The prospects of a federal online poker bill in 2012 weaken as Harry Reid is unsuccessful in his attempts to attach the legislation to a high priority bill this week. Meanwhile at Everleaf, more details come to light about the network's departure from the U.S. market. Read about these stories and more in this week's PAS Industry Update. Payroll Tax Bill Does Not Include Poker Rider: Much to the dismay of online poker players and supporters in the U.S., an online poker regulation bill was not a part of the Payroll Tax Bill Extension that passed Congress. Rumors had swirled in recent weeks that Harry Reid was trying to attach a poker bill to the important legislation, which needed to be extended by the end of February. An opinion from a Wall Street Journal analyst stated that an federal online poker bill may have to wait until 2013, although online poker proponents hope for its inclusion on another bill such as the Cybersecurity Act. The PPA is asking supporters to contact influential representatives. The difficulty of passing a bill for such a hot-button issue in an election year remains to be seen. Full Tilt Poker Update: There were no major developments surrounding Full Tilt Poker last week. See our update from last week. Report Confirms Homeland Security Involvement in Everleaf: DiamondFlushPoker, a spinoff site of Subject Poker has confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security did indeed take action against Everleaf Gaming via one of the site's payment processors, Causash Establishment. The poker site was allegedly having transactions tracked as early as February 2009 from the state of Washington, which has a state ban on online poker. According to the article, $27k was seized. A Everleaf "key official" reiterated that funds are segregated and under the control of the LGA. The official also stated that business will continue as usual for non-US players. PokerScout reported that Everleaf has seen traffic decrease by only 12% since the network barred U.S. players from playing. PokerScout Traffic Update: After surging last week by over 11%, poker traffic came back to Earth with a 4% decline, according to PokerScout. The loss mainly came as a result of declines from the top sites, mostly notably a 11% loss from PokerStars and a 3% loss from Party Poker. PAS News: PAS launched the 888poker Revenue-Share offer last week. 888poker is the fourth largest network in online poker and is currently the fast growing site among top-tier rooms. If you are an affiliate promoting to European players, this is a must-promote. Jottings: Probability receives Nevada license, full list posted...PAS releases latest report on U.S. payment processing...iPoker considering dividing into two networks?...Check out Seb's trip report from the LAC...PokerStars launches mobile app...Serbia issues block of 70 unregulated online poker sites...Belgium players face fines of up to €25k for playing on blacklisted sites...
In this week's Industry Update, Jon Kyl signals progress on federal online poker bill. At Full Tilt Poker, we gained fresh insight on what may be the cause of the sale progress with GBT. Kyl Says Federal Bill "Possible": Last week we informed readers that Harry Reid was quoted as saying that a federal online poker bill was "making progress." This week, Arizona Senator and staunch online gambling opponent Jon Kyl told the National Journal that "quite possibly something will get done." After the recent DOJ change on the Wire Act, Kyl may be motivated to get something done that bans other forms of online gambling while compromising on online poker. Full Tilt Deal in Trouble?: Subject Poker gave us insight into Chris Ferguson's secret Full Tilt Poker bank accounts that may shed light on why the Full Tilt Poker-GBT has been delayed and may be in danger. According to Subject Poker, Chris Ferguson is trying to get back around $14.3 million that was used towards Full Tilt Poker expenses in the days after Black Friday. In other notable Full Tilt news, Phil Ivey won the$250,000 buy-in event at the Aussie Millions Sunday morning. PokerScout Traffic Update: Traffic was down 2% last week at top online poker sites last week, according to PokerScout. Merge Gaming was the biggest loser of the week, down 10% after a $1 million Bad Beat Jackpot was hit the previous week. PokerScout does note, however, that Merge is up 14% since December. Among other U.S. facing networks, Cake Poker is up 5% while Bodog/Bovada is down 5%. PAS News: Seb Loaiza wins iGB Affiliate Award for Best Affiliate Manager (Non-Traditional). You can watch Seb accept his award here (47 minute mark). Congrats Seb and thanks to all our publishers, fans and affiliates who showed their support over the last two months! In other PAS news, Pokeraddict was interviewed by QuadJacks' Marco Valerio for an engaging one-hour long interview last Monday on the subject of payment processing and other topics. Jottings: Entraction renamed IGT Poker...Nevada regulators talk of future of Nevada intrastate gaming...Online poker worth up to $5 billion to Zynga if they get into online gambling...Hawaii looks to internet gambling regulation...United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will hold a hearing on online poker on February 9th...
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