Online Casino BTDino

2006-02-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

Games are over, all links to this blog were deleted so it'll probably fall fast 'n deep but who cares?

I made myself some sweet cash bloggin' here and in the end, that's what it's all about isn't it?

Have Fun ;-)

Casino blog unblocked

2006-01-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

It looks like my blog for the online casino btdino contest has been blocked for quite some time. Apparantly they confused me for a spammer. I wonder where that idea came from :-)

April Simmons, a Grand Victoria Casino employee from Yorkville, Illinois, was killed in a car crash. She was nine months pregnant, but her unborn child could not be saved. John Homatas, 24, from Wayne, has been charged with reckless homicide and driving under the influence. Investigators claim the accident occurred as Simmons was making her way home from the casino. Homatas, who was driving in the opposite direction, crossed the center line at a high speed so he could pass other cars.

Homatas' passenger, John Chiarello, died as well. Homatas himself suffered horrible injuries and is currently in a drug-induced coma at the Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

China's 18th casino, the Emperor Palace Casino, opened in Macau this Thursday. About 20,000 people visited the casino on its first day of business, where an opening celebration was held with action film star Jackie Chan as the host. Other visiting celebrities included Michael Hui and Louis Koo.

The hotel-casino, built by Emperor Entertainment Hotel Limited, holds over 300 brand new slot machines on three levels of casino gaming space, which also feature all of the classic table games, geared toward both high and low rollers. The casino also has a flashy entrance: 78 pieces of gold bars have been placed underneath the casino's lobby floor. They are heavily guarded 24 hours a day.

Emperor Entertainment Hotel Limited's Executive Director, Vanessa Fan, was reported as saying, "The grand opening ceremony of our hotel has been scheduled for 20 January 2006. With the Macau economy developing rapidly and China continuing to relax travel restrictions, we believe the gaming industry in Macau will continue to boom and present us with abundant lucrative opportunities. "

What's with the btdino?

2005-12-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

The Missouri Gaming Commission ruled last week on three cases against the Isle of Capri Casino. The casino, located in Kansas City, will pay a total of $165,000 fines for disciplinary incidents that date back up to four years.

The incidents include a case in which the casino did not report to the Gaming Commission that a patron's purse had been stolen in September 2003. That same year, the casino failed to report a patron's complaint that he had been threatened with a knife and also did not inform the commission about a person who had tried to enter the casino using a fake ID.

The oldest case dates back to 2001, when the casino failed to report that a casino security staff member had taken a player into custody for questioning.

Fortuna Gaming Corporation, a company that “plans to become a leading mobile and online provider for the Internet gaming entertainment industry,” has inked a Letter of Intent to acquire an online casino company and all of its shares. The company has chosen to keep the casino's name confidential until the deal closes sometime in the beginning of next year's second quarter.

The acquisition will include an online gaming software platform that will support over 80 interactive casino games in 15 languages and four currencies. The company also expects the acquisition to bring it 65,000 active players, along with a database of 650,000.

Fortuna Gaming Corporation President, Doug Waugh, was quoted as saying, "This acquisition is a key component of the Company's growth plans as it brings an international player base of approximately 650,000 and a team of programmers and customer support personnel to the Company. Rather than growing the business organically, we can now offer our mobile and wireless products and technology to an established player base using the Seller's on-line casino products and systems."

Woman admits casino theft

2005-12-04T14:48:00.000-08:00

According to federal authorities, organizers of a phony marriage scheme courted individuals with major casino debts, offering them the chance to marry Vietnamese and Chinese nationals in exchange for annulling their gambling debts. These Asian citizens paid the gang large sums of money for their assistance in obtaining U.S. green cards in such an unusual manner. Among the hottest recruiting sites were the Morongo Casino and Resort in Cabazon, California, and the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California.

After a long-time investigation, U.S. officials arrested 55 individuals this week on suspicions of being involved in the phony marriage operation. In addition, Marian Therese Thai, a resident of Westminster, Colorado who is suspected of heading the organization, turned herself in to authorities on Friday. Thai is charged with conspiracy, harboring aliens, marriage fraud and other felonies.

Officials were reported as saying that the gang, called Operation Newlywed Game, was extremely complex. The operatives charged Asians up to $60,000 to wed American citizens with casino debts, who were willing to commit a felony for the right price. Thai is suspected of producing fake wedding pictures, love letters and joint tax returns. The scam was revealed by immigration agency employees who caught U.S. citizens petitioning for more than one spouse to be given green cards.

Heather Tallchief, 33, has turned herself in and pleaded guilty to bank and credit union embezzlement and passport fraud. The woman admitted driving a car full of cash from the Circus hotel-casino in Las Vegas to a garage, where her son's father and partner in crime, Roberto Solis, loaded it to another vehicle. The two fled the country and Solis, an ex-convict, remains a fugitive. Tallchief has lived in Amsterdam since 1993 under a fake name.

Tallchief reported she has no clue as to Solis' whereabouts, nor where the $2.9 million they stole is. However, she has agreed to repay the casinos' money by selling copyrights to any author or movie producer that may be interested in her story.

Caisno btdino online

2005-11-23T08:10:00.000-08:00

Dan Bland, a Natchez developer who has been helping Cato promote the project, was reported as saying that a final approval by the Commission would mean that Cato can finally start constructing the casino, and it would show that he has already secured funding for the project. Also, according to Bland, the new casino is expected to create as many as 400 job vacancies for residents of Natchez. However, prior to producing a final approval to Cato's current casino request, Commission members must approve his revised site and development plan.

Customer service consulting firm Robinson & Associates, Inc. has published a new tip for the casino and gaming industry. The tip recommends that casino management motivate employees to provide good customer service to all casino customers, regardless of the depth of the their wallets.

“Challenge your employees to do a better job with guest service,” says the tip, which recommends sending workers to non-gaming companies with a great reputation in customer service. That way, the employees may see the level of service that they are expected to provide.

In addition, the management should set an example themselves. “When casino employees see management going out of its way to provide great service – and not just to high rollers – they respond. Outstanding guest service starts at the top.”

Florida developer Charles Cato plans to address the state Gaming Commission, asking Commission members to approve locating the Emerald Star Casino near Natchez. If the Commission approves Cato's request, the new casino facility will be located in proximity of the Mississippi River bridge, adjacent to the Ramada Inn Hilltop.

This is not the first time Cato is trying to have a casino construction plan approved. In 2003, Cato had already discussed with city officials the possibility of locating a casino at the city-owned Roth Hill property. However, since the parties failed to reach an agreement, the negotiations went down the tube.

David Halligan, 44, from Stockport, UK, was sentenced this past Friday to seven years in prison on account of conning £905,000 out of various victims in order to fund his gambling addiction. He then lost all the money in casinos across the UK over a period of 12 months.

Halligan's cigarette vending firm went bankrupt in 2001 after he used all of its money to gamble in casinos. At one point, he lost as much as £20,000 in one sitting at a Blackpool casino. He was jailed at Minshull crown court after pleading guilty to various charges of deception and conspiracy to defraud.

Jammer casino almerico

2005-11-19T17:11:00.000-08:00

"Las Vegas is the perfect host city to bring new energy to The Miss America Pageant as we continue to grow our brand. It will truly be exciting to take our contestants there. It should make for a fantastic pageant and great television," said Art McMaster, president and CEO of the Miss America Organization.

The city of Budapest was aghast Wednesday afternoon when two mobs, comprising a total of an estimated 30 people, attacked each other at a BTdino casino. The affair resulted in a considerable amount of property damage and the arrests of 14 people involved. The clash was the outcome of a disagreement between two groups fighting for control over the Grand Casino, an electronic gaming hall.

The Police had been asked in advance to secure the location between noon and 1pm, as the property was being handed from one group of renters to another. However, another group, which wished for control over the casino and was turned down by a local government, arrived at the scene.

The two groups broke into a debate that quickly evolved into a giant mob fight with dozens of men wielding guns, iron rods, aces and a Molotov cocktail. The cocktail did not explode and the only person injured in the affair was a security guard.

New Zealand's Ministry of Health has released worrying statistics, which report a sharp rise in the number of people seeking help for gambling problems. The Problem Gambling Intervention Services in New Zealand: 2004 National Statistics have supplied an overview of these statistics and include information assembled by various problem gambling services, as well as New Zealand's Gambling Helpline. The statistical overview offered by the study covers the 2004 calendar year.

Dr. Janice Wilson, Deputy Director-General of Mental Health Services: "Each year the total pool of people who access problem gambling services has continued to increase. Last year, four out of every five new gambler clients to problem gambling service providers sought help as a consequence of their gambling on non-casino gaming machines."

The Ministry of Health's obligations include preventing and minimizing gambling damage by raising public awareness of the dangers of gambling. The Ministry works together with various local communities, helping them provide information on gambling addiction warning signs and information on how people can be aided. It also provides a budget for various treatment services to help those in need.

However, there is some good news. Statistics show that 80% of the people turning to “face-to-face services” benefit from it.

"This is reassuring,” Wilson adds, “However, we also know a large number of people are not seeking help. We need more information about possible barriers that may be preventing people from seeking help for problem gambling, and the Ministry of BTDino will further extend the availability of services."

The statistics report the following as well: The number of women seeking for help exceeds the number of men for the first time in history; most Pakeha/NZ European and Asian clients are male (60% and 79%), while the majority of Maori and Pacific clients are female (70% and 62%); 92% of new Maori clients prefer non-casino gaming machines for gambling.

The Miss America Organization and CMT, America's most popular country music network, have officially announced that the 2006 beauty pageant will not be held at an Atlantic City casino, as in past years. The competition will be aired live on Saturday, January 21st at 8p.m. ET/PT on the CMT channel from the Aladdin Resort & Casino, soon to be known as Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

"We are thrilled to host the Miss America Pageant at the Aladdin, future home of Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. This event belongs in Las Vegas, and where better in Las Vegas to hold it than on this property. We have the most central location on The Strip and we are home to the most beautiful theatre in the city," added Michael Mecca, president and CEO for the Aladdin Resort and Casino.

Btdino casino online

2005-11-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

The Chippewa Cree tribal council is seeking to obtain the Rocky Boy's reservation's first license for alcohol sales. The Montana-based tribe reportedly wants a legal permit to sell liquor at the 15-square-foot casino and hotel complex planned in the tribe's new industrial park near Laredo. Currently, the reservation is forbidden to sell alcoholic beverages.

Supporters of the idea, like council member Raymond Jake Parker, are pointing to the economic benefit such a license could bring. Bob Swan, financial manager of the Chippewa Cree Community Development Corp., was reported as saying that adding a sports bar to the casino would increase the casino's profits by 25%. Also, if tightly controlled, the issue would not greatly affect the reservation, as opponents fear.

According to Gene Huntington, administrator of gambling control for the Montana Department of Justice, the tribal casino could either be awarded a new liquor license, or purchase it from an already operating business. At present, tribal officials are cooperating with NORAM, a casino-building company from Florida, to build the future gaming facility. The entire project carries a $9 million price tag.

A new project has taken off in St. Louis County, Missouri: A new casino, scheduled for opening in 2008 near the Mississippi river. Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: PNK), the project leader, broke ground on Tuesday. The project, worth $375 million, will result in the creation of a “multi-faceted destination resort” in the county.

The company, which owns and operates casinos in Indiana, Nevada, Louisiana and Argentina, and previously operated a casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, has named the project “River City(SM) Casino & Hotel.”

The complex will include a 100-room hotel with full service spa, restaurants, bowling alley, movie theater and other attractions. The casino will hold 3,000 slot machines and 60 table games. Together, the hotel and casino are expected to create over 7,000 different jobs, ranging from construction jobs to permanent and ancillary service jobs.

Charlie Dooley, St. Louis County Executive, emphasized the importance of the project to the area: “Pinnacle's River City [Casino & Hotel] project will truly be a unique destination in our region and will create jobs and vital economic activity in Lemay. More than that, the birth of River City means the environmental clean-up of a long-abandoned industrial site, and the creation of a new and long-needed road in the County. The River City groundbreaking signals a new day for Lemay and South County, and we are very pleased to have Pinnacle Entertainment as the County's newest corporate neighbor.”

In addition to the River City(SM) Casino & Hotel, Btdino Entertainment is also building a $400 million casino, hotel & spa in downtown St. Louis. It broke ground in September 2005, and the company expects the casino to open in 2007.

Daniel R. Lee, Chairman and CEO of Pinnacle Entertainment: "We are very excited to begin work on River City. This project will be an important part of our company in the years to come. It will truly be a destination, a city unto itself, offering a wider array of entertainment amenities than any other single venue in the region. The community of Lemay has been enthusiastic about our project from the beginning of the selection process here in Missouri, and we will build something of which they, and all of St. Louis, can be proud."

Casino btdino online

2005-11-07T07:42:00.000-08:00

The robbery took place yesterday, just before 2a.m., at the Online Casino BTDino in Billings, Montana. A man, armed and masked, demanded money from the clerk at the cash register. Once the money was his, he darted out of the casino and was last reported running south. None of the casino's staff members or guests were harmed.

Witnesses claimed the casino robber was a white male, wearing a black sweatshirt, blue jeans and a black mask, wielding a dark colored hand gun. No suspects have yet been identified.

Crown Casino, located in Melbourne, Australia, values its Asian clients to such a degree that they are willing to cater to superstitions held by of some of them. After having previously hired the services of Feng Shui master James Zheng, who advised owners on where to place their equipment for good luck (although whether it's the casino's luck or the customer's is debatable), they have now hired Buddhist monks to preform a spirit cleansing ceremony.

Spokesman Gary O'Neill confirmed the incident, and reported that it all began when a couple of customers asked for the ceremony to take place after they complained about a poltergeist haunting the casino's lavatories. The three monks were hired to calm the worries of the casino's superstitious gamblers.

Online casino btdino signed a contract with several internet casinos to provide use of its SmartNet device over the course of five years. SmartNet's key features include high security protocols, which TVG developed in conjunction with Intel, for the safe transfer of money over the internet using a mobile device. SmartNet's security measures employ the Java smart card from Sun Microsystems.

As part of the agreement, TVG and BTDino Casino planned for joint construction of a new plant in Switzerland, to produce the SmartNet device. The corporations plan to finance the approximately $3 million with help from Swiss government tax-free benefits and loans.

Casino Queens

2005-11-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

It appears Genosha isn't the only place where mutants work for the “normal” humans. InterCasino.com has “inked a deal” with Marvel Entertainment, and will shortly release new games to its site, featuring characters such as Wolverine, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, Spiderman and others.

