Nevada Casino Revenues Down 1.9% in June.

The spiraling economy has hit the U.S. pretty hard over the past few years.  Gas prices, cost of living, and property values have been out of wack for a good period during this particular time.

While a lot of analysts believe we’re already in a recession, it hasn’t really slowed up the casino industry in Nevada.

Although recent reports showed casino revenues were down 1.9% in June, 2008, as compared to the same time last year, the industry still found itself on the end of a $12.5 billion dollar upswing.  In fact, casinos in the state have always been one of the strongest staples in struggling economic times.

Combined with world class gaming and entertainment, great restaurants, and an overall family environment as of late, Nevada has been a hotspot for tourists, gamblers, and new residents coming in from out of state.  It is no wonder why these casinos thrive during times where many business go belly up.

It’ll be interesting to see what kind of revenues companies like Harrah’s and MGM can conjure up if they’re allowed to delve into the online gambling market.

ZOMG PokerStars has a $1.5 Million Guaranteed EVERY Sunday now! Qualify for as little as $2! How can you NOT click?

Asian Poker Tour Macau Adds A Brunson…Or Two.

Doyle and Todd Both Making The Trip to APT Macau.

The Asian Poker Tour’s next stop will be in Macau later this month, and it is rumored to have quite the solid slate of poker players on the guest list.

Along with tournament veterans like JC Tran and Nam Le, it looks like the Macau field might’ve gotten a little bit tougher with the latest announcement that the Godfather of Poker Doyle Brunson will be making an appearance as well for the $5k Main Event!  Doyle’s high stakes son Todd Brunson will also be in attendance, with APT Philippines winner David Saab also hoping to add yet another Asian Poker Tour title to his resume when he makes the trip over.

“We are proud to have the number one name in poker, Doyle Brunson attending the Asian Poker Tour,” said Matt Savage, tournament director for APT. “Doyle is the one player who has seen it all in the poker industry so it is appropriate that he will be there to witness the next boom - poker in Asia”

Don’t get me wrong though folks, while I’m sure Doyle and Todd love the aura of the tournament scene, Macau is simply one of the newest gambling hot spots around the world - and there is already talk of a huge $130k minimum buy-in cash game supposedly being organized as well to entertain the highest stakes gamblers on the side!

World Series of Poker Europe Location Announced.

Casino at the Empire Will Host 2008 WSOPE.

“We are eagerly anticipating World Series of Poker Europe this year,” said Ty Stewart, World Series of Poker Director of Marketing. “We have enhanced the schedule to provide more variety and game play, greatly broadened the worldwide television exposure and have brought the event under one roof to better the player experience for this prestigious and premiere event.”

Along with those comments came the announcement of where the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe would be officially be held at.  And after several months of speculation, it was revealed the Casino at the Empire would be the  WSOPE’s newest locale.  The casino, which is located in a nice London hotspot, was also used to host a few of last year’s WSOPE festivities.

This year’s World Series will undoubtedly attract some of the best players in the world, all of them looking to take down defending champion and online poker wiz kid Annette ‘annette15′ Obrestrad.

In another surprise announcement, ESPN will also be covering the events live - with most of the coverage being viewable at ESPN360.com.

The first of 4 events will begin on September 19th, so keep your calendars open and ready.  The WSOPE will need proper railing….

Fred_Brink Wins NEW PokerStars Sunday Million.

New $1.5 Million Guaranteed Tournament Gets a Winner.

PokerStars recently unveiled its new Sunday Million Guaranteed in the past few days, upping the guarantee from a cool million bucks to $1.5 million!  It wasn’t meant to bring in more players than it already does, but it sure brought on a lot more attention to the tourney than it previously had in the past.

Drawing in an impressive 8,000+ entrants was the simplest part of the tournament.

Getting to the final table isn’t.

Somehow though, after 10+ hours of play, play got down to just 9 players.  Online poker legend Andy McLEOD was steamrolling en route to the chip lead before play began.  He was hoping to parlay that huge stack into a $205k payday and another notch on his poker tournament belt.

