The Full Tilt Poker hearings regarding their Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) license was held earlier today and lawyers for Full Tilt immediately asked the commissioners to make the public hearings closed to the public. The lawyers cited “confidential information that would impede further negotiations with the Unnamed European investor group”. After a three-hour deliberation the commissioners agreed to closed door meetings but would have a camera recording “in the interest of justice and fairness”.
Poker players from around the world were hoping to get part of the Full Tilt problems resolved today but sadly today’s events ended in more disgrace for Full Tilt Poker and the AGCC. With so much money on the line the proceedings should have continued in an open setting for the sake of transparency. While there will be a camera rolling behind closed doors it does not mean the public will ever see the video.
Most of the poker media on hand were left shaking their heads and laughing in disbelief.
Correction: The meetings behind closed doors have continued but no new information has come out.
Update: Nothing really happened today. Full Tilt Poker and AGCC will reconvene no later than September 15, 2011 in which time Full Tilt Poker is expected to find a buyer or go out of business entirely.
The latest rumors about embattled Full Tilt Poker and their fall from grace had unknown European investors set to buy up the beleaguered franchise. Now ERG Magazine is reporting that those investors are only interested in certain UK and Ireland based parts of the company. The word is that they want nothing to do with anything facing the United States.
Many industry watchers think that such a deal has very little chance of being completed in time for the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) hearing slated to take place in London on Thursday July 28, 2011. Most believe that Full Tilt Poker will not be allowed to restart operations with their AGCC License without some sort of financial deal in place by that time.
Whether or not a deal for just some of the assets does take place, will non-US players return to the brand if they do not see US player balances being paid?
All week long at Party Poker you can find guaranteed tournaments with prize pools at nosebleed heights. And if you’re successful at any of these tournaments, Party Poker will even reward you with placement on a tournament leaderboard running all month long.
For starters, Party Poker players can enjoy $30K Guaranteed Super Weekdays, Monday through Thursday at 3 pm ET with $99 buy-ins, no fee, and huge payouts. These tournaments also have satellite qualifiers aplenty leading into them, so you don’t have to pay the $99 buy-in to play. There are even points qualifiers you can enter with no cash whatsoever, only Party Poker Points.
The big guarantee of every week at Party Poker of course is its $200K Guaranteed Sunday event. This costs $215 to enter directly (again with no fee) and features, as promised in the title, a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool each time. As with the Party Poker $30K Guaranteed Super Weekdays, players can enter the $200K Guaranteed Sunday without paying the $215 buy-in by winning their way in through a series of satellite qualifiers running daily at the site. What’s more, there are actually a pair of $200K Guaranteed Sunday events: a multi-table event and a sit and go event, with separate qualifiers leading into each of them.
Players excelling in these or any tournaments at Party Poker will find themselves ranked on a monthly tournament leaderboard. There are separate MTT and Sit & Go leaderboards, each with weekly prizes up to $600 and monthly prizes that vary from month to month.
It looks like United States based poker players may have a site to play on after all. It has been said that the Merge Gaming Network is going to begin allowing new American players by the end of July. While there is no day that has been locked in for it yet, it’s looking as if it will happen at some point, hopefully soon. The Merge Network was one of the biggest winners in terms of adding traffic after Black Friday. A month after the indictment, Merge’s cash game traffic had gone up an incredible 79%. The Merge Network includes sites like Carbon Poker, and Lock Poker.
Originally, Merge decided to stop accepting new US players in the beginning of June. The reason for this was a bit different than most other sites though; as they were actually so flooded with new US players that they began to have payment processing issues. The Network was looking at a two week backup for cashouts, and decided that it would be smarter to just stop the growth, and get their customers paid out quicker.
When US players are fully allowed back on the site, it will be interesting to see how they do payment options for US players. Currently, a debit card or credit card has been said to work on the site, but the best withdrawal option as of now is by check. While getting paid out by check isn’t always the fastest (it sometimes takes up to two months to get the check processed), it is definitely a much better option than not getting paid at all. Based on Carbon Poker’s payouts though, players who put in for a check withdrawal were receiving payments within 2-5 days a few months back. This was of course, a bit before they had to stop allowing US players due to payout backups.
888 Poker has launched a huge Super Stack event that plans to launch players into big winnings at some of the UK and Australia’s most famous land-based casinos in some of the world’s most exotic gambling locations. Those locations, to be precise, are London, England; Birmingham, England; and Melbourne, Australia.
