This week, John Campos' misdemeanor guilty plea was finally accepted while the AGCC announced that a license application from a Full Tilt subsidiary will be held in public. Check out these stories and more in this week's edition of the Industry Update. Campos Plea Deal Accepted: U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan has officially accepted a guilty plea from John Campos, Vice President of SunFirst Bank, which helped process payments for two of three poker sites indicted on Black Friday. There was originally delay in the acceptance of the guilty plea as the judge raised concerns about the leniency of the deal by prosecutors. Full Tilt Poker Update: Over the last week there has been significant signs that Full Tilt Poker is gearing up for relaunch. Positives indications for a launch include the establishment of Full Tilt Poker companies in Ireland and Malta, changes in the Full Tilt Poker website and additional job postings on a Irish job services company. In other Full Tilt Poker news, the AGCC has announced they will hold a public hearing to review the license application of Orinic Limited on May 3rd. Orinic Limited, a subsidiary of Full Tilt, avoided a revoking of their license last year and recently applied for a category 2 license to offer online gambling. Massachusetts Considering Online Poker: Massachusetts State Representative Daniel Winslow plans to make a push for an online poker amendment to a state budget bill next week. Winslow stated "Massachusetts already has decided to legalize gaming, so we should consider all options to maximize revenue and create new jobs." The bill would not make it cheap for a operator to offer online poker in the state. To receive a license, an operator would have to fork over $10 million and pay a tax of 25%. PokerScout Traffic Update: Online poker traffic dropped 1.8% for the week and has down been down for 9 out of the last 10 weeks. In their one year recap of Black Friday, PokerScout reported that 90% of US players have stopped playing online poker, helping to contribute to a 32% loss in overall traffic during the last year. Jottings: Barney Frank not optimistic for federal regulation in 2012...Black Friday Mastermind Preet Bharara Named to Time Top 100...William Hill Nevada gaming license delayed...European Gaming and Betting Association Publishes Manifesto...William Hill and Ladbrokes see poker slump
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Black Friday. In this week's Weekly Industry Update we will take a look at this milestone along with news from Full Tilt Poker, Cake Poker and Merge Gaming. Remembering Black Friday It's hard to believe it's been a full year since the events of Black Friday. There is little doubt affiliates and U.S. players will always remember where they were when they heard the news that the three largest poker sites had been effectively shut down to U.S. players in that single day. One year later, the industry is still shaken up and feeling the effects. PokerStars recovered quickly has went on to thrive. Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker are likely gone forever with players and affiliates unlikely to recover anything significant. Meanwhile Fulll Tilt Poker players and affilaites continue to hope the Full Tilt Poker sale goes through and players are reimbursed for their missing funds. As expected, the one year anniversary has brought a flood of retrospectives. PokerNews posted a timeline of Black Friday and related events. PokerFuse conducted a great interview with the PPA's Patrick Fleming. CardPlayer also posted a piece on the victims of Black Friday. Full Tilt Poker Update: As Full Tilt Poker appears to gear up for a relaunch, another class-action suit has been filed against Full Tilt Poker directors Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson. The lawsuit alleges that Lederer and Ferguson "exercised unlawful dominion and control over player funds in Full Tilt Poker accounts." The suit seeks a court order requiring Ferguson and Lederer to refund players as well as punitive damages. Cake and Merge Gaming Ban new Utah Accounts: Late last month, Utah passed a law that banned online poker in the state. The governor of Utah has even lobbied against federal online poker legislation. As a result of recent actions by Utah, Cake Poker and Merge Gaming have decided to no longer accept new accounts from the state. Existing members are still allowed to play, however. The move comes a few weeks after Bovada decided to make the same decision. At the time of this writing, Utah players can only create accounts at BetOnline, Intertops, Winning Poker and YouWager. PokerScout Traffic Update: Online poker traffic snapped an eight-week losing streak by gaining 2.8% last week according to PokerScout. Five out of the top 10 sites saw 5% upswings or more. Ipoker has overtaken Party Poker as the #2 network in the world. Jottings: April's US Online Poker Processing Report Released...AGA is calling for UIGEA strengthening...UB and Absolute Poker nearing resolution with DOJ?...Unibet acquires Bet24...UK proposes criminal penalties for illegal operators...Quad Jacks interview with Joe Brennan Jr., says federal online poker "not in cards"...Italy regulated market slides...Card Player summary on the Black Friday guilty pleas...Spanish Association of Digital eGaming Reveals List of Members
