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The End of Lock Poker?

Lock Poker, a Revolution Gaming Network’s struggling flagship poker site, has seen better days. The online poker room has been having issues, starting with cash outs that have just not been there, and most players have gone without their earnings. Withdrawals processed more than one month ago are still yet to be paid. There have also been complaints that the company has not been paying commission to affiliates.

A year ago, Lock Poker took over Cake Poker Network, making the Revolution Network to be the greatest online poker network in the US. When the struggling network received new management, people were hopeful. The continuing failure may ultimately affect the whole poker industry within the US market.

The issues will go beyond Revolution Gaming. This time, US players have four main options. There is Revolution Gaming, Bovada, Winning Poker, and Merge Gaming. The end of Revolution Gaming may reduce the established US poker options to only three. With low competition, players will receive fewer promotions.

Bovada provides players with few benefits. Merge Gaming had to drop rakeback early in the year, thus leaving Winning Poker Network the best option. Players outside the United States become more hesitant to take part in US friendly sites, creating a negative impact on the liquidity of these networks.

Cereus players lost their cumulative earnings amounting to about $45 million in 2011 after the indictment of the network. The same might happen to Revolution Gaming, whose network deposit amount is between $15 and $20 million. The ordeal would affect the U.S. players’ confidence in online poker.

Ongame Poker Network to Service US Players

Recently, Aristocrat Technologies and Amaya Gaming Group announced a new partnership, which would see Aristocrat provide the Amaya based Ongame poker platform to the U.S. online gaming customers.

Amaya bought Ongame from bwin.party in October 2012 to boost its own product portfolio. Gamers will now be able to access the Ongame poker platform through the nLive – the online gaming solution that belongs to Aristocrat. This solution provides land-based operators an important option of providing their clients with a virtual based online casino. The platform can be quickly accessed for the free games and gamers can instantly switch to the real money option after putting regulatory approvals in place.

David Baazov, The Amaya Gaming Group CEO, said that Amaya and Aristocrat have a common vision to integrate land-based gaming with Internet gaming. He further said that integration of the online poker into the Aristocrat nLive category will open up new opportunities within the United States. It is a strategic move in the world’s most promising gambling market.

Amaya Gaming rolled out the fourth quarter of its 2012 financial results recently. The overall revenue of the company for the year grew by about 316 percent to $75.88 million. Nevertheless, it still registered an overall loss of $7.05 million in 2012.

According to Baazov, 2012 was a year of transition for Amaya. Its latest business to business acquisition of Cryptologic and Ongame will definitely offer major growth for the company in the United States in future.

Baazov said that they’ll continue to focus on extending their footprint through strategic partnerships within the United States, in which there is evolution of online gaming. Three states, Nevada and New Jersey included, recently authorized online gaming. More states have tabled similar legislations that would have the same impact for online gaming, especially for their in-state players.

Recently, Aristocrat Technologies and Amaya Gaming Group announced a new partnership, which would see Aristocrat provide the Amaya based Ongame poker platform to the U.S. online gaming customers.

Amaya bought Ongame from bwin.party in October 2012 to boost its own product portfolio. Gamers will now be able to access the Ongame poker platform through the nLive – the online gaming solution that belongs to Aristocrat. This solution provides land-based operators an important option of providing their clients with a virtual based online casino. The platform can be quickly accessed for the free games and gamers can instantly switch to the real money option after putting regulatory approvals in place.

David Baazov, The Amaya Gaming Group CEO, said that Amaya and Aristocrat have a common vision to integrate land-based gaming with Internet gaming. He further said that integration of the online poker into the Aristocrat nLive category will open up new opportunities within the United States. It is a strategic move in the world’s most promising gambling market.

Amaya Gaming rolled out the fourth quarter of its 2012 financial results recently. The overall revenue of the company for the year grew by about 316 percent to $75.88 million. Nevertheless, it still registered an overall loss of $7.05 million in 2012.

According to Baazov, 2012 was a year of transition for Amaya. Its latest business to business acquisition of Cryptologic and Ongame will definitely offer major growth for the company in the United States in future.

Baazov said that they’ll continue to focus on extending their footprint through strategic partnerships within the United States, in which there is evolution of online gaming. Three states, Nevada and New Jersey included, recently authorized online gaming. More states have tabled similar legislations that would have the same impact for online gaming, especially for their in-state players.

