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11/21/03 1:21 PM EST
TRIDENT UPS THE ANTE WITH NEW POKER ROOM
Joins the Prima Poker global network
The respected Trident Group, operators of the popular King Neptune's, Trident
Lounge and Vegas USA online casinos have responded to client demand by
entering the booming poker room sector of online gambling.Trident Poker.com
( www.tridentpoker.com)
debuted today with a bright and information filled site carrying 5 multiplayer
games including the popular Texas Hold 'Em and Omaha. Trident becomes the
twenty-first member of the rapidly growing Prima Poker worldwide network
powered by super-fast Microgaming specialized poker software. The bigger the
network, the more choice there is in tables and games, and better action for
players around the clock.
With hundreds of poker players using the member sites, the network now
offers players the opportunity to play at any time, and to participate in
tournaments that could lead to generously sponsored trips to major land-based
tournaments like the Paris Grand Prix, The Borgata Open and, ultimately the
World Series.
The action and excitement of tournament play will be available for Trident
players. The Prima network continues to generate a serious poker tournament
schedule that sends up to ten players at a time to major events. The network
has also signed up a celebrity deal with The Hendon Mob that is currently the
biggest sponsorship agreement that online poker has yet seen.
The Mob is a London-based foursome who play poker professionally and have
been the subject of extensive media interest. Part of the deal involves
playing on the network sites and a world tour, taking on the best
international players in tournament events
The tour began on September 23rd in Las Vegas, with the prestigious Four
Queens festival. The Prima Poker Tour turned up trumps at the Irish Winter
Festival poker tournament last week in Dublin, Ireland with their four
celebrity poker players (collectively known in the poker world as "The Hendon
Mob") finishing in the money no less than five times in four tournaments! Over
the following months, The Mob will represent Prima Poker in Amsterdam,
Helsinki and elsewhere, with the tour peaking in January in Melbourne's Crown
Casino where they won the first ever 'Poker Ashes' two years ago.
Trident spokesman Scott Gaines says that Trident Poker.com will have a full
round-the-clock Support and a dedicated management team. "Our extensive
research has shown us that these are necessary for a serious entry into this
market sector, and we are definitely serious", he said. "The poker aspect of
Internet gambling is enjoying enormous popularity, with improvements in
multi-table and multi-player technology that enable great tournaments to be
held. Online players are starting to appear regularly in land-based global
tournaments, and we want our poker players to have equal opportunities to make
the big time through our sponsored route"
Trident Poker offers new players a generous $30 welcome bonus and an
attractive Referral program.
DRAFT FOR BRIT GAMBLING REFORM
Internet gambling will be legalised
Las Vegas-style casinos could soon be on their way to the UK under new laws
presented in draft form this week.
Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tessa Jowell has released details of a
draft gambling bill which aims to deregulate the £40bn industry.
The new law is designed to update archaic legislation, at the same time
keeping the gambling industry free of crime and protecting the young and
vulnerable.
A single regulator, the Gambling Commission, will be created and given
strong enforcement powers.
Wholesale deregulation
Under the new rules, there will be no restrictions on where casinos can
be set up, and membership of a gaming or bingo hall at least 24 hours before
playing will no longer be required.
Remote gambling, via the Internet, mobile phones or interactive
television, will be licensed and regulated in Britain for the first time.
There will be strict controls on children's access to venues and a fund
paid for by the industry will help people with a gambling problem.
Further proposals are yet to come and the government plans wholesale
deregulation.
Critics of the bill say the new laws could encourage casinos springing up
on every street corner.
But to avoid the creation of lots of smaller gambling halls, ministers
have proposed that new casinos be subject to a minimum size.
Opponents also claim the bill underestimates the social impact of the
proposed changes.
According to National Economic Research Associates, the number of problem
gamblers in the UK could rise to 1 million, a fourfold increase.
"The evidence from Australia and the US suggests that the incidence of
problem gambling could increase to as much as 2.5% of the adult population,"
said NERA's John Dodgson.
Transformation
Councillors in Blackpool, Lancashire, hope to use the new law to
transform the seaside town into a world-class resort for hotels and casinos
with the aim of creating 30,000 new jobs.
A committee of MPs will scrutinise the bill and improve the legislation,
ensuring a balance is struck between deregulation and protection.
The full bill will be put forward in April 2004 which will then enter
Parliament.
GPWA MELTDOWN
A new association forming?
We have previously reported the intense disagreements and disputes between
GPWA current and ex-members on the message boards following allegations of
non-payment of hotel bills at the recent GPWA Retreat at the Mohegan Sun.
