Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

With the casino business of Atlantic City taking a beating over the tough economic times the New Jersey Government has become the first state to seriously explore online gambling (poker) revenue. Senator Raymond Lesniak introduced the S3167 Senate Bill that would permit Atlantic CIty Casinos to provide online versions of their games. Permitted games would be BLackjakc, Baccarat and of course, online poker.

The New Jersey Casino Control Commission would be the regulatory body for the new iniative under a new division of Internet Wagering. Anyone is able to set up their own online gambling site, but for the with the costs involved only major Atlantic City Casino’s are expected to take advantage of the new proposed laws.

How Much Will It Cost?

Up Front Fee $200,000

Non-Refundable Deposit $100,000

Yearly Renewal $100,000

Problem Gambling Levey $100,000

Benifits

There are barrieres to setting up this type of business, but with little overhead and approx. 500,000 online poker players in New Jersey alone this could be a huge win for online gambling, and for Atlantic City Casinos. Giving it a chance could showcase the amount of revenue that the states have been denying themselves (Senator Lesniak estimates $100 million), as well as profiting from a higher tax rate on online gambling revenue (20% instead of the 8% on gross revenue currently incured by brick-and-mortar profits).

Drawbacks

The new regulations would allow for anyone to play online poker and gambling games, provided they were in a “restricted area of a casino hotel or a secure facility off the premises of the casino hotel.” Terminals would also be placed at racetracks. Sadly, not all New Jersey residents will be able to get their hands on legal online poker, should the bill pass. The law only applies to those people “within the territorial limits of the Atlantic County.”

With the blessing of the Quebec cabinet, and the go ahead from Loto-Quebec CEO it appears that Quebec will be the first Canadian province to have a government regulated online poker site. For the record, BC has online gambling, but the games are casino like games and pseudo-poker games, not the true poker game that is being proposed in Quebec. But wait, can’t we already play online poker in Canada without regulation? Isn’t it “Legal?” Has this worked in others places around the world? And wont there be too many barriers for existing players to make the jump to a publicly run site?

The “Illegal” Question

It always makes me laugh when i read stories like this and there are learned men and women speaking about the legality of online poker, and getting the complete wrong end of the stick. For example, during the press conference the Finance Minister Raymond Bachand spoke about the legitimacy, regulation and protection that provincially run online gambling would offer consumers. “Inasmuch as this is a sector that is developing exponentially in an illegal way, Loto-Québec is being given the responsibility of working to redirect this … to a site that is secure, legal and trustworthy.” I don’t know if he’s speaking about illegal live poker clubs (a huge problem in Quebec), or if he’s alluding to the “illegal” gambling site that have been allowed to run in Canada. The fact is, while it is illegal for someone to run a gambling site in Canada, it’s perfectly legal to frequent a site run on foreign ground. I dislike the vilification of people playing “illegal” games and simply by saying “look at us! we made a site and it’s LEGAL now, come play on it!” doesn’t sway me in the slightest. Quebec, you’ll need to make a GREAT online poker site and offer some GREAT rakeback and incentive offers to come close to enticing players from the already well established online poker sites like Full Tilt and Poker Stars.

What Happened in Sweden?

Okay, so there is president for this. When Sweden launched is publicly owned Swedish lottery corporation online poker offering it took %25 of the market share in four hours. I’m not sure how they came to that conclusion, or if it has been sustained over a long period of time, but in 2008 it generated $600,000 million so it looks to be a viable option. Of course, with the widespread offerings and few barriers to those offerings (you just need an internet connection and a way to get cash on the site), i maintain it will be difficult for a “Regulated” online poker room that’s state run to succeed in the way the politicians are expecting.

Barriers?

C’mon, you didn’t think that adding red tape and government control would mean an easy way to get online to play poker.

The Quebec site will be open only to Quebec residents who are physically within the province, but those players will be able to engage players in the other participating jurisdictions. Age verification will be done by an outside firm using a process that could take days and, in some cases, require the player to show up in person.

GREAT. I’m totally getting rid of my illegal online accounts to wait a few weeks to be told i have to go down to some private firm to verify my age (hello…i pay taxes, you seem to know how old i am on there..eh?).

All in all, i think their intentions are good, but you can’t all of a sudden change the rules and expect people to be excited about it. If this were happening in the states, it would be really exciting. In Canada, it seems ill conceived and not well thought out. I’ll stick with my “illegal” option thank you very much.

I have done many articles lately about powerful hands, and mistakes poker players make.  And after thinking long and hard about this, it comes down to one thing really: Do you have a plan?  Now, i could go very general, and talk about a plan for the tourney you’re entering, or the major MTT, or even the 2 hour multi table cash game; i’d like to get a lot more narrow.  Do you have a plan, hand for hand? Pre-Flop Most people who read poker books are bombarded with charts, and scales, statitstics and probabiltiy about every [...] Continue Reading…

PacificPoker.com / 888.com recently rebranded their product (including new software which will be updated to the new colour scheme any day now) and to help launch this they are offering a sweet promotion where players get $8 FREE (no strings attached!!!) just to try them out.  This is a great way to get a free bankroll and start making money playing poker online!

Furthermore if you try the software out and like it and decide you want to make a deposit, you will also get the following:
- Exclusive instant bonus: deposit now and get cash immediately! (25% of your first [...] Continue Reading…

I recently saw an article that had a very interesting slant on the question: what would happen if UIGEA disapeared??To Pre-amble this, it appears that Sega has opened up a real money poker room and casino, that is unavailable from the USA while the UIGEA is still crippling US poker rooms (somewhat).  And, Microsoft just released a Hoyle poker game that you are able to play online (against bots and humans) using your own avatar.  You can create custom games, and private games if you like.  But probably the best feature of this is that it provides Deep statistic [...] Continue Reading…

Or, at least, a piece of his poker history. Thought not publicly explaining himself, TJ Cloutier sold his 2005 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em bracelet to a pawn shop. When he was unable to meet the terms of getting it back, the Pawn shop then placed the bracelet on E-bay. The bracelet was purchased by Cake Poker for $4006.00. Some news agencies have speculated that buying this piece of poker history was a ploy by Cake poker to add Cloutier to their roster of “Pros,” but this afternoon it was announced by Cake Poker that they [...] Continue Reading…