However, as play resumed and the chips started flying around, it was McLEOD who would eventually relinquish his chip lead to some rather unknown opponents.  One of these unknowns was a player by the name of ‘Fred_Brink,’ who would end up scooping a lot of big pots late and seem to be catching all the right cards at JUST the right time.

When it came down to crowning a winner, it would be Fred_Brink taking down the event for $200k and change!

World Poker Tour Now To Be Broadcast in India.

WPT Announces Deal With Zee Sports.

Just weeks after the World Poker Tour announced that it had FINALLY locked up a broadcasting deal with Fox Sports, it has added to its global television portfolio by signing a deal that would allow them to distribute their programming to the 1.1 billion people of India!

WPT Founder Steve Lipscomb signed a contract with Hindi-based Zee Sports this past week, allowing the WPT to start broadcasting in September 2008!

“Zee Sports and WPTE together create a powerful partnership as the most trusted vehicles to introduce poker to India,” said Steve Lipscomb, WPT Founder, President and CEO. “We are delighted to be making history together.”

Poker fans in the region will be able to watch 19 two-hour episodes of the acclaimed poker program, with many of the episodes being available in simulcast on the internet subsidiaries of Zee Sports.

Bodog Refutes Forbes.com Editorial.

Alwyn Morris Defiantly Challenges Forbes.com Story.

Bodog Life recently had $24 million in funds seized from US bank accounts according to a story published on Forbes.com.

However, Alwyn Morris, who is the operations director for the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group that runs Bodog out of Canada, refuted the story just hours after its publication.

“(The) seizure of funds from these US payment processors was mischaracterized in this article, which refers to two specific legal cases against US processors,” said a statement released by Morris. “The first of these cases - relating to a seizure of funds from a processor known as JBL Services - happened some time ago and has absolutely nothing to do with the current payment processing challenges being experienced in the US. The constraints being experienced by payment processors in the US are universal in that region and not specific to any particular processor or site.”

It is unclear what will happen from here considering the story just broke.

What is clear is why hundreds of thousands of US players haven’t received their cashouts from Bodog.

Some players have gone more than 40 days without receiving a dime of their cashouts - and the Forbes story might shed some light on it all.

We’ll be reporting on this story as we learn more information about it.  Good luck to all those still looking to receive their cashouts soon and in a very timely way.

PokerStars Sunday Million Now A $1.5 Million Guarantee!

Sunday Million Makes $500k Jump in Guaranteed Pool.

PokerStars, which is the biggest online poker site in the world, has made their tournament prize pools and structures an industry standard to follow.

This week they added to that in a HUGE way.

PokerStars announced they be raising the guaranteed prize pool in their famous Sunday Million from $1 million to $1.5 million dollars!

This is a pretty big incentive for online poker players who haven’t tried out the room, mainly because satellites to this world renown tourney start at just 2 bucks!  So for a small amount of cash, players have the chance to take a shot at a solid prize pool and a 1st place payout that normally is NEVER under $110,000.

It’ll be interesting to see how many seats sell this week for the inaugural Sunday Million MTT - which is when the new prize pool goes into effect.

Tiffany Michelle Finalizes UB Sponsorship Deal.

Embattled PokerNews Host Signs With Ultimate Bet - FINALLY.

Former color commentator and celebrity poker host Tiffany Michelle finally inked a sponsorship deal with controversial poker room Ultimate Bet this past week.

Michelle was the last woman standing in this year’s 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, outlasting over 6,000+ players en route to making it to the final two tables!  Unfortunately her luck would run out while she was making a serious play at the final 9, finishing in a heartbreaking 17th place.

“From Hollywood to Vegas, Tiffany Michelle is a rising star in so many extraordinary ways,” stated Annie Duke, UltimateBet’s Cardroom Consultant. “We’re thrilled to be able to bring such a talented force on board.”

The signing is just one of several HUGE acquisitions that UB has made over the past few weeks.  They’ve picked up a ton of huge online stars, the biggest of course being Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy.

It is clear that the signings represent a time of change and transition for the controversial poker room - and with more and more evidence has popped up regarding the once thought-to-be-isolated Superuser account scandal in recent days - they’re in desperate need of a makeover.  It definitely seems they look to be trying to restore their faith in the online poker community with their signings as of late, but it is unclear they will be out of the woods any time soon.

