Black Friday has officially claimed Cereus Network sites Absolute Poker and UB.com as parent company, Blanca Games, has submitted plans to liquidate with a goal of eventually repaying players a portion of the balances owed to them. On the U.S. legislative front, a hearing was held on Tuesday by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee discussing the future of online poker in the country. Read about these stories and more in this edition of the PAS Weekly Industry Update. Cereus Network Submits Plan for Liquidation: On Friday, the Cereus Network effectively closed down with an announcement that the battered poker room had submitted a liquidation plan to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval. The network has operated since Black Friday to non-US players, but has been a shadow of its former self with traffic down over 99% from Black Friday levels. Players had been receiving very sporadic cashouts of $250-$500 in the weeks leading up to the liquidation announcement. New House Hearing on Online Poker: The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee held a two hour plus meeting on online poker in the United States. The mostly positive meeting focused on safeguards and consumer protection that would be required if and when online poker is regulated in the country. After the hearing, Chairwoman Rep Mary Bono Mack stated her desire to hold another hearing in the near future but to not expect any legislation to be attached to the Deficit Reduction package that must be decided upon by November 23rd. Check out PAS's summary on the day's events. Full Tilt Poker Updates: : Early in the week, the Irish Times reported that Full Tilt Poker had made 180 of their 500 staff members "redundant," a plan that had Full Tilt Poker employees first became aware of in September. In some interesting news, multiple players reported that they received telephone surveys from a magazine with ties to the Tapie investment group. In the survey, players were asked to choose between one of three options on how they would like to receive their funds in a hypothetical repayment scenario: 1) buying shares of Full Tilt with part of their funds 2) cash out immediately with a undermined penalty or 3) be paid in full but released in incremental payments over a year. The survey is noteworthy because it indicates the variety of payment resolutions that Tapie and his group are considering at this time as negotiations continue. Everleaf Lowers Rake on USD Tables: In an effort to attract more U.S. players to their tables, the Everleaf Gaming Network will be slashing the maximum rake on all US Dollar tables to $1 through December. The move will primarily affect players at No Limit and Pot Limit tables. There is currently very little action at Limit tables on Everleaf, but players seated at these tables at limits of $2/$4 and above will also see the rake greatly reduced. Latest Traffic Update from PokerScout: PokerScout's latest traffic report details a 1.2% traffic drop after a healthy gain the previous week. An exception to the trend was Merge Gaming, which saw it traffic increase another 7% after soaring 13% the week prior, up 20% since the network began accepting U.S. players for the first time since June. Merge Gaming is once again a top 10 room in terms of online poker traffic, with more than 2200 cash game players on the site during peak times. Jottings: Entraction rakeback policy and VIP program change...Operators face difficult regulatory regime in Germany...UK unlikely to see Gaming Act changes in near future...Top five CPAs from U.S. poker rooms...Fertitta purchases CyberArts...Ongame promises to fight bots...Maryland Gov proves online poker battle is about the money...D-Amato distances himself from Full Tilt Poker.
In case you missed it, on Tuesday the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee held a hearing on online poker legislation in the United States. A list of witnesses included representatives from a variety of mostly pro-legislation organizations including FairPlayUSA and the PPA. The panel also included representatives for various organizations arguing for customer protection: safeguards for problem and underage gamblers and ensuring fairness of games and protection again unregulated operators. The lone opponent of legislation, Ernest Stevens, representing the National Indian Gaming Association, opposes legislation due to a concern on the effects of U.S. American Indian tribal gaming. The 2 hour plus hearing has been posted on CSPAN. Once directed to the page, navigate to the "Hearing on Online Gaming" link on the right. Having seen a lot of these hearings over the years, it was refreshing that the panel testimony focused on making online poker work instead of discussing why it must be stopped. It appears that an increasing number of policy makers are realizing what proponents have been arguing for years: online poker is here to stay and must be regulated and taxed. Summaries on the Hearing: Pokerfuse's Summary of the Testimony The Hill - Online Gambling Finds Support in the House PPA Statement on Hearings Chairwoman of the committee, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, says she plans to hold another hearing on online poker soon but that "to rush [legislation] would be a mistake." Bono Mack suggested that there is just too little time for online poker to be part of the $1.2 trillion deficit reduction package that faces a November 23rd deadline. Proponents of online poker regulation have cited the deficit reduction package as an ideal vehicle for passing legislation this year. If you support the efforts in the U.S. to regulate online poker, the PPA is recommend you throw your support behind H.R. 2366. The PPA has outlined an action plan where you can do your part in a variety of ways, such as contacting your representatives and getting the word out about the crucial need for regulation.
