In this week's edition of the Weekly Industry Update, intrastate online poker chatter intensifies and Yatahay rebrands as the Winning Poker Network. Be sure to check out these stories and more and this week's PAS Industry Update. More Instrastate Regulation Coming? While a federal online poker bill seems to somewhat of an uphill battle, regulation talk is heating on the state level. Online poker sites will almost certainly be dealing cards to players located in the state of Nevada in 2012 and speculation is that other states are soon to follow after the DOJ reversed their position on the application of the Wire Act to online poker. New Jersey, which last year passed a bill that was vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie, could be next. Yatahay Rebrands as Winning Poker Network: This week Yatahay, the network home of Americas Cardroom and True Poker, announced that they were rebranding to the Winning Poker network. The relatively small U.S. facing network, which has been one of the rooms to see traffic increase over the last year, says the name change is "reflective of [their] industry-leading product offering and proven dedication to the online poker community in the United States." Full Tilt Update: There were no notable updates on the Full Tilt Poker situation over the last week. The AGCC has continued to log complaints from Full Tilt Poker registered players. PokerScout Traffic Update: Online poker traffic was up almost 10% in the first week of January according to PokerScout as poker players returned from their holiday breaks. The upswing was widespread as 9 out of the top 10 sites saw gains. Party Poker saw the biggest gain of the week, up a head-turning 29%, which is enough to reclaim the #2 spot in the world. PokerScout also noted that Italian poker sites are up 30% over the last two weeks. Jottings: Nevada oks private testing of poker sites...IGT plans to buy Double Down Interactive for $500 million, get into social gaming?...Portugal court rules that Bwin,party must pull ads in Portugal...Merge Gaming Network jackpot reaches $1 million, is hit hours later...Potential winners of online gambling...Ex lobbyist says federal poker unlikely...Bwin.Party brings PokerRoom.com back to life.
In the last week, the industry received updates from three U.S. states in their efforts to regulate online poker. From existing online poker sites, the industry received a long awaited statement from Full Tilt Poker, while Party Poker announced rake changes. These stories and more are a part of this week's Industry Update from PAS. Intrastate Legislative Updates: Casino regulators in Nevada have proposed new rules for internet gambling should the United States congress pass a favorable bill. The proposals can be read on the Nevada Gaming Commission site. In California, a bill to legalize online poker, SB40, has been declared dead for 2011 by the state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. On the other side of the country, Raymond Lesniak has reintroduced a bill in New Jersey, the same bill that was previously vetoed by Governor Chris Christie. Party Poker Rake Changes: Earlier this week, Party Poker switched to the weighted contributed rake calculation system. Also planned with the update was an increase to rake caps at many high limit games. The move unsurprisingly turned out to be unpopular with players, who staged a protest by sitting out of real money cash games to protest the move. After the outcry, Party Poker overturned the new rake caps but has kept the industry standard weighted contributed method. Full Tilt Update : Full Tilt Poker released a statement on the status of investor negotiations last week. They stated that the exclusive negotiations with European investors had ended but that discussions are still ongoing with the European investors and other potential investors. Full Tilt Poker also apologized for the lack of communication and maintained that communication would be improved in the future. Meanwhile, Subject Poker reported that Full Tilt Poker's shortfall -- from credited funds that weren't collected from U.S. player deposits -- may be larger than first thought. Latest Traffic Update from PokerScout: Nine out of the top ten online poker sites were down last week in an expected seasonal decline. The only network from the top 10 that saw an increase was Merge Gaming, which hasn't even started to accept new U.S. players yet. PokerScout also reported that Bodog and the Cake Poker Network, two other top U.S. facing sites, also saw weekly gains. Jottings: Facebook eases gambling advertising restrictions... The Poker Pros Network will be leaving the Cake Poker Network and move to a proprietary network in the "early Fall." The site will also stop accepting new U.S. players as of August 31st...Phil Helmuth adds to the skepticism over online poker in D.C....PKR data shows 89% of online poker players men.
