Late December rulings marked a paramount change in the status of land-based and online poker in the state of Nevada. Officials legalized online Poker in the state of Nevada after a vote of 4 to 0 at the Nevada Gaming Control Board. This means that patrons will be legally able to play poker online in Nevada. Officials will also regulate online poker for the players’ protection. The unanimous vote was a huge step for Nevada gaming institutions and patrons. The only drawback to this situation is the lack of establishments who have gained proper licensing to practice. Currently there are no licensed poker rooms.

In order to provide gaming opportunity to the customers, all Nevada poker rooms have to acquire the appropriate licensing. Officials expect that the first online poker rooms will open on or about February 1, 2012. Initially, these poker rooms will only be able to operate in the state of Nevada. Eventually, when the government regulates online poker, the licensed rooms will have the opportunity to make gaming available online to people in other states. Hopefully the federal government will approve such legalities so that gaming institutions can capitalize off the many people in the world who would like to enjoy the online experience.

No official reports have been released on how many establishments will gain licensing for online operations. Six organizations have applied for licenses to operate in Nevada so far. Such companies include 888 Holdings, South Point Poker, Shuffle Master, Bally Technologies, International Game Technology, and Cantor Gaming. The only company that applied to operate in an online atmosphere was 888 Holdings. If that company can obtain licensing to operate online, they will have the ability to earn just as much as the other companies if not more. They may actually be able to get a financial gain on other online gaming companies.

Customers must fit a certain criteria in order to play in Nevada Poker rooms. They must provide identification to verify they are 21 years of age or older. Online Poker will follow suit and should be available for patrons some time in 2012. Once online Poker is available and other states can see its success, more states will most likely take steps to also have it regulated and legalized. Eventually, customers from all over the country will have access to gaming opportunities. Soon organizations will make online Poker gaming available at a national level.

Legal Poker News – Thirty one year old Brent Beckley, the co-owner of Absolute Poker faced criminal charges from Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday; he was pleaded guilty of breaking laws and duping U.S.
banks over the processing of gambling proceed.

In the above case 12 people have been found guilty; this number includes the 11 people who were convicted in the month of April in reference to the U.S. Government’s seizure of domain names of Absolute Poker, PokerStars, and Full Tilt Poker, the popular Internet poker companies. The owners of this 3 company namely Raymond Bitar (Full Tilt Poker), Isai Scheinberg (PokerStars), and Brent Beckley and Scott Tom (the two owners of Absolute Poker) were found guilty of breaking Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act apart from some more laws on online gaming.

Beckley confessed before Ronald Ellis, U.S. Magistrate Judge that he accepted credit cards and illegally deceived the bank by disguising the purpose of the payments. He took help from Central America man Ira Rubin (guilty of telemarketing fraud charge) to bypass U.S. gambling laws and process e-checks in the guise of payroll processing, online electronics merchants, and affiliate marketing. The company enhanced revenue by charging “rakes” when a bettor indulged in online poker play.

Robert Cleary, the lawyer to Beckley refused to comment over the prison sentence that is likely to be handed to Absolute Pokers co-owner Bentley. The maximum prison sentence of 30 years can be reduced to 12 months to 18 months in reference to a plea agreement in the court.

Besides Absolute Pokers guilt, the Government has also filed a civil lawsuit against the Full Tilt Poker website. Accusation went against “Poker Professor” Howard Lederer and professional poker champion Christopher Ferguson along with some more people who themselves paid over $440 million while defrauding other players in the online poking game.

December 21st, 2011 – One of the most prominent poker companies where American poker players would go to, Bodog, decided to close up shop to U.S. Players and focus only on players from other countries. This comes after more than 10 years as the first name in USA gaming.

Why did this happen? In July of 2011, Bodog acquired a license to do business in the United Kingdom. Because of this, they focused their market to UK and Overseas players and decided to comply with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 and ceased operations to US players by failing to renew its contract with a company called the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, who has held the right to use the name Bodog in the United States.

But the good news is that the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group decided not to alienate the United States Gaming Market. Realizing there was still a market for American poker players, they needed a new site name, and found it with a site called Bovada.lv, which was opened this week. Bovada was probably chosen because of its similarity to the name Bodog, as well as the extension lv, which technically is the country code from the country of Latvia, but most Americans might think of a correlation with the city of Las Vegas.
In addition, the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group wanted to ensure that Americans who had money invested in the Bodog web site to have as easy of a time being able to transfer all the money over to the new Bovada web site, and they made a public announcement that gamers from the United States of America would have no problem during the adjustment to the new site.

The Bovada site is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, located in Canada, and they have assured that all American players who had account balances with Bodog had no trouble retaining their account balances and information during the transition to the new Bovada site, and everything should run as smoothly as it did with the former Bodog site that American players had been so accustomed to over the past decade.

December 11th, 2011 – Because of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, many online poker sites were closed to United States members. Quite a few of the poker rooms were involved in legal proceedings regarding their legitimacy in operating with US citizens. Because of the severity of the charges, many online poker rooms decided that they would bar US citizens from gambling on their sites. This was more for protection than as a punishment, but many US citizens were disgruntled as they had no place to play. Fortunately, there are still some Open USA Poker Rooms available so that Americans can enjoy playing what is still one of the most popular casino games.