UltimatePoker.com Becomes the First Regulated US Poker Site

Las Vegas’ launch of the first Nevada, USA based poker site is a step forward in the US online poker saga. UltimatePoker.com will be the first legal and regulated online poker operator serving in-state gamblers and residents of Nevada.

Ultimate Poker is part of the Las Vegas’ Station Casinos LLC that runs 16 local based casinos within Southern Nevada and touts itself for being the first provider of secure, legal online poker in the nation. Ultimate Poker is owned and operated by the owners of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), hence, the name.

In February, Nevada made an enormous stride when legislation was finally passed that would legalize online intrastate poker. Ultimate has moved forward very quickly after the green light was given from Nevada gaming regulators in early April. Online poker will run round the clock, though there are a few restrictions. Players must be 21 years or older and reside within the state. Players will be able to engage in online poker on their personal computers or live at the Station casino. Payment transfers will take place through wire transfers, MasterCard, and checks.

For Northern Nevada, Ultimate Poker plans to market its online poker starting with the use of media and word of mouth. Locally, the casinos that have struggled with a 30% drop in gaming revenues within the last decade are watching closely. Casino poker offers about 1% of the entire gaming revenue within Nevada, and the new poker companies are expected to grow in the industry.

The main demographic includes 21 to 45 aged males who value technology and have disposable income. Yet to come are the bigger concerns, particularly the crossing of state lines for online gambling that will require the interstate compacts and may spur federal regulation.

Although there are questions regarding marketing and the limited amount of traffic intrastate online poker can generate, the ground is still new with many expectations and plans to see the online poker industry succeed in Nevada.

Other states are following in Nevada’s footsteps. Delaware and New Jersey are struggling with plans of setting up full-fledged online casino gambling, though they are still establishing the route to operational status.

Ukash Offers New Cash Withdrawal Service

A recent deal between Ukash and PayPoint will now allow customers of the former to make cash withdrawals. These withdrawals will be available at any of the 24,000 locations under the retail payment provider’s network. Before this deal, Ukash users were only allowed to make deposit payments; this was particularly inconvenient for online poker players wanting to withdraw their earnings. CEO David Hunter, in a media segment, explained that this move was made with the intention of providing higher flexibility for its consumers. He also stated that this was intended to provide greater appeal for electronic commerce retailers who would now consider adding Ukash to their payment options.

Ukash services is owned and operated by Smart Voucher Limited as an electronic money institution. This is under the regulatory auspices of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority, FCA. It has garnered recognition by winning the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in two consecutive years, 2011 and 2012. It has also made the Times List of the UK’s 100 fastest growing companies placing at an impressive 23^rd spot.

The Ukash system allows online transactions without the need for a bank, debit, or credit card. The user purchases a unique identifier which is a 19-digit code that enables them to transfer funds online. Their e-wallet model is especially targeted towards people who would rather transfer funds online without providing personal information. This reduces the chances of identity and financial fraud on the part of their users. Although Ukash does not require personal information for usage, the online gaming sites have their own monitoring tools to check for money laundering activity. This model restructuring is going to allow Ukash to offer a more comprehensive payment processing service that can rival that of its main competitor –NETELLER.

PokerStars Remains on Top

A look at the traffic on online poker sites shows that iPoker refuses to be dimmed in its quest for dominance of the online market. Its numbers continued with a surge maintaining its quest for dominance by regaining its first place behind PokerStars. The competition for second place has been very closely tied between the three sites in contention for the spot. According to Pokerscout’s seven day averages for the latest week, iPoker leads with 3100 players, while Full Tilt and PartyPoker follow closely at the 3000 player mark.

This is born out by the moving trend for the last 30 days; Full Tilt Poker has been on a continuous downward streak that it seems unable to mitigate. PartyPoker, on the other hand, has been unable to establish a stable base and has been continuously declining despite the launch of ZyngaPokerPlus, a gaming skin currently limited to the UK. The launch may have done wonders for Zynga’s share price producing an upward movement of 15%; however, this has not had much positive impact on PartyGaming’s numbers. In fact, their share price has followed the trend and similarly dipped 15% since the launch. This may have investors at bwin.party worried considering they may have been looking to emulate the success of Full Tilt’s relaunch which created an upward surge of 10% in online poker gambling.

iPoker’s surge has been bolstered by recent additions such as Bet Fair and Dusk till Dawn to the iPoker network by parent company Playtech. The effect has seen a turnaround in what had previously been Playtech’s declining gambling section. SealsWithClubs deserves a mention as the week’s largest gainer due to the popularity of their Bitcoin system. However, this should be taken cautiously as their largely American market may be negatively impacted by possibility of state regulated online poker in the U.S.

