Online gambling group Party Gaming has released its first half results, showing a 6.5% fall in operating profit, which management has attributed to competitive pressures and the consumer slowdown. However, the group offered the more encouraging news that trade in the last three weeks had been strong. In the three weeks to August 18, the average gross daily revenue was $1.9 million, whilst average active poker players totalled 51,000 per day. The group posted an H1,2009 operating profit of $60.7 million on revenues down 21% at $201.3 million for the six months to the end of June. Management recapped on [ Read More ]
Writing in the UK poker magazine Inside Poker this week, Alun Bowden asked some interesting questions about the future of high stakes poker and the development of the game on Internet nosebleed tables. Following a week of particularly big pots and frenetic action on the high stakes tables at Full Tilt Poker.com it’s a timely examination of the phenomenon. Bowden notes that five years ago The Big Game at the private Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio in Las Vegas was where the world’s richest cash games could be found, an exclusive and discreet venue that produced legendary poker action among [ Read More ]
"If the media and oversensitive racism watchdogs continue this witch-hunt for racists, they are doing more to slow relations between races than to improve them." So writes Ricky Bauer of Gambling Review, one of many online gambling and poker information websites commenting on this week’s controversy suggesting that poker pro Daniel Negreanu might be a "racist". The uproar began after Thomas Somach, a special contributor to the Gambling911.com website and the proprietor of PokerHelper.com, authored an article asking whether "Negreanu was a racist" following one of his weekly blog entries. "Negreanu made some outrageous comments about the sensitive subject of [ Read More ]
NBC’s prime time Saturday poker show, Face The Ace, had only 1.46 viewers in its second showing. Things could have been worse as the program apparently didn’t lose many viewers (debuting with 1.59 million). As it turns out, Face The Ace is not being broadcast in all markets. Salt Lake City residents are being deprived of the show, which may not be such a bad thing based on the critical panning. KSL Channel 5, the local television station owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, won’t air the prime-time poker game show Face the Ace, saying the [ Read More ]
One way to improve Face the Ace, the NBC prime time poker show that bombed in the ratings with its premier this past Saturday, is to add a pretty face…Say, more Megan Abrigo. She’s the hostess of the show but we probably didn’t get enough of her. More Megan Abrigo and less Steve Schirripa, that’s the consent of some after only one week of this dud airing. There is room for improvement…lots of improvement. The folks from WickedChopsPoker.com offered nine steps for improving the show, which is apparently backed by Full Tilt Poker. 1. Get rid of Steve Schirripa. Get [ Read More ]
Online gaming laws are in a constant state of confusion these days. In the United States, the debate has been raging on for years ever since the creating of the Unlawful Internet and Gambling Enforcement Act. It seems sometimes as though companies are engaging in a massive shell game just to remain legally compliant while maintaining profitability. Events this week however, show that the issues are not just limited to America. Yesterday, PokerStars customers living in Italy discovered something unexpected when they logged into their accounts. Rather than logging into the main Poker Stars portal, they were instead re-routed into [ Read More ]
The £5 million land version of online casino, poker, sportsbetting and mobile operation CasinoRed.com appears to be in dire financial straits only eight months after it opened its doors in Huddersfield, UK. The Huddersfield Daily Examiner reports this weekend that the premises remains deserted with no sign of relief for the 100 employees who were laid off after the first two months of operations following a plush opening in September 2008. Adding to the gloom, the window displays have apparently been removed in the last few days. The newspaper reports that the owners have remained silent, although the Gibraltar-licensed and [ Read More ]
This week saw a strong Poker Players Alliance presence in Washington DC as the one million member poker organisation flew in state directors and top poker personalities to interact with politicians and sell the idea of legalised online poker in the United States as part of the National Poker Week initiative. At a dinner kicking off the week’s activities, Florida Representative Robert Wexler, author of the Skill Game Protection Act and a supporter of the move to legalise the game as one predominantly of skill, addressed delegates, backed by PPA chairman Alphonse D’Amato and executive director John Pappas. Wexler described [ Read More ]
A few months ago, I had dinner with some prospective investors in High Stakes Entertainment. They were also poker players and wanted to go to the high-stakes poker room at the Bellagio to play poker. When we got to Bobby’s Room, there weren’t enough high limit players to start a game. A nice looking kid in his early 20′s walked by and someone said there’s that guy that just won two tournaments, back to back. So I ran outside and asked the young man if he was interested in playing with some tourists. He said he wasn’t comfortable playing so [ Read More ]
Just over eight hours of high-pressure poker whittled the remaining World Series of Poker Main Event field of 64 players down to 27 on Day 7, with the chipleaders at the 10.45pm Vegas time close almost the same as the previous day despite fluctuations in fortunes during the day’s action. Again heading the chip counts going into Day 8, when the final nine player table will be decided, is the remarkable Darvin Moon, an amateur player and owner of a Maryland logging company who has only been playing for three years. If he wins the Main Event, he may have [ Read More ]
