Lobbying blitz beginning on Internet poker measure DALE WETZEL Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. - Licensing Internet poker sites can help prevent gambling by youngsters, compulsive gambling and other consequences that concern state policy-makers, an Internet gambling company executive believes. Regulators in other countries demand safeguards to prevent underage gambling, overspending by players and collusion during poker games, said Nigel Payne, chief executive of Sportingbet PLC of London. "This is a huge industry that exists, and it's here to stay. You've got two simple choices, regulate it or don't regulate it," Payne said in a telephone interview. "If you don't regulate it, the probability of (gambling problems) actually happening has got to be materially higher than if you regulated it." Payne is one of a group of gaming industry officials who are visiting the Capitol this week to lobby for legislation that would license and regulate Internet poker sites in North Dakota. No other state does so. Others include Frank Catania, a former New Jersey gambling enforcement director and Republican state legislator, and Allyn Jaffrey Shulman, an attorney who is chief executive officer of CardPlayer.com, a poker Web site. The North Dakota House has already approved the licensing bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo. It gets its first Senate hearing in the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Gambling opponents intend to make their case at Tuesday's hearing, said Warren DeKrey, a spokesman for the North Dakota Council on Gambling Problems. "It's going to move gambling right into people's homes. Anybody and everybody will be able to do it," DeKrey said. "If it becomes legal, there will be no reason why people can't do it." He regards Internet poker licensing as "very far-fetched," DeKrey said. "But Jim Kasper is a tremendous sales person, and he's going at this no holds barred. I think it's going to be a tough battle." The legislation includes taxes on poker revenues, and an annual $10 licensing fee for each player. For the bill to take effect, voters must approve an amendment to the North Dakota Constitution. The proposed amendment is awaiting a House vote Tuesday. Should it also win Senate approval, it would go on the June 2006 primary election ballot for voters to render their verdict. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem is meeting with lobbyists for the measure this week. He said he wants industry representatives to address the U.S. Justice Department's belief that Internet gambling is illegal in the United States. Stenehjem said Sunday he also has questions about the logistics of regulating Internet poker, including how to keep out computer hackers and prevent gambling by underage players. Shulman disputes the Justice Department's contention that Internet gambling is illegal in this country. In any case, Shulman does not believe poker playing is gambling at all; it is a game of skill, she says. "No one makes a living playing the lottery, bingo, slot machines, craps, baccarat, roulette or keno. The reason is that they all constitute games of chance," Shulman said. "In a poker game, a player has control of the outcome of the game in the long run, by making statistically correct decisions." Senate Judiciary Committee members said last week they have had only a few messages about the poker measure. "My dad taught me how to play poker, and we played it around the kitchen table, and that's the extent of my knowledge of the game," said Sen. Jack Traynor, R-Devils Lake, the committee's chairman. A Judiciary member, Sen. Nick Hacker, R-Grand Forks, said he had reservations about the legislation. "This industry is already competitive, and we're going to charge people more to locate here," Hacker said. "There is a security factor of saying, yeah, well, it's licensed, Well, who's liable (for problems) now? Because we licensed them." Hacker said he has played poker and blackjack on a Web site called Sportsbook.com, and he has a number of friends who play poker on Web sites. Many of them offer discounts to players, and Hacker wonders whether North Dakota's proposed $10 annual licensing fee for players will be a turnoff. "If you looked at it ... from a financial standpoint, why would I put in $100 and only get to play with $90, when I can go to this other site and put in $100 and get to play with $110?" Hacker asked. Stenehjem said he is neutral on the licensing bill. Gov. John Hoeven is also reserving judgment on it, said his spokesman, Don Canton. "I told (Kasper), I didn't sign up for this when I ran for the office," Stenehjem said. "This is a new thing for me, and I certainly want to make sure that if the Legislature decides they want to pass it, and the governor signs it, and the constitutional amendment is approved, that it's done right."
Monday, March 07, 2005
Summary of North Dakota Internet poker proposals
Summary of North Dakota Internet poker proposals Associated Press A constitutional amendment that requires the Legislature to "authorize Internet live poker located in the state, and licensed and regulated by the state." The North Dakota House will vote on the measure Tuesday. If the proposed amendment is endorsed by the House and Senate, the amendment will appear on the June 2006 primary ballot. Voter approval is needed for the change to become part of the North Dakota Constitution. HB1509: An Internet poker regulation bill, which would not take effect unless the constitutional amendment is approved. It authorizes state regulation and licensing of Internet poker sites, and the card players who patronize them. It includes a $10 annual licensing fee for each player, and taxes on each site's share of poker pots. Internet poker taxes would be allocated to property tax relief, education and the state's general treasury. The bill also establishes a five-member Internet poker advisory board.