Now that the holidays are a distant memory and most Congress and state legislators are back in session, intrastate bills are starting to take a bit more shape. Some states are coming to the realization that the federal government may not do anything in the near future, so they are looking at taking the initiative in helping solve their revenue problems as they look to their future budgets. So I thought I could give everyone a run-down of the status of each state bill. We will likely be doing this feature periodically to keep publishers and players up to date as much as possible. New Jersey Text of Bill- S-490 Status: The e-gambling bill is all but officially passed -- the online gambling community simply awaits the signing of the bill by Governor Chris Christie, which must take place by the end of February. If the bill is vetoed for some reason, it could be overridden by a 2/3 vote in the legislature. Given the landslides or the original vote, an override of a veto is likely. If the bill is not addressed by the deadline the bill would automatically become law. Two other gambling related bills were signed last week by Christie that legalized betting exchanges to help the struggling horse racing industries. He clearly wants to help the New Jersey gaming industry, but he is hesitant to do so in the name of expanded gambling. What The Bill Would Do: The bill would allow for Atlantic City based casinos to offer poker and casino games to players within New Jersey. S-490 would also make it a crime to offer games to players in New Jersey without a license. Sites such as Full Tilt and Stars would be expected to leave New Jersey unless a creative solution can be worked out. Final regulations would likely sort most of the unknowns. California Text of Senate Bill- SB 40 Status: On December 6th, while the Reid bill was gaining steam during the lame duck session in the US Congress, California State Senator Louis Correa introduced SB 40, the latest attempt to legalize internet poker in California. Earlier efforts to pass similar bills were derailed as some Indian tribes threatened to withhold slot machine payments to the state if internet poker was allowed. Supporters are for the bill in the name of job creation and helping balance the state budget, which is in a dire situation. Because there would be a higher tax involved with the legislation, the bill would need to pass by a 2/3 majority. What The Bill Would Do: SB-40 would allow certain tribes and existing card rooms located in California to run state endorsed online poker. The state would operate one poker network and provide licenses to the existing card rooms (they would effectively act as skins). Players would be required to be located in California when they are playing, so residents and visitors alike could play. The bill would make it a misdemeanor to play on unlicensed poker or casino sites. This would almost certainly apply to any current operator unless they can somehow partner with an existing site. Penalties for players could include fines up to $10k and a year in jail. The bill even specifically mentions that the state will opt out of a future federal interstate poker program. While many players would obviously be upset about this, it wouldn’t be as big a deal in California -- in relation to other states -- due to California’s large population. Florida Text of Florida Bill- HB-77, SB812 Status: HB-77 was first unveiled in mid-December by Joseph Abruzzo for consideration during the spring 2011 session. On February 3rd, a companion bill was introduced in the Senate. The Internet Poker Consumer and Revenue Generation Act, or SB 812, was brought to the Florida State Senate by Senator Diaz de la Portilla. The current bill is an exact copy of HB 77. The current session ends on June 30th. What The Bill Would Do: Passage of the bill would create a single state poker network that would be operated by up to three hub operators. Look at it as a single network with the possibility of multiple software operators. The hub operators would be able to license to Florida-based card rooms. Florida players would then sign-up through a card room site and would have to be located in Florida when they are playing. Current poker sites would be illegal under the law, but the bill would not make it illegal for players to play on offshore sites unless regulations specifically addressed the issue. Cliff Notes For those of you wanting a tl;dr version (cliff notes): Status of Intrastate Online Poker BillsState Name Type Status Games Offered By: Existing Sites Illegal for Players? New JerseyS-490Casino, PokerAwaiting Governor SignatureAtlantic City CasinosNoCaliforniaSB 40PokerUnder ConsiderationCalifornia card rooms and tribesYes- Fines, JailFloridaHB-77, SB812PokerUnder Construction- Deadline June 30thFlorida card roomsNo Final Thoughts If these bills do pass, players and poker affiliates wont likely see exactly what online poker looks like in each of the states until regulations are drafted and games are running. The possibility does exist that when states pass internet gambling legislation within their borders that the Department of Justice STILL may take the position that e-gaming is against the law, despite that no federal law exists that expressly forbids e-gaming. Not only does the often cited Wire Act arguably not apply to online poker, but it only mentions interstate commerce. Still, it remains to be seen whether they will have objection to any state passing internet poker legislation within their borders. One can be sure that if there is no objection, that many more states will join the online gambling bandwagon. In the event of resistance from the DOJ, we could end up seeing decisive court battles.
Updated 02-17-2011 at 02:11 PM by TimPAS
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