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International: U.S. poker legislation delayed despite increasing support

Even as individual states open their doors to expanded gambling opportunities, the United States government continues to resist change. Longtime online gambling supporter Congressman Barney Frank was set to lead hearings on his bills HR 2266 and HR 2267 later this month, but earlier this week the Poker Players Alliance announced that the House Financial Services Committee has pushed the hearings back until September.

This news comes on the heels of a WSOP-inspired spike in support. The PPA-sponsored petition for the legalization of online gambling in the U.S. gained over 6,000 new signatures last weekend alone and is expected to surpass 250,000 signatures before the end of the series. The signing period will end later this month, and the finished petition will be delivered to the White House on July 22 for President Obama’s consideration. If you have not yet signed the petition, you may do so at www.pokerpetition.com Petitioners whose signatures have been validated by the PPA will be given one-time access to special $3500 freerolls on popular sites like PokerStars.

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With Free Slot Tournaments Over, Golden Casino Shifts To July 4th

Golden Casino Golden Casino has been busy pleasing online casino players with free slot tournaments for the entire month of June. Now that the month is over, they have turned their attention to a huge Fourth of July Independence day tournament.

The tournament will begin this Friday and will run for two whole weeks. it is being promoted as one of the biggest online slot tournaments of the year, and that is saying a lot after some of the events Golden Casino has run so far in 2009.

“Golden Casino is my favorite casino for one reason, their tournaments always have a lot of players and they are cheap to enter,” said online player Becky Grunschle, “their big tournaments are better than any I have seen online at other casinos.”

The July 4th celebration tournament is being held on several of the Vegas Technologies network of casinos. Online Vegas will also be hosting the event, which will cost players only $.44 to enter.

The prize pool for the tournament will have a $144,444 guaranteed. Hundreds of players will win either cash or credit in the event, and people can re-buy for an additional $1.99. Anyone re-buying will receive an additional $35 bonus on top of the starting balance of $150.

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St. Petersburg to close down 109 casinos, 10,000 jobs lost

The magnitude of Russia’s decision to confine all land gambling to four geographic areas away from main population centres like Moscow and St Petersburg was underlined this week by an article in the St. Petersburg Times.

The newspaper revealed that Moscow is not the only location where the ban will have a profound effect – in St. Petersburg it is expected that 109 land casinos will close on July 1st when the Russian diktaat comes into effect and that could see up to 10,000 locals out of work.

The St Petersburg Times bases its statistics on data released by the local municipality, which indicates that between 10,000 and 12,000 residents are employed in the gambling industry.

According to estimates from City Hall, 10,000 to 12,000 people in St. Petersburg work in the gaming industry, all of whom will become unemployed under the new rules, said Lidiya Mamon, the head of the Office of Government-Regulated Aspects of the Committee on Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade.

In addition, 127,000 square meters of retail space currently occupied by the casinos will become vacant, and the city will lose at least 3.5 million rubles ($112,000) in tax revenues, or one percent of the local budget.

The gambling laws restrict all gaming activity to four zones located in remote parts of Russia: the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, the Caucasus, the Pacific coast and southwestern Siberia. The restrictions go into effect on July 1, although the head regulator of Russia’s special economic zones said Thursday that the country will not be able to open the gaming zones in less than four to five years.

Mamon said that St. Petersburg will attempt to take up the vacated retail space with shops, offices and restaurants.

Australians investigate sports gambling arbitrage rip-offs

Office of Fair Trading officials in the Australian territory of Queensland are currently investigating the activities of up to thirty sports arbitrage companies, mostly based on the Gold Coast, reports the Courier-Mail newspaper.

Some 650 gamblers have lodged complaints about the operators, who have allegedly been ripping players off with elaborate sports betting scams involving millions of dollars.

It is understood that half of the companies have vanished, after police found only empty land or a post office box as the principal place of business after following up on customer complaints.

Sporting arbitrage involves customers being offered “guaranteed” wins by spreading their bets on all possible outcomes with different bookmakers.

Nine software firms are also believed to be under investigation, and the newspaper names Sports Investment Services, which touts sports betting returns of 56% compared with only 6 and 9% on the share and property markets. Sports Investment Services director Mark Henderson told reporters he had had several complaints, but insisted he had done nothing wrong and sold software to help pick winners.

