Michigan’s online poker players could get a chance to match wits (and bets) with rivals in other US states after their governor signed interstate online poker legislation. 

On Tuesday, word broke that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had signed a variety of bills from the 2020 legislative session on December 29, including Senate Bill 991, which will allow the state’s online poker licensees to share player liquidity with commercial and tribal gaming operators in other states that have legalized the activity. 

SB 991, which will take effect at the end of March, sought to update the online sports betting, casino and poker legislation the state passed one year ago to specifically authorize interstate poker liquidity. Online poker operations in states where such activity is permitted have to date struggled due to a lack of a sufficiently large player base.

New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware have been sharing poker players since 2018 but only Caesars Interactive Entertainment and its 888 Holdings partner are currently operating poker sites in all three states. Pennsylvania has authorized online poker but has yet to join these other states in a liquidity pool, in part due to legal concerns.   

It’s easy to look at modern-day poker heroes as transitory legends, players who might one day fade into the ether, unlike solid gold stars of the game such as Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson or Phil ‘The Poker Brat’ Hellmuth.  

Some, however, stand out no matter what age they are and one such phenomenon is German super star Fedor Holz.  

Image Courtesy www.casinochecking.com

With over $32 million in live tournament winnings alone, Holz is 8th on the all-time money list and has been semi-retired for a few years too. Where did Holz spring from and how did he turn into one of the best poker players of all-time?  

South Korean casino operator Paradise Co Ltd saw its 2020 gaming revenue fall by more than half, which may be why the company chose to reopen its Seoul venue despite little improvement in the country’s COVID-19 situation. 

On Wednesday, Paradise announced that its December casino revenue totaled KRW42.2b (US$38.9m), a nearly 40% decline from the same month last year but more than quadruple the company’s November revenue. December’s gains were entirely due to table games, which quintupled from November, while electronic gaming machine revenue fell by more than one-fifth. 

December’s take brought Paradise’s full-year revenue to KRW335.3b ($308.5m), down 57.2% from 2019’s result. Table games were down 58% to KRW310.4b, while EGM revenue slid 44.4% to KRW24.9b. 

Paradise operates four foreigner-only casinos, including the Paradise City integrated resort in Incheon, along with three smaller venues in Busan, Jeju Island and the Paradise Walkerhill in South Korea’s capital Seoul. 

New York sports bettors are rejoicing as their governor finally appears to be on board with mobile wagering, while Massachusetts bettors are lamenting their elected reps failing to achieve betting consensus. 

Late Tuesday, the New York Daily News reported that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would make a pitch for legalizing mobile sports betting when he delivers his annual State of the State address next week. Cuomo issued a statement saying legal online betting would “keep millions of dollars in tax revenue here at home” and help the state recover from pandemic-related economic carnage. 

New York legalized betting in 2019 but confined it to in-person wagering at four upstate commercial casinos and their tribal counterparts. Returns to date have been underwhelming, partly due to the distance between those casinos and the state’s major population centers. 

Cuomo, who’d long opposed mobile betting, signalled his change of heart shortly before Christmas, publicly musing about ways New York might offset reductions in its tax revenue following lengthy pandemic shutdowns. Cuomo said this week that he aimed to stop New York bettors from crossing over into New Jersey, where mobile betting is thriving (in part due to those New York bettors).