Chad Elie Sues Former Lawyer for Malpractice

A Las Vegas businessman, Chad Elie, who is currently serving a five-month prison sentence for third-party poker payment processing after being indicted on Black Friday, has filed a lawsuit against his former lawyer, Jeff Ifrah. Chad claims that his lawyer misled him on issues regarding the legalities of third-party poker processing. He further claims that Ifrah did not disclose to him a memorandum that was sent to him in 2010 by Akin Gump that detailed discussions between the firm and government lawyers in Manhattan. He says that the memorandum confirmed third-party poker processing as illegal. In his 20-page lawsuit, Chad claims that Ifrah kept this memorandum a secret as he wanted to continue pocketing the hefty commissions.

Elie retained Ifrah in 2009. At that time, Ifrah was working with Full Tilt Poker, a bank in Utah known as Sun First Bank, and Pokerstars. According to the complaint, Elie claims that he retained Ifrah to help him obtain information regarding the legalities of online poker and third-party financial processing. According to the lawsuit, Elie claims that Ifrah encouraged him to engage in the trade by introducing to him a number of banks that processed payments for the poker companies. In exchange to the services provided, Ifrah received huge financial benefits from Pokerstars, Full Tilt, and Elie. Such profits saw Elie become one of the highest-earning poker processors.

In April 2011, Elie was among the 11 individuals who were indicted as part of a crackdown on illegal poker processing. The crackdown also led to the shutting down of U.S. Full Tilt and Pokerstars websites. The feds termed Full Tilt as a ponzi scheme for the way it cut corners as it tried to go round the legal financial systems.

It is still a shame that unfortunately, many Americans who had invested their money in online gaming at Full Tilt have not been repaid to date.

Kansas Fails to Ban Online Gambling

Kansas legislators voted against a bill that had sought to criminalize online gambling within the state. This clause was in fact part of a wider raft of measures. The measures had been intended to attract gambling investment in physical casinos to the four zones in the state that allow gambling. Legislators from the Southeast corner of the state had been pushing for the passing of this bill as their region is the only one of the four to fail to attract gaming investment. This might be due to the area being lowly populated. Furthermore, with gaming opportunities offered across the border in north-eastern Oklahoma by several casinos investors may not see the need for the investment.

On a high note, the bill sought to reduce the entrance investment and development price needed to qualify from $225 million to a more enticing sum of $50 million to be applied in the Kansas Southeast unoccupied gambling zone in order to stimulate investment. However, the bill proposed to ban online gambling by turning it into a Class B non-person select misdemeanor. Such offence carries penalties of up to six months jail time or a fine of one thousand dollars for the offender. This clause was an amendment to the bill that was recently passed. Furthermore, the bill proposed video games and electronic slot machines from that state’s para-mutual gambling locales. This proposed ban would take effect immediately and would last until the year 2032. Opponents of these proposed bans saw them as a transparent attempt at appeasing anti-gaming voices.

In a surprising move, some of the legislators who had helped pass the amendment clause banning online gaming went on to vote against the entire bill. The amendment which passed 26-11 was part of the bill that was thrown out 25-14 by the state legislature.

Will Wisconsin Casinos Go Online?

In the wake of legalization of online poker by the states of New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware, other states have taken note. However, Wisconsin is one state where not much about online poker regulations has been heard.

Wisconsin is a state renowned for land-based casinos, which are operated by Native Americans. Other tribes across the country have been very liberal about expressing their interest in Internet gaming. The tribes in Wisconsin, though, continue to be silent.

Steve Verrett, the director for the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) in Wisconsin, said, “State-by-state legislation in my opinion is not ideal.”