BetOnline poker rooms are one of the most popular open USA Poker Rooms. At BetOnline Poker, US players are allowed to play all variations of poker games. They can also enter tournaments, such as Sit and Go’s, guaranteed prize tournaments and many satellite tournaments. Tournaments take place every day, and the customer can enter them from the minute he or she registers to be a member.

BetOnline Poker offers an assortment of promotions that are sure to make the customer’s experience very pleasurable. Each month the poker room offers 150 thousand in guaranteed tournaments plus they give you 25% in free play money each time you deposit.
Another great new promotion is the POP2Cash tourney which is for $500 prize and by playing in the tourney you have to accumulate the POP points and turning them into the tournament entry.

America’s Cardroom is one of those open USA poker rooms that does not need much of an introduction. The name says it all. It welcomes American players to share in the excitement of tournaments, bonus cash, and live events. Since it is the holidays, this site is offering free chances for its customers to win seats to the biggest tournaments. US players should be delighted.

Take advantage of the fantastic promotion of 100% of your initial deposit up to $1,000 and also receive a seat in a $25 freeroll tournament, only for making a simple deposit. Click on this link to take on this offer.

Linesmaker Poker offers the newest and moves advanced technologies to its US players. Users can enjoy smooth, fast, and sharp action as they compete to win the big pot. Linesmaker Poker offers a wide variety of poker variations such as Texas Hold “Em, 5 Card Draw, 5 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, 7 Card Stud, H.O.R.S.E., Omaha, Razz, and many more. US players can also join tournaments at any time. You will receive an entry into a free $500 freeroll tournament by signing up using the poker bonus cod: FREE150PK and making the first deposit to receive 150% of the deposit amount up to $750.

US players also have the option of playing poker over the phone in USA poker rooms. Many of the US poker rooms can be accessed from the user’s cellular phone or mobile device. That makes gambling possible for people who do not own a desktop or laptop unit but still want to have some honest fun.

How often does a $10,000 investment earn a cool $8.7 million dollars in just a few months? It happened in 2011, to a young man from Germany, Pius Heinz. At the start of the 2011 World Series of Poker, predictions were made. By July 20, only nine remained, leaving the world holding its breath until those nine met again at the Rio in Las Vegas on November 6 to finish the battle. How did the World Series of Poker final table preview predictions hold up?

Final table chip position at the start of the day ranked the players Martin Staszko, Eoghan O’Dea, Matt Giannetti, Phil Collins, Ben Lamb, Badih Bounahra, Pius Heinz, Anton Makiievskyi, and Sam Holden. As of November 4, Vegas odds agreed roughly with the chip leaders, ranking Martin Staszko, Eoghan O’Dea, Ben Lamb, Matt Gianetti, Phil Collins, Anton Makiievskyi, Pius Heinz, Bhadi Bounahra, and Sam Holden in order by odds. Experts weighed in by predicting Ben Lamb as a favorite, along with Phil Collins and Matt Giannetti.

On November 6, the first players to be ousted were, predictably, Sam Holden and Anton Makiievskyi, with short stacks and few plays. Badih Bounahra, too was eliminated on this day as a conservative player short on chips and winning only one showdown. Eoghan O’Dea mixed styles, sometimes being the aggressor with pre-flop raises, and sometimes allowing the other players to do the betting. Neither style worked for him today, as he won no pots, and went home in sixth place.

Martin Staszko played somewhat conservatively until the number of players dwindled. Ben Lamb, too, waited until the play was down to four players before challenging the pot. Pius Heinz, being short-stacked. aggressive, and lucky, won pots to end the day with a very large chip lead over his two remaining opponents, Ben Lamb and Martin Staszko. By the end of the day, the World Series of Poker Final Table Preview predictions appeared deceptively simpler.

November 9, the final day of the main event found the World Series of Poker Final Table Preview to be wildly unpredictable, as Martin Staszko quickly became the chip leader, eliminating Ben Lamb in hand 182 of the final table. Pius Heinz watched his chips whittle away until hand 293, when he started a comback. It was complete. With the ups and downs over the two days, Pius Heinz emerged the mostly unpredicted winner of the 2011 World Series of Poker, walking away with 8.7 million dollars.

October 25th, 2011 – No issue can be best resolved without conducting a strategic dialogue between the two parties involved. This holds true even for the debate surrounding the online gambling in the USA. The Federal government is battling it out with the huge lacunae in the tax revenues and the ways through which they can make more money and increase their revenue by levying more taxes on the already burdened taxpayers or the working group of America.

According to the lobbyists who are vying for positive change, proclaim that online gambling if legalized can raise a substantial amount of revenue for the government and can create jobs. There has been a ray of hope as the hearing on the online gambling is being tabled before the House Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade on October 25, 2011.

The lobbying endeavors of the millions of Poker player’s alliance has been regular and has come at a cost. There is an invitation for Chairman, Alfonse D’Amato to serve as a witness in front of the Subcommittee and convey the message of the organization to the delegates who will look to highlight the skills versus the chance of the poker debate.