"Our players demand the best, and that is exactly what we are providing them with Marvel Hero online slot machine offerings. These games have the best graphics, the most interactive options and the most entertaining bonus features of any casino on the web," said Peter Markus, InterCasino spokesman.

Ryan Hartley, InterCasino manager, was reported as saying, “We like to give our players an added incentive to game with us, whether through higher payouts, competitive rewards programs or innovative software. Our new Marvel Hero games are just another way of making InterCasino the most rewarding place to play."

Players can now join forces with Professor X in battling evil enemies during special bonus rounds, or go after military tanks and helicopters along with the Hulk. The online casino will feature detailed graphics, which are bound to leave Marvel fans, as well as casino fans, satisfied.

Local gaming giant Tsogo Sun is the proud winner of South Africa's Dealer Competition. The company's prize is a chance to represent South Africa in the International Casino Dealer Championship, which will commence at ICE 2006 in London. Should Tsogo Sun Casino's representative win the international competition, she will receive an all expenses trip for two to the Global Gaming Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Winning the local casino championship was no easy task. The finalists had to face the judges, who were recruited from other competing South African casinos. The twelve finalists were given a quarter of an hour to display their skills, and were judged on their casino dealing abilities, including speed dealing, accuracy and style.

The Illinois Gaming Board has approved the Casino Queen's proposal to move nearly 700 feet inland. The casino will be rebuilt near the Casino Queen's hotel. However, the board has yet to approve the financing package for the $150 million project. Should the plan be approved, this will be the first time an Illinois casino moves inland.

A Casino Queen spokesperson, reported that the Casino Queen hopes to break ground on the new site around the first quarter of 2006, and to complete construction within up to 16 months. The relocation plan also includes selling the current three-level boat, which has been in use since 1993. The new one-level construction will hold 40,000 square feet of gambling space.

The new casino will offer 1,200 various games and gambling machines, which is the maximum allotted by Illinois law. In addition, higher ceilings will be constructed in the hopes of having an easier time ventilating the lingering cigarette smoke. Casino officials believe that this expansion will create an additional $1 to $1.5 million a year in gambling taxes.

Casino fights btdino

2005-11-05T19:43:00.000-08:00

According to a recent report, Coast Casinos, a Las Vegas based casino facility fined for missing a predetermined reporting deadline, filed an appeal to the Lancaster County District Court. The report in question is regarding the casino's $970,000 contribution to the Keep the Money in Nebraska Committee.

The Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission levied the fine, maintaining that the casino missed the Nov. 10, 2004 deadline, until which it was expected to submit the required documents. The Commission reportedly rejected the casino's claims that it misinterpreted the state law explaining how to calculate the fine. Also, the Commission argued that the law complies with the Legislature's intent, and that the casino is obligated to pay the $97,000 fine.

It was then that Coast Casinos went to court. Company attorney Michael J. Leahy was reported as saying that while the casino admits to missing the deadline, it disagrees with the amount decided upon. According to the company, the fine should equal $100 for each day the casino passed the deadline, and not 10% of the entire amount stated in the papers, as the committee decided.

Casino nights have become a popular way to raise money for various charities. Many San Jose, California, groups have realized how much money these events raise, and have planned casino events to raise money for different causes. However, the Almaden Business Association was stunned when the Attorney General's office put a stop to such an event event, stating that it was illegal.

Organizers of the event were upset upon receiving a letter stating that they had to cancel their Texas Hold 'Em tournament, as a great deal of planning went into the casino night. The letter was sent only three days before the event was meant to take place.

According to California law, it is a crime to offer casino games anywhere other than a card room or a tribal casino. Casino fundraisers are thus considered a crime, even if they raise money for a good cause.

State officials in Kentucky have secured a grant for $36,300 from the Office of Homeland Security, meant to assist in keeping terrorism out of bingo halls. The state Office of Charitable Gaming says it will use the grant to guarantee that money from bingo and pull-tab games will not be channeled to fund terrorism.

Not everyone agrees, however, that bingo halls in less populous states like Kentucky are terrorists' prime targets. For instance, in larger metropolitan areas, like New York and Los Angeles, experts say that some major facilities remain prone to attack due to lack of funding.

Legislators and politicians from rural districts understand the benefits of receiving homeland security grants. It is for these benefits that officials cite terrorism whenever they apply for grants, even if they intend to use the funding for other purposes.

While authorities at the Office of Charitable Gaming insist that they intend to use the grant to block the flow of Kentucky bingo money to terrorists before it can start, others feel that extra funding and more official attention should be paid to local "bingo pirates,” who infiltrate charitable gaming operations and end up taking cash meant for worthy causes.

Foxwood resort casinos

2005-11-03T08:19:00.000-08:00

Foxwoods Resort Casino, by far the largest casino in the world, is upping the ante with regard to its poker offerings. The casino recently announced that it has a new, expanded poker room in the works, the addition of which would effectively increase the number of poker tables in the casino by 40 percent. Foxwoods' current poker room boasts 76 tables; the new addition would push that number up to 114.

Foxwoods, however, is taking care not to sacrifice quality in the face of quantity. The new, smoke-free poker room will make use of the latest card-room technology, from LED table components to automatic card shufflers and a cutting-edge seating system.

Foxwoods has already garnered a reputation as a major destination for poker, partially thanks to the World Poker Tour, which has made is the host venue for its final championship event. The new poker room, expected to open sometime in Spring 2006, will surely bolster the casino's standing in the poker community.

“We are continually striving to offer our customers the ultimate poker experience.” noted Kathy Raymond, Foxwoods' Director of Poker Operations. “More tables and cutting edge technology will translate into less waiting and more action for our players, as well as giving us an even greater opportunity to host premiere poker events.”

Everest Poker, an online poker room boasting a wide range of language options, has recently released its revamped internet site, www.everstpoker.com, along with its operating poker software. The redesigned and updated version of the site also includes a new branded logo, which features an impressive graphic.

Matson Jones, Everest Poker's Art Director was quoted as saying that the architects of the new design expect the new logo to generate strong brand recognition in the online casino market. According to Jones, “the new logo has been optimized for use in Everest Poker promotional items such as clothing, playing cards, poker chips and more."

Also, Jonathan May, the Property Manager for Everest Poker said, “the new website, software and logo reaffirms our commitment to continue Everest Poker's leadership as the only true multi-lingual poker room on the Internet."

Fight casino blog spam

2005-11-01T14:07:00.000-08:00

It appears Genosha isn't the only place where mutants work for the “normal” humans. InterCasino.com has “inked a deal” with Marvel Entertainment, and will shortly release new games to its site, featuring characters such as Wolverine, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, Spiderman and others.

"Our players demand the best, and that is exactly what we are providing them with Marvel Hero online slot machine offerings. These games have the best graphics, the most interactive options and the most entertaining bonus features of any casino on the web," said Peter Markus, InterCasino spokesman.

Ryan Hartley, InterCasino manager, was reported as saying, “We like to give our players an added incentive to game with us, whether through higher payouts, competitive rewards programs or innovative software. Our new Marvel Hero games are just another way of making InterCasino the most rewarding place to play."

Players can now join forces with Professor X in battling evil enemies during special bonus rounds, or go after military tanks and helicopters along with the Hulk. The online casino will feature detailed graphics, which are bound to leave Marvel fans, as well as casino fans, satisfied.

A new service has been launched to help in the war against online spam, Fight Casino Spam. Fight Casino Spam is an advertisement-free website, which is currently working on collecting and labeling spam email reports from spam victims web-wide.

Fight Casino Spam will build a list of spam emails, separating email lists into "black lists" and "white lists." The former will be given to online casinos and gambling establishments so they could freely spam them, while the latter will be comprised of players who wish to remain spam-free.

The site hopes to eventually become the standard by which all online casino organizations abide when it comes to email marketing. In addition, sites remaining clean of spam for a certain period of time will be awarded a special FCS seal of approval.

155 East Tropicana, LLC, announced last week that it has been granted a gambling license from the Nevada Gaming Commission. The company, which owns the Hotel San Remo Casino & Resort in Las Vegas, is currently renovating the hotel, and plans to rename it “Hooter's Casino Hotel.”

Until the company receives a license from the Clark County Liquor and Gaming Licensing Board, the current operators, Eastern & Western Hotel Corporation, will continue to operate the casino and hotel. In addition, the hotel and casino's name will not be changed until all constructions and renovations are complete. East Tropicana anticipates that the grand opening celebration of Hooter's Casino & Hotel will be held in February, 2006.

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2005-10-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

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Online casino site

2005-10-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

GoldenPalace.com, an online casino site, which brought you items such as the Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Britney Spears' Pregnancy Test, is making headlines once again. The casino, known for its creative marketing campaigns, has now bought advertising space on the bellies of three pregnant sisters, and tattooed its logo on them.

The Florida sisters auctioned their bellies on eBay, and GoldenPalace.com was more than happy to win the race. The casino paid $5,000, and the sisters, Ann Zemen, Amy MacDonald and Kathleen Van Dyck, who live near Raymond James Stadium and the St. Pete Times Forum, will display their new ink at as many football games as possible.

"We want to corner the market on innovative advertising. As we have seen with our previous pregnant belly billboards Amber Rainey and Elise Harp, this kind of advertising gets a massive amount of attention. We are pleased with this opportunity to promote our brand as well as help out the mothers-to-be with their future baby expenses,” announced GoldenPalace.com CEO, Richard Rowe.

Long btdino

2005-10-26T03:54:00.000-07:00

In the meantime, offshore operators like the Gibraltar-based PartyGaming, and the Costa Rica-based Paradise Poker, a subsidiary of the London-based Sportingbet, continue to grow. Though some online casino businesses, like the Internet casino subsidiary of the British betting shop Ladbrokes, say they decline to do business with U.S. bettors, plenty of Web sites are happy to take Americans' money.

Though Washington made it more difficult for American online gamblers a few years ago, persuading many credit card issuers to block such transactions, Internet payment systems like Neteller, based on the Isle of Man, have stepped into the breach. But PayPal, a similar payment system owned by eBay, will not process these transactions.

While the United States is the biggest market for Internet gambling - Tottenham, the consultant, estimates that 70 percent of all online wagers originate there - the business is growing in Europe and Asia.

British and Irish gambling companies are lobbying the European Commission to include the industry in new rules aimed at creating a single market for services across the 25-member bloc.

The European Court of Justice, in a decision two years ago involving the British bookmaker Stanleybet that was similar to the WTO's recent ruling, said that EU countries could block foreign access to their gambling markets, but only to protect citizens, not to defend state-owned gambling monopolies.

In Britain, the betting shops that seem to have a presence on every "high street" have long been allowed to offer online wagers on sports, for instance. The new gambling act, along with legitimizing and regulating online casino gambling, will permit the building of at least one Las Vegas-style mega-casino, too. A number of online gambling companies are considering initial public stock offerings, alongside a handful that are already publicly traded.

Gambling casino

2005-10-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

Gambling companies in Britain and elsewhere that are looking to step up their U.S. presence were hoping that a recent case before the World Trade Organization, pitting the tiny Caribbean country of Antigua and Barbuda against the United States, would provide some clarity. Instead, the final ruling this month appears to have created even more confusion, with both sides claiming victory.

Antigua, where dozens of online gambling companies are based, went to the WTO in 2003, contending that the United States had discriminated against foreign providers of so-called remote gambling, a term that includes Internet sites, and violated agreements on global trade in services by preventing them frommarketing themselves in America.

In a preliminary ruling last year, a WTO panel agreed with Antigua.

But Washington appealed the decision, and in a final ruling this month, the WTO said the United States was within its rights to restrict remote gambling on the grounds of protecting "public morals" and "public order."

"U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling can be maintained," the acting U.S. trade representative, Peter Allgeier, said in a statement after the ruling.

At the same time, however, the trade organization left a possible window open for Antiguan and other Internet gambling companies, saying Washington had applied restrictions inconsistently, penalizing "offshore" operators. In some U.S. states, for instance, online betting on horse racing is legal. In others, lotteries can be entered by mail or telephone.

"If you fail one part of the test, you can't win the case," said Mark Mendel, a lawyer for Antigua. If the United States wanted to continue to restrict foreign operators, he said, it would have to block all remote gambling, something that he maintains is unlikely given the popularity and political connections of horse racing and lotteries.

Allgeier, though, maintained in his statement, "This report essentially says that if we clarify U.S. Internet gambling restrictions in certain ways, we'll be fine."

Washington did not specify what actions it might take to comply with the ruling, though Allgeier noted pointedly that the U.S. trade representative "will not ask Congress to weaken U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling."

The Bush administration says the restrictions are aimed at curbing money-laundering and organized crime as well as at keeping betting out of people's homes, where children might become addicted to it. This month, prosecutors in New York charged 17 people with running an illegal gambling ring that used an Internet site based in Costa Rica.

But online providers say that is precisely why U.S. authorities should bring the industry onshore, where they can monitor it more closely, as is being done in Britain. It will be at least a year, analysts say, before the new British law is implemented, but it could put the country squarely at odds with Washington if Britain-based operators eventually use their newfound respectability to try to challenge the U.S. restrictions.

"The WTO case should serve as a solid precedent should another jurisdiction decide to take the U.S. to the WTO along similar lines," said Wes Himes, director of the Interactive Gaming, Gambling and Betting Association, a Britain-based trade group.

In the meantime, offshore operators like the Gibraltar-based PartyGaming, and the Costa Rica-based Paradise Poker, a subsidiary of the London-based Sportingbet, continue to grow. Though some online casino businesses, like the Internet casino subsidiary of the British betting shop Ladbrokes, say they decline to do business with U.S. bettors, plenty of Web sites are happy to take Americans' money.

Though Washington made it more difficult for American online gamblers a few years ago, persuading many credit card issuers to block such transactions, Internet payment systems like Neteller, based on the Isle of Man, have stepped into the breach. But PayPal, a similar payment system owned by eBay, will not process these transactions.

While the United States is the biggest market for Internet gambling - Tottenham, the consultant, estimates that 70 percent of all online wagers originate there - the business is growing in Europe and Asia.

Online gambling

2005-10-26T03:51:00.000-07:00

The stakes are high, the ante is low, and a lot of bluffs may soon get called.

It's not Vegas, baby, but the freewheeling world of Internet gambling is a $7.5 billion business that is expected to more than double over the next five years.

Rapid growth and a low cost of entry are drawing in investors, but they also raise the prospect of trade battles among the United States, Britain and Continental countries that don't see eye to eye on gambling - or on regulation of the Internet.

British lawmakers this month took steps to lure online casino operators, which are often based in small locales like Antigua, Costa Rica and Gibraltar, to their shores by making it a legal, regulated business.

