Monthly Archives: August 2015

Which Presidential Candidates Stand for Online Poker? A Guided Tour

The 2016 presidential candidates for both parties are everywhere these days, and campaign season is officially underway. The first GOP debate was held just last week, providing more than a few memorable moments (for better or worse, most of which were related to the candidacy of Donald Trump), while the latest New Hampshire polling from […]

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Poker Hall of Fame Public Voting Ends Saturday

Poker fans have plenty of opinions when it comes to who should be in the Poker Hall of Fame. For those who want to have their voices heard this year, however, there are only a few days left to contribute to the process. The public voting period for the 2015 Poker Hall of Fame class […]

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Jason Somerville Launches Run it UP Reno Poker Festival, Signs New Deal with Twitch 

Jason Somerville is set to spin-off his ever-popular Twitch TV series, Run it UP, into a six-day live poker festival that will include tournaments, seminars and player parties. Run it UP Reno (RUI Reno) will take place at the Peppermill Casino Reno from October 20 to 25, and hosts a main event that will be […]

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Trump Taj Mahal the only Atlantic City casino to decline in July

Atlantic City’s eight surviving casinos continue to show signs of health, with only one gaming venue posting a year-on-year revenue decline in July

Total brick-and-mortar gaming revenue in the seaside casino hub rose 7.1% to $245m in July. Factoring in contributions from the casinos that have closed since July 2014, the revenue figure would be down 7.3%. Neither figure includes the $12.5m in online gambling revenue New Jersey’s licensed operators earned in July.

The Borgata not only led the elite eight in revenue generation at $71.8m, it also posted the month’s largest gain, rising 19.2% year-on-year. By comparison, second-place finisher Harrah’s was up a mere 1.5% to $36.1m.

The Tropicana upended the traditional rankings by knocking Caesars Atlantic City into fourth place. The Tropicana rose 5.2% to just under $29.2m, while Caesars rose 3.1% to $29m.

New Jersey’s online gambling holding pattern: casino up, poker down

New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market snapped out of its summer lethargy in July.

The state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) reported the state’s regulated online sites generated $12.5m in revenue in August, up 24.4% from the same month last year and nearly 7% higher than June 2015.

The casino vertical continued to shine, improving 34.4% to $10.6m, while poker continued to tarnish, falling 12.2% to $1.9m. For the year to date, overall online gambling revenue is up 15.6% to $84.5m.

In keeping with tradition, the Borgata/Bwin.party/Pala combo led all comers with $3.8m, up nearly 19% year-on-year and 7% sequentially. The casino vertical generated $2.8m while poker added $1m.

Brazil’s president vetoes sports betting law, approves new gambling fines

Brazil’s president has vetoed legislation that would have authorized legal sports betting.

Last month, Brazil’s senate approved its 671/2015 legislation, aka the MP Football bill due to segments intended to boost funding for the country’s football teams. The bill contained provisions for the creation of two new lotteries, including the country’s first legal fixed-odds sports betting products.

Last Wednesday, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff signed the bill into law, but not before vetoing 36 of its clauses, including the fixed-odds section. The veto is theoretically subject to an override, although it’s unclear whether a sufficient number of legislators would support such a move.

In a message to the country’s parliamentarians, Rouseff justified this veto by saying the creation of this betting product “would require a more comprehensive regulation, to ensure greater legal and economic security to the sport, adequate levels of fraud control and tax evasion.’ Rouseff also cited the bill’s lack of mechanisms “to prevent possible social impact.”

GameAccount inks free-play online casino deal with California’s San Manuel Band

Online gaming software supplier GameAccount Network has signed a free-play online casino deal with California’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.

The pact will see GameAccount provide its Simulated Gaming online and mobile offering to San Manuel Digital, the wholly owned interactive division of the San Manuel Band. The tribe operates a brick-and-mortar casino in Highland, east of Los Angeles, and is part of the Amaya Gaming/PokerStars real-money online poker California coalition.

The deal marks the first west coast pact for GameAccount’s free-play product, and CEO Dermot Smurfitt said the tribal casino market remains a 2015 priority for his firm. With California’s legislative path toward real-money online poker trapped in molasses, Smurfitt believes Simulated Gaming is “the right opportunity for all land-based US casino operators seeking to extend their business and patron relationship online.”

San Manuel Digital CEO Matthew Cullen, who formerly headed up social casino outfit RocketPlay, said the Simulated Gaming product will launch this fall and that GameAccount “will not compete online by operating their own B2C social casino.”