While some were expecting more significant changes — including ditching the controversial November Nine format that sees the conclusion of the WSOP Main Event delayed a few months — the final schedule for 2012 WSOP events included only a few relatively minor changes.

The November Nine format will return but the final table of nine players will pause on July 16 and resume in late October this year instead of November to avoid conflicting with US Presidential primary elections.

The $10,000 buy-in Main Event will also only feature three starting days in 2012 instead of four as in past years, with the start of play kicking off on July 7.

Many had feared that the 2011 WSOP would be a bust after the US government indicted online poker sites Full Tilt and PokerStars (which in past years had sent thousands of online qualifiers to play in the Main Event) but attendance was up for most events, with the main Event drawing a very large field.

The 2012 schedule will also feature some new events including the $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for ONE DROP tournament, which is part charity event but will also award a WSOP bracelet and sport the largest buy-in ever for a poker tournament.

As in past years the Main Event will serve as the capper of more than a month and a half of non-stop poker action at the Rio in Las Vegas, with more than $100 million in prize money awarded in total.

The Main Event serves as the unofficial world championship of poker each year, with the winner walking away with close to $10 million in cash and joining the elite members of the poker world that have won poker’s biggest prize.

Groupe Bernard Tapie agreed to acquire the troubled company on November 17th in a deal struck with the permission of the US Department of Justice and that would ultimately see Full Tilt’s assets sold to GBT for $80 million.

The complicated deal included the US government taking responsibility for repaying an estimated $150 million owed to former US players of Full Tilt, with Groupe Bernard Tapie repaying the $150 million owed to international players.

Full Tilt was indicted by the US government in April 2011 for breaking US anti-gambling laws as well as for wire fraud and money laundering; Full Tilt continued to operate for several months before losing its gambling license in June 2011 after which point the site went dark, leaving players unable to cash out their funds on deposit.

Ferguson and other directors and shareholders of Full Tilt received tens of millions od dollars in payments and distributions over the years, with some of that money in question now and potentially holding up the sale of Full Tilt.

Ferguson is reportedly seeking the return of over $14 million that was held in a personal account of his controlled by a company associated with Full Tilt, with Ferguson giving permission last April for the money in the account to be used for corporate expenses.

Ferguson and his lawyer have threatened to file for an injunctive relief to delay the planned sale of FTP’s assets until their issue is settled, which could further delay the repayment of over $300 million in player funds that many players have been anxiously awaiting for nearly a year.

State officials and casino executives in the state are monitoring developments in other US states as interest has been renewed in online gambling in the wake of a US Department of Justice ruling that narrowed the scope of the Wire Act.

The Wire Act became law in 1961 and was originally designed to target illegal sportsbets made over the telephone but in recent years the US government had stated that it felt it applied to online gambling as well and encompassed online poker, casino games, bingo, and lotto sales. 

A recent opinon from the Department of Justice published in December 2011, however, took the position that the Wire Act only applies to sportsbetting, potentially giving states the go-ahead to push forward with their own plans to offer intra-state online gambling sites for residents.

The state’s governor Dannel Malloy is reportedly in talks with the Mohegan Tribe to spearhead the efforts to roll out online games, banking on their experience in running the state’s casinos to get operations quickly off the ground if laws are changed to allow for it.

Malloy claims to be no fan of gambling but believes tens of thousands of jobs could be created, as well as gambling dollars and tax revenues staying in state coffers instead of leaving for other nearby gambling destinations.

Connecticut joins states such as New Jersey and Nevada in eyeing online gambling. New Jersey lawmakers voted to allow online gambing in 2011 but the bill was ultimately vetoed by the governor, with a second attempt now underway and expected by many to pass the second time around.

Recent studies have shown that those who have an addiction to gambling usually are addicted to some substance, such as drugs or alcohol, as well. It shows an addictive personality trait or mental disorder. The same can be said of the Internet. In an interesting article found at guardian.co.uk, it was stated that studies say approximately 5-10% of Internet users are thought to be addicted to using the Web. In the Chinese study, brain scans showed anomalies consistent with those who have substance addictions.

