California online poker has quite the full house when it comes to legalization According to the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, there are 89 cardrooms in 32 counties in California, and of the 110 federally recognized tribes in the state, 58 of them run 60 casinos — many of which have poker rooms. Even so, there is still a big pot of money left on the table when you consider California online poker, a game that’s currently not legal in California. Only New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware have legalized Internet poker for now. Efforts to legalize web poker have been ongoing…

Bryan Micon, the man behind the bitcoin poker site Seals With Clubs that Nevada’s authorities closed in February, has agreed to plead guilty for running an unlicensed online poker room from Las Vegas. As announced here on Poker News on June 22, Micon decided to end his self-inflicted exile to Antigua and head back to the U.S. to participate in a hearing set for Thursday, June 25. During the hearing, Micon agreed to plead guilty – as this should allow him to avoid the risk of spending up to 10 years in prison, the Las Vegas Review Journal reports. Micon’s…

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) introduced H.R. 2888, the Internet Poker Freedom Act of 2015 Thursday morning. The legislation licenses and regulates Internet poker and seeks to restore the rights of people to play the “all-American” game, while at the same time protecting them from fraud. H.R. 2888 also mandates the implementation of technology that prohibits underage players, provides aid for problem gamblers, and preserves state’s rights. Rep. Barton issued the following statement about the Internet Poker Freedom Act of 2015: “Poker is an all-American game. It’s a game that I learned as a teen and continue to play today. Just…

Bryan Micon, former operator of the ‘Seals with Clubs’ Bitcoin poker site, will this week attend a court hearing in the US state of Nevada after being charged with operating an unlicensed gaming website. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Micon will on Thursday travel from his home in Antigua for the hearing in a Nevada court. The news comes after Micon was in April charged with one count of operating an unlicensed interactive gambling website. However, an arrest warrant that was approved in April in connection with the charges has now been recalled in order to allow Micon to…

PokerStars has joined forces with a number of California tribal casinos and cardrooms to launch an online poker coalition in an effort to promote an open and fair market for any future regulated internet poker market in the state. The new ‘Californians for Responsible iPoker’ group features five tribal-gaming groups as well as the Commerce, Bicycle and Hawaiian Gardens cardrooms. Each member of the group has already reached an agreement with PokerStars to use the online poker operator’s software should the state opt to regulate internet poker activities. PokerStars said the group will enable it to demonstrate in state-level hearings…

Bwin.party has reached an agreement to sell the World Poker Tour  to Chinese online game developer OurGame.com for $35mm. Details of the deal were made available via a filing from OurGame. The closing date for the deal is June 25. The deal appears to include all components of WPT, including the live tour, existing episode library, all intellectual property and the subscription-based poker site ClubWPT.com. Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Global Poker Index, called the sale “a tremendous opportunity for poker and for the World Poker Tour,” noting that OurGame has the “entrepreneurial spirit and the cash to help WPT achieve…