“It gives clients stand-out picks to bet on,” he said.

Asked about the claims of 56% betting returns on the company’s website, Henderson said: “At the time when it was published these figures were correct but they are variable and at different points they can return different things.”

The Courier-Mail reports that 650 punters have complained since last August after losing on the intricate betting systems or being unable to contact companies once they paid membership fees of between A$3,000 and A$19,000.

Fair Trading Minister Peter Lawlor told the newspaper that the high number of complaints showed consumers were rarely pocketing any profits.

“They are simply scams which are designed to take the money off unwitting consumers,” Lawlor said. “We also found that once these companies start receiving complaints from their clients, they often simply close down and start up again somewhere else under a new name.”

Lawlor said some of the companies styled themselves as investment schemes using “financial instruments” and “risk free” to secure the profits. They also often used telemarketers with false names to entice clients into parting with their money, he said.

The Office of Fair Trading would not confirm which companies were in the investigation’s sights, but the Courier-Mail names Suncity Equities and Investments and a firm called Profitrunner as being among those investigated.

The money thought to have been lost through the companies, which are often part of a tangled web of other companies, is believed to be between $4 million and $6 million.

The probe does not involve mainstream betting companies such as UNiTAB or Betfair.

Mexico Poker Pro Angel Guillen Wins WSOP Bracelet

Team PokerStars Pro Mexico member Angel Guillen has secured a World Series of Poker bracelet only six months after playing in his first live poker tournament.

The 26-year-old economics student, who takes home a first prize of over $500k after triumphing in the WSOP $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event, is not only the first Team PokerStars Pro to win a bracelet at this year’s series, but is only the second Mexican in history to do so.

Guillen bested a field of 1,534 players to take down the event, eventually beating Finnish pro Mika Paasonen after five grueling hours of heads-up, the longest heads-up of this year’s series so far.

Guillent’s remarkable achievement comes only a week after a second-place finish in the WSOP $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event and cements his position as one of the most phenomenal players Mexico has ever produced. In January he qualified for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in The Bahamas – his first live event – and cashed in 51st place out of more than 1,300 players. Just two months later, he came third at the PokerStars.com LAPT Punte del Este event in Uruguay for $99,920, and then came his runner-up place in the WSOP $2.5k event for $312,800.

Despite his short career, Guillen, who hails from Mexico City and is a close friend of fellow Team PokerStars Pro JC Alvarado, already lies in second place on Mexico’s all-time money list and has enjoyed an amazing start to his live poker career.

After his WSOP win he said: "I always had the dream to become a professional poker player but I never had the opportunity or the chance. I will keep trying to improve my game, to become a well-known player and to win more big events in the future."

Guillen’s achievement boosts an already impressive record from the nascent Team PokerStars Mexico Pro which is still only in its first year of existence. In April, JC Alvarado won the SCOOP $1,050 main event for $502,086, while Christian de Leon has already cashed twice at this year’s WSOP and came third at the PCA in January. Jorge Landazuri came 2nd at this year’s LAPT Mar de la Plata tournament in Argentina and Guillermo Lopez achieved fourth place, against a field of nearly 33,000 players, in the PokerStars.com Sunday Million in May.

 

 

 

 

Online Poker Winners Turn to Wire Transfers in Wake of Frozen Bank Accounts

SAN JUAN, Costa Rica – In recent weeks, the United States government has seized over $30 million in online poker player accounts run on the CEREUS poker network. Online Poker sites including PokerStars,
  UltimateBet, Absolute Bet and Full Tilt Poker have been hit with this seizure of online poker accounts.  

Many players have been worried about the outcome of how thier accounts will be paid back to them.  So far most online poker rooms have credited the money back to players accounts with a bonus for the inconvenience.  Today PokerStars has given the option for players to cash out their accounts via money wire transfer as a method to get around the seizure of these accounts. This is a letter sent out from PokerStars regarding cashout methods:

"Hello,

Due to a recent processing issue, we are currently experiencing a backlog of paper check cashout requests. This means that a number of paper check transactions, yours included, have unfortunately experienced a delay.