The study of Internet use and suggestion that it can be addictive is still controversial. Still, there is enough merit to it that the American Psychiatric Association is considering updating the DSM to include Internet addiction as a disorder. If the Internet can be addictive, what does that mean for online gambling? Some would suggest that it makes gambling online more dangerous, and more likely to lead to addiction, than gambling offline. Others say that if the players didn’t get hooked on playing at online casinos, they would get addicted to eBay, Facebook or something else on the Web. The study, which used MRI scanners on adolescents who spent many hours on the Internet daily, hopes to lead to better treatment of the disorder.

Tags: addicted to internet, guardian.co.uk

Competing in the contest couldn’t be easier, as you simply have to sign up and deposit at Europa and then play any of its hundreds of slots games — including the Beach Life slots progressive with a jackpot of $7.2 million — and you’ll accumulate leaderboard points based on your play for the tournament standings.

Leaderboard standings will be published and updated so you can see exactly where you stand, with your slots play over the three days of the tournament counting towards your position.

Below are the prizes up for grabs for the top ten finishers:

1st place: €500

2nd place: €200

3rd place – 5th place: €100

In the last exclusive tournament for readers 153 players took part, so your odds are quite good of finishing up in one of the money positions as it will likely be a relatively small field that you’re competing against.

For regular slots players it’s a great promotion and chance to get rewarded for what you’d likely do anyway — taking lots of spins at popular online slots games like Beach Life, Bonus Bears, Pink Panther, Fantastic Four, Gladiator, and Blade.

If you’re not already a player at Europa now is an excellent time to join, as you’ll not only get a shot at free cash in the slots tournament but can also take advantage of generous new player signup bonuses of as much as €2,415.

As recently as a few months ago the company had stated that it had no plans whatsoever to dabble in the real money gambling market, content to use its tried-and-true business model of monetizing its games by selling advertising and offering players the chance to buy additional add-ons and items within its games.

The company released the following statement about its latest move: “We build games and experiences that our players want and love. Zynga Poker is the world’s largest online poker game with more than 7 million people playing every day and over 30 million each month. We know from listening to our players that there’s an interest in the real money gambling market. We’re in active conversations with potential partners to better understand and explore this new opportunity.”

Zynga’s recent IPO could explain its change in stance, as the company has come under pressure to prove that its future prospects are strong for revenue growth, with the share price slipping well below where it initially opened at $10/share, trading recently for around $8.50.share.

While the company’s FarmVille, CityVille, and Zynga Poker games remain some of the most popular on Facebook, competitors continue to nip at their heels with similar knock-off games and some analysts believe the appetite in general for the genre of games Zynga specializes in may be cooling.

Zynga faces many obstacles in offering real money poker or casino games despite the fact that it has a huge player base for Zynga Poker, which the company claims has 30 million active users each month.

The company would also have to clear various regulatory and legal hurdles and likely limit its real money online gambling games to users in countries that allow it, which would exclude major markets such as the US that have laws on the books that prevent legal online gambling.

The District of Columbia has already passed legislation that could allow it to offer online casino and poker sites and New Jersey, California, and Nevada are all considering passing their own laws that could pave the way to offering their own intra-state online poker sites.

The primary driver for many states is a simple one: the lure of cold, hard cash. With the lingering recession in the US and many states facing serious cutbacks, pulling in additional revenue from online gambling and other avenues is an easy fix in the eyes of many state residents and legislators.

Whether or not online gambling is the panacea that many see it as remains to be seen, however, as estimates of the profits that states could be in line for vary dramatically based on who you listen to.

Industry groups and pro-gambling lobbyists point to a potential value of $10 billion per year for the US gambling market, but studies that individual states have done have produced much smaller figures, with the state of Iowa releasing a study that shows it could rake in between 43 million to $13 million a year while California projects it could make as much as $250 million.

Those figures might seem appealing but many state budget shortfalls are in the billions of dollars (over $9 billion in the case of California) so any revenues from online gambling would be a small band-aid for most states, with more significant revenues coming from brick-and-mortar casinos and state lotteries.

Most states are also only considering adding online poker sites for now, which also serves to limit the potential profits especially when the sites can only be accessed by residents of the state.

