The third year of pushing New York online poker legislation was not a charm as the state legislature made no effort at all to push for regulation in 2019. Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow had each reintroduced online poker bills, but neither advanced them out of committee. Now, the legislature has adjourned for the year. “I thought sports betting was kind of a low-hanging fruit,” Addabbo said. “I couldn’t even get the low-hanging fruit, and you want me to get a ladder to go for online poker? Forget about it. That ladder isn’t even for sale in our…

The seemingly never ending battles between California cardrooms and tribal casino operators operators rages on. After years of not being able to get together for online poker, the fight over “house-banked games” has taken center state. This week, the US District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed a lawsuit filed by three of the state’s gaming tribes who accused the state government of violating the tribes’ gaming compacts. Specifically, the tribes argued that the state violated exclusivity provisions of the compacts by allowing commercial cardrooms to offer house-banked games, in which players play against the house (blackjack) rather…

Saying that the World Series of Poker is having a record start is to seriously downplay the numbers. A record number of entries, 28,371 of them, was received for the “Big 50” no-limit hold’em tournament held earlier this month on the opening weekend. The entries, which represented 17,970 unique participants, was the most ever for a live poker tournament. The $500 buy-in event was spread over four days of starting flights and was “rake-free”. It gave participants a 50,000 starting chip stack and 50-minute playing levels. The overwhelming response generated a $13,509,435 total prize pool, far surpassing the $5-million guarantee….

Poker professional and player favorite Eli Elezra held off nearly 300 opponents to win another WSOP Bracelet. It was the 4th of his career, and it came in the 2019 World Series of Poker $1,500 seven-card stud event. Three of Elezra’s four WSOP titles have come in stud poker tournaments. His most recent win at the series saw him take down this same event, the $1,500 buy-in seven-card stud, back in 2015. His lone non-stud WSOP win came in the 2013 $2,500 triple draw deuce-to-seven lowball event. He now has more than $2 million in WSOP earnings, with 64 career…

With the recent ruling in New Hampshire against the Department of Justice, online poker shared liquidity could create a monster. During its latest trading update, 888 Holdings boasted that it had already moved into the lead among US online poker sites. 888 only serves three states, but the claim of being the market leader includes the combined network of 888 and its US partner, WSOP. Things may not be good with the rest of the 888 Poker operations around the world, though. Global online poker revenue fell disastrously during 2018, with year-over-year numbers down 28%. The good news from the US, however,…

The World Poker Tour wrapped up its 17th season last week. But as they close out another successful season, there are WPT expansion plans in their 18th season! For the WPT, social gaming is a key driver of revenue and of course, increasing the customer base. The healthy numbers in their ClubWPT, PlayWPT and now Zynga are vital to the company’s success, and the iconic TV show they put out is a great way to increase membership and retaining of subscribers. The WPT’s customer base could be growing even more as they head south of the border to Mexico! As…