Poker News – As every poker player knows, there’s nothing quite like a tournament. Every participant in the field — from the underdogs to the overwhelming favorite — begins play with the same sense of hope and optimism, knowing that few fortuitous plays and a little good fortune can fuel them to a run at the title. For forty-five years this maxim has been proven true under the searing heat and summer sunshine of Sin City, as the World Series of Poker brings the game’s greatest players together to test their mettle in tournament play. And while the WSOP is…

News Maker – Poker machines accounted for 60% ($9.8 billion) of the $16.3 billion spent by Australians on gambling in the 12 months to March 2014, well ahead of race betting and lotteries according to the latest results from the Roy Morgan Gambling Monitor. Australians spent $2.5 billion on race betting and $1.7 billion on lotteries, or 15% and 10% of the annual gambling spend respectively. The other forms of gambling make up the remaining 15% — including sports betting ($0.9 billion or 5%), casino table games ($0.6 billion or 4%), Keno ($0.5 billion or 3%), and scratch tickets ($0.3…

LA Times – After five years of disagreements, 13 California Indian tribes said Tuesday they have reached a compromise on legislation that would legalize Internet poker in the state. Until recently, tribes including the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians disagreed with other casino operators, including the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, but both sides now support a bill that would only allow current operators of a brick and mortar poker casino to run games on the Internet. That and other language in the bill could exclude Internet poker companies such as PokerStars, which has partnered with the Morongo Band…

Card Player – A tribe located within Idaho is tangled up in a legal battle with that state over the former’s opening of a poker room at an already-existing gambling facility. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe opened its poker room on May 2 at its Coeur d’Alene Casino. Idaho said that poker is illegal within its borders and that federal laws pertaining to tribal casinos wouldn’t provide a carve out in this situation. The Tribe disagreed, filing a lengthy motion for the state’s lawsuit to be dismissed, The Spokesman-Review reported Tuesday. “As the statute provides, even if the game of poker…

Poker News – After a series of tweets were issued by poker professionals during the start of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, a potentially serious security situation at the Rio All-Suite Las Vegas Hotel and Casino has come to light. During the last 24 hours, no less than three poker pros took to Twitter alleging that personal property – including laptops and large sums of money – were stolen from their hotel rooms overnight. The first player to sound the alarm was Finnish pro Lauri Pesonen, who issued the following tweet at 8:52 p.m. local time Tuesday…

Card Player – Another round of Full Tilt Poker repayments is scheduled for mid-June, the Garden City Group announced on its website on Wednesday. “GCG has been informed that the Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section has approved a new round of payments,” the notice said. “This distribution will include approximately 3,500 payments totaling $15 million to petitioners who submitted complete, timely or late petitions confirming their FTP account balance. Also included in this round of payments are affiliates who submitted petitions confirming their FTP account balances.” Once the new payments go through, around $96 million will…