But in America, despite the presence of the world capital of gambling, Las Vegas, and the spread of casinos to Indian reservations and riverboats in many states, online gambling is technically illegal. Even though an estimated 20 million Americans - well over half of those betting globally - visit online gambling sites, the Bush administration wants to keep the ban in place, arguing that Internet gambling threatens public morals and contributes to the spread of crime.

Some continental European governments, too, are concerned about the spread of online gambling, but for a different reason - Internet betting threatens the entrenched casino and betting monopolies that are often run by or linked closely to national governments.

"Because of global trade agreements and the Internet, it's going to be harder and harder for governments to block this," said Andrew Tottenham, a London-based gambling consultant who is also the British representative for Caesar's Entertainment, the U.S. casino operator.

American casinos

2005-10-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here's an example. A little more than two years ago in March 2003, I did a write-up on Ameristar Casinos (Nasdaq: ASCA) -- a top-notch riverboat casino operator with rapidly growing market share and arguably the top property in every market in which it competes -- and recommended the stock at just under $11 per share.

At the time, the company carried an enterprise value at about 5 times to 5.2 times the company's estimate of $190 million to $200 million in 2003 EBITDA, a valuation that is on par with the weakest players in the industry. As a premium player, I felt the company was worth at least 6 times EBITDA, if not closer to what premium players such as rival Harrah's Entertainment (NYSE: HET) should have reasonably fetched at the time at 7 times or 8 times EBITDA. I felt particularly strong about this, as at the time Ameristar held its market position while competing against Harrah's in each of its four riverboat markets in Missouri, Mississippi, and Iowa.

So there was plenty of headroom here. At 6 times the low-end estimate at $190 million in 2003 EBITDA, the stock would be worth $16.50. At 7 times, the stock would be worth $23.75, and at 8 times EBITDA, the stock would be worth $31 per share.

By April 8, 2004, the stock had hit $37.75 for a clean triple-plus, yet the company was still trading at just more than 6 times 2004 EBITDA, a clear hold at the very low end of my estimate for fair value. But by July 27, the stock had fallen back to $30.45, before dropping 16% to $25.65 the next day following the company's second-quarter earnings report.

But here's the thing: The business was still strong, the prospects were bright, and now the company was trading at a measly 5.5 times to 5.8 times 2004 EBITDA. At this point, the stock was a clear buy.

Ameristar continued to perform as a business, and casino stocks in general had gained favor on Wall Street. And on Feb. 4, the stock closed at $49.55 following the company's fourth-quarter earnings report, almost a double from its panic price just six months earlier. The stock is now trading at around $55 as of today.

The point here is that it would have been way too easy for an investor to panic sell once the stock fell from $37.75 to $25.65 in a span of less than four months. It also would have been way too easy to curse yourself for not selling at $37.75 while you were 250% ahead. But the enterprising investor armed with MCU Tip No. 1 -- valuation gauges -- can see the value in holding at $37.75 when the stock is reasonably valued or better, and can get greedy and push his chips in when the company is dirt cheap at $25.65 and 5.5 times to 5.8 times EBITDA.

The ability to do so will reward an investor handsomely over the long run.

MCU Tip No. 14: Beating strong foes wins much respect and little money; beating weak foes wins little respect and much money.
The lesson: Investing is about what makes the money in the long run.

Remember: Investors get paid for making correct decisions. There is no bonus for attacking complex companies, or making tough choices. Often times, you'll find that the best investment decisions you make will be both simple and obvious.

Casino bluf

2005-10-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

That said, it is not enough to go out and buy Home Depot (NYSE: HD) or Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) simply because you like the stores and both companies are top players. Get an idea of what the stocks are worth -- compare P/E ratios, cash flows, dividend payouts, or whatever else you think is relevant.

Or if you're interested in a growth business that is difficult to value -- such as satellite radio plays XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI), or Motley Fool Rule Breakers selection Overstock.com (Nasdaq: OSTK) -- at least have a gauge on where you expect the company to be four or five years down the line. If your expected return from the current stock price doesn't justify the risk, then at least you know not to buy.

MCU Tip No. 11: Poker's stupidest question: "Why didn't you quit when you were $17,000 ahead?"
The lesson: Always look ahead. If the business quality and valuation favor a hold, then the correct decision is to hold on to the stock.

Top poker pro Phil Ivey -- often referred to as the "Tiger Woods of Poker" -- once said in a TV interview that so long as you're playing well and the game is good, it is to your advantage to keep playing until the game breaks up or you get tired.

This makes perfect sense. If a stock you buy doubles or triples but the long-term prospects for the business and the stock's valuation are still favorable, then why sell? And when the stock falls 20% in the short term for no good reason, don't panic and kick yourself for not selling -- this is the time when long-term investors salivate and get greedy.

Online investments

2005-10-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

In Part 1, we took three of poker theoretician Mike Caro's tips from Doyle Brunson's Super/System 2 and applied them to investing. In Part 2, we will take a look at three more tips from the Mike Caro University (MCU) and discuss the importance of valuation, being a forward-looking investor, and the idea that investors do not get bonuses for making tough choices.

MCU Tip No. 1: In the beginning, everything was even money.
The lesson: An investor's advantage comes from the ability to gauge valuation and expectations.

As Matt Damon said in the movie Rounders, "Get your chips in when you have the best of it; protect them when you don't." That's the key. The question: How do you know when you have the best of it?

The answer: By understanding valuation.

In poker, every player gets dealt the same cards over the long run. The fundamental difference between long-run winners and losers is an understanding of value -- the value of the cards you're dealt, the value of your position relative to the other players at the table, and how the value of your cards changes given the actions of the other players at the table.

Guess the casino

2005-10-24T03:39:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of years poker professionals -- many of them Las Vegas residents -- have struck endorsement deals with Internet poker sites and regularly tout them during casino appearances.

In a bar near the lobby of the Rio resort, poker legend Doyle Brunson recently held court with fans under the glare of camera lights to promote his latest poker book, SuperSystem 2.

Amid jokes and colorful stories, the so-called "Babe Ruth of poker" mentions Doyle's Room, a recently launched Internet poker site for which the Las Vegas resident is a paid spokesman. He also wears a cowboy hat with the site's logo.

Before the news conference, Brunson said he plays online poker on occasion and is working on a book about Internet poker strategy.

"It's so convenient you can play at home in your bathrobe," he said.

Most poker pros now gamble online, lured by multi-million-dollar jackpots that rival those of the biggest land-based casinos as well as nonstop games and rapid play, poker experts say.

Many of the world's best poker players live in Las Vegas or live between Las Vegas and Southern California, both home to some of the industry's most lucrative poker tournaments and richest live casino games.

"In Nevada you have a higher percentage than normal playing online than the rest of the country," said Card Player magazine co-publisher Barry Shulman, also a top pro. "The people who go into the casinos play online. It took the casinos about five minutes to figure that out and at first they were concerned that Internet poker would kill their business. Look around town. Poker rooms are packed."

Local pros also are well-represented online, Shulman said.

Show me the money

2005-10-24T03:38:00.001-07:00

"It's easier for them to win online than to drive to Bellagio and play for eight hours straight," he said. "The Internet is bringing so many new people into poker. The quality of (online) poker on average is going up but for the pros there's more money in it."

Online poker helps supplement income for poker pros who don't have to travel around as much to play in big money games, said Russ Hamilton, the 1995 World Series of Poker champion.

Hamilton is a spokesman for UltimateBet.com, a site based in the Caribbean island of Aruba.

"The big pros play online," Hamilton said. "There's a lot of people making a living online."

Poker pros say the law surrounding online poker is unclear but are careful not to go too far in their relationships with Internet poker sites.

Brunson, said he is a consultant for DoylesRoom.com and does not have an ownership stake in the site.

"It's a gray area," Brunson said of Internet gambling. "That's why we can only be consultants, not owners. It's a touchy situation."

Las Vegan and poker pro Howard Lederer is paid to promote FullTiltPoker.com, an Internet poker site that opened in July. Lederer is part owner of the company that developed the gambling software for the site but said he doesn't have a stake in the gambling operation.

"The software is a constant project," said Lederer, a two-time World Series of Poker champion.

About two years ago, Lederer and other top players were approached by a group of players with the idea of creating a poker site with star power and input from professional players.

"The site was designed with well over 100 years of poker experience behind it," he said. "These are poker people, people who understand online poker. We play in small stakes games (with customers) and answer questions. It's a true endorsement of the site."

Lederer admits his poker game has suffered somewhat because he is now involved in so many related business opportunities.

Make millions btdino

2005-10-24T03:38:00.000-07:00

"I'm so involved in the business side I really don't play side games," Lederer said. "It's very stiff competition. I have too much respect for (players) to put in 10 hours on the phone and then go down to the Bellagio and have enough focus for the game."

Mike Sexton, who also lives in Las Vegas, is a longtime pro who has nearly given up regular poker games for endorsements, book deals and other promotions.

Sexton is a commentator for the World Poker Tour, a traveling poker tournament with 16 events worldwide that is broadcast on the Travel Channel and across 56 countries. Tournament hosts range from Internet poker sites to the Bellagio and Mirage.

The owner of the tournament is West Hollywood-based WPT Enterprises Inc., the only publicly traded poker entertainment company in the United States.

Besides receiving a salary from the World Poker Tour, Sexton also paid to promote PartyPoker.com -- the largest online poker room with an estimated 50 percent of the worldwide market.

"They were looking for someone who knew about poker," Sexton said.

Sexton helped develop the poker software, trained the site's customer service staff and created the PartyPoker Million, an annual tournament held on a cruise ship that has become the largest event in the World Poker Tour.

"Television is the No. 1 reason poker is so popular and none of these other shows would be around if not for the World Poker Tour," Sexton said. "We're the PGA Tour of poker and the money is bigger."

The tour is creating a "millionaire a week" and last week crossed the threshhold of $100 million in total prize money, he said.

Internet poker is the "No. 2 reason" for poker's rising popularity, he said.

Another local pro paid to promote PartyPoker.com is Kathy Liebert, a former Wall Street analyst who is known as one of the best female tournament players in the world.

Women in casinos

2005-10-24T03:37:00.001-07:00

In 2002, Liebert made history as the first woman to win a poker tournament offering a million-dollar top prize at the first PartyPoker Million, a tournament held on a ship that cruised the Mexican Riviera.

"People are playing online everywhere and I'm not aware of the government going after people," she said. Everyone's doing it and it seems like it's pretty well accepted at this point."

Online means more competition at casino tournaments but also means bigger prize pools, Liebert said.

"You still have to beat the people at your table but it's better because there's more money in the pot," she said. "It means you don't have to play tournaments as often to make money."

Liebert, who has residences in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, said she anticipates a day when poker pros are invited to sponsor other products besides poker sites.

"It's very popular on TV and people are treating poker players like celebrities," said Liebert, whose likeness will soon appear alongside other pros on a set of trading cards. "People are starting to come up to me asking for my autograph. Even at the airport."

Another local who has capitalized on the poker craze is Brad Daugherty, a host for EmpirePoker.com. Daugherty, the 1991 World Series of Poker champ, was that tournament's first million-dollar winner. He now travels the country playing major tournaments.

As part of his duties for the site, Daugherty coaches players during online sessions and answers questions.

"People learn to play so well and so quickly online," he said. "In one year you can learn what it took me 10 years to learn. You can play three games at the same time and play a lot more hands per hour. The learning curve has been cut way down."

Learn to play online

2005-10-24T03:37:00.000-07:00

Many players start out playing free games online to learn the ropes, Daugherty said.

"Everyone has an alias so there's no intimidation factor," he said. "At a tournament in San Diego a couple of months ago, I was playing a $10,000 buy-in and there were three women at the table. I'd never seen that before and it's because of the Internet."

Online poker strategies also are part of books on tournament poker Daugherty has written in recent years with local Tom McEvoy.

"Every player that I know loves to play on the Internet," he said.

Canadian poker pro Daniel Negreanu will be bridging the gap between online and land-based casinos when he assumes a position as "ambassador" of the poker room at the soon-to-open Wynn Las Vegas megaresort. Negreanu, a tournament regular and Las Vegas resident, also promotes a new Internet poker room called Poker Mountain.

Shulman said Las Vegas casinos have become schizophrenic because they welcome online poker players with open arms yet aren't doing basic things to promote the sites where many players learn the game.

"I don't think they're coming close to exploring how to work with Internet poker sites," Shulman said of the casinos. "Instead of pretending they're not getting business at the online casinos, they could do things to welcome players better."

"If it's not OK then don't let them in," he said of online players. "If it's OK then promote it."

Hold 'em online

2005-10-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

It's just another weekday afternoon at Foxwoods Resort Casino and the wait for a seat at a poker table is well over an hour. All 81 tables, all 810 seats at New England's only poker room, are filled.

"Look around. This place is packed," says Mark Whittaker, a home theater installer from Ashland, Mass., who drove an hour and a half to play Texas Hold 'Em but is playing Omaha instead because of the wait. "And it's what, noon on a Wednesday?"

Not too long ago, many gaming executives considered rooms like this to be wasted space. The games are too long and the casino's cut too small to make poker anything but a dud for the bottom line.

But poker's resurgence, driven by televised championships, celebrity tournaments and online games, has changed the equation. While it remains a game of incredibly small profits, destination hotels have stopped comparing poker to slot machines and are seeing it as a must-have amenity such as boxing, concerts and shows.

At Foxwoods, executives plan to add more tables and have made poker part of a marketing strategy to quintuple convention and group sales in the coming years. Last month, executives added a poker brochure to their convention packets.

"It's the hot thing right now, and they'll ask for it: 'Can we set up a poker tournament?"' said Joan Esneault, executive director of resort sales. "Maybe they have a reception on one side of the room and a gaming lesson or an actual tournament on the other side."

Poker and casino

2005-10-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

Even casinos that folded their poker operations are getting back into the game. In Las Vegas, the Golden Nugget, Harrah's and the Imperial Palace have reopened poker rooms and the MGM Grand has plans to do so this spring.

With cable stations seemingly running games around the clock and poker stars becoming sports celebrities, jumping into the game might seem an easy business decision. After all, Nevada poker revenue is up 38 percent and the average table earns 67 percent more than a decade ago.

But, despite its popularity, the balance sheets show that poker remains a gamble. It steadily accounts for less than 1 percent of Nevada gaming revenue. With just five slot machines, a casino can match a poker table's earnings without paying a dealer or a support staff.

Indian casinos typically are not required to report table game revenues, but experts say the numbers are comparable.

Casinos are again offering poker for the same reason they build giant pyramids and exploding volcanos, hire go-go dancers and hand out complimentary meal tickets.