Poker Tournaments, Professional Events and Poker Results from CardPlayer.com � The Poker Authority
Poker Tournaments, Professional Events and Poker Results from CardPlayer.com � The Poker Authority 2005 SHOOTING STAR BAY 101 SAN JOSE, CA Event: No-Limit Hold'em Professional Poker Tour Day 2 Chip Count Buy-in: $0 Number of Entries: 169 Total Prize Pool: $485,000 PPT Day 2 Ends with Toto Leonidis in the Lead On the second day of the Bay 101 Professional Poker Tour the field of players was whittled down from 45 to the six. The final table will play out for the top prize of $225,000 on March 12th. After almost 12 hours of action, here are the chip counts for the final six: 1. Toto Leonidis ($486,000) 2. Paul "X-22" Magriel ($360,000) 3. Hoyt Corkins ($262,000) 4. Tom McEvoy ($207,000) 5. Casey Kastle ($158,000) 6. Marsha Wagoneer ($158,000) The man who made the biggest move in today’s action was Toto Leonidis. Toto picked up over $240,000 in chips during a run of successful all-ins. Toto, with 4-6, knocked out Thor Hansen with his K-7. The players saw the cards all the way down to the river, 3-6-5-3-7, and Thor made a move with his pair of 7s. Toto, who made the 7 high straight on the river called and took a stack of about $60,000. Toto had another gift handed to him when the chip leader for the majority of the day, Don Barton, made an unsuccessful all-in move while holding a Q-7 after a A-8-7 flop. Toto called the all-in bet with his A-2 and pulled another $100,000 into his stack. Don was sent home in 15th place. On the final table Toto continued his strong play, knocking out Mickey Appleman after Mickey moved all in with A-Kh after a flop of 7h-6h-5. Toto called with pocket 7s and Mickey’s hopes for a bit win quickly dwindled. The turn and river showed no hearts Appleman was sent home in 8th place. The win put Toto out in front with $503,000, a lead that would hold up for the rest of the day. Paul "X-22" Magriel had a roller coaster type day ending up second only to Toto’s monster stack. He moved up from the middle of the pack after a big win against Paul Wolfe. Magriel moved in pre-flop with A-A and was called by Paul Wolfe's A-K. The final board read 9-Q-3-K-6. Interestingly, Tom McEvoy dropped a pair of queens, and a winning hand, due to the heavy pre-flop action. Later, after the final table stalled with an hour of extremely tight play, Magriel beat up on Leonidis, taking down a $400,000 pot. With a board of Q-6-2-8-K, Toto put down a $115,000 raise on the river that was called by Paul. When Paul showed his K-Q for top two pair, winning the hand and taking the overall chip lead. Toto was left with a short stack, which he quickly rebuilt over the next few hours. It seemed as though Marsha Wagoneer was getting involved in all the right hands today. She knocked out Chris Bigler, who started the day with $108,050. Chris held 9-9 and against Marsha's A-J. The board came A-K-J-2-6, giving Marsha the win and a huge stack. Bigler told Card Player that Marsha experienced a bit of divine intervention during the Day 2 action. "She is walking on water today,” he said “She needed a set to win twice and got it… and just keeps getting the cards.” Having the right cards at the right time paid off big for Marsha later in the day when she and Don Barton went at it in one of the most exciting hands of the afternoon. With a board of Kd-9c-7d-4d, Don, the chip leader at the time, threw out a $15,000 bet on the turn. Marsha re-raised it up to $20,000 more and Don re-raised all in. Marsha happily called, turning over the A-Jd nuts. Don showed the second nut flush, Q-10d. This win moved Marsha up to $194,000 in chips, knocking out Don and giving her the temporary chip lead. Marsha will be playing on the final table March 12th. Scott Fischman made a strong push forward in the chip leader standings early in the day. Scott took down the largest pot of the day’s early action. John Myung went all in with 3-3, Andy Bloch called with A-K and Scott Fischman, getting three to one odds from the short stackers, calls with his K-Q. The board of 10-9-4-J-9 gave Scott a straight and about $50,000 for his stack. Fischman’s momentum ended when he and Casey Kastle tangled during a series of head up contests. Kastle, who began the day with $43,000, made a pile of chips off Fischman and eventually knocked him out. The clincher came after a flop that dropped Q-10-5. Scott bet and was re-raised all in by Casey. Scott, after long deliberation and commenting that if he called, it would be an incorrect decision, called Casey’s all in bet and turned over Q-3. Casey showed Q-J and the J kicker held up. Casey’s continued his solid play all evening, winning himself a seat at the final table March 12th. Despite his questionable move against Toto in the late action, Don Barton was on a tear today, busting out more players than anyone else on the floor. It was overheard that he was moving all in very loosely in the early afternoon in order to catch a flight out of San Jose. After he doubled up on all of those occasions, he decided to tighten up and make a run at the money. Most notably was the beat he put on Padraig Parkinson’s pocket aces. Barton’s K-J made it to a straight with a flop and turn of J-10-9-Q. Padraig, who was running at the top of the pack all day, helped Don climb to the top of the field. Don continued to hold a commanding chip lead until he busted out during his exciting wrangle with Marsha Wagoneer.
