Poker is a game of chance and the organiser of a poker tournament can be prosecuted for breaking gambling laws, Amsterdam’s appeal court has ruled in a case which stretches back nearly 10 years. Officially, the Netherlands regards poker as a gambling game, meaning the state owned Holland Casino group is the only organisation allowed to organise tournaments. The case centres on three men who organised poker tournaments in a bar in Bussum between 2005 and 2007 without a licence. Lower court judges in 2010 and 2014 agreed with the defence, which argued poker has become a different game, depending…

A Nevada judge has sentenced former Bitcoin online poker site operator Bryan Micon to probation for illegal gambling charges. On Tuesday, Clark County District Court Judge Kerry Earley handed Micon a $25k fine and two years of probation for his role in the Sealswithclubs online poker operation. The sentencing, which also required Micon to forfeit certain items seized by police, follows a deal Micon worked out with Nevada prosecutors this summer. Micon was formally charged with operating an unlicensed interactive gaming system in April following raids on his Nevada residence in February, during which the authorities seized a good deal…

In an interview on Nevada political program “Ralston Reports”, billionaire casino owner Steve Wynn touched on a number of topics concerning the U.S. gaming industry and said that he is still against real-money casino games on the Internet. “I believe that Internet gaming is not going to happen in any way that is meaningful for Las Vegas,” Wynn said. The 73-year-old said he still agrees with fellow casino owner Sheldon Adelson. The latter is trying to push an online gaming ban through Congress, but the proposal is flirting with numerous carve-outs for some forms of online gambling. Peer-to-peer online poker…

iGaming Business – Online poker supporters in California are celebrating a step forward for legalisation in the US state. The Assembly Governmental Organisation Committee (GO) voted unanimously in favor of advancing AB 431, sponsored by Assemblymember Adam Gray. While this move does not make it law, it pushes it along to the next legislative step and is significant because it is a first legislative victory for poker in California and it was unclear that it would have enough support to progress. The vote was welcomed by the ‘Amaya Coalition’, which is a group of interested parties including PokerStars owner Amaya…

iGaming Business – The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) has reported that the US state experienced an increase in online poker revenue in July, ending three consecutive months of declining sales figures. The three licensed online poker operators in New Jersey took just under $2.2 million (€1.6 million) in July, which was up 4.8% on the $2 million generated in the previous month. Despite the increase, July proved to be the second least successful month since online poker became regulated in New Jersey last year, with June of this year being the least successful in terms of revenue…

Poker News – Let me ask you a question – are you happy with your poker results right now? Are you where you deserve to be or are you frustrated by fish getting lucky and busting you after all your hard work? Maybe you’ve had the experience of playing well and going deep. Then you get into a big pot with a bad player… You know the kind of thing I’m talking about. You have AK and the fish has AJ – and then big surprise, a jack on the river. All your hard work undone in an instant –…