it failed to pass, the group disbanded.

There were many opportunities for states in the US, including California to pass online poker options in 2012. However, many of the opportunities were squandered away as officials and legislatures could not manage to agree on certain aspects. The state of Nevada as well as Delaware has legalized the gambling option and New Jersey awaits the governor’s signature before they can offer the option. It will be interesting to see if this version of online poker legislation will move further in 2013 and hopefully online poker options will open up in the New Year in the US.



California Senator Reintroduces Online Poker Bill

Poker professional Ben “Sauce 123” Sulsky won nearly $4 million at the high-stakes online card tables in 2012, which made him the top earner across all sites.

The 25-year-old New Hampshire native won $3,581,763 on PokerStars, to go along with $367,981 on Full Tilt after it relaunched in early November, according to data from HighstakesDB.

His largest pot of the year was worth about $265,000. It come in November at $200-$400 pot-limit Omaha on PokerStars.

While Sulsky was the most profitable, Gus Hansen fared the worst, though his losses came after he was reunited with millions languishing in his Full Tilt account. Hansen dropped more than $3.1 million on the software in less than two months, according to HighstakesDB.

The bleeding made the Dane by far the biggest loser on the virtual felt in 2012.

In addition to Sulsky, Jens “Jeans89” Kyllönen ($2.4 million), Ben “Ben86” Tollerene ($1.9 million), Sebastien “Seb86” Sabic ($1.7 million), Sven “ragen70” Heinecker ($1.6 million), Alexander “Kanu7” Millar ($1.5 million), Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond ($1.4 million), Ronny Kaiser ($1.4 million) and Rob “Vaga_Lion” Akery ($1.1 million) all had great years.





Ben 'Sauce123' Sulsky 2012's Biggest Winner In Online Poker Cash Games