Monthly Archives: February 2015

Confessions of a Poker Writer: How to Get Banned From 2+2

Lee Davy continues his confessions series by talking about his experience with poker forums, and his views on his ban from 2+2.

Spam.

A great word.

To the PlayStation posers of today, it means posting/sending a lot of junk marketing material that nobody wants to read. To the Pong prefects it’s a tin of chopped meat that your mother used to fry in lard and serve to you with chips – every night of the week.

The only form of poker spam that seems to come my way, does so when I am doing something that I shouldn’t be doing. There are a lot of online poker rooms that have cottoned on to the vast attraction of the TV and movie download/streaming services. The ones that you don’t pay for. The ones that you get to watch what you want to watch, when you want to watch it.

The ads pop up like a Saturday morning visit from the grandparents as you try to find your way through the ‘click here’ traps on your way to the next episode of Better Call Saul. It’s annoying. A simple click on the green button dispels any issues though.

There was a time when my main hobby would be a spot of Tommy Tanking. YouPorn was my website of choice. It was always a shock to see the face of Kara Scott and Giovanni Rizzo staring back at me during my moment of ecstasy. Online poker rooms used to spam those sites also. And to think. They would be married a few years later. I always knew that YouPorn could see into the future.

PokerStars Guarantee $9m for Sunday Million Ninth Anniversary and Shoot Down bitcoin Rumors

PokerStars have slapped a $9m guarantee on the side of the Sunday Million ninth anniversary, and have flatly denied rumors of any forthcoming integration with bitcoin.

PokerStars have delighted their customers by guaranteeing a $9m prize pool for their ninth anniversary of the Sunday Million.

I know $215 is a lot of money. You know that $215 is a lot of money. But on Sunday, 8 March 2015 it’s important that you juggle those financial balls. Find a way to squeeze $215 into the ‘Entertainment’ column on the spreadsheet you just loathe to update.

The first time PokerStars offered their one million guarantee was Sunday, 6 March 2006. A star was born. 5,893 players entered and Daryl Jace won the $173,844 first prize. It’s now a staple part of a professional poker players diet. The one event of the week that you need to be a part of. To miss one is akin to missing an episode of Breaking Bad. It just doesn’t happen.

In 2011, The Sunday Million was five years old. To celebrate, PokerStars, guaranteed a $5m prize pool. One year later they upped it to $6m – then $7m, then $8m and now $9m.

If, one day, you find yourself ordering a book called “Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive,” with the intention of learning about poker, you will be sorely disappointed. The author, Harvey Mackay, knows nothing about poker. But he does know a thing or two about business.

Lesson 65 of that great book carries the title: “If You Want to be Santa Claus, Your Sled Better be able to Pull a Trailer.”

Michigan Lottery hands out first $1m prize via online scratch ticket

The Michigan Lottery has awarded its first $1m online prize since launching online lottery operations in November. Even more notable, the $1m prize wasn’t won by a regular draw ticket purchased online but by a $20 online scratch game called Diamond Payout.

Michigan Lottery spokesman Jeff Holyfield told Mlive.com that over 100k customers have registered for online lottery play since the mid-November launch and the number “grows every day.” The Lottery projects online sales will top $480m over the site’s first eight years of operation.

Online scratch tickets have been somewhat controversial over their resemblance to online slots play. The Minnesota Lottery was the first to debut online scratchers one year ago but irate state legislators are moving swiftly to strip the Lottery of its ability to sell anything online. But even if Minnesota goes down, states like Georgia are fully embracing expanded online options and other states like Kentucky are looking to join the party.

The growing number of state lotteries staking out their online turf is yet another reason why federal lawmakers are going to have such a tough time passing Sheldon Adelson’s Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA). The North American Association of State & Provincial Lottieries (NASPL) voiced its objections to RAWA’s earlier incarnations and those objections will only get louder as more lotteries come online and more revenue gets funneled into state coffers.

Meanwhile, two state legislators have introduced a pair of bills to privatize the Michigan Lottery. SB 75 and HB 4077 would require Lottery commissioner M. Scott Bowen to seek bids from private companies to manage the Lottery, although the legislation wouldn’t require Bowen to accept any of these bids.

Rep. Earl Poleski said his bill was intended to find out if the Lottery could earn more “if it had some management that was a little bit more innovative or did a better job of marketing.” Sen. Wayne Schmidt believes the Lottery “would be one of those things that should be more in the private sector.”

A Strong Buy On Wynn Resorts' Stock

The gaming and casino industry is going through many challenges of late. Macau has been the hub of the casino industries and the Government there has recently imposed many restrictions on casino rules, which has affected the growth, earnings and margins of almost all gaming companies, including those of Wynn Resorts .

Prosecutors protest inadmissibility of evidence against Paul Phua

US federal prosecutors have asked a judge to reconsider a court ruling preventing them from using crucial evidence against accused sports betting operator Wei Seng ‘Paul’ Phua (pictured).

