As we all know, California is the golden snitch that the United States online poker world wants to catch, but also as we all know, there has been attempt after attempt after attempt to get online poker legalized and regulated there, always to no avail. Would New York be an acceptable consolation prize? Well, perhaps not for Californians or poker players in most of the rest of the country, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt. According to GamblingCompliance, there will be another push to pass an online poker bill this year. There have been a number of false starts in getting…

NOTE: This is not an online poker bill. Senator Louise Lucas has submitted an amended gambling bill that seeks to admit poker as a game of skill, therefore bypassing antiquated gambling legislation in the state. f the state of Virginia ever wakes up to the possibility that gambling is not as dangerous as selling tobacco by the aircraft carrier load then, citizens will have Democratic Senator Louise Lucas to thank. For the third successive year, Lucas has submitted her annual ditty that would legalize a form of gambling in the Old Dominion and this time her focus is on poker….

While PokerNews has been unable to confirm the exact reason for the timing of this from 888poker, it is believed to be due to the proposed amendment to the Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 that some expect to pass in Australia in the near future. If passed, the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 mandates that online gaming operators offering services to Australian residents secure local licenses or face steep fines as high as A$6.75 million ($5.05 million). Unlike gaming regimes in other countries, individuals can also face heavy punishment if the bill is passed, with fines up to A$1.35 million…

The world’s largest online poker discussion forum, TwoPlusTwo, has again seen its virtual defenses breached. The site’s operators have confirmed that the forum was hacked at some point late in 2016, with the personal data then being offered for sale elsewhere on the Internet. The hacking and theft of the personal information was discovered by prominent British poker pro Max Silver, who disclosed the probable leak on Twitter as well as on the TwoPlusTwo forum itself. Silver reported hearing about the leak from a friend. The hack included the theft of email addresses, IP addresses, birthday, last login date, registered…

Formerly the world’s No. 1 professional tennis player and six-time major singles winner, Boris Becker is the latest stellar name to sign with partypoker as a brand ambassador. The online poker site has been busy recruiting ambassadors and sponsored professionals of late as it looks to expand its reach into countries around the world. This year alone, partypoker has signed Patrick Leonard, Roberto Romanello, Sam Trickett, Natalia Breviglieri, Jackie Glazier, Beata Jambrik and Joao Simao as ambassadors or sponsored pros, joining the legendary Mike Sexton, Tony Dunst and four-time world champion boxer Carl Froch on partypoker’s books. Becker, who was…

Finnish company RAY and Austria’s win2day have agreed a deal to share cross-border poker liquidity on Playtech’s online poker-powered network. Under the agreement, which Playtech described as an industry-first, the two firms will launch a joint network using liquidity from both player bases, with customers of each brand able to access omni-channel poker products on the Playtech network. Playtech said the deal represents the first time that two regulated entities have joined forces to share cross-border poker liquidity. The Finnish Ministry of Interior has approved the liquidity sharing agreement, with RAY previously limited to offering its online poker service to…

A dozen politically powerful American Indian tribes are not likely to reach the consensus needed to move an online poker bill in the 2017 California legislative session, tribal officials said this week. A tribal/card room coalition with Amaya/PokerStars plans to again introduce legislation to legalize California online poker, Robert Martin, chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, told Online Poker Report Wednesday. But Martin, whose tribe is business partners with PokerStars, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and three Los Angeles area card rooms, is not optimistic other tribal governments will agree on bill language that will grant…

The popular perception of poker includes a strange contradiction of luminous casinos and darkened backrooms. In the seventies and eighties, it was either a game you played beneath bright casino lights, surrounded by strangers and croupiers, or one in the privacy of a friend’s living room on a Friday night. In either case, poker was somewhat an exclusive club of expert players, pros, and close-knit groups of friends and coworkers. The game didn’t really gain much traction with the wider public until the early nineties, when the internet became more accessible and events like the World Series of Poker (WSOP)…