"It's not a profitable game," said Sylke Finnegan, spokeswoman for the Golden Nugget, which last year dealt its first poker hands in nearly two decades. "But they want the whole Las Vegas experience. They want to see a show and eat at some of the best restaurants in the world. Why not go to Las Vegas and play poker?"

Casino consultants have noticed the philosophical shift.

Pokerdraw on act

2005-10-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

"It just never paid to invest in poker because the return was limited," said Paul Girvan, director of the Innovation Group, a Louisiana consulting firm. "Now what's been discovered is, with its popularity, poker has the ability to draw people into the casino that might not otherwise be there."

If a basement poker player visits a casino, spends three hours at a table while his wife plays the slots, has dinner and leaves, poker has done its job. If he tries other games or gets a hotel room, even better.

Not everyone buys into that strategy.

Mohegan Sun, just a few miles from Foxwoods, closed its poker room 18 months ago and filled it with slots. Today, with fewer machines, its slot revenue regularly exceeds Foxwoods and its chief executive says he has no regrets.

But poker rooms are opening faster than they're closing. Twenty-five Nevada casinos have joined the game in just over two years.

At the Imperial Palace, executives aren't even pitching their new poker room to the people who play big pots and make more money for the house. Their low-stakes games attract tourists and beginners and create brand loyalty.

"If you offer that amenity, you will increase your appeal to a broader customer base," said David Strow, spokesman for Harrah's Entertainment, which recently purchased the rights to the World Series of Poker. "Many of them are not going to stop just at poker. You'll see an indirect increase in casino revenues overall."

Casino cruising

2005-10-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

The Oosterdam, a luxurious Dutch cruise ship, slipped out of the southern Californian harbour of San Diego last night with 725 of the world's best poker players, including 20 Britons, on board.

Over the coming week, as the 950ft, 85,000 tonne ship cruises at a top speed of 24 knots to the Mexican Riviera and back, the players will compete for prizes worth more than $7.2m (£3.8m).

The event is being billed as the "world's largest 'limit' Texas Hold 'Em tournament; Texas Hold 'Em is the most popular form of on-line poker and "limit" means that the players are restricted by how much they can raise another player during a hand. The players, most of whom have qualified in preliminary tournaments on the internet, will challenge for a minimum first prize of $1.5m (£789,000).

The cruise has been organised by PartyGaming, one of the most phenomenal business success stories of recent times and the company which has helped poker shed its sleazy image of being enjoyed only by steely-eyed card sharps playing all-night sessions in smoke-filled drinking dens.

Today, partly due to the enthusiasm for the game from the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, the actress from Sex and the City, poker has a new cool and sophisticated image - as well as providing the potential to make millions, even billions, for those who are capitalising on its popularity.

Worthless history

2005-10-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

Four years ago, PartyGaming launched an internet poker website offering gamblers around the world the chance to bet anonymously and safely in a friendly on-line environment for almost any stakes they wish. The company makes its profits from its "rake" from the pot - a maximum 2 per cent deduction of all the wagers placed during a hand.

PartyGaming has grown from a company employing a handful of staff in 2001 to one which today employs 1,000 people and which last year made a profit before interest, tax and depreciation of more than $350m (£184m).

This summer PartyGaming is expected to float on the London Stock Exchange - and analysts are predicting that it will be worth a remarkable £3bn.

Most companies planning a stock market listing are keen to get as much publicity as possible. PartyGaming's four co-owners prefer to let the company's results do their talking while they remain in the shadows, and based in Gibraltar, where the Government has a relaxed attitude to gambling regulations.

For the past four years, the founders of the company - two American and two Indian entrepreneurs - have fiercely guarded their privacy. They rarely give interviews and three of the four refuse to release photographs of themselves while their names are conspicuously absent from the website, PartyPoker.com.

So who are the three men and one woman, all in their 30s, behind what is arguably the greatest business success story of the 21st century? And what do they each, in poker parlance, bring to the table?

If her past is any guide to the future, Ruth Parasol can expect to make a fortune in future from sloth, gluttony, envy, pride, and wrath. To date, she has centred her business interests on two of the seven deadly sins - lust and greed - and they have provided her with riches beyond the dreams of most people.

Online adult dino

2005-10-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

Her decision to invest in the "adult entertainment industry" in the US in the 1990s earned her millions of pounds. She set up premium rate adult chat lines and pornographic websites before severing all her links with the industry in 1997 in order to switch to on-line gambling.

Parasol, a lawyer, is credited with being the inspiration behind PartyPoker.com, the world's largest poker room.

Parasol, like her three co-owners, is not a poker player. She is married to Russ de Leon, a fellow American and a Harvard law school graduate, who is also a co-owner of PartyGaming. The couple, who have two children, act as consultants for the company and deal with the legal side of the business.

Meanwhile, Anurag Dikshit, a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, is the computer expert in the company and the second co-founder. Dikshit, who is married with one child, devised the original software for PartyPoker.com and currently works as its group operations director.

The fourth co-owner is Vikrant Bhargava, 32, who went to the Indian Institute of Technology at the same time as Dikshit, and has a background in banking. He joined Party-Gaming in 2000 to handle the marketing side of the business. Bhargava, a married man with two children, said that when he joined the company it was involved in on-line gambling, but it already had aspirations to become involved in on-line poker.

"Early on we identified online poker as a cool business - something that we thought had real potential. The first on-line poker room went up in 1998 but in May 2000 we went to a poker conference in Montreal to learn more about the industry. We came back from Canada convinced that this was an area we should look at more closely."

Paradise poker

2005-10-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

When PartyPoker.com was launched in August 2001, Paradise Poker dominated the on-line poker world. A year later, however, PartyPoker.com had won over 15 per cent of the world's on-line poker business and within three years - the end of 2004 - it had a staggering 55 per cent of the market.

"We were in the right place at the right time and we did a few things well," said Bhargava. "But none of us could ever have predicted what has happened to the business - it has grown faster than we ever thought possible. We have never had a dull day - it's been exciting and fun all the way."

In 2000, there were just a few thousand registered players. Today PartyPoker.com and its linked websites have 5m registered players who are able to play around the clock. At peak times, 75,000 people play on the site.

"We had a unique launch plan where we hired a cruise ship for 100 players and we promised that one of them would leave the ship a week later with a £1m first prize. That generated huge interest," said Bhargava. "People like Party.Poker.com because it is fun, easy, it involves skill and people can play for whatever stakes they want to - high or low. Unlike poker played at a table, you don't have to sit down and have someone blowing smoke in your face. When you play, you can chat on-line to other players or you can play poker in silence."

In 2003, PartyGaming switched its headquarters from the Dominican Republic to Gibraltar. Today, 100 staff work from an non-descript first-floor office on Gibraltar and a further 900 staff work in India, where the customer service department is based.

Today the future for PartyGaming looks rosy. In January this year, it announced it had retained the two investment banks, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Investec, to look at its "strategic options". A float on the London Stock Exchange is not the only option open to PartyGaming. A rival poker internet company may launch a bid for the company: last year Sportingbet paid $297m (£156m) for its rival website Paradise Poker, a move which saw its share price double. However, few, if any, rivals could afford to buy PartyGaming outright.

Floating casino

2005-10-22T17:32:00.000-07:00

If, as expected, the float takes place this summer, its bankers are predicting that the company will leap into the FTSE100 Index.

Some analysts, however, think the £3bn estimate of the company's worth may be too high. They predict increased competition as other companies, including Betfair, the betting exchange and the British gambling success story of the last decade, set up their own poker websites.

Iain Wilkie, a partner with Ernst & Young, the accountants, who has worked in the gaming sector for 10 years, said: "PartyGaming has a fantastic customer database, knows how to operate on-line gambling securely and knows how to attract and keep customers with a variety of games. But its ultimate worth may depend on how much of its revenue comes out of the US market."

What Wilkie is referring to is the paradox that the US is the world's largest online gaming market, even though the legality of internet gambling is unclear. No licences have been granted for internet gambling by the US authorities and there is speculation that they may try to regulate offshore online companies in the future.

Whatever PartyGaming's future holds, 725 poker players on board the Oosterdam were last night hoping to become a dollar millionaire in the next week. They include Martin Sandler, 42, a lawyer with a City investment bank, who has been practising his skills for the past month on PartyPoker.com. He said: "I get an immense amount of satisfaction from outwitting my opponents - and winning money. I am going to give it my best shot."

The poker story

2005-10-19T04:46:00.000-07:00

When Chris Moneymaker won the televised 2003 World Series of Poker after first wagering $39 in an online tournament, wannabe pro gamblers across the country turned to their own computers in hopes of repeating history. Greg "Fossilman" Raymer did just that in the 2004 championship game. Like Moneymaker, Raymer earned his ticket to the big time -- and millions in winnings -- by entering an online tournament. In fact, four of the top 10 finishers in the 2004 series were players from PokerStars.com.

If you play online, you could be going up against the likes of Moneymaker. Despite turning pro and writing a book about his experience, he says he still plays at least once a week at PokerStars. "I generally look for the games with the highest average pots and choose those," he says.

Luckily for you, more typical competitors are Darren and Hilary, online poker players who favor low-stakes games and have yet to score major winnings despite playing for a couple years: Hilary says she's about broken even, while Darren says he's lost all of the money he's wagered so far. But he considers it money well spent.

"I've probably logged a couple hundred hours and spent a couple hundred bucks," Darren says. "A buck an hour is pretty good entertainment for the money in my book."

Safest sites

2005-10-19T04:45:00.000-07:00

In order to do so, you'll need to fund your account. Most major credit cards no longer allow you to fund a poker account with their cards, McDonald says. Instead, you'll likely need to use a third-party payment service such as NeTeller. You can fund a NeTeller account with a Visa credit card, wire transfer or electronic check from your bank and then fund your poker account from your NeTeller account. Darren has gone one step further by setting up a separate, low-dollar checking account to fund his third-party payment service. This way, if someone finds a way to compromise his account, he can contain the damage.

Many sites offer bonuses to lure new players. If you deposit $100 in your poker account, a site offering a 25% bonus will give you $25, for example. But don't forget to read the fine print. Many sites require you to play a certain number of hands before granting you your bonus.

Once you're set up, you can choose from games that are tournaments, where you pay one set amount at the beginning and play multiple hands until your chips are gone (or you've won), or ring games, where you place minimum bets with each hand. A 50-cent/$1 game means the first person obligated to bet (called the "blind") has to bet a minimum of 50 cents, and the second blind has to bet $1. These very low-stakes games can be a good way to test the waters before venturing into a $4/$8 game, for example.

Sites make money by skimming a little off each pot. This is called the "rake," and a typical amount is probably 5%, McDonald says. So if you win a $40 pot at a site with a 5% rake, your payout would be $38. You can see PartyPoker's rake schedule here.

Trumps addictions

2005-10-18T13:38:00.000-07:00

Donald Trump, Steve Wynn, Sol Kerzner, eat your hearts out. This is what a gambling tycoon of the internet age looks like. Vikrant Bhargava is a 32-year-old electrical engineer from Rajasthan who confesses he has never played a hand of poker in a real casino.

Poker, though, may be about to make him a fortune: Bhargava's 15% stake in PartyGaming, the company behind the world's most popular poker website, is worth roughly £450m, according to some City calculations.

Whatever Bhargava is worth, Anurag Dikshit, his old chum from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, is worth more. Dikshit was a founder of PartyGaming in 1998 and owns about 40% of it. That equates to roughly £1.25bn on the same unofficial City valuations. Dikshit (pronounced Dixit) is a mere 33.

He is also, for the time being, shy of the media, which is why it falls to Bhargava, as marketing director, to conduct PartyGaming's first proper press interview. This tentative shuffle towards the public glare is prompted by the fact that PartyGaming, owner of the extraordinarily successful Party Poker website, is in the middle of a strategic review that may lead to a flotation in London.

Investment bankers have been appointed and the outside world is getting a glimpse of the scale of profits being made by internet gambling companies. PartyGaming, according to the insiders, made profits of about $350m (£183m) last year and is on course to reach $500m to $600m this year. That might make the business worth $6bn, or a little over £3bn, enough to qualify for the FTSE 100 index. Four years ago it hadn't even launched Party Poker.

Billion dollar stake

2005-10-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

There is one big caveat to this tale of good fortune. The legality of internet gambling in the US is a point on which the operators and the US department of justice cannot agree. So before Bhargava, Dikshit and their colleagues can turn any part of their theoretical fortunes into cash, the investment community has to be convinced that the business is not vulnerable to being closed down overnight in the US, its biggest market.

The signs are good. Sportingbet, a quoted British company, paid £169m last year for one of PartyGaming's rivals, Paradise Poker, and has seen its share price surge 150% since then, as investors wake up to the global online poker revolution.

Bhargava says more than 70,000 people play on Party Poker simultaneously at peak hours; two years ago, the figure was fewer than 2,000. Party Poker makes its money by taking a small slice from each pot - the rake, in the jargon. A dollar here and dollar there add up, particularly when your website runs round the clock.

Unlike Amazon and the other US internet pioneers, PartyGaming was not an original idea. "In early 2000 everybody was talking about Paradise Poker and we saw them and thought 'they're making money, so can we,' " says Bhargava.

The strategy was to launch with a bang - a tournament with a first prize of $1m. At the time, such sums could only be won in the very biggest tournaments in bricks-and-mortar casinos, such as the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, where the entry fee for the main event is $10,000.

Word verification casino

2005-10-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

PartyGaming's idea was to play a series of online mini-tournaments with small buy-ins, then whittle down the qualifiers to 100 and put them on a cruise ship in the Caribbean to fight it out for the big money. It was an idea in the best traditions of Vegas itself - make it bigger and brasher than anything else.

"We put 100 people with their partners on a cruise ship to play in a live final," says Bhargava. "We said live, as opposed to online, even though we were an online site, because that was the only way people could really believe that a new company had paid out $1m in first prize. It was good PR and showed the credibility of our company."

It was expensive PR too. Party Gaming lost about $500,000 on the event but the first PartyPokerMillion was the making of the company. "Credibility of online poker rooms in those days was not the highest," admits Bhargava. "So for players to see that a company had put up money when it was obvious that they were losing money on that particular event was a big thing."

Party time gambling

2005-10-18T13:35:00.001-07:00

Party Poker has not looked back since. Its next break was the explosion of poker on television in the US, a phenomenon that almost has to be witnessed at first hand to be appreciated. Sports bars will regularly show television coverage of poker tournaments, with under-the-table cameras revealing players' cards, allowing the viewer to know when the innocent-looking guy in seat seven is running a monster bluff.