While you should still receive the cheque within our stipulated 15 business day timeframe, may we suggest that you may wish to consider a bank wire transfer cashout as an alternative.

We have recently lowered the minimum cashout value for this payment method to $1,000 … the payment will be sent by wire to be credited directly to your account in 3-5 business days….

Should you have any queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best regards,

PokerStars Payment Services"

Obviously well-known and respected online poker sites such as PokerStars have every interest to keep their patrons confident that all winings will be paid to them. Until this entire controversy is over, sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt will have to continue to find creative ways to pay players for their winnings.

D'Amato To Play At WSOP – Online Casino News

The worlds of politics and poker will meet next week when former three-term New York Senator Alfonse D’Amato visits the World Series Of Poker (WSOP) 2009 in Las Vegas in order to take part in Event 43.

D’Amato is the current Chairman of the Poker Players Alliance, a non-profit organisation set up to help protect and fight for the rights of poker players in the US, and will arrive at the Rio All-Suite Hotel And Casino on Monday to hold a morning press conference. He is then scheduled to take to the tables at noon for the Seniors No-Limit Hold’Em World Championship.

According to a report from online information portal Pokerati.com, D’Amato is scheduled to join Nevada Representative Shelley Berkley for the event, which has a $1,000 buy-in.  

Old Reliable Jackpots Hit Again At Online Casinos

Lion Slots Casino After a short dry period, two old reliable jackpots have once again been hit at online casinos. Caribbean Stud Poker and Major Moolah continued this week to be known as two of the more popular games when it comes to jackpots.

The Caribbean Stud Poker game from Real Time Gaming is perhaps the most consistent when it comes to jackpot hits. The latest hit came just three days ago, when a lucky online player hit a $54,116 jackpot.

Major Moolah is a game that was developed by online gaming software company, Rival Gaming. The Major Moolah jackpot was a little less pronounced, only hitting for $4,009 two days ago.

“It is nice to see the summer starting off well for a couple of online casino players,” said observer Jack Walters, “the fact that the jackpots were hit on two different networks of online casinos could be a good sign of things to come.”

Real Time Gaming and Rival Gaming are two of the software providers that power casinos that still accept new US players. Lion Slots Casino is a popular casino powered by Rival, while Cherry Red is one of the leading casinos for RTG.

It had been a slow weekend for US players when it came to jackpots. With two hits already this week, the online casino players are off to a good start, one in which they hope will last through the rest of the week.

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Free Ladbrokes chips and 50% deposit match!

To support Ladbrokes new TV ad campaign (view below), they are offering new customers’ £25 worth of free chips when they sign up.

Not only are Ladbrokes offering this great incentive, but they are also offering a 50% deposit match on all their fast paced, fun, online casino 3 card play poker games, that boast exceptional graphics, attention to detail, use of ambient sounds and improved functionality every weekend this month.

Ladbrokes have both instant and downloadable games with new and old favourites including: slots, roulette, blackjack, video poker and the usual table games. New casino games at Ladbrokes include: Mermaids Millions, Cabin Fever and FrostBite.

These offers are exclusively available until June 31st so signup today!

Las Vegas Sands Stock Caps A Slow Trading Week With Minor Loss

Las Vegas Sands It has not been the most eventful of trading weeks when it comes to casino company stock. Most of the major companies in the US did not go above or below a five percent move during the past week.

Las Vegas Sands closed their week on Friday at $9.10. That caps a week where the stock rose as high as $10.10 late Monday, and as low as $8.83 on Friday afternoon. Overall, there was not much movement through the week.

Other casino companies had a similar fate. Wynn Resorts began the week at $39.72. By Friday, the stock had dropped only to $37.41. As was the case with Sands, there has not been much fluctuation through the lat three days of the week.

MGM Mirage continued on their path back to center after a month in which the stock was climbing steadily. After going above ten dollars a share, the stock continued its slow slide, closing at $7.13 on Friday.

Melco Crown Entertainment had perhaps the worst week of all casino stocks. It started the week at $5.64 a share, and closed on Friday at $4.95 a share. The company has recently opened a casino resort in Macau.

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