On reacting to the invitation, John Pappas, PPA’s executive director said that, “Given the committee’s interest in player protections, I think it is appropriate that someone from the PPA testifies,” “It’s certainly a big moment for the organization and we’re very excited that D’Amato has been invited”.

Initially, it was predicted that the proposed bill by Congressman Joe Barton would end the debate over the online gambling in the country after the Congressman decided to make existing laws related to gambling more stringent. However, it has now become conspicuous that the Subcommittee’s investigations would be considered as a safe factor for online gambling.

Signup today at Poker Player Alliance to become a member.

One of the most popular online poker room, Carbon Poker, is proud to present to all poker players that they will be sponsoring a huge $15,000 Carbon Poker League. The CP league is continuous tournament series, where players collect points to be qualified for the added $10,200. The big final, which will be the final showdown, will take place on January 8th at 1pm, EST. The poker league starts October 11th running until the Big Final tournament on Jan. 8th.

Carbon Poker will also contribute a weekly cash buy-in to tournaments every Tuesday and Friday at 1pm EST. The better you finish in the tournament the more points you will receive towards the main event. CP will also offer three freerolls for 50 Carbon Poker VIP points as the entry fee, playing for the league points and free added $1,000 prize. The freerolls will take place on Nov 3rd, Dec 1st and Dec 29th.

Top 30 players who will finish in the Carbon Poker League will qualify for the Big Final event on Jan. 8th, to where 15 of those 30 players are automatically quaranteed $100, to where the first place will take the main prize pool of $2,250.

Press Release – October 12th, 2011 – Great announcement came across the internet early Wednesday about the return of one of the two best online poker rooms, Carbon Poker along with PDC Poker. They will be offering top of the line bonus promotion of 100% of your initial deposit up to $600, use the promotions code to get the bonus (Carbon Poker code: “UPTO600”, PDC Poker code: “PDC”). Upon signing up, both poker rooms offer a free $500 freeroll tournament for first signup players.

On top of all that, Carbon Poker offers up to $500 for catching a Royal Flush during your online poker game, to where PDC Poker will offer up to $1,000 for catching the Royal Flush. The return of the two online poker rooms to US market will allow players to with ease withdrawal or safely deposit their funds into their poker accounts.

One of the most popular promotions for players is the double VIP points offer on certain days, in which you can exchange the points for real money, tournament entries or purchases from the VIP store after you collect them as you enjoy the game of poker.

Press Release, October 11th, 2011 – One of the most popular and original online poker card room, which was launched in 2011, American CardRoom (ACR) has publicized the recent acquisition of the one of the fastest growing internet poker room, DoylesRoom. American CardRoom in the past few months has ventured into the fast growing online poker industry and taking over DoylesRoom, they believe they can dominate the market much quicker and efficient.

All of the first signup bonuses and promotions will stay the same for the month of October, including the $50,000 Rake Race. The latest signup bonus promotion is 100% bonus money match of the initial deposit, up to $1,000. The only changes players can expect to see are more money promotions, bigger guarantees poker tournaments, much better incentives and amazing new weekly promotions.

On November 1st, American CardRoom will increase the RakeRace from $50K to $65K, as well as the brand new poker series called the “Americas CardRoom Online Super Series”. No changes will be made to your account, so sit back and enjoy the better incentives come your way.

The executives of a website called Full Tilt Poker were accused of running a Ponzi scheme because they were found to be illegally keeping over $440 million dollars which should have actually gone to the board members and owners of the site. The scam seems to have affected other poker celebrities namely Christopher Ferguson and Howard Lederer, according to the Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

The official compliant from Preet Bahara, a US Attorney, stated that Full Tilt Poker and its members participated in fraudulent acts by stating that their deposits on the online gambling sites were actually safe and secure when in fact, were far from the opposite. They even stated on the site that the deposits would also be available for deposit any time, when those who operated the site as well as Lederer and Ferguson were taking part in fraudulent acts to keep large sums of the money. What was actually going on was that the site did not keep sufficient funds which were required to pay the winning players.

The poker champions are being charged with money laundering, and they will be required to pay the fines for these crimes. There are other defendants who are also being accused with illegal gambling, money laundering, and bank fraud.

It has been declared that the website Full Tilt Poker is not at all a legitimate gambling operation but rather a Ponzi scheme. The operators of the website have been shown to be pocketing money from the site’s loyal customers, innocent people at that, while blatantly lying to the public about the reliability of the company.

Full Tilt Poker is establishing measures to play the payers back, such as through attracting investors, and the only reason why it is still alive and operating is for the sole purpose of paying them back. The site, along with PokerStars, has been shut down officially by the Justice Department of the United States. However, investigations have showed that Lederer and Ferguson still operate sites which are inviting other poker players to challenge them at the games, although their representatives could not be located for comment. PokerStars is still operating outside the United States as the company is located in the Isle of Man.

Prosecutors of Full Tilt Poker have also added that the site’s operative measures were based on false images of financial stability and security, misleading all its players and members online. Anyone who participated on the site was in fact playing with phantom money and when a loss occurred, the financial shortfalls began to manifest themselves.