Hollywood celebrities have jumped on the bandwagon, with the likes of Ben Affleck and Nicole Kidman playing in a tournament that generated a television audience of 13 million. Party Poker's coup was to sign Mike Sexton as its public face. Think of Sexton as a Gary Lineker of televised US poker. Clearly he could not plug the site on TV but Party hammers home its association elsewhere.

"The World Poker Tour going live on TV in April 2003 brought poker from people's kitchen tables into their living rooms," says Bhargava. "People were discussing it at work and so on, and wanting to play the game having seen the TV programme, and we got the word out that if you do participate in an event like this you can do so online. We saw our market share go from up 20% to 50% in a fairly short period."

Barghava internet

2005-10-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

Bhargava also applied internet marketing techniques, such as offering incentives to outsiders who recruited new players to the site. These affiliates could be existing players, other websites or even online poker bloggers, of which there are hundreds. "We have learned what works online," he says. "These techniques could have been used for selling books online or whatever. We put it to use in poker."

So what of the key issue of the legal status? No poker website dares to base itself in the US, where the Wire Act, forbidding gambling across state lines, is potentially a frightening piece of legislation. Party Poker bases itself in Gibraltar, which is also the home of the online operations of the British bookmakers Ladbrokes and Victor Chandler. It also has a 1,000-strong call centre in Hyderabad in India.

Bhargava's view is that the Wire Act applies to sporting events, not poker, which is deeply embedded in the culture of US colleges and the military. Setting foot in the US holds no fears. "I go to the US very frequently," he says. "I am an Indian passport holder and have a 10-year multiple-entry visa to the US."

Online casino hackers

2005-10-18T13:34:00.001-07:00

One of the aims of the UK gambling bill, currently facing a race to be passed before the election, is to bring online operators on shore, where they can be more closely regulated. Bhargava is rigidly non-committal about the merits of the bill: he sees the advantage of being recognised as a proper industry in a G7 country but is making no promises. He does, though, make one important admission. "We pay very little tax in Gibraltar but would tax prevent us coming on shore? No. Taxes are not driving the issue. Regulation is something that would play a far more important role."

A further worry in the investment community is that online gambling sites might be unwitting participants in money laundering. After all, billions of dollars are being waged in cyberspace. Bhargava argues that rigorous checks are made but that the basic impracticality of laundering money this way should also reassure outsiders and regulators; so, too, that PartyGaming uses respectable international institutions for its banking.

"People keep talking about it, therefore we look at it," he says. "But ask yourself whether it is really possible to launder money this way. Look at what the average value is for deposits. It is very small. What's the maximum? It's not too large. If you send a wire for $50,000 or £50,000, we would not accept it because you do not need $50,000 to play poker.

"People need a $50, $100, $150 deposit to play; $500 can last a player a long time. So would it really be an efficient way of laundering money? Probably not. There must be easier ways than making lots of micro-transactions."

Hacking online casinos

2005-10-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

He says "maybe a few hundred," players have been banned by Party Poker, mostly for attempted collusion, something that is relatively easy for the software to spot. A bigger danger has been attempted extortion by hackers trying to crash the website. Such attacks have usually been preceded by demands to send money to obscure bank accounts in Russia.

"In early 2004 many sites in online gaming space went down and we went down multiple times," he says. "Since then we have been attacked a few times but we now have systems in place to fend it off."

PartyGaming, as it inches closer to the mainstream investment community, faces another issue of credibility - the fact that Ruth Parasol, another founder and owner of 20% of the shares, made her first fortune in internet pornography. Her husband, Russ DeLeon, also has a stake of the same size, so they are important figures. Parasol, a California lawyer, left the porn business a decade ago but Bhargava also knows the subject cannot be avoided.

Poker online

2005-10-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

"I have known Ruth since early 2000; she has definitively severed her ties with these sorts of people," he says. "That is all history. It's her previous life. If we had characters of that sort associated with the company, I would not be here and 99.9% of the people in our organisation would not be here. I have grown up in an environment where honesty and integrity are extremely important to what we do."

That view, one suspects, will be accepted by investors, especially as PartyGaming is now hiring executives with public-company experience. For example, Richard Segal, the respected former boss of Odeon cinemas, has been installed as chief executive. David Abdoo, Carlton's former company secretary, is also on board.

Those appointments suggest PartyGaming is not simply looking to sell itself to the highest bidder but has ambitions to keep growing. A flotation would give it a currency to buy rivals, and Cassava Enterprises, owner of the 888.com online casino, has been touted as a possibility; Cassava even operates from the same building in Gibraltar.

Even without a deal, the possibilities for PartyGaming, if it can retain its 50% market share in poker, are enormous. China, the land of the world's most enthusiastic gamblers, is an enormous medium-term target. This extraordinary growth story may yet have a long way to go.

Casava internet gambling

2005-10-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

Cassava Enterprises, one of the world's biggest internet gambling companies, has hired CSFB to prepare a flotation of 888.com, valuing its online poker room at up to $1.6bn (£836m). The flotation is expected in the second half of the year.

The move comes just weeks after PartyGaming, owner of Party-Poker, the world's biggest poker site, said it had hired Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Investec to look at a London offering, with a valuation of more than £3bn.

TV poker

2005-10-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

World Poker Tour founder Steve Lipscomb has seen his brainchild become a ratings hit. Now he has to beat the imitators

Steve Lipscomb may not have ventured into TV poker with the strongest hand, but so far he's winning the jackpot. The former stand-up comic and lawyer started with a simple idea for turning a static card game into televised entertainment. He didn't invent the technique that lets viewers see players' cards or forge a deal with the hottest TV network. Yet his World Poker Tour series, launched in March, 2003, has become a ratings smash on the Travel Channel and a trendsetter in the industry.

Bet it all

2005-10-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

Lipscomb's secret: He turned poker into a slickly produced reality show. Viewers can follow the action, get close to the wacky characters populating poker rooms, pick up tips, or enjoy a chuckle from the sardonic commentary on the sidelines. "It's dazzling, like you're on a movie set," says Antonio Esfandiari, 26, who won $1.4 million in a WPT tournament last season.

Certainly, Lipscomb has had other aces in the hole. One is his chairman and primary investor, Lyle Berman, CEO of Minnetonka (Minn.)-based casino operator Lakes Entertainment (LACO ), which owns 80% of WPT. Berman, a veteran poker player who was a driving force in the growth of gambling on Native American reservations, met Lipscomb in late 2001 at a World Series of Poker event. He liked Lipscomb's business plan and was taken by his unrelenting enthusiasm.

UPPING THE ANTE. Lake's initial $4 million investment allowed Lipscomb to lock in key tournaments at more than a dozen of the country's hottest casinos. "If someone like Steve were to come to us now, I'm not sure we would give him exclusive rights," says Vikrant Bhargava, general manager of PartyPoker.com, which has its annual multimillion-dollar event aired on WPT. As Ian Valentine, senior vice-president for programming at GSN (formerly the Game Show Network), notes: "Lipscomb has essentially locked up a set of events that people have to play at."

Dice nightmare

2005-10-18T08:35:00.001-07:00

Now, WPT Enterprises (WPTE ) -- the company its buoyant 43-year-old founder took public last August -- is playing for even higher stakes. The success of the series, which launched its third season on Mar. 2, has spawned numerous competitors at networks such as ESPN (DIS ) and NBC (GE ) that boast greater reach and cachet than the Travel Channel (see BW Online, 3/10/05, "Kings, Queens, and Jokers"). That makes it tougher for WPT to maintain its dominance and puts consumers at risk of poker overload in the face of ubiquitous coverage. No wonder Lipscomb is racing to move beyond WPT's $10 million- to $12 million-a-year TV deal and make money from greater global distribution, online betting, a new Professional Poker Tour series, and licensing deals.

After all, the time appears right to make multiple bets on the game. It's hot with college kids and celebrities, and it's the fastest-growing segment of the $10 billion Internet gambling industry. Many of the country's top casinos, which once treated poker as the poor country cousin to craps and roulette, now report double-digit growth in the number of poker tables. Nielsen Media Research recorded 1.1 million viewers for WPT's Mar. 2 show -- impressive for a channel that reaches only 79 million households and is tough to find on the dial.

Money night

2005-10-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

LOGGING ON. Meanwhile, the World Series of Poker drew a record 2,576 players last year, vs. about 830 in 2003, each needing $10,000 to participate in the main event. While officials continue to fret over what some see as the sinful nature of poker, and the Justice Dept. continues to crack down on Internet gambling, advertisers seem to be getting comfortable with gambling shows. "Poker has become good fun entertainment," says Peter McLoughlin, a spokesman for Anheuser Busch (BUD ).

Few are more convinced of poker's potential than Lipscomb, an ambitious middle child from Knoxville, Tenn., whose Southern Baptist grandmother taught him the finer points of the game at age 8. He has already sold the show in 57 countries and hopes to see that tally reach 200 in the next few years. His outfit is licensing everything from playing cards and $500 poker sets to slot machines and video poker games.

But the big bet comes in the next few months, when WPT will move into online gaming with offshore partner Wagerworks, in part to work around the crackdown by federal officials on U.S. residents making bets on the Net. WPT Chief Financial Officer Todd Steele says the business "has the potential to be critical to our revenues."

Lipscomb recognizes that 2005 is the year that WPT has to prove it's not just lucky but, as he puts it, "real and long-term." For starters, he needs to keep ramping up revenues. On Mar. 8, WPT posted full-year earnings of $681,000 on sales of $17.6 million, vs. a loss of $351,000 on sales of $4.3 million in 2003.

Gold star casino

2005-10-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

GOLD STANDARD. . Those results may not seem like much, but Nicholas Danna of Birmingham (Ala.)-based brokerage Sterne, Agee & Leach has a buy rating on the stock because he thinks 2004 is the first chapter in what's likely to be a lucrative marque. "This is the company that branded poker," says Danna. Lipscomb is trying to stack the odds this season, with a prize pool of more than $70 million and flashier sets and graphics.

But the table is getting crowded. Among the shows competing for eyeballs are Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown, Poker Superstars on Fox Sports Network (NWS ), GSN's Poker Royale: Battle of the Sexes, and the National Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC. Then there are startups such as Casino & Gaming Television and Edge TV. But the biggest threat is ESPN, which airs the popular World Series of Poker. It's expanding coverage of the game and even has a fictional poker series, Tilt, on the way.

For Lipscomb, the Holy Grail is to have the WPT become what the NBA and PGA are to their sports -- the gold standard for players and fans. With an estimated 50 million poker players in the U.S. alone, it's likely that TV poker is here to stay. But Lipscomb and his World Poker Tour have a ways to go before they convert some big pots into a straight-flush global franchise.

online poker prompts interest

2005-10-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

UK bookmaker Ladbrokes recently revealed that profits from its online gaming division were up 50% to over £21 million, apparently boosted by explosive growth in online poker, which is soon expected to overtake revenue from traditional sports betting.

Meanwhile online betting and casino site Sportingbet announced record profits for the last six months, up 85% to £26 million on a turnover of £825 million, driven by an £8 million profit on turnover of £12.5 million in the Paradise Poker division it acquired last year. With over 800,000 registered poker players and as many games played each day, growth has exceeded expectations.

Analysts will also be looking at the annual results for British bookmaker William Hill, which recently launched its own TV channel, featuring interactive casino games such as roulette.

According to an article in The Sunday Times “the holy grail for interactive betting groups is gambling via television”. The one page story in the business section concludes “It cannot be long before the technology develops sufficiently to allow interactive poker on television”.

The technology is not necessarily the limitation, at least in the UK, where the Sky platform is already littered with gaming and gambling opportunities.

This often comes as a something of a surprise to visitors from America, where the legal position is more complex, although they appear to have gambling down to a fine art in Las Vegas.

However, there is growing interest in the opportunities for what has been called “cash-skill gaming”, where prizes are offered for games of skill, including backgammon, quizzes and puzzles, which are apparently legal in most states.

Profits racing ahead

2005-10-17T04:56:00.000-07:00

Online UK bookmaker Sportingbet has seen its profits almost double - thanks in part to a good performance from newly-acquired Paradise Poker.

Pre-tax profits rose to £15.7m in the six months to January, from £8.4m in the same period a year earlier.

The group said Paradise Poker gave its business a lift, boosting turnover by £12.5m, and contributing £8m to its overall operating profits of £26m.

It also announced plans to pay a maiden dividend at the end of the full year.

Registered customers soared 85.1% to 2.27 million - but would have risen just 17.1% without Paradise Poker's custom, the group said.

The company snapped up the internet poker site for an initial payment of £298m in October.

Chief executive Nigel Payne added that the group had performed strongly in the first three weeks of the third quarter.

"Sports betting volume continued to grow at an encouraging rate and Sportingbet's casino, gaming and poker revenue streams performed well," he said.

He also told reporters that Sportingbet's strong performance had prompted some analysts to raise their profits forecast for the financial year from their original estimates of £49m to between £52m and £54m.

US blackjack online

2005-10-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Department of Justice was successful yesterday in getting Casino City's case dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. The case is one that many in the I-gaming industry hoped would re-establish advertising for Internet gaming services in the American market.

Casino City in August filed a motion for declaratory judgment regarding its right to carry advertising for Internet gambling services. Proponents of the right to advertise for offshore gambling operations were hoping that the court would return a verdict stating that the DOJ's application of aiding and abetting charges to advertisers violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The court instead found that "Casino City has failed to establish an actual case or controversy because it is clear it does not have standing to file this suit under the facts of this case."

The court has come to the conclusion that Casino City has failed to demonstrate that it faces a "realistic danger of sustaining direct injury." First, "Casino City has failed to allege its intended activities constitute those which are prohibited by statute." The court emphasizes the fact that Casino City has argued that its activities are legal "because it does not accept proceeds which come from illegal bets, deposits, or wagers placed by persons located in the U.S."

Btdino blackout

2005-10-16T22:25:00.001-07:00

Because Casino City asserts that it neither engages in illegal activity nor plans to engage in illegal activity, the court has ruled that Casino City faces no legitimate threat of prosecution and therefore lacks standing to bring a case to court.

The court is also unconvinced that Casino City should fear prosecution based on earlier actions of the Department of Justice. In June 2003, the DOJ sent a letter to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) warning that companies that advertised for offshore gambling operations could be guilty of aiding and abetting an illegal activity (i.e. offering gambling services to U.S. citizens). The court highlights the fact that Casino City did not receive this letter.

