Phil Ivey has been missing from the tournament poker scene since early summer but ended his self-imposed hiatus at the recent Asia Pacific Poker Tour event held in Macau. Ivey made waves back in May when he announced that he was boycotting the 2011 World Series of Poker entirely over displeasure at the way that online poker site Full Tilt Poker (formerly a sponsor of Ivey) was handling its indictment and seizure of bank accounts by the US Department of Justice. Ivey filed a civil suit against Full Tilt alleging that its actions were harming his future earning potential but [ Read More ]
According to some, the government of Penang is not doing a good enough job of blocking online gambling activity. A group in the Malaysian state said that the state government is not paying enough attention to cyber cafes that operate online gambling games. , In Malaysia, land-based gambling is allowed for non-Muslims, but all online gambling is banned for both citizens and visitors. Throughout the year, the Malaysian government has conducted several raids to crack down on illegal online gambling activity. According to some opponents, though, the state of Penang is not doing enough. A group called Pertiga (Pertubuhan Islam [ Read More ]
Groupe Bernard Tapie has reached a deal with the US Department of Justice that could result in the sale of online poker site Full Tilt and a potential refund of money owed to former customers. The deal would see Full Tilt forfeit its assets to the US government, which would in turn sell them to Groupe Bernard Tapie for $80 million. The US government would then be responsible for refunding the estimated $150 million owed by Full Tilt to former US customers, with Groupe Bernard Tapie refunding money owed to international players. While the US Department of Justice has signed [ Read More ]
Despite worries of tightening credit in China gambling revenues in Macau continue to soar, with a new record set in October for total gambling revenue taken in. October eclipsed the previous record set in August, with about $3.36 billion in gambling revenues generated in October in Macau (which is on pace to do roughly five times what the Las Vegas Strip will pull in for 2011). Revenues were up 42% over the same period in 2010, with one of China’ “golden week” holidays helping boost numbers for October. Macau offers the only legal opportunity for many Chinese residents to gamble, [ Read More ]
A new Main Event champion has been crowned, with German Pius Heinz winning the 2011 WSOP Main Event and taking home more than $8.7 million in cash and the unofficial world championship of the poker world. Heinz defeated Martin Staszko of the Czech Republic after a long heads-up battle that saw the young German overcome a 4-1 chip disadvantage at one point to finally prevail and take down the victory. Staszko collected $5,430,928 for his runner-up finish, with American Ben Lamb finishing third for $4,019,635. The 2011 Main Event drew nearly 7,000 entrants at the Rio in Las Vegas during July, with [ Read More ]
The Nevada Gaming Control Board continues to debate and examine possible regulations for offering online poker to state residents, looking to be well-positioned to offer online gambling if US laws change to allow it. The debated proposals are in response to Governor Brian Sandoval granting the Nevada Gaming Commission the authority to adopt regulations for Internet poker. The regulations currently include require operators of online games to hold a certain amount of money in cash reserves to cover player deposits as well as security policies in place to prevent underage gambling. With the general framework in place the current discussions [ Read More ]
Europa Casino is celebrating Halloween by offering a special treat for players in the form of a free €5 bonus for new players on their first deposit. To claim the bonus players need to make their first deposit at the online casino anytime between October 27-November 9, contacting Europa’s customer support department after the deposit is made and mentioning the bonus code “treat”. Once that’s done, the free €5 bonus will be added to the player’s account and can be used to play slots as well as a host of other casino games. Europa is also releasing a special “Halloween Fortune” [ Read More ]
The Black Friday indictments sent reverberations across the online gambling world. It impacted the industry across the globe, not just in the United States. Since the indictment, the companies involved have come under more scrutiny and as a result, we have learned that Full Tilt Poker wasn’t engaging in the best business practices (to put it lightly). At worst, Full Tilt was running a Ponzi scheme to defraud its customers. At best, they mismanaged their funds and ran out of money to cover what is owed to players. In either case, the customers are kind of out of luck, unless [ Read More ]
bwin.party executives have been exploring various partnership that would allow its PartyPoker and World Poker Tour brands to potentially operate online poker and casino sites in the US if the legal situation changes in the future. The company — formed from the merger of bwin and Party Gaming in early 2011 — is seeking out potential partners in the US to work with to target the online gambling market if federal laws were modified or repealed that currently bar online gambling. Co-CEO Jim Ryan has been making pitches in the US for the last several weeks to potential investors and [ Read More ]
Football betting has been a popular activity across the world and it has just recently started catching on in the United States. By football, I mean the sport that most Americans call soccer but almost everyone else calls football (though it was the English that first used the term soccer as a nickname for Association Football). Not long ago, the world, and even some in America, was enthralled with the FIFA World Cup. The World Cup is also the largest sports betting event in the world. In other years, that betting didn’t really cross over to the United States, but [ Read More ]
