Cards Chat – For many years, industry analysts pointed to California as being the gateway state for online poker to become legalized. After all, if the most populous state could pull it off, many believe that would lead to a domino effect for other states to get on board. But California’s Native American tribes who operate a monopoly for casinos have long opposed legalizing online gaming and online poker. Now, in a reversal of that long-held stance, the seven most influential tribes’ leaders have testified that they are ready to make it happen, assuming certain stipulations be met. For many…

Online Poker Report – One of the points Sheldon Adelson and his cohorts have been trying to drive home any chance they get is how online gambling sites can be used to launder money by everyone from drug cartels to terrorists. But is this really the case? And perhaps an even better question to ask is, does regulation increase or decrease the ability of shady characters to launder money online? It’s not that the reports Sheldon Adelson and the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling are citing are false. It’s the way in which Adelson and company are presenting these findings…

Daily Mail – Sixty minutes later Daniel Tzvetkoff and a cohort of high rollers and hangers-on were partying in the Palm Hotel’s Playboy Mansion Suite. Tzvetkoff swigged Cristal champagne straight from the bottle and lounged in the infinity pool. Naked girls snorted cocaine off each other’s breasts and invited him to do the same. Tzvetkoff was 25 years old. He could have anyone he wanted at the click of his fingers.  He flew by private jet, drove Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Ferraris and more and his property portfolio was worth millions. And on that September night in Vegas, 2008, he…

Poker News – Another online poker bill has been introduced in New York. Five weeks after Republican State Sen. John Bonacic introduced S 6913, a bill that would allow certain interactive poker games, to the New York Senate, State Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow (D-Mt. Vernon) has introduced A09509 in the state assembly. The purpose of the bill, which is strikingly similar to its Senate counterpart, is “to authorize the New York State Gaming Commission to license certain entities to offer for play to the public certain variants of internet poker which require a significant degree of skill, specifically ‘Omaha Hold’em’…

Cards Chat – Charles Coppolani, the new president of ARJEL, the French online gambling regulator, has declared that online poker in France is a “fad” that is “over”. Speaking to Les Échos in his first interview since taking up the post, Coppolani stated bluntly: “The fad is over. Basically, the online poker market may be mature.” It’s a worrying attitude from the man in control of an online poker market that desperately needs to adopt liquidity sharing with other European nations in order to thrive. France chose to regulate and ring-fence online poker and online casino gambling in 2010, closing…

Forbes – In America there is a war going on for the hearts and minds of thousands of online poker players, many of whom have been frozen out of the game they love.  In one corner stand the lobbyists pushing for a federal ban on online poker.  In the other, individual state lawmakers who are forging ahead with plans of regulated online poker for their residents. Three states – Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware – have thus far pushed on with legalized online poker, and New York could be up next. However, with disappointing returns reported to date and tax…