The court also points out that although several subpoenas were issued to advertisers and other I-gaming related companies, Casino City did not receive a subpoena. According to the ruling, "The record simply fails to support a finding that Casino City is in any way subject to threat of investigation or an actual investigation." The ruling also states that the court is not persuaded that Casino City faces an imminent threat of prosecution because over one year has passed since the DOJ sent the letter and subpoenas.

Casino city

2005-10-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

Ironically, the ruling is practically a green light for Casino City to continue doing the advertising that it does, but it does nothing to clarify the ability of larger media advertisers--such as members of the NAB--to advertise for offshore gambling providers.

Casino City believes the court has erred and intends to appeal the ruling. "We have every intention of filing an appeal," Patrick O'Brien, a lawyer for Casino City said. "We think the case was wrongly decided on the law and we expect to win on the appeal."

But even if Casino City gets a reverse decision on issue of standing, it still faces another massive hurdle: The court also declared yesterday that Casino City has no claim for a First Amendment violation.

Casino City has argued that the overseas companies for which it advertises are lawful, but the court points out that it does not allege that it is legal for those companies to accept wagers from United States bettors. The court notes that the Wire Act prohibits the use of the Internet to transmit betting information and states that it is illegal to aid and abet "the commission of any offense against the United States." The first prong of the Central Hudson Test, which is called into play for First Amendment advertising cases, states that there is no right to advertise illegal activity.

Online card games

2005-10-16T09:44:00.001-07:00

THAT Ruth Parasol should have made separate fortunes from pornographic websites and online gambling is no coincidence. Although companies such as Amazon, eBay and Google have been hugely successful, the most profitable areas of the internet are devoted to lust and greed.

Ms Parasol, a lawyer from California in her late thirties, is one of a small number of US and Indian investors who can expect to crystallise mind-boggling paper fortunes when they float PartyGaming, the online poker and casino company, on the London Stock Exchange later this year.

Although PartyGaming says an initial public offering (IPO) is just one of several “strategic options” it has asked Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Investec to investigate, most commentators reckon it will seek to cash in on the online gambling boom by pursuing an IPO.

Valuing PartyGaming, whose PartyPoker site accounts for more than 50 per cent of the online poker market, is difficult. However, with analysts predicting a market capitalisation of anywhere between $5 billion (£2.7 billion) and $6 billion, the business seems certain to enter the blue-chip FTSE 100 index.

According to a report from Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, worldwide turnover on interactive gambling reached almost $70 billion in 2003 — up from $16.5 billion in 2000 — generating a gross gambling yield for operators of about $5.6 billion. By 2010, it expects turnover to pass $100 billion and the yield to hit $11.3 billion.

Winning online

2005-10-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

Lain Wilkie, a partner in Ernst & Young, says that gambling had undergone a transformation, losing much of the stigma that was once attached to it. “Most countries have some form of state lottery and people seem to be comfortable playing them,” he says.

“The growth of internet betting is down to a growing social acceptance of gambling combined with a technological revolution that has extended the distribution network away from the traditional world of betting shops and bingo clubs.”

Within the online gambling boom, poker is by far the fastest growing sector. According to some estimates, more than £50 million is being wagered a day at the virtual poker table, compared with just £6 million two years ago. In Britain, about £4 million a day is bet on internet poker.

PartyPoker, which takes a percentage of the total amount staked by punters, known as a “rake”, reported 2004 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) of more than $350 million, although this year that figure is expected to grow to at least $500 million to $600 million.

There are several factors behind poker’s growth, including the huge popularity of TV poker tournaments such as Late Night Poker, Celebrity Poker Club and World Poker Tour. Celebrity poker fans, such as Sarah Jessica Parker, from Sex and the City, and the use of Caprice, the model, to host televised games, have helped the game to shake off its sleazy image.

Casinos sleazy image

2005-10-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

But while many card clubs are still viewed as male-dominated and intimidating gambling dens, virtual poker allows a wide range of players — including more and more women — to participate from the safety of home, avoiding having to handle some of the psychological elements of a real-life game.

A survey published last week by uSwitch.com, the comparison organisation, claimed that 30 to 40 per cent of online gambers in Britain are female. This compares with just 5 per cent of players at casinos and betting shops.

John O’Reilly, managing director of Ladbrokes’ e-gaming and telephone betting arm, says: “Poker is seeing huge growth because it’s a game of skill that appeals to the twenty-somethings who like to follow the latest fashion. It’s become very trendy and fashionable.”

One of the biggest factors behind the growth of websites such as PartyPoker.com and PokerRoom.com, a rival set up in 1999 by two poker-mad Swedish businessmen, is the success of an appropriately named amateur player from Tennessee in his twenties called Chris Moneymaker.

Two years ago and just four years after learning how to play poker, Mr Moneymaker played in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas after qualifying through a $40 online event. He went on to win the main tournament, pocketing $2.5 million.

Late night online

2005-10-15T08:26:00.001-07:00

Although the company refused to comment last night, Vikrant Bhargava, PartyGaming’s marketing director, recently told The Times: “If we were to float in London there is a good chance we would be a FTSE 100 company.”

An IPO would crystallise huge paper profits for the handful of private investors who control PartyGaming.

They include Ruth Parasol, a colourful Californian lawyer who made her first fortune a decade ago through pornographic websites, and Anurag Dikshit, a computer services graduate from India. Mr Bhargava is also a small shareholder.

PartyGaming also has casino and bingo websites, although more than three-quarters of its business is derived from online poker, the fastest growing part of the gambling industry.

PartyPoker accounts for more than 50 per cent of the global online poker market. Launched in 2001, it now claims that 12,000 people are playing its online games at any one time.

Revenue casinos

2005-10-15T08:26:00.000-07:00

The company, which recently changed its name from iGlobalmedia, is understood to favour an initial public offering (IPO) some time this year, although its advisers will also consider alternative ways of taking the company forward, including raising debt or seeking a merger partner.

Last summer PartyGaming appointed Richard Segal, the former Odeon Cinemas boss, as its chief executive and it recently hired Martin Weigold as finance director. Mr Weigold was previously chief financial officer at Jetix Europe, the children’s entertainment network formerly called Fox Kids Europe.

Last year the company reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about $350 million (£186 million). However its IPO valuation is likely to be based on projected 2005 earnings of as much as $600 million, implying a valuation of perhaps $5 billion to $6 billion.

Bang the Dino

2005-10-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

THE world’s biggest internet poker company will today announce the appointment of advisers to a possible flotation on the London Stock Exchange that could value the business at about £3 billion, The Times has learnt.

It is understood that PartyGaming, the Gibraltar-based group that launched the PartyPoker website in 1997, will reveal that it has appointed Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Investec Securities to advise the company on its “strategic options”.

Despite the likelihood of a place in the FTSE 100, the big banks such as Merrill Lynch, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank declined the opportunity to be involved, eschewing fees of an estimated £20 million.

The difficulty is that PartyGaming’s biggest market is America, where the legality of internet gambling remains in doubt.

Although poker, where players are pitched against each other rather than against the house, is less of a grey area, the big banks are still wary of upsetting regulators such as Eliot Spitzer, New York’s attorney-general.

Yahoo opens online casino

2005-10-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

Yahoo has announced a joint venture with UK betting exchange company Betfair to launch a gambling site aimed at the mass market.

Yahoo Betting, as the site will be known, is due to launch in March and is designed to take the advanced features available on Betfair's main site and make them accessible to a Yahoo's user base. The exchange will be accessible through the sports and finance sections of Yahoo as well as from other areas across the portal.

"By creating a customised Betfair exchange for the Yahoo platform, we are offering the revolutionary dynamics of an exchange to a wider audience in a more traditional and customer-friendly way," said Betfair's chief executive Stephen Hill.

Betfair casino

2005-10-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

Betfair was set up in 2000 by former professional gambler Andrew Black and ex-city trader Edward Wray.

Betfair's model applies the collaborative power of the Internet to the traditional bookmaking model by allowing punters to bet at odds set by other gamblers rather than a bookmaker.

The model was slow to take off at first, with the fledgling site matching less than £50,000 of bets a week in its first month. A year later that figure had grown to over £1m a week and it now stands at some £50m.

Betfair's vulnerability to down-time has not gone unnoticed by the criminal fraternity. Earlier this year, Betfair, along with several other online betting companies, was targeted by cybercriminals threatening distributed-denial-of-service attacks unless a ransom was paid.

BTDino deep in depth

2005-10-14T05:20:00.000-07:00

Gambling bill clears Commons
The government's controversial gambling bill cleared the Commons despite a backbench rebellion by 22 Labour MPs. In a vote forced by disgruntled backbenchers, the bill was given a third reading by 236 votes to 38, government majority 198, and now goes to the Lords.

Backbench unrest centred on moves to set up a series of super-casinos and reserve powers which could be used in future to stop youngsters playing seaside slot machines. The government has already backed down over the number of regional super-casinos in the face of opposition from Labour MPs and churches - cutting them to eight. A Tory bid to halve that number failed.

Article continues
The culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, said the bill would give Britain "the toughest, most comprehensive regulatory framework in the world, to protect the public interest, to prevent the exploitation of children". But Labour MP Win Griffiths said he would not support the bill and he hoped the Lords would amend it. He thought the pilot of mega-casinos was a mistake because "once the genie's out of the bottle it is difficult to put it back".

Amusement arcade owners were offered a concession by the government over concerns about how the gambling bill will affect their businesses. Culture minister Richard Caborn agreed to look again at reserve powers, which could prevent youngsters playing arcade slot machines. He announced a review which will report in time for Lords consideration of the bill. But the move failed to mollify critics on both the Tory and Labour backbenches.

Government over online casinos

2005-10-14T05:19:00.001-07:00

Extending right to buy
Up to 300,000 council and housing association tenants will be given the chance to buy a share in their home under plans unveiled by the deputy prime minister, John Prescott. He also announced that a further 80,000 families would be helped to get a foot on the property ladder by 2010. Under the "first-time buyer initiative," thousands of new "affordable" homes - possibly costing as little as £60,000 - will be built, initially on land owned by the government and its agencies. The plans are at the heart of the government's new five-year housing strategy aimed at enabling more people to get a home of their own. For the opposition, Caroline Spelman accused the government of presiding over a housing crisis spiralling out of control and of putting home ownership out of the reach of a whole generation of young people.

Canning case
The government insisted that solicitor Angela Cannings, whose conviction over the deaths of two of her children was quashed on appeal, should not get financial compensation. But Home Office minister Lady Scotland conceded that this had been "a very difficult decision". Her murder conviction was quashed when medical evidence against her from paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow was discredited.

Incapacity benefit
A pilot scheme to help people on incapacity benefit return to work by placing employment advisers at GPs' surgeries was defended by the government. The work and pensions secretary, Alan Johnson, in a light-hearted question time response to criticism from Tory Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, insisted they would not interfere with doctors' work.

Online gambling bills

2005-10-14T05:19:00.000-07:00

Victims of failed pension schemes
A financial rescue package for victims of failed company pension schemes should be extended to employees of a firm which wound up its fund while still solvent, MPs urged. The pensions minister, Malcolm Wicks, said the government was considering the case of APW Electronics, but warned it was wary of helping when the employer remained solvent.

Steve Webb, for the Liberal Democrats asked when APW employees would be "put out of their misery" and learn whether they were eligible for the government's financial assistance scheme (FAS).

Cost of the firefighters' strikes
Using the military to provide emergency cover during recent firefighters' strikes cost more than £75m, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said. The sum has now been paid back to the Ministry of Defence as part of the deal struck to ensure fires were put out when firefighters walked out in 2002 and 2003.

In parliament today
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and his ministers face MPs at question time. There are then two Tory-initiated debates on implementation of the Licensing Act and renegotiation of the Food Supplements Directive. Backbench debates in Westminster Hall include opening hours and the Licensing Act. In the Lords, peers debate the committee stage of the mental capacity bill.

Casino tables

2005-10-13T10:36:00.001-07:00

The Isle of Man, a British crown dependency in the Irish Sea, is reversing a four-year-old policy that has deterred Internet casinos based there from accepting bets from United States residents.

The policy change, while affecting only a handful of Internet casinos, adds a wrinkle to an emerging trade battle between the United States and many other countries over Internet gambling.

American prosecutors maintain that federal laws prohibit online gambling. And they have tried to curb the growing popularity of such gambling in the United States by threatening legal action against American companies that do business with overseas Internet casinos, whose operations fall outside their jurisdiction. A number of American banks do not allow the use of their credit cards for Internet gambling.

But despite the restrictions, Americans still place more wagers online annually than residents of any other country. Internet casinos around the world and the jurisdictions that license them are eager for this business.

The decision by the Isle of Man--which makes its own domestic laws and relies on Britain for defense and foreign policy--to allow its licensed Internet casinos to take bets from Americans went into effect on Jan. 1. The change is significant because the island, which began licensing such casinos in 2001, initially sought to attract blue-chip gambling operations by defining itself as a place with rigorous regulation.

Gambling policies

2005-10-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

That policy seemed to pay off at first as some of the world's largest gambling operations, including MGM Mirage, purchased expensive licenses to operate there. But business did not become as brisk as expected, and six major casinos, including MGM, have relocated or closed their Internet operations altogether.

In December, the island's Council of Ministers, roughly equivalent to a cabinet, voted to reverse the policy against accepting bets from the United States. Tim Craine, the head of electronic business for the Isle of Man, said officials felt that the change would help attract new casinos--and the licensing and tax revenue they provide.

"There's a lot of business looking to relocate to a reputable, regulated jurisdiction," he said, noting that there were many online poker sites looking for a new jurisdiction. "We're hoping to capitalize on that business" by changing our policy, he said.

Craine also said that the policy change affected bets only on casino games and poker. The island still bars casinos from accepting sports bets placed from the United States. He said it made that distinction on the basis that United States law prohibited sports betting online, but not casino wagering.

Federal prosecutors have said they believe that casino games are also prohibited under American law. And numerous state laws expressly prohibit gambling, even that conducted on the Web, if the activity is not expressly authorized.

Isle of man contest

2005-10-13T10:35:00.001-07:00

The decision by the Isle of Man comes amid a trade dispute over Internet gambling between the United States and Antigua. The Antiguans have complained to the World Trade Organization that Washington is violating its trade obligations by prohibiting Internet gambling.
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In November, the WTO issued a preliminary ruling in favor of Antigua. Last Friday, the office of the United States trade representative filed a notice of appeal, asserting that long-standing American trade policy and social mores were consistent with a prohibition of online gambling.

The deadline for the United States to file its first brief in the appeal is tomorrow, according to lawyers involved in the case.

The WTO has 90 days from last Friday's notice of appeal to issue a decision.

Last year, some $7.6 billion was lost in wagers over the Internet, an analyst said, about half of that by United States residents.