Qualifiers are taking place at 888Poker now for tickets into these live offline events worth £165/AUD $300 and a possible share of a £/AUD $15,000 prize pool.
For the London event to be held at the London Mint Casino, 888 Poker is holding qualifiers every Monday at 18:30 GMT for a $10 + $1 R/A buy-in, with 10 seats in the offline event guaranteed at each. For the Birmingham event to be held at the Circus Casino in Star City, qualifiers will take place every Thursday, also at 18:30 GMT, also for a $10 + $1 R/A buy-in and also with 10 seats guaranteed. The Australia event will take place at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, with qualifiers taking place every Thursday at 20:00 AEST for a $15 + $1.50 R/A buy-in with 3 seats in the offline event guaranteed at each.
888 Poker is also holding satellite tournaments into these various super stack qualifiers. The schedules, buy-ins and guarantees vary depending on the event, with the Melbourne satellite costing slightly more and occuring slightly less often.
Winners are responsible for all travel and accommodation costs, although multiple wins for an event will be credited as cash expenses for the attending player. Interest in purchasing the site by European investors is leading many to be hopeful.
Leaders of the Democratic and Republican Parties in the Senate have sent the U.S. Attorney General a letter demanding that the Justice Department do something about Internet gambling. What, exactly, is up to the reader. This Rorschach inkblot test of a letter allows proponents and opponents to project their hopes and wishes on whether the federal government will ever do anything, other than make a few showy arrests, about online gaming.
The fact that the authors could agree on even a letter is itself amazing. Harry Reid is the Majority Leader and a moderate Democrat. He represents Nevada, which makes him pro-gambling. Jon Kyl (R.-AZ) is a conservative Republican, a redundancy since all but two Republicans (the senators from Maine) are conservative. He is the GOP Whip, the third most powerful Republican, and responsible for rounding up the votes of his party in the Senate. More significantly, he is so opposed to Internet gambling that his name has become synonymous with efforts to outlaw it, as in “the Kyl bill.”
So how did sworn enemies come together on this issue? And what exactly did they agree to?
Optimists see the letter as a breakthrough, that Kyl is getting ready to allow, at least, intra-state Internet poker. As additional evidence, they point to this language from Kyl’s website:
“Efforts to carve out an exception for games like poker, which many believe is a game of skill, may be considered later this year. Until I have the chance to review them, I cannot make a judgment about their merits; but I will consider them carefully as long as they leave in place the broader proscriptions against online betting.”
But, if anyone thinks Kyl has suddenly become reasonable, here is the preceding paragraph:
“I have opposed efforts to legalize Internet gambling in the past because evidence suggests that it fosters problems unlike any other forms of gambling. Online players can gamble 24 hours a day from home; children can play without sufficient age verification; and betting with a credit card can undercut a player’s perception of the value of cash — leading to possible addiction and, in turn, bankruptcy, crime, and even suicide.”
So, what is really going on? It is not cynical to remember we are dealing here with professional politicians. Notice, for example, Kyl’s careful language about Internet gambling being “unlike any other forms of gambling.” Kyl is a social conservative, one of those Big Brother types who want government in the wedding chapel, bedroom and doctor’s office, particularly if you are female. He is against gambling. But Arizona’s casino tribes are politically powerful and able to give, or withhold, millions of dollars in campaign donations.
Reid says he is personally opposed to Internet gambling. But he represents Nevada casinos. So, his position switched when the American Gaming Association’s switched. Reid went so far as to introduce his own online gaming bill, which would have benefited Harrah’s (now renamed Caesars).
Deconstructing the letter — a copy is attached — it is clear the real enemies are the state lotteries. The one thing Reid and Kyl can agree on is that Internet poker should be run by their constituents: Indian casinos for Kyl and commercial casinos for Reid. So, it is possible that Congress might legalize intra-state and ever interstate online poker, if they can figure out a way to prevent state lotteries from being the operators.
Of course, this requires Congress to actually do something. Reid has proven himself to be such a weak leader that Democrats could not accomplish their full agenda, even when they had the Presidency, control of the House, and a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate. And the Republicans were rewarded in the 2010 election for being the “Party of No.” They are anti-government to begin with — except for trying to impose their religious views on everyone else — and believe they can win in 2012 if Obama accomplishes nothing more.