A highly anticipated trial involving two indicted Black Friday processors is no more, according to Forbes. Yesterday, Chad Elie plead guilty to conspiring to commit bank fraud and today John Campos followed suit, ending the trial that was slated to begin April 9th with Instabill's Daniel Tzvetkoff as a start witness for the prosecution. Tzvetkoff was charged in 2010 and was reportedly a major part of the Black Friday indictments, acting as an informant. As part of the plea deal for Elie, a payment processor, he will face a sentence of between 6-12 months and a $500,000 fine. According to Forbes, he also agreed to forfeit his interest earned in more than $25 million in payment processing accounts. Campos, on the other hand, has plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge. Campos was the Vice President of SunFirst Bank and was alleged to have accepted a cash infusion for the Utah bank in return for accepting online poker transactions. The reported deadline for a plea deal was Wednesday. Last week Elie and Campos both issued responses to their motions in limine, which indicated how they would fight the charges had the trial went as scheduled. With the defendants plea deal, it has become clear that the federal prosecutors would like to avoid a trial that would address many of the legality issues of online poker in the U.S. Seven out of the eleven charged in the Black Friday indictments have now plead guilty with focus now put on Poker Stars founder Isai Scheinberg and Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar.
This week two people charged in the Black Friday indictments went before a judge, while a report from EGR indicates that Facebook may be looking to get into online gambling. Check out these stories and more in the weekly PAS Industry Update. Full Tilt Update: On November 30th, the Federal Court in the Southern District of New York revealed that they it had granted Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker extensions until January 2nd to respond to complaints against the company. Full Tilt Poker is currently is settlement discussions with the DOJ, while GBT continues its efforts to acquire the company. Campos and Elie Face Judge: Last week a hearing was held at the federal court in lower Manhattan to discuss changes by two individuals charged in the Black Friday indictments. The two individuals who filed a motion to dismiss the charges are John Campos, vice chairman of the Utah bank involved in payments to online poker sites, and payment processor Chad Elie. Federal judge Lewis Kaplan seemed to be unsympathetic to the arguments stating that "I think it's extraordinarily unlikely that the entire indictment will be dismissed" but did call the hearing "interesting and helpful." A trial of Campos and Elie is expected to begin in March. 888 and IGT Among Companies to File License in Nevada: As we reported a couple week ago, Nevada has begun accepting license applications for the regulated market in the state. On Thursday, Cardplayer shed some light on some of the companies officially interested in taking part in the new market. 888 Holdings, International Game Technologies, Balley Technologies and Cantor Gaming were specifically named. Review of the applications are underway even though regulations are still not finalized, which must be done so by the end of January. It's looking possible that online poker could be running in the state by next summer summer. Report: Facebook Considers Online Gambling : In last week's update we mentioned how Zynga had no plans to enter the real money online poker space. This week, a report by EGR indicated that Facebook is looking at handing out eight licenses to online gambling operators in the United Kingdom and other regulated markets. If the reports are true, it's unknown the time-fame in which this would occur or how Facebook would address challenges such as age and identity verification. The report is representative of a wider trend that we are likely to see over the next few years: brick and mortar casinos and even companies that haven't been traditionally associated with gambling entering the space. Bodog Software Update Panned: Last week Bodog released a software update that Bodog hoped, among other things, would enhance the Bodog Recreational Poker model. With the update, player names have been removed from cash games and tournaments, a move that Bodog says will protect recreational players by creating a more level playing field. The update was met with significant controversy due to problems associated with anonymous tables, which includes more difficulty catching colluders. Latest Traffic Update from PokerScout: In PokerScout's weekly online poker traffic update indicated a 1% gain over the previous week helped in large part due to an increase from PokerStars. The Boss Network declined 8% while Party Poker declined 2% allowing iPoker to stay in 2nd place in the rankings for another week. PAS News: Reminder: there are only a few days left to show your support for PAS by voting for us in one of five categories in the annual iGB awards. Jottings: William Hill crowned operator of the year by EGR...Report opens door for internet poker debate in Iowa...Everleaf Adds Cash Games Restriction...Ultimate Bet Player Information Leaked...December US Payment Processing Update...Congressman and online poker support Barney Frank to retire in 2012.