Many countries, including Britain, license and regulate online casinos. The level of regulation differs widely, with some countries enforcing more rigorous regulations as a way of helping the casinos there establish themselves as reputable.

The policies also differ as to whether they accept bets from Americans. What they have in common is a desire to attract more Internet casinos, the analysts said.

Casino robbers wanted

2005-10-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas police have identified two suspects in the attempted robbery of World Series of Poker champion Greg "Fossilman" Raymer.

Robbery detectives were searching for Kevin R. Joy, 35, and Deem Cassim, 31, who they believe ambushed Raymer on Dec. 20 outside his Bellagio hotel room and tried to rob him of $150,000.

One of the men had a gun, but the 330-pound, 40-year-old Raymer fought off the duo.

The Stonington, Conn., resident won $5 million earlier this year at the World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe. He since has quit his job as a patent lawyer to become a full-time poker player.

Joy is 6 feet 2 inches tall and 240 pounds with a bald head and green eyes. Cassim is 5 feet 8 inches tall and 150 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

Police said they were seen in a late-model silver Nissan with Nevada plates that might include the digits 135. Anyone with information can call robbery detectives at 229-3591 or Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.

Rolling of the dice

2005-10-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

With a deal to bring Major League Baseball to Washington apparently cratering last week, a civic-minded and no doubt extremely respectable Internet gambling company has stepped forward to try to save the day. Empire Poker, which describes itself as "North America's leading online poker site," said late last week that it would provide up to $500 million to prevent the would-be Washington Nationals from becoming the Lame Ducks. The company would finance the team's move from Montreal to a new District stadium.

All the company wants in return is naming rights to the team's new field. And the exclusive right to all the signs inside the stadium. And, um, one other little thing: It wants to put Internet kiosks throughout the stadium so fans can play electronic poker before, during and after the game.

So, Washington would get baseball and hot dogs and box seats . . . and Texas Hold 'Em?

Bedroom casino

2005-10-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

Bingo, says Ron Burke, the company's top marketing executive: "If you turn on the TV, you'll see poker being played more and more. It's become a lot more mainstream. It's like the national pastime." He adds, "The exposure [of the stadium name] would be good for us, and the city would have baseball."

Not to pull a Linda Cropp here, but there might be a few flaws in this plan.

For starters, Empire isn't exactly forthcoming about the sources of its money ("We're private," says Burke). And while we're not lawyers or anything, we do recall that it's against the law to set up an online gambling business in the United States. That would explain why "North America's leading online poker site" is not actually headquartered anywhere near North America. Empire is based in Cyprus.

Empire hasn't heard back from baseball or city officials yet. But it's questionable whether Major League Baseball or the District government will want to get into business with a gambling company, let alone one headquartered somewhere in the Mediterranean (besides, the District has a lottery, so it already has its own gambling business, thank you).

Btdino laws

2005-10-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, Dennis and Donna Jackson of Casper made their way up to Sidelines Sports Bar to play a game they, like many other Americans, have grown to enjoy immensely in the past year -- Texas Hold 'Em.

They headed to Sidelines, as they have an many recent Sunday afternoons, to play in Clear Channel Radio's weekly Texas Hold 'Em tournament against about 60 other card sharks.

Neither Jackson came out on top on Sunday, although Donna finished second at her table and Dennis has won his table before, they said.

Despite the fact they didn't come out on top, they did have fun, they said. And their enjoyment only cost them $25 apiece.

The Jacksons didn't risk any money playing in the tournament, so they didn't think what they did at Sidelines was gambling, they said.

However, there is some debate that, legally speaking, the Jacksons' take on Sidelines' tournament, and other Texas Hold 'Em tournaments that have popped up at bars around the state, is wrong.

Texas Hold 'Em is a style of poker made popular by such televised events as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour.

State law makes it clear that professional gambling is illegal in Wyoming. What is not so clear is whether Texas Hold 'Em tournaments are professional gambling.

Local Clear Channel General Manager Bob Price said neither his company nor Sidelines engages in illegal professional gambling by holding the tournament.

Professional gambling is first defined by Wyoming law as "aiding or inducing another to engage in gambling, with the intent to derive a profit therefrom."

Casino chips

2005-10-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Neither Sidelines nor Clear Channel intends to profit from the poker tournament, said Price and Bobbi Gerlock, general manager of Sidelines.

At the Sidelines tournament, players pay $25 to enter and are given a certain number of chips, Price said. They are then seated at a table with seven other players, and the eight play Texas Hold 'Em until the winner controls all eight players' chips, Clear Channel's Staci Ownes said.

The chips used in the games have no monetary value, and the winner of the table is given no monetary reward, Price said. Instead, the winners advance to later rounds in the tournament.

The tournament's eventual champion will win a trip to Reno, Nev., and the opportunity to play in a World Poker Tour event there, Owens said.

Revenue from the $25 entry fees is used to pay for the administrative costs of the tournament, to pay for prizes, and a portion is donated to St. Jude's Children's Hospital, Owens said.

While the hosts and sponsors of the tournaments may be careful not to take direct revenue from the games, there are still some questions regarding the legality of poker tournaments at bars, because the hosting establishment may earn indirect revenue via food and beverage sales, Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank said.

Gerlock, however, said most poker players are not the type of people who run up big bar tabs, as they tend to remain sober while playing.

"Do we see an increase in business" on Sunday afternoons when poker is being played? "Not really," she said.

Online holden

2005-10-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

While Natrona County officials haven't stopped the tournaments at Sidelines, Laramie County and Albany County officials have taken aim at some poker tournaments in Cheyenne and Laramie. Cheyenne police, for example, asked bars to voluntarily shut down their poker tournaments after police consulted with state, county and local attorneys to determine that the games are banned under state law.

Skill or luck?

Wyoming law further defines professional gambling as "participating in gambling and having, other than by virtue of skill or luck, a lesser chance of losing or a greater chance of winning than one or more of the other participants."

Texas Hold 'Em tournaments do not fit this definition of professional gambling either because poker, unlike blackjack, is not a broken game which intrinsically favors one player over others, the Jacksons said. The only way a player has an advantage in poker is if that player has more skill.

"Poker's a game of skill where you play your cards and you play off other people," Donna Jackson said. "It requires reading people."

Neither Jackson considers the way they spend their Sunday afternoons gambling, they said. It is totally different from playing games like blackjack in Deadwood, S.D.

Players in Clear Channel's tournament know how much money they are going to spend on playing, $25, and know they will not win any money for their efforts, Dennis Jackson said.

A Texas Hold 'Em tournament such as Clear Channel's is no different than a billiard tournament or a dart tournament in which players pay an entry fee and the winners end up winning prizes, Price said. Poker, pool and darts all take skill and some luck to win, he added.

Casino art online

2005-10-11T17:31:00.000-07:00

Nyla Wells, 44, is a mother of four. But when her daughters are in school, she puts her motherly duties aside and heads to a different kind of table.

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on many days, she can be found at one of the local Indian casinos, partaking in one of the fastest-growing leisure activities — poker.

"I do good," said Wells, of Mira Loma, as she sat at a table at San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino in Highland. She learned to play poker in her grandmother's poker house. "I win about 85 percent of the time."

Two centuries ago, poker was considered a game of cheats and hustlers, found only in Old West saloons or on Mississippi riverboats. Today, the face of poker has changed and poker players are emerging from all walks of life.

"Poker is clearly shedding its back room, rough and tough image, as more people find out how intrinsically interesting it can be," said Steven Lipscomb, creator and co-producer of the Travel Channel's "World Poker Tour." "Influentials in Hollywood and the business world have embraced poker as a charismatic game of strategy, psychology and showmanship."

BTDino in progress

2005-10-11T17:30:00.001-07:00

Within the last two years, poker has become increasingly popular, dealing its way into family living rooms across the nation. Poker connoisseurs credit its revived popularity to the advancement in technology, but agree that its fan base has always existed.

Jill Philbrook, marketing director for San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino in Highland, said television shows, especially with celebrities playing, have drawn a lot more people to the game of poker, who regularly don't play.

"It" s the last two to three years that we've seen a surge in popularity," Philbrook said. "We" re certainly seeing more customers wanting to come in to play poker and a lot of customers waiting to play."

She said the casino, which has seen an increase in business, will be opening a new gaming facility in January with a poker room twice as big as the one they have now.

"There" s certainly a rise in popularity and customers playing the game," Philbrook said. "We have certainly seen an increase in interest in poker."

Andrew Hill Newman, one of the executive producers of Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown," said people have been playing poker "for a long time, and now people get to see how fun it is because of the massive media coverage."

Each of that show's episodes features five celebrities competing against each other for $250,000 that is donated to a charity.

Poker hands on

2005-10-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

"I think for our show, people come for the celebrities and stay for the poker," Newman said.

The producers came up with the idea while actually participating in private games where they found themselves sitting next to celebrities, he said.

"One of the things that is extremely entertaining at our show is that you" re seeing a side of these celebrities that you don't get to see anywhere else," Newman said. "I think if you want to get to know someone, sit across a poker table and you" ll see what they're really like."

The popularity in poker isn't confined to state lines. Nevada casinos have seen an increase in players, said Keith Copher, chief of enforcement for the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Copher said although poker revenue is combined with other games because it's not that substantial, there are other indicators of its popularity.

"Several casinos have increased the size and remodeled their poker rooms," Copher said. "It has been very beneficial."

Philbrook said Internet gaming has also contributed to poker's popularity.

"I think the Internet is a way where people can check out poker," Philbrook said. "It gives people an opportunity to try it before they come down to San Manuel."

Newman said the Internet has capitalized on the trend as well as added to the popularity of the game.

"I personally prefer playing real poker with real people, but it certainly has helped keep the expansion of poker alive," he said.

Casino chips

2005-10-11T17:29:00.001-07:00

Newman said what players like about Internet poker sites is that they can log on at any time and play with people all over the world.

However, this convenience has led to another problem. Copher said the U.S. Attorney views any type of Internet wagering in the United States as illegal and a violation of the Wire Act.

"The Web site itself, the operators are functioning legally, but once they are crossing to the U.S., they are functioning illegally," Copher said about many of the Internet poker sites that are operated out of the Caribbean.

Internet sites also offer many variations on traditional casino favorites, like Texas Hold 'Em, Omaha and Stud.

Colton resident Tyler Huisken, 24, said he began playing poker two years ago after a trip to Las Vegas, and he now plays about twice a week either at home or at local casinos.

"It" s just entertainment," he said. "I" m not going expecting to win. … I'm not hoping to win the big jackpot, but it would be nice."

Huisken has played Five-Card Draw, Seven-Card Stud and Omaha, but he recently began playing Texas Hold 'Em after seeing it on TV.

"When you" re at a table, you can tell who knows how to play and who doesn't," he said.

Huisken said he enjoys playing because it really is a game of wits.

"There" s so much involved that you have to think," he said. "Some of the (casino) games, you don" t have to think; you just throw your money out there and they play it for you."

Ontario resident Russell Rubio, 31, said he learned to play poker from his dad when he was 15 years old and now he has his own poker nights, which can bring crowds of up to 40 people.

"It" s not just a bunch of guys sitting around either," Rubio said. "They bring their girlfriends, or their wives and their friends."

One big game

2005-10-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

He occasionally watches poker shows like "World Series of Poker' and "World Poker Tour' to study what moves the players make.

"It" s not just the chips and the cards, but how you read somebody," Rubio said.

Gary Thompson, spokesman for Harrah's Entertainment, which owns "World Series of Poker on ESPN, agreed.

"It" s a very simple game to understand and a very complex game to play," Thompson said. "It" s easy to read the cards and know hands are out there, but it's very hard to read the player."

Thompson said it's a very complicated and psychological game because of this human element.

"You see what a player" s character is like when they are in a situation where there is a big amount of money or prestige at risk," he said.

Thompson said one of the things that adds to the popularity of poker is that it is a game everybody can play because it is based on skill as well as luck.

"I can" t beat Tiger Woods on a golf course, but I can sit at a table and play the same hand that a guy just played and win $5 million," Thompson said.

Lipscomb said poker is a psychological game based on outmaneuvering or outwitting other players.

"I think people love it and keep coming back not just for the high stakes and the money — it" s for the rush of putting all of your senses on the line in a contest against other people," Lipscomb said.

Lipscomb said the poker industry was actually in a decline before "World Poker Tour' was created.

"It" s just increasing the number of people who are finding the great American card game and finding a way to incorporate it into their homes," Lipscomb said.

Ceasar casino poker online

2005-10-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

Caesars Palace will open its first poker room in at least 12 years in response to the burgeoning popularity of poker, while Bellagio and Bally's Las Vegas are considering expanding their poker areas.

Many properties on the Las Vegas Strip still do not have poker rooms or closed their poker rooms years ago, preferring to install more profitable slot machines. But a proliferation of television coverage on poker has changed that, operators say.

"(Poker) has become immensely popular," Caesars Palace President Mark Juliano said.

The poker room, at around 15,000 square feet, will open by about March or April adjacent to the sports book as well as a nightclub now under construction. Pure, the first nightclub at Caesars Palace and one of the largest yet on the Strip, is expected to open on New Year's Eve.

MGM Grand, which closed its poker room in the late 1990s, will reopen its room near the sports book by the end of March. The room will contain 25 tables compared with 31 tables at The Mirage and 30 tables at Bellagio, other MGM Mirage properties.

Bellagio, which opened with a high-end poker room in 1998, is considering expanding its poker room based on increased casino traffic at Bellagio and The Mirage, MGM Mirage Director of Sports and Promotions Scott Ghertner said.

Ghertner said he wasn't aware of any plans to add poker rooms at the company's New York-New York and Treasure Island resorts.

Is your btdino online?

2005-10-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

Caesars Entertainment Inc. has no plans to add a poker room at its Paris Las Vegas property but is considering expanding its existing poker area at neighboring Bally's Las Vegas.

Bally's has seven poker tables and may add three more to meet customer demand, spokeswoman Stacy Solovey said.

Poker games still don't make much money for casinos but have become a mainstream attraction that can't be ignored, said Max Rubin, author of "Comp City" and a casino consultant.

"Poker rooms were dying until the recent popularity of poker on television," Rubin said. "It's a really low margin business. It will only make like $60 to $70 an hour for a table that's taking up a lot of square footage."

Poker has become such a draw that players now have to wait for a seat at the table and are gambling while they wait, he said.

"They tend to attract people who want to play against the (pros)," Rubin said. "The (amateurs) like to play other games," he said.

Poker can also help casinos attract the younger customers they covet, he said. Caesars' nearby nightclub will also draw young people who could be lured to other games in the casino via poker, he said.