Some conservatives, like Rep. Joe Barton (R.-TX), best known for apologizing to BP for the White House daring to investigate its Gulf oil spill, have come out in favor of Internet poker. But all it will take is one letter from an anti-gambling religious group, like Focus on the Family, to get the right-wing riled up. The tea-party controls the GOP, and while Democrats still have the presidency and a majority in the Senate, the Republicans have veto power over everything.
The newest pro player to be signed by 888 Poker is not a poker pro but a Spanish football pro, Santiago Canizares, player in three FIFA World Cup tournaments and 4 UEFA European Football Championship series’. But just because he’s not a poker pro, doesn’t mean he’s not a fierce poker player. In fact, to prove his poker mettle, Santiago Canizares will be heading up four poker challenges coming up at 888 Poker over the next several weeks.
The first takes place on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 and is called the Canizares Bounty Challenge. It starts at 19:00 GMT and features a low $1 buy-in. The prize pool is $500, plus there’s an extra $100 bounty going to the player who knocks Canizares out of the tournament. There will be a second Canizares Bounty Challenge taking place on August 3 in the same time slot.
The other pair of big challenges featuring this legend of football is the Canizares PokerCam Challenge, taking place Thursday, July 28 at 19:00 GMT. This event has a 5-cent plus 10-cent buy-in ($0.05 + $0.10). No guaranteed prize pool is listed, but players will at least be guaranteed to be sitting in front of their webcams at the same tournament where Santiago Canizares will also be sitting in front of his webcam. Scope out his tells if you dare. A second Canizres PokerCam Challenge will take place at the same time on Thursday, August 11.
This gives players four chances over the next few weeks to get acquainted with 888 Poker’s latest celebrity acquisition and welcome him to the poker playing community at the site recently named “Socially Responsible Operator of the Year”.
888 Poker pulls out all the stops with its rewards program, including $25,000 Rewards Freerolls.
As part of its rewards program, 888 Poker is holding special freeroll tournaments that players can enter depending on their status level. Players can even advance status levels simply by competing in one of these rewards freerolls. In addition to regular cash prizes, 888 Poker is also holding weekly and monthly status freerolls with prize pools of up to $25,000 guaranteed.
At least five of the 888 Poker rewards freerolls have no buy-in. You need only have attained the required eligible status level to sit in. All players are eligible for the $75 Daily Freeroll and the $750 Weekly Bronze Freeroll. There’a are also $1,000 Weekly Silver Freerolls, $4,000 Monthly Gold Freerolls and $7,000 Mothly Platinum Freerolls with the named status levels reflecting the minimum level participating players must have attained prior to registration. The weekly and monthly freerolls in this category all take place on Saturdays.
Then there are three rewards tournaments that aren’t exactly freerolls but are certain cheap when compared with their guaranteed prize pools. There’s the Silver Dollar tournament for Bronze players only with its $1 + $0.10 buy-in and rebuy/add-on, awarding cash and Silver status. The Gold Rush has a $5 + $0.50 buy-in, is open to Bronze and Silver players, and confers Gold Status in addition to cash prizes. Finally the Platinum Record costs $15 + $1.50 to enter and confers Platinum status to the top Bronze, Silver and Gold entrants.
The Poker Players Alliance just posted a guide to what poker players might try, to get their money back from Full-Tilt, Absolute and the other operators who won’t, or can’t, return deposits. Although I don’t agree with everything the PPA’s say – for example, I think many U.S. courts would throw out claims by players as debts associated with gambling – they raise the important and immediate point: If you are going to file a claim for part of the millions of dollars seized by the U.S. federal government in bank accounts around the world on April 15th, you only have until July 15, 2011.
You don’t need a lawyer to file, but you should get one. The PPA’s lawyers were worried that a player might be hit with fines if the court decides the claims are frivolous. I’m more concerned that you have to file the claim form under oath, swearing that you have an ownership interest in an account you may not have even known existed. Perjury is a real crime, with real penalties. And both I and the PPA attorneys agree that the additional papers you will have to file within 21 day after filing the claim form, should be written by a lawyer.
The reason you might have the right to file a claim is that the Department of Justice decided that at least some of the bank accounts would be seized under what is known as a civil forfeiture. Criminal cases are limited to the government and the defendants. Civil cases involving the seizure of the poker operators’ and payment processors’ bank accounts are open to anyone who has a good faith claim on the money.
