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February 23, 2007WSOP to change its Ad policyIn the WTF? department.... it was reported today by PokerNews, in an interview with Gary Thompson, Director of the World Series of Poker Tournament Operations and Communications: "As a gaming company licensed in more than a dozen jurisdictions in the United States and abroad, Harrah's must follow the guidance of federal law and state gaming regulations in conducting its business. In this regard, the 2007 World Series of Poker venue will not contain advertising from dot.com sties that allow access to US residents nor ads from dot.net sites affiliated with those entities. Harrah's position does not affect advertising that may or may not be carried out by media companies that cover the event, as they aren't subject to the same gaming-regulatory requirements as Harrah's. Nor does our position impact players. In fact, we expect to post the 2007 WSOP rules and registration procedures on worldseriesofpoker.com next week that will contain a new logo policy allowing players to wear apparel with dot.net logos as well as multiple and larger logos. As far as the felts, I have seen blogs and forum threads speculating about who may or may not have sought advertising rights to the WSOP. Harrah's has a long-standing policy of not commenting on rumors or speculation. If we do enter into any business agreement with another company, we'll make a public announcement at the appropriate time." Posted by fatbill at 11:45 AM | Comments (0) February 20, 2007DoylesRoom Caves in, and shuts out US players!It's a sad day for online poker, when the Great Man himself, has shut his site's doors to US players. We knew there was a problem with the Tribeca network Doylesroom was on, but there were constant releases from them that they were 'migrating' to another solution. Today, amidst much confusion, they finally came out and said they will stop allowing US players as of Feb 28th! From what I've read, current players at Doyles, ARE being allowd to move funds to Full Tilt Poker, AND get a bonus ON those funds! So, if you dont have one already, click this FULL TILT POKER link, or the one on the right side under Poker Rooms we Recommend, and sign up now! Posted by fatbill at 10:41 AM | Comments (0) February 16, 2007Welcome Bodog Poker!We are VERY pleased to able to offer our players BODOG POKER as one of our HIGHLY Recommended Poker Rooms! If you come to Bodog, playing hard is the only way you"ll take down the big pots they offer for Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo, and 5 Card Stud! Each month they put up guaranteed prize pools in the MILLIONS, including a $100,000 tournament every Sunday. And when it comes to the biggest games in the world, Bodog offers it's members hundreds of guaranteed seats to the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker! You want in? Go to the Bodog Poker Room to open a free poker account today! Posted by fatbill at 07:02 PM | Comments (0) February 10, 2007Annie Duke takes a stand!The following was found at Ultimate Bet.com where Annie Duke is a sponsored pro player. Let me say, that I believe Annie Duke is one of the most articulate pro's on the circuit, and an outstanding spokesperson for the game of poker. I'm not Ultimate Bet's staunchest supporter, but they have Annie! -------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Annie: I am an avid poker player that has to curtail my desires to play brick and mortar games by playing online, The casinos are too far away and having 4 kids makes it difficult to take the 'short' vacations I would like to Las Vegas. With the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act it is becoming more and more difficult to play poker online. What is your stance on this piece of legislation? Assuming you are against it, what are you doing to get it changed. What would you recommend others do? Since you are 'in the biz' what do you see other professional poker players doing about this bill or does it mainly effect the non-professional players like myself? Ron Hi Ron-- Well I love your question. I am very much against the bill as it relates to poker and any other game of skill. I have several issues with the bill. First, it allows for betting on State Lotteries and Horse Racing online. This is very hypocritical in my view as State Lotteries are a) clearly a game that has no skill and b) a regressive tax. I can overflow the Capitol building with people who make their living playing poker and yet I would be unable to find one person (who is not cheating) who makes their living playing lotteries. As for the regressive tax part, we all know that it is mainly lower income people who play the lotteries. That money is used to fun state programs and that money is coming from the poorer segment of the population. I have a big problem with that. Of course, the States argue that lotteries generate billions of dollars for education. But if you taxed online poker the PPA has estimated that revenue would be over 3 billion. That would fund the Port Security Act to which the bill was attached. Or the money could go to education, raising teachers' salaries, expanding police forces, whatever the state wanted it for. So that argument is specious since it only applies if the government chooses not to regulate online poker. Another huge problem I have with the Law has to do with censorship and prohibition. Anytime the government tells us what we, as consenting adults, can do with our discretionary income we are treading dangerous ground. The authors of the bill argue that 5% of the population have an issue with gaming online. Well I will not argue with that statistic. But, rather, I will point out that 5% of the population also has a problem with online shopping. 5% of the population has a problem with online stock trading. 5% of the population has a problem with alcohol. This is because the numbers of people who have addiction issues in our population is around 5%. We tried once to sacrifice the majorities freedom of choice to protect a small minority who had a problem. It was called Prohibition. What prohibition brought us was tommy guns and Al Capone. Before prohibition, the population was deliverd a safe and regulated product. During prohibition, demand was still the same and now people were delivered an unregulated prodcut brewed out of backyard stills that were often unsafe. It brought violence and more problems than it solved and we should have learned our lesson from that. If we allow the goverment to erode our freedom and censor what we do with our own free time and our own disposable income in the privacy of our own homes, what is next? Is the government going to tell the banks to monitor our online shopping too? If we want to buy that third pair of shoes online that week is the bank going to deny our ability to transfer money onto ShopBop.com? Censorship is dangerous ground to tread. We have proven that in the past. Remeber when Mark Twain was banned from some libraries in the country? The current administration has created an atmosphere of fear. And they have used that fear to further and further erode our personal freedoms and degrade the spirit of our Constitution. Benjamin Franklin warned that in times of heightened fear we must not give in to a government who claims that to keep the population safe that its people must give up certain personal freedom. Franklin knew that that only led to a more unsafe population where the people were in danger from its own government rather than an outside threat. It is why The Constituation is so clear on right to privacy. I believe our Founding Fathers knew what they were talking about. As for what I am doing about it, as soon as the bill was passed I went on a media tour for the PPA, http://www.pokerplayersalliance.org/ They are doing amazing work lobbying the lawmakers on Capitol Hill and I think they are really making a difference. If you want your voice to be heard on this issue, please join that organization. And let your voice be heard with your vote in the next election. xo Posted by fatbill at 01:27 PM | Comments (0) February 06, 2007Full Tilt Online Poker Series IIIFull Tilt Poker has announced it's THRID in it's Online Poker Series. This series will begin this Friday, Feb 0th and offers $3.4 MILLION in Guaranteed Prizes!! There is still time to satellite your way into any of the events, so get in while the action is HOT! Posted by fatbill at 04:39 PM | Comments (0) |
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