In the last few days, we have seen some positive developments in the effort to regulate online poker in the United States. Earlier in the week, Rep. Jim McDermott announced his bill to tax online poker in the United States and on Friday Joe Barton introduced a bill to legalize online poker in the country. On the other end of the legalization spectrum, the Polish president has signed a bill banning online poker in Poland. Joe Barton Introduces Poker Bill: As expected, Joe Barton introduced the Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act in Las Vegas on Friday before Event 43 of the World Series of Poker. The Barton bill currently has 11 sponsors and is the first legislation introduced since April 15th. Like other previous legislation, only US players would play against each other. States would be required to "opt-out" if they did not want to have regulated online poker; this would need to be done by the governor of the state. Check out our full write-up on the bill. A companion bill to tax online poker was also introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D) earlier in the week. Poland Bans Online Poker: It looks like online poker opposition doesn't just come from the United States. Last week, Polish President Bronsilaw Komorowski signed an amendment to a law that would ban online poker in the country. The law would likely go into effect in the next couple months. Sportsbetting will still be allowed, assuming servers are located in the EU and the company has a domain name in Poland. The law is expected to come under pressure from the EU on anti-competitive grounds. Cake Switches to .eu Domain Name: On Saturday afternoon, visitors to the Cake Poker website were being redirected to the a new .eu domain name. The site joins an increasing number of US-facing sites that have switched domain names since the events of Black Friday. Bodog has switched to .eu, while other rooms such as Sportsbook, True Poker and Doyles Room have switched to the .ag extension. Jottings: Boss Bad Beat Jackpot now at a record $1.3 million...PKR to release "lite" client...PokerTracker 4 coming in the 3rd quarter of 2011...Playtech and California team up for partnership...Genting inks deal with Aston Villa...Full Tilt Rush now running on iPhone
US players could get some welcome news soon as Representitive Joe Barton of Texas could officially introduce a new online poker bill as early as this week. In the Weekly Industry Update, we also take a look at this important development as well as a new report from PokerNews on the progress of internet poker in the District of Columbia. In other positive news, the industry saw a nice 1% gain for the week despite what is normally a seasonal slowdown for online poker. Barton bill could be introduced this week: Rep. Joe Barton's federal bill to regulate online poker in the United States could be introduced as recently as this next week. The staff of Rep. Barton (R-Tex) has been working with the PPA since after the events of Black Friday. With the Barton legislation, internet gambling could be regulated in any state where there is currently gambling, although only online poker would be permitted under this bill. In another sign that this may actually be online poker's moment in the US, Caesars' Gary Loveman says he expects federal legislation to pass before the end of the year. Plans for poker in DC: In a report from PokerNews, DC Council member Michael A. Brown indicated that they have not heard any objections from the Department of Justice or anybody on Capitol Hill about proceeding with their plans for internet poker in the District of Columbia, which is home to a population of over 600,000, and passed a internet poker bill at the beginning of April. According to Brown play-money games should be available at commercial locations called "platinum sponsors" by the end of the month, with real money games possibly coming by the end of the year. Poker Traffic Update: According to PokerScout, online poker traffic stopped a four week slide that saw gains from 7 out of the top 10 sites including Full Tilt Poker, which climbed 0.8% over the week. Merge Gaming, which has seen traffic skyrocked since April 15th was down over 7% for the week. The site has seen their traffic slide a bit since they halted new US sign-ups on June 3rd. Jottings: Betsson completes Betsafe acquistion...New Microgaming/Ladbrokes deal.... Poker Stars address's Australia pullout rumors....Clonie Gowen/Full Tilt case reopened....Latest I. Nelson Rose thoughts
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