Two of the indicted figures on Black Friday have filed legal papers to fight the government's charges against them, arguing that sites such as Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars were not "gambling businesses." In Full Tilt Poker news of the week, it came to light that the new investors could possibly give equity shares to Full Tilt Poker players owed the most money. These stories and more are a part of this week's Weekly Industry Update. Indicted Banker and Processor to Fight Charges: John Campos and Chad Elie, two of the individuals charged in the Black Friday indictments have each filed seperate legal documents to fight the charges brought against them by the Department of Justice. Campos is the Vice Chairman of the bank accused of deceptively facilitating funds between players and payment processors while Chad Elie processed payments between players and online poker companies. In one of the legal filings, it was stated that "PokerStars and Full Tilt are not ‘illegal gambling businesses’ under IGBA (Illegal Gambling Business Act" because they are not ‘gambling businesses’ at all,” says one of the legal filings. “To be ‘engaged in the business of betting or wagering’ requires that the business has a stake in the outcome of gambling contests, and the Indictment here fails to allege that the poker companies had any such stake." The filings devote a lot of their argument on poker being a game of skill. The IGBA lists nine activities regarded as gambling, none of which have anything in common with the game of poker. These filings represent a possible path to clarify the online poker legal situation in the United States, however, it's very likely that if proceedings are allowed to go on that it could take years to play out and by that time online poker could be made expressly legal anyway. Full Tilt Poker Updates: Equity Could be Offered to Some Players: According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the rescue of Full Tilt Poker could involve offering equity stakes to players owed the most money. Subject Poker also had a great article separating some fact from fiction, which included a denial of a denying of a report which stated that Tapie and company would only be willing to finance 5%-10% of the deal. An attorney of investor group also said that they are moving forward to complete the sale and strive to pay balances to Full Tilt Poker players that are due to them. Among the biggest hurdles of any deal remains a favorable agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. In the article, they also note that they regret the revoking of the Full Tilt Poker license by the AGCC and hope that would reconsider licensing Full TIlt under new ownership. It a separate Subject Poker report, it came to light that the acquisition agreement made between the two parties contains a clause requiring that an outside independent entity to monitor assets before the final sale. In a blog post this week, PAS touched on would it would take for Full Tilt Poker to relaunch. Latest Traffic Update from PokerScout: In this week's traffic report, PokerScout has declared the poker boom as officially dead. The article gets into details about the debate on whether recent overall traffic declines are a long term or short term phenomenon. As far as weekly traffic, numbers were mostly unchanged from the previous week. Merge Gaming saw the biggest biggest decline (6%) among top sites. They have now fallen behind Bodog as the largest U.S. facing online poker room in the world. Jottings: PPA to meet with DOJ regarding Full Tilt Poker player funds...Sportingbet sale to Ladbrokes clears obstacle...Slovakia looking to change online gambling laws...iPoker bot controversy an apparent misunderstanding...Parent company of Everest Poker faces non-complicance notice from Nasdaq...Estonia to recommend online gambling credit card ban...Companies laying the groundwork for online poker.
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