Professional poker player Phil Ivey is set to be the front man for a joint venture between the Pala Band of Mission Indians and former bwin.party CEO Jim Ryan, PokerFuse PRO has learned. The new entity, Pala Interactive, plans to offer online poker and casino games in California upon regulation within the state. And though the deal is currently limited to potential offerings in California, the agreement could be extended beyond the state at a later date. Pala Interactive is slated to use software provided by Realtime Edge Software (RTE), a company that lists bwin.party, GTECH, RocketFrog and ClubWPT among…

The parent company of the PokerStars gambling website, thwarted thus far in its efforts to buy one Atlantic City casino, on Wednesday announced a deal in which it will partner with another one to offer Internet gambling in the state once it becomes legal later this year. The Rational Group is joining with Resorts Casino Hotel as its online gambling partner, pending approval from state casino regulators. But Wednesday’s announcement raised another big question: whether PokerStars plans to continue its court fight to try to buy The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, in which it thus far has been rebuffed. An…

From Poker News On Monday, PokerStars announced a new security feature designed to protect player accounts. “SMS Validation” was created to reduce the vulnerability of player accounts to unauthorized hackers. The service is free to all users and can be found in the latest PokerStars software update. It will be available first to accounts registered in specific countries before launched globally. To use the SMS Validation option, after a player has activated its use in the PokerStars client, they will receive an SMS text message when potential irregularities with the operation of their account are detected by PokerStars systems. If…

From iGaming Business – British online and land-based gambling operator William Hill is reportedly planning to launch a new poker site powered by technology from Playtech Limited and focused on the Italian market. London-based William Hill has been active in the Italian market since mid-2011 with its online casino managing to secure a seven percent share of the market so far although the iPoker Network competitor from Playtech has holds over 15 percent. According to statistics from the Amministrazione Autonoma Monopoli Di Stato (AAMS) regulator, PokerStars.it is the largest player in the ring-fenced Italian market with 38.3 percent of cash…

From Pokerstars PokerStars today announced that it will be supporting the 2nd annual Seoul Poker Cup which will be hosted by the Paradise Casino Walkerhill from August 23-25. The Seoul Poker Cup features two Official Asia Player of the Year events including the KRW 1.1m (US $970) buy-in Main Event. “We’re excited to support this event again this year and we have added re-entries to the Main Event this time.” said APPT President Danny McDonagh. Last year, Korean-based Frechman Olivier Ziegler beat the 137-player field to win more than KRW 40m. This year is expected to be bigger and better….

From Gambling 911 A rep for Carbon Poker, the flagship Internet poker room on the Merge Gaming Network, has confirmed that the company is looking very closely at offering the anonymous digital currency Bitcoin as a payment option. “I know Merge have been looking into the validity of using BC as a funding and withdrawal method for quite some time now,” a Carbon Poker rep posted on the TwoPlusTwo.com posting forum. That same rep alluded to concerns over regulatory frameworks and controls, something that could soon be addressed with news that the Winklevoss twins, who famously alleged that Facebook Inc…