On Tuesday, prosecutors filed papers asking US District Judge Andrew Gordon to reconsider US Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen’s recommendation that prosecutors not be allowed to use evidence gained via questionable FBI tactics. Prosecutors have previously stated that the evidence in question is crucial to their case, which is supposed to go to trial on April 13.

Phua, his son Darren, poker player Richard Yong and five other individuals were arrested last July on charges of operating an illegal online sportsbook out of three luxury villas at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Suspecting chicanery was going on behind the villas’ walls, the FBI shut off the villas’ internet connection and then, when the occupants called to complain, sent in agents disguised as Caesars’ tech support wearing hidden body cameras.

The FBI agents neglected to mention their subterfuge when obtaining their warrants. For that omission and for having made other “false and misleading statements,” Judge Leen ruled that the search warrant affidavit was “fatally flawed.” Leen therefore recommended that the evidence obtained via the warrant – computers, mobile phones and other technology – be deemed inadmissible.

On Tuesday, assistant US Attorneys Kimberly Frayn and Phillip Smith Jr. argued that the FBI had presented sufficient legitimate evidence of probable cause when applying for the warrant. The prosecutors argued that the agents’ errors and omissions were neither intentional nor of a material nature sufficient to toss out the evidence obtained via the warrant.

Meanwhile, Phua’s attorneys David Chesnoff and Thomas Goldstein filed their own papers protesting Leen’s ruling that agents hadn’t violated the defendants’ fourth amendment rights by pulling the internet plug and playing dress-up. In a filing viewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the lawyers argued that the government’s behavior – and Leen’s validation of said behavior – “would shock the conscience of ordinary Americans” and represented “an assault on our deepest constitutional values.”

Five of the defendants in this case have already reached plea deals with prosecutors, while charges against a sixth defendant were dropped, leaving only the Phuas still fighting the charges.

Cypress man wins $1.4 million in lottery, drives to work

Raul and Susan Bernal show off their winnings at the California Lottery Santa Ana District Office on Feb. 13. The Cypress couple won $1.4 millon in the Powerball lottery last week. Raul Bernal of Cypress found out he had won more than $1,000,000 in the lottery on his way to work … so he just kept driving.

ResortsCasino.com prep launch after SNG Interactive gets transactional waiver

New Jersey’s online gambling market will gain another entrant this month as Atlantic City’s Resorts Casino Hotel prepares to launch its SNG Interactive-powered online casino ResortsCasino.com.

SNG Interactive – the joint venture of UK pool betting operators Sportech and Swedish software outfit NYX Gaming Group – proudly announced that it has been granted a transactional waiver by the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), allowing SNG to provide online gambling technology in the state. Resorts is promising “the largest selection of casino slots and table games in the state of New Jersey.”

Sportech’s president of Digital US Rich Roberts said receiving the transactional waiver marked “a key moment in the development of SNG Interactive.” Roberts said the launch of Resorts’ online casino would take place “at the end of the month” following a week-long free-play testing period. Resorts has a separate deal with PokerStars to offer online poker if and when the DGE gets around to granting a transactional waiver to Stars’ new owners, Canada’s Amaya Gaming.

Resorts is AC’s oldest casino and placed dead last in January’s revenue report, earning just $11m, less than the struggling Trump Taj Mahal. While online gambling will undoubtedly boost Resorts’ bottom line, it’s anybody’s guess whether Resorts will boost the overall online revenue pie or simply mean smaller slices for everyone.

There are currently four AC casinos offering an online casino product: the Borgata, Caesars, the Tropicana and the Golden Nugget. New Jersey’s online casino revenue hit an all-time high of $9.3m in January, representing 80% of the state’s total online gambling take for the month and a 54% year-on-year improvement for the vertical.

In related news, NYX Gaming has inked a partnership with gaming content supplier Realistic Games. The deal will allow NYX customers to access Realistic slots and table games via the NYX OGS distribution platform.

WSOP Circuit Event Moving to Lake Lugano in Italy

A WSOP Circuit Event is saying ciao (yes, it also means “hello”) to Italy for the first time, as it enters the country with a flourish. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is traveling to Italy, confirming this week that it will hold its first-ever event in the country, beginning September 16, 2015. The tournament will […]

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Floyd Mayweather Tweet Gives Ivey League Shot in the Arm

Floyd Mayweather is in talks to fight Manny Pacquiao, but before he does he’s fighting to help out his buddy Phil Ivey. The boxing legend tweeted this week to his 5.58 million followers, “Learn how to play poker like @philivey #TMT” along with a link to the Ivey League website. Mayweather’s promo couldn’t have come […]

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PokerStars Pulls The Plug On EPT Deauville

The French poker community was dealt another bad hand this month after PokerStars and the European Poker Tour (EPT) announced that the annual Deauville stop is no more. Although the company’s Senior Manager of Public Relations, Rebecca McAdam, stated that the contract to hold EPT events in Deauville had come to a “natural conclusion”; however, […]

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