But there is a tight time limit. The DoJ published its notice of intent to seize the online poker funds on May 16, 2011. Claimants have only 60 days to file their verified (meaning under oath) claim with the U.S. District Court Clerk in Manhattan; that means before the end of the day on Friday, July 15, 2011. You can file electronically.
Extensions are possible, but they would require either getting a court order or an agreement with the prosecutors. In fact, the PokerStars companies, Absolute and Full-Tilt all were given until September 30, 2011, to file their claims. But I doubt either the DoJ or federal Judge Leonard B. Sand would agree to give more time to a mere player.
Some claims have already been filed. The first was by Chad Elie, who claims an ownership or possessory interest in a third of the accounts seized. Chad is the Las Vegas defendant who married former Playmate Destiny Davis the day after he was arrested in connection with Black Friday. He is out on $250,000 bail.
Other claims have been filed. The second was by LST Financial, Inc., which calls itself “a full-service, third-party financial processor and service bureau.” It is claiming an interest in five bank accounts in Texas and North Carolina seized from Four Oaks Bank and Trust. MAS, Inc., claims money seized from Hawaii National Bank. And, Ultra Safe Pay says it is the owner of the funds seized from Umpqua Bank in Roseburg, Oregon.
Should you file a claim? You probably don’t have much chance of success, unless you have a communication that mentions one of the bank accounts listed in the Complaint. They are on the pages immediately preceding the claim form in the PPA paper. You want to find a name or number that matches an email from a payment processor or online poker operator.
Even then, there are some risks. I don’t think the judge would punish a player if the claim failed. But the DoJ will now have your name and identifying information. There is no federal crime against playing poker online. But you can be sure that if you are claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars that you will have your taxes audited.
So far we’ve told you that 888 Poker and Cake Poker are sending players to the World Poker Tour WPT Grand Prix de Paris this year. But there’s still another site running WPT Paris satellite qualifiers and it’s Party Poker, with prize packages up for grabs worth $15,000 a piece.
The Party Poker WPT Grand Prix de Paris satellite series runs from June 20 to August 21. It includes freerolls tournaments that each give out 25 seats in a $3 speed rebuy sub qualifier that in turn sends one player to the satellite qualifier for every $75 in the prize pool. Alternately, there’s an $8 sub qualifier that’s not a speed event, which awards 1 of every 10 players a satellite qualifier seat. Similarly, the WPT Grand Prix de Paris Satellite Qualifiers, taking place twice daily except Sundays when they’re held only once and as a Turbo event, also send 1 in 10 finishers to the final event of the series, the WPT Grand Prix de Paris Satellite, in which 1 of every 20 finishers will get a $15,000 WPT Paris prize package, at least one package awarded at each satellite. These satellites take place on Sundays and have a $750 direct buy-in.
Each $15,000 Party Poker WPT Paris prize package includes, in addition to the $10,800 ticket into the main event, hotel accommodations while you’re in Paris (valued at $2,200), and $2,000 cash to spend as you see fit. The 2011 World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris takes place at the Aviation Club de France from September 5th to September 10th.
The Full Tilt Poker hearings regarding their Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) license was held earlier today and lawyers for Full Tilt immediately asked the commissioners to make the public hearings closed to the public. The lawyers cited “confidential information that would impede further negotiations with the Unnamed European investor group”. After a three-hour deliberation the commissioners agreed to closed door meetings but would have a camera recording “in the interest of justice and fairness”.
Leaders of the Democratic and Republican Parties in the Senate have sent the U.S. Attorney General a letter demanding that the Justice Department do something about Internet gambling. What, exactly, is up to the reader. This Rorschach inkblot test of a letter allows proponents and opponents to project their hopes and wishes on whether the federal government will ever do anything, other than make a few showy arrests, about online gaming.
The Poker Players Alliance just posted a guide to what poker players might try, to get their money back from Full-Tilt, Absolute and the other operators who won’t, or can’t, return deposits. Although I don’t agree with everything the PPA’s say – for example, I think many U.S. courts would throw out claims by players as debts associated with gambling – they raise the important and immediate point: If you are going to file a claim for part of the millions of dollars seized by the U.S. federal government in bank accounts around the world on April 15th, you only have until July 15, 2011.