Online poker may not provide the windfall that some US states are looking for

Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe had admitted to embezzling parish votive candle, prayer, and gift shop funds for eight years from his northwest Las Vegas parish in order to support his video poker habit, claiming that he suffered from gambling addiction.

He’d asked for probation so that he could continue to seek help for his gambling problem and to continue practicing as a priest and pay restitution to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, the parish that the money was stolen from.

Prosecutors in the case, however, painted a different picture of McAuliffe, who they claim stole church funds for not just gambling purposes but to also pay for cars and travel, and who still had personal savings when he began embezzling money.

McAuliffe pled guilty in October to three counts of federal mail fraud for falsifying documents sent in 2008, 2009 and 2010 to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in San Francisco. Each count carried a possible sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The judge sentenced McAuliffe to 37 months in jail (splitting the difference between the 33-month minimum and 41-month maximum) along with the order to repay embezzled funds. McAuliffe must also serve three years of supervised release following prison and is banned from gambling in any Las Vegas casino.

McAuliffe had control from 2002 to 2010 of church activities and finances at one of the largest Roman Catholic congregations in Nevada. When first questioned by authorities, McAuliffe originally claimed that his gambling was supported by his personal income, only later confessing to stealing the funds from the church.

He began repaying the parish in May and to date has paid back just over $13,000.

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee approved the bill by 7-3 vote, gaining passage after an amendment was added to give residents of Florida counties the final say via referendrums as to whether or not a casino will be built in the county they live in.

Republican sponsors introduced the bill, which is designed to set the stage for three huge resort casinos to be built in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The bill will authorize the creation first of the Florida State Gaming Commission, which will be tasked with the job of licensing and regulating gambling throughout Florida.

Its first task would be to award three gambling licenses for new casinos to be built in south Florida’s Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The resort-style casinos (similar to huge US casinos in Las Vegas) would require a minimum $2 billion investment for the companies awarded the licenses, as well as a $50 million one-time license payment, annual renewal fees of $2 million, and a a 10% tax on gross gambling revenues.

Casino groups that have already shown interest in competing for the licenses include Genting and Las Vegas Sands, both of whom have substanmtial experience with building and operating large-scale casinos in new markets such as Macau and Singapore. Genting has unveiled an early version of its design for a possible casino in south Florida, which would include the world’s largest casino as well as other resort attractions.

Proponents of the bill hope to position Miami as a gambling mecca that builds upon the steady stream of visitors that fly into Miami from Central and South Amercia as well as US tourists looking for a warm weather vacation destination.

Other US states such as New York and Massachusetts are considering similar initiatives to expand their gambling operations or establish new casinos, hoping to bring in new revenues to offset sagging state budgets and persistently high unemployment.

Genting is better known for its international operations but is looking to ramp up its efforts on the US casino front, including submitting plans to build the world’s largest casino in the Miami area if an expansion of casinos is approved in Florida.

Genting has proposed building a $4 billion convention center next to Aqueduct Racetrack that would be the nation’s largest and potentially create tens of thousands of jobs. The only catch is that Genting is rumored to be lobbying for exclusive rights to casino operations in the entire state of New York in exchange for completing the convention project.

Like several other US states, New York is taking a hard look at expanding gambling options for residents by offering full-scale casinos. While several Indian tribes do offer casinos in New York state the only official “casinos” are racinos at horse tracks such as Aqueduct, which offer video lottery terminals but no traditional casino table games like blackjack or craps.

Gov. Cuomo is pushing for a constitutional amendment to legalize gambling throughout the state, which could allow Genting to expand its current racino at Aqueduct into a typical casino.

Genting plans to build the convention center in two stages, with the first 2.6 million square-foot phase completed by November 2014 at the earliest, followed by the construction of a 1,000-room hotel scheduled for November 2015.

Despite the potential tax revenues generated by casinos — which would add hundreds of millions of dollars each year to state coffers — many are opposed to the building of casinos, especially in densely populated areas of New York City. A lingering recession has added fuel to the push to add casinos, however, especially when gambling dollars regularly leave the state for neighboring areas that have existing casinos such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey.