Efforts to legalize real-money online poker in California this year are likely dead, but that doesn’t mean stakeholders in a future industry there aren’t already gearing up for the long road ahead next year and possibly beyond. The most recent firm to form a partnership for online poker in the Golden State was Louisville-based Churchill Downs, according to a Thursday report from The Courier-Journal. The deal is with Crystal Casino & Hotel in Los Angeles and Ocean’s 11 in Oceanside, which are under the same ownership. The partnership means the groups would work together to bring a poker site to…

Over the weekend, the PokerStars Pro Tour concluded with its final four events. The last stop took place atTurlock Poker Room & Casino in Turlock, California, and another large turnout of support took place. Fans, poker players, and media members from around the Central Valley region flocked to the room, hoping to get the chance to meet with Daniel Negreanu and Vanessa Selbst. As previously mentioned, the PokerStars Pro Tour has been running since the middle of July, promoting awareness and support for legally, regulated online poker in the state. That’s something Mario Alvarez, Director of Casino Relations at Turlock…

PartyPoker, the online poker brand of bwin.party, has announced that players withdrawing funds via most banking options will no longer face processing fees. Customers withdrawing funds via popular banking methods such as Mastercard, Visa and PayPal were previously faced with processing fees. However, writing on the PartyPoker blog, director of games Golan Shaked said that after listening to feedback from players, the operator will halt these fees. “When we started our ‘Poker for the People’ campaign, withdrawal fees and our loyalty store were the two hottest topics raised at our live player forums,” Shaked said. “Our poker team has been…

Online poker operator 888 Group believes it is still at the table in the battle for the online gaming company Bwin.party. 888 Poker runs a popular website as well as online casino gaming, has arranged a meeting with Bwin this week. The move comes despite Bwin’s board declaring last week that a rival offer from GVC and Canadian poker giant Amaya was its preferred option. After that announcement, GVC chief executive Kenny Alexander, told City A.M. he was “just days away” from completing the deal. A spokesperson for GVC yesterday downplayed the challenge from 888, telling City A.M.: “We have…

On July 8th, just before the 2015 WSOP, it was reported in Las Vegas that last years Main Event World Series of Poker winner will not have the chance to defend his title this year, but there is no shortage of pro poker players and some celebrities that will be trying to win the $7.68 million top prize. There were 4,371 card players in total that were still in the no limit Texas Hold’em tournament at the beginning of the second session on Wednesday. The tournament officials declared that the prize pool of $60.3 million would be split between the…

The politics of prohibition reared its ugly head again last month when legislation was introduced to ban all Internet gambling, including the fledgling intrastate web poker industry that exists in Nevada. The bill from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is a clear play to boost the chances of his long-shot presidential campaign. Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson, a Republican Party mega-donor, happens to oppose Internet gambling, including poker. Web poker was played all over the country, for real money, before sites were shut down in 2011 by the Justice Department under a flawed interpretation of the Wire Act….