Poker After Dark Keeping Their Lineup Fresh.

Heads-Up Poker Is The Specialty This Week on NBC.

The creators of NBC’s hit late night television program, “Poker After Dark,”are once again finding some very creative ideas to keep the show fresh and fun to watch.

This week’s theme will be one of my personal favorites - Heads Up Poker!

The producers will be inviting the winners of the National Heads Up Championship back to the show to battle it out for a $50,000 winner-take-all prize.

Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Phil Hellmuth, and Paul Wasicka will all be showing off their skills in this first-of-its-kind “Poker After Dark” format.

The first show will air on July 28th at 2:05 AM, and continue on for 5 days until a winner is crowned.

Good luck to the participants!

Kahnawake Gaming Commission Releases Official Statement.

UB and AP have been facing some tough times lately.

Every time it seems like they’ve just been forgotten by the online poker world, more and more news and allegations keep popping up to put them right back in the negative public eye - AGAIN.

With the revelation of MORE superuser accounts involved in the scandal, and rumors of 1994 Main Event winner Russ Hamilton possibly being involved in the controversy, it really seems as if Ultimate Bet and AP can’t get out of the corner they’ve been constantly backing themselves into.

In light of the mess, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission finally released their official statement on the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker superuser controversy.

Here is the entire statement in its entirety - YOU make the decision to call bullshit or not:

“Kahnawake Gaming Commission (the “KGC”) has been continuously regulating online gaming for over 9 years – longer than most, if not all, other jurisdictions. During that period of time, the KGC has proven to be a world leader with regulations and methodologies that have established a regulatory environment in which online gaming can be conducted fairly and securely. The KGC’s success as a regulator is evidenced by the fact that a significant percentage of the online gaming industry has chosen to locate and operate within Kahnawáke. Given the length of time that it has regulated this new industry and the significant number of licensees under its control, the KGC’s record has been exemplary.

As commentators have correctly noted, even the most well regulated industries are not immune from abuse. Examples can be found in the banking, securities and land-based gaming industries. The fact that the online gaming industry is new and is technologically driven creates additional regulatory challenges. Throughout its history, the KGC has met these challenges and its regulations have been emulated in a number of other jurisdictions around the world.

Over the past several months, it was discovered that individuals within two of the KGC’s licensees – Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet – had created and carried out a scheme to cheat players. In both cases, the improper conduct of these individuals was brought to the attention of the licensees, and the KGC, by affected players. The KGC acknowledges the diligence and sophistication displayed by these players and the role they played in bringing these matters to light.

The first case involved Absolute Poker. After a thorough investigation carried out by the KGC and its agents, Gaming Associates, the KGC rendered its decision in this matter on January 11, 2008. This decision concluded that the cheating that took place was not initiated, nor did it benefit, Absolute Poker as a corporate entity, or its directors or principal ownership. The decision imposed a number of sanctions and conditions on Absolute Poker, including twenty-four specific directions for changes to its management and systems. The KGC was provided evidence that all players affected by the cheating that took place were fully reimbursed for their losses.

Shortly after its decision was rendered in the Absolute Poker matter, the KGC first became aware of similar allegations of cheating involving individuals within Absolute Poker’s sister company: Ultimate Bet.

Over the past several months, the KGC has been closely involved in an in-depth investigation of the Ultimate Bet cheating allegations. Significant efforts have been expended to identify and correct the flaws in Ultimate Bet’s system that permitted the cheating to take place; to identify the individuals that were responsible for the cheating and to ensure that all affected players were fully reimbursed. Unfortunately, the KGC’s actions were not well communicated to the poker industry or public at large, creating an incorrect perception that the KGC was ‘doing nothing’.

The KGC’s investigation into the Ultimate Bet matter has yielded a number of key findings which, within the next several days, will enable the KGC to issue its decision on the appropriate steps to be taken.

It should be stressed that the KGC’s primary concern throughout both matters was to ensure that affected players were fully reimbursed and that corrective measures were implemented to prevent against any further incidents of cheating. Both of these objectives have been accomplished – as evidenced by the fact that the recent concerns that have been raised about the Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet matters are not being driven by affected players.”

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