Playing online

2005-10-11T03:58:00.000-07:00

"I was losing to guys who, a couple of years before, I was able to beat with only my left hand. That's when I realised my time was gone."

Kafelnikov won the 1996 French Open, the 1999 Australian Open, a gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the 2002 Davis Cup and 26 ATP titles.

"The most important thing was not to disappoint my fans," he said.

"It is very hard to earn a good image in Russia. So when people on the street in Moscow ask why I stopped playing, I say 'because I don't want to see you people crying when I lose'. They understand that."

Kafelnikov, known for his love of roulette while on the tennis circuit, is competing in a poker tournament in Maidstone, south of London.

"I find it very exciting," he said.

"Because you win not with the cards but with your skills. With body language you can win a game, but also you can lose a game.

"You need guts in poker, as in tennis. And if you don't believe in your ability, you don't win. In tennis I believed in myself, that's why I had so much success."

Leaving tennis for poker

2005-10-11T03:56:00.000-07:00

FORMER world No.1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov says he's given up tennis to become a professional poker player.

"I have retired," the Russian told the Independent newspaper today.

"But I have not officially announced it yet. Some people still think I am just taking a break, but I believe that my time in tennis has gone by. Even if I came back, I would have no chance to play at the level I was."

Kafelnikov, 30, hasn't played since losing in the second round of the St Petersburg Open in October 2003.

"I began at 19, and now it is impossible to compete with guys 10 years younger," he said.

"They are more hungry. I played five or six matches indoors, at the end of 2003, and I thought, 'I can't do this any more.'

Online poker firm

2005-10-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

THE world’s largest internet betting group, Sportingbet, is in talks to acquire Paradisepoker, an online poker firm, for more than £170m.

The acquisition would almost double the size of Sportingbet, whose shares are traded on the Alternative Investment Market. It has a market value of £229m.

The news comes as it emerged that Richard Segal, the former boss of Odeon Cinemas, has joined the owner of the world’s biggest online poker business Partypoker.com as chief executive. His appointment to the board of iGlobalmedia will fuel speculation that the firm could be grooming itself for a flotation.

Sportingbet announced last week that it was in “advanced discussions” about a “potential substantial acquisition of an online poker business”.

It did not name the company it is buying, but The Sunday Times has learnt that the target is Tropical Paradise, which operates the Paradisepoker website from Costa Rica. The site has been on a publicity drive in Britain this year and launched a series of advertisements featuring the model Caprice.

Tropical casino for sale

2005-10-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

Industry sources said that the founders of Tropical Paradise had been trying to sell the business for several months.

Last week, Sportingbet, founded in 1998 by bookmaker Mark Blandford, said its acquisition would be “significantly earnings enhancing” although it warned it was not certain a deal would be agreed.

Sportingbet was recently named the world’s leading online gambling operator by the industry bible eGaming Review, which put it ahead of Ladbrokes and William Hill. The purchase of Partypoker would give it an even greater lead.

Last week, a report on the interactive gaming industry by the stockbroker Arbuthnot Securities gave a “buy” recommendation for Sportingbet and said the company had “an opportunity to accelerate progress”.

However, some investors have remained wary of the company because it does a large part of its business in America, where online sports betting is banned.

Btdino online partypoker

2005-10-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

Partypoker has been discussing a flotation with a small number of investment banks, as revealed by The Sunday Times last month, and Segal’s appointment will be seen as a another step towards this goal.

Segal, 41, left Odeon in August last year after seven years at the cinema chain. He said last night how excited he was to be joining: “The growth rates both in terms of this market and this business are something that are fairly unequalled.”

Segal had been considering a number of opportunities with private-equity groups before deciding to join iGlobalmedia during the summer.

Meanwhile, Betfair, the online betting exchange, will this week announce plans to launch a legal challenge to the Dutch government over its decision to award an exclusive betting licence to De Lotto, the monopoly betting and gaming firm in Holland.

Long online casino

2005-10-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

While the popularity of televised poker tournaments has helped drive business to casino poker rooms, online poker sites may be equally, if not more responsible, for the surge in casino traffic.

"There are people who would not be in a poker room (in a casino) if not for the Internet," said Jennifer Harman, a professional poker player who participated in one of several panel discussions about poker at last week's Global Gaming Expo.

Online poker exists in a legal gray area. Certain states such as Nevada explicitly prohibit Internet betting or some forms of gambling while others don't. Some legal experts say poker is exempted from state gambling laws because it's a game of skill while others disagree. The Justice Department maintains that all Internet wagers are illegal because they involve transactions that cross state lines.

Meanwhile federal prosecutors have threatened legal action against several major media companies, claiming the companies are "aiding and abetting" illegal gambling sites by hosting advertising for the sites and providing other services.

Americans, meanwhile, are paying little attention to such legal maneuvering and are joining Internet poker games in record numbers for a shot at winning a seat in televised poker tournaments in casinos worldwide. Others have less lofty goals of playing poker in a Las Vegas casino and are practicing in the privacy of their own homes to avoid making rookie mistakes.

"Everyone wants to be on TV," said Anthony Curtis, publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor gambler newsletter.

Curtis said many Internet sites that are concerned about legal restrictions will find a way to make money by selling ads to sites that offer free games and prizes for winners, he said.

Online sites are engaging in subtle advertising and sly marketing campaigns as standing outside casinos to sign up customers on mailing lists, said Debee Silverman, marketing manager of GoneGambling.com, an online portal that caters to Internet casinos.

The lure of the game is enough to attract others to the Internet, Silverman said.

Risks in online gambling

2005-10-10T12:07:00.000-07:00

"It's all word of mouth," she said. "People are winning big money online."

About half of the roughly 2,600 people who played in the World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe this year likely came from "satellite" poker tournaments online, said Doug Dalton, director of poker operations at the Bellagio.

Jack Binion, former chief executive of Horseshoe Gaming and former owner and manager of Binion's Horsehoe, estimates that some 60,000 people are playing online poker during peak hours nationwide.

Online poker jackpots have risen from the hundreds of thousands of dollars to the millions of dollars, Harman said.

Many people are now making a living largely by playing poker online, experts said.

Some pros are playing online "thirteen to fifteen hours a day" in two or three poker rooms and then supplementing that with playing a few casino tournaments a year, said Peter Marcus, marketing director of adsdotcom, a U.K.-based marketer of Internet gambling sites.

While some forms of gambling like sports betting will always be male-dominated, poker has witnessed a steady increase of female players, Silverman said.

Casinos make millions

2005-10-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

About 72 percent of members who play poker online are men, down from 84 percent last year, she said.

For the typical customer, poker has become an expected part of their gambling vacation, said Lyle Berman, chief executive officer of Lakes Entertainment Inc., which owns the televised World Poker Tour.

"The average player wants a poker experience," Berman said. "If you don't have a poker room they're going to go somewhere else. They see it on TV and they expect to be able to play."

Seeing people play poker on television also gives players an excuse to go to Las Vegas or elsewhere to gamble, Curtis said.

"It entitles them to go back because they think they can beat the casino," he said.

Dalton said many casinos are making the mistake of slapping up a poker room in the back of their casino without spending the time and money to promote it or make it an important part of the casino floor.

They're saying, "We'll put it in and make a lot of money off it, too,' " Dalton said. "But you have to support it and make it high profile."

Tricking casinos online

2005-10-10T04:53:00.000-07:00

Filmmaker Zak Penn is lining up some poker buddies for his next directing outing. Penn, who recently made his helming debut on Incident at Loch Ness, will be sitting around the table with Ben Affleck, David Schwimmer, William H. Macy, Richard Kind and German helmer Werner Herzog for a comedy feature set during an international poker tournament. The project will start filming early next year at the Golden Nugget casino.

The untitled feature will be in the style of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm and the Christopher Guest mockumentaries with each actor knowing their character and then working with Penn and the other actors to create mostly improvised scenes. Penn, who has long played cards including rounds with each of the actors save Macy (who doesn't gamble), hopes to secure a few more poker-playing actors to star in the film.

The ante, which will be kept under $10 million, is being provided by Insomnia Entertainment, a young company created to promote casino gaming. Golden Nugget owners Tim Poster and Tom Breitling and Station Casino's Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta are partners in the company with Trent Othick, who runs the company and will produce the film. Matt Bierman and Gary Marcus will also produce, with Lance Stockton serving as co-producer.

Online hands on casino

2005-10-10T04:52:00.000-07:00

BTDino alliance

2005-10-10T04:51:00.000-07:00

Poker mania has produced TV shows, best-selling books, magazines and a host of celebrities. Even the venerable New York Times has hired a poker columnist for the first time in its history. Nearly 2 million play online poker each month. In New Jersey and Nevada alone--the only two states that track data--revenue hit $152 million in 2004, up 45% from 2003.

Fun aside, the headlines and the big money comes down to the tournaments. Two major brands dominate.

The older, more established (36 years in the running) is the World Series of Poker, which is owned and operated by Harrah's Entertainment (nyse: HET - news - people ), now in the process of merging with Caesars Entertainment (nyse: CZR - news - people ).

Cable-TV channel ESPN, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Co. (nyse: DIS - news - people ), broadcasts the tournament. The series consists of several tournaments offering smaller prize money, in addition to the main tournament, which decides the world champion. This year, some 6,600 will compete in the main tournament July 7-15. Many of the competitors paid $10,000 to enter, with the hope of winning a jackpot of some $8 million.

poker mania

2005-10-10T04:50:00.000-07:00

The other major brand is the World Poker Tour, now four years old and run by WPT Enterprises (nasdaq: WPTE - news - people ), a majority-owned subsidiary of Lakes Entertainment (nasdaq: LACO - news - people ). A TV show based on a series of high-stakes poker tournaments airs on the Travel Channel in the U.S. and 50 other global markets.

The tournaments are held in various casinos and on cruise ships throughout the world. The WPT is credited with making the game more accessible and exciting with its innovative camera shots that allow viewers to see players' hands, or hole cards.

Click on the links below to view several poker mania videos.

Remember btdino?

2005-10-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

THE world’s biggest internet poker company is to press ahead with plans for a $10 billion (£5.4 billion) flotation on the London Stock Exchange despite the abrupt resignation of one of its City advisers.

PartyGaming, the Gibraltar-based group that launched the PartyPoker website in 1997, announced yesterday that it had completed a review of its strategic options but that it was no longer working with Investec Securities.

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The Times understands that Investec had become uncomfortable due to issues including the questionable legality of internet poker in the US, PartyGaming’s biggest market, and the background in “adult entertainment” of one of the company’s founding shareholders.

David Currie, head of UK investment banking at Investec, said last night: “We were doing the strategic review and that has come to an end. Our role is now over and we have parted company.”

PartyGaming said it was “now considering the conclusions of the strategic review” in conjunction with Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, its remaining adviser. It declined to comment further, although most observers predict that it will pursue an initial public offering (IPO) at the end of next month, or in September.

City sources expressed surprise that it was pressing ahead with an IPO. One source suggested that the same factors that had caused Investec to pull out were worrying DKW, claiming that the bank had also considered resigning a few weeks ago.

what is a casino

2005-10-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday PartyGaming announced the appointment of Michael Jackson, the chairman of Sage Group, the software firm, as non-executive chairman, while Brian Larcombe, the former chief executive of the private equity firm 3i, becomes non-executive deputy chairman.

Richard Segal, PartyGaming’s chief executive, said: “They are both guys with very substantial reputations and the fact that they are on board with this says something about PartyGaming.”

He said that there had been no falling out with Investec, adding: “The strategic review ended and their mandate finished. David Currie is a good guy and he and his team will be on my Christmas card list.”

PartyGaming, which would be catapulted into the FTSE 100 index, reported annual revenues last year of $602 million (£302 million) and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) of $391 million. Analysts are predicting that ebitda this year will hit $600 million as the poker boom gathers pace.

Cassava Enterprises, owner of the 888.com gambling website, is expected to pursue an IPO in the second week of July or in September, depending on market conditions.

Bitdno casino games

2005-10-07T23:21:00.000-07:00

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Fans of Texas Holdem poker can't play the game legally in Oklahoma, according to an attorney general's opinion handed down Thursday.

The opinion, which carries the force of law, will likely slow the growth of popular Texas Holdem poker tournaments common in other states and that have been advertised and conducted by taverns, pubs and other commercial establishments across Oklahoma.

But the opinion also applies to private poker games played for cash or other things of value. Attorney General Drew Edmondson said it is up to individual district attorneys throughout the state to decide whether to prosecute violations.

Caisino btdino

2005-10-07T14:37:00.000-07:00

Fun aside, the headlines and the big money comes down to the tournaments. Two major brands dominate.

The older, more established (36 years in the running) is the World Series of Poker, which is owned and operated by Harrah's Entertainment (nyse: HET - news - people ), now in the process of merging with Caesars Entertainment (nyse: CZR - news - people ).

Cable-TV channel ESPN, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Co. (nyse: DIS - news - people ), broadcasts the tournament. The series consists of several tournaments offering smaller prize money, in addition to the main tournament, which decides the world champion. This year, some 6,600 will compete in the main tournament July 7-15. Many of the competitors paid $10,000 to enter, with the hope of winning a jackpot of some $8 million.

The other major brand is the World Poker Tour, now four years old and run by WPT Enterprises (nasdaq: WPTE - news - people ), a majority-owned subsidiary of Lakes Entertainment (nasdaq: LACO - news - people ). A TV show based on a series of high-stakes poker tournaments airs on the Travel Channel in the U.S. and 50 other global markets.

The tournaments are held in various casinos and on cruise ships throughout the world. The WPT is credited with making the game more accessible and exciting with its innovative camera shots that allow viewers to see players' hands, or hole cards.

Click on the links below to view several poker mania videos.

Internet casino btdino

2005-10-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK - You could call it the new American pastime. From Las Vegas to Atlantic City, N.J., and from card parlors to cyberspace, poker is the game. You might go so far as to say poker is the game of the globe--if you don't count football (soccer).

In the past few years, the game has attracted millions of new players. Tournaments such as the World Series of Poker--a six-week marathon that kicked off June 2--and around-the-clock play on the Internet have helped fuel the frenzy. So has a group of young Hollywood stars, including Ben Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio. To be sure, promoters have also managed to exploit the game's Everyman image, and casinos have used the game to attract new customers.

Poker mania has produced TV shows, best-selling books, magazines and a host of celebrities. Even the venerable New York Times has hired a poker columnist for the first time in its history. Nearly 2 million play online poker each month. In New Jersey and Nevada alone--the only two states that track data--revenue hit $152 million in 2004, up 45% from 2003.