In justification of his statement, he went on to add, “It will create small pockets of tournaments and little competition as you will only be able to play within your state or compact of multiple states. Will Wisconsin join a group like a Powerball lottery system? I don’t know and actually have little confidence in it. The best bet for Wisconsin and most other states outside of California, Nevada, and New Jersey is federal regulation. If federal regulation with an ‘opt out’ clause gets put into place as it has been discussed, I think Wisconsin is forward-thinking enough to be a part of that.”

Verrett is encouraging players to become proactive in spite of the minimal movement on the online poker front in Wisconsin. He said, “Join the PPA, get on the mailing lists and use the tools that the PPA has in place to let decision-makers in your area know your opinion.

“The PPA does a very good job of tracking opinions of state and federal decision-makers for your state and provides very simple one-click form letters to send to your senator or representative. If you are a poker player, you should keep pushing the issue. Don’t be a person that complains when decisions are made against us; voice your opinion before the decisions are made.”

Online Poker: “We the People”

The American people’s online petition for licensing and regulation of Internet poker finally received a response from the Obama administration on Friday after waiting nearly eight months. The National Economic Council deputy director, Brian Deese, who is also special assistant to President Obama on economic policy, issued a four-paragraph response. The first and last paragraphs were merely skeletons containing the introduction and the conclusion, leaving only two paragraphs with meat.

The second paragraph was an acknowledgement that a large number of Americans play online poker and they are not prevented by any federal law from doing so. It goes on to state that each state has the mandate to authorize online poker or not. This is a confirmation of the Justice Department’s green light in December to states to move ahead on the issue.

The third paragraph is a listing of the typical areas of concern in the issue of Internet gambling, including prevention of minors from playing, money laundering and fraud. With regard to that, the response states, “The Administration will continue to examine this issue and is open to solutions that would help guard against the use of online gambling sites as tools for conducting illegal activities or preying on unsuspecting individuals to the extent that online gambling is permitted.”

The response said nothing of the petition’s actual message; that regulating online poker in the U.S. would be a safeguard against such concerns and at the same time offer consumer protection, create jobs, and raise revenue to the tune of billions of dollars.

Optimists had hoped the administration was putting together a thoughtful reply and hence the long wait: most of the other early petitions had already received a response. Following the failure of the initial set of responses to address the content of the various petitions, a new petition was created and it had the title “Actually take these petitions seriously instead of just using them as an excuse to pretend you are listening.”

Pokers Players Alliance (PPA) created the original poker petition on September 22, aimed at the “We the People” promotion ran on the official website of the White House. In three days time, the petition had crossed the threshold of 5,000 signatures that was necessary for a response. By the time it was done, there were nearly 10,000 signatures.

John Pappas, the PPA executive director, said, “Today’s petition response is promising in the respect that each of the issues raised by the White House can be and will addressed by U.S. regulation of the industry.” He added, “The best response is for Congress to put a bill on the president’s desk that protects consumers, restores personal freedom and raises much needed revenue.”

PokerStars Bids for Delaware Poker License

The state lottery of Delaware, which oversees Internet gaming, just announced a request for proposals to assist in the launch of Internet gaming at a later date in the year, an announcement that was followed by several companies submitting their requests. According to GamblingCompliance.com, as of now Ration Group, the parent company of Poker Stars, and 13 other companies have already responded with offers to help bring online gambling in the state to fruition.

Some of the other big names in the industry that made their submissions include IGT, 888 Holdings, Continent 8 Technologies, Amaya Gaming (owns Ongame Network poker platform), Stan James PLC, and SHFL Entertainment.

According to Delaware lottery officials, there is great hope in the launch of real money online gambling happening some time before the end of September. As such, the companies interested in submitting their offers have been asked to be set to go live by that schedule.

The companies are said to offer a variety of services though their specific nature is yet to be revealed. However, when the state’s lottery was announcing the opening for proposals, they were seeking suppliers in four areas: Game Content Vendors, Operations Management Provider, Backend Technology Platform Provider, and Support Services Vendors.

The state of Delaware is after companies with a track record of operation for not less than a year, and with experience in North American and European markets.

The dates for the launch of online poker in Nevada and legalization in New Jersey draw closer. With this progress, state lawmakers are anticipating a broader player pool through interstate compacts. This is an industry with millions of dollars potentially at play, and other states’ legislators, such as Illinois and California, are also seriously considering avenues to get in.

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