Robert Duvall tries his poker hand against Eric Bana
Robert Duvall tries his poker hand against Eric Bana Oscar-winning Robert Duvall will use his poker knowledge in a new Warner Brothers’ movie Lucky You. The Godfather actor will star as father of a professional poker gambler, played by Eric Bana. He is to play against his son in a drama co-written and directed by Curtis Hanson. The plot is focused on a conflict between Bana who gets a lesson in life from a struggling singer (Drew Barrymore), and his estranged father (Duvall) at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The movie-makers are to start shooting the on location in Las Vegas on March 23 and prepare the poker drama for a December release. Duvall made his motion picture debut as Boo Radley in 1962's "To Kill a Mockingbird," and his vast credits include "The Godfather," "Apocalypse Now," "The Natural" and "Open Range." He has received six Academy Award nominations, winning a best actor Oscar for his role in 1983's "Tender Mercies." Duvall plays Will Ferrell's father in "Kicking & Screaming," which opens in May via Universal.
PluggedIn: Online poker a booming global enterprise
PluggedIn: Online poker a booming global enterprise By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It's noon on a snowy Monday, and Joe Fox is looking for action. The pool tournament at a local bar doesn't start for another seven hours and the casinos of Atlantic City are a three-hour drive away, but on his computer screen the world's largest poker party has drawn 35,000 players from around the globe. The poker craze has moved from the basement card table to the home computer, as millions of players take part in low-stakes games or $10,000 tournaments that stretch for hours. It's becoming a huge business that exists in a legal limbo in the United States. It operates from offshore but is played just about everywhere. Poker player Fox sits comfortably at home as he zaps his money around the globe. On this day, he has transferred $75 out of his checking account to Gibraltar-based PartyPoker.com and joined nine others in Texas Hold 'Em, the staple game of tournaments and TV specials. With a click of his mouse, he raises the bet or folds his cards, ignoring other players' banter about the weather and their cards. He wins several hands, but within half an hour his $20 worth of chips are gone. It's time to join the 18,000 players at PokerStars, another online poker room. "It's a way to be competitive without having to get sweaty, which is ideal for schlubby, non-exercising people like me," says Fox, a 34-year-old political strategist. Inspired by players like Chris Moneymaker, who won the World Series of Poker in 2003 after qualifying through PokerStars, more than 1.78 million players bet money in online poker rooms during the month of January, according to the research service PokerPulse. During the 24-hour period when Fox logged on from home, players wagered a total of $186 million. INVESTORS BET TOO The rapid growth of the industry has drawn the interest of another form of gambler on the London Stock Exchange. PartyGaming, which owns PartyPoker.com, is considering a public offering expected to value the company at 3 billion to 5 billion pounds ($5.7 billion to $9.6 billion) in what would be London's largest listing since 2001. NETeller Plc , which handles money transfers for the industry, has seen its stock price more than triple to 622 pence ($11.87) since it went public last April, while Sportingbet.com Plc saw its stock price shoot up more than 50 percent last October when it announced plans to buy No. 3 poker site Paradise Poker for $300 million. But while England and other countries increasingly welcome online gambling, the U.S. Justice Department says a 1961 law that forbids interstate telephone betting also applies to the Internet. Congress has since 1997 failed to specifically outlaw online gambling amid a thicket of competing interests. Under pressure from the Justice Department, services like Visa and PayPal have blocked payments to gambling sites, while media outlets and search engines like Yahoo Inc. have refused to run their ads. But the U.S. residents who account for more than half of all online poker players face no penalties if they gamble online. So when Joe Fox wants to bet U.S. dollars against other Americans, he logs on to a service registered in Gibraltar with operations in India that may be soon publicly traded in London. His money transfers are handled by a Quebec payment processor at $3.99 a pop. Online poker rooms took in $1.3 billion in revenues last year, a figure that Christiansen Capital Advisors expects to grow to $5.8 billion by 2008, or 28 percent of all Internet gambling revenues. Analysts say the United States will eventually accept the industry. "Somebody in Washington is going to say, 'Hey guys, we're losing a fortune by not taxing this,'" said Joseph Kelly, a professor of business law at Buffalo State University who has helped other countries draft online gambling rules. Sebastian Sinclair of Christiansen Capital Advisors said the United States will gradually legalize the industry after realizing that attempts to stop it are fruitless. Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands have already legalized online gambling for casinos and residents within their borders, and a similar bill is advancing rapidly through the North Dakota legislature. Several U.S. courts have ruled that the 1961 Wire Act only applies to sports betting and not other forms of Internet gambling, while the World Trade Organization ruled last year that the ban on Internet gambling violates international trade agreements, a decision the United States has appealed. Joe Fox says legal concerns don't affect his 15-hour-per-week hobby, which has set him back roughly $500 over the past year out of a total investment of $1,400. "I like testing myself against other people, and I like beating other people," he said. "It's a lot more fun to take money from people you don't know than from your friends."