The vehement exchanges have been going on for three weeks now, and culminated
this week in an offer by a respected former GPWA executive, Craig Miller to
form a new and more democratic association before further damage was caused to
the professional image of gambling webmasters.
Our information is that he has received a significant and enthusiastic
response to his suggestion that concerned webmasters contact him to discuss a
better and more collegiate way of running a professional body.
GPWA owner Cynthia Carley made another error of judgement in immediately
launching a personal attack on Miller, who is widely respected as a
straight-up and very professional webmaster.
Meanwhile, the Gambling911.com site continued to air the GPWA affair by
revealing that the Mohegan management had not yet been paid an amount
substantially more than that claimed to be owed by Carley. The site also
claimed that the affiliate managers of some large casino groups have started
disassociating themselves from Carley and the GPWA.
SPORTSBOOK BLUES
Three in a week
It is not just online casinos that are going to the wall in growing numbers.
Blue Marlin Sportsbook closed its doors on Sunday, making it the third book
in less then a month to shut its doors (Betworks & Gambler's Avenue were the
other two). In an email to players, management revealed:
'With financial loss forcibly incurred from Secure Buxx, a particularly
brutal football season and most recently, the repeated cyber-terrorist DOS
attacks against multiple Costa Rican sports-books including Blue Marlin, we
can simply no longer independently maintain operations."
CASINO CAUTIONS
Red alert
Over the past two weeks complaints have been mounting against Vegas Red, a new
Playtech powered online casino belonging to a group that includes Del Rio
casino. The complaints all speak of unilateral declarations of players as
bonus abusers with confiscation of winnings and bonuses prior to lockout.
This group is sufficiently experienced to know that this sort of conduct is
not acceptable - if a player has adhered to the terms and conditions, and has
not committed any other fraudulent behaviour the correct procedure is to make
the bonus abuser declaration, pay out all legitimately owed monies and then
lock the player out. Playtech have been taking flak for this growing bad
casino practice by their casinos.
MOB TAKES FREEZEOUT TROPHIES
Poker king scores again as Finnish champ
The Hendon Mob had a great run on the Finnish leg
of The Prima Poker Tour, with Barny Boatman winning the main event to become
the official Finnish Poker Champion, and Ram Vaswani taking home the trophy
for “Best Overall Player” at the Helsinki Freezeout Poker Tournament.
The Prima Poker sponsored Hendon Mob finished the
Finnish leg of the Prima Poker Tour off with a bang when poker ace “Barmy”
Barny Boatman, widely recognized to be one of Europe’s best No-Limit Hold’em
players, picked up over €27,000 in winnings by finishing first in the Helsinki
tournament’s main event - the No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout.
Barny now holds the title of Finnish Poker
Champion, which he will be invited to defend at next year’s tournament. “The
Scandinavian players are amongst the best in the world, it was a great
tournament and I'm delighted to have come away with the trophy,” said Barny.
But Barny wasn’t the only star on this leg of the Prima Poker Tour. Ram
“Crazy Horse” Vaswani won “Best Overall Player” after winning the most
cumulative points in the tournament after qualifying in three final table
finishes.
Defying the odds The Mob has had 21 final table
finishes, 28 money finishes, and won seven trophies in the last eight weeks of
the Prima Poker Tour. With the second half of the Tour still on the way with
tournaments in Walsall, Luton, and Australia, the boys are looking to add a
few more notches to their belt.
“This was a great trip for The Mob and for Prima
Poker. Winning the two main trophies at the festival is a real high point of
our world tour,” according to Barny.
The next stop on the Prima Poker Tour is the
Midland Masters in Walsall, England, which will take place between November 24th
and November 30th. The Midland Masters is one of the largest and
most popular poker festivals in England, attracting the top players from all
over Europe. Walsall Grosvenor Casino boasts the biggest card room in the UK
and the tournament offers the largest prize pool in Britain.
MAJOR C.O.N. WINNER
Great luck for California woman
Californian Sandra C. won an incredible jackpot of $599,494.50, while
playing at |Casino On Net this week on the progressive slots.
Millions of players have downloaded Casino-on-Net's free software since
www.888.com was established in 1996. Currently there are a total of SEVEN
amazing jackpots on offer - five in slots, one in Caribbean Poker and yet
another in Video Poker.
Players who visited CON in the past will notice that some significant
upgradeding has taken place to include new games, improved graphics and
ultra-realistic digital sound effects. The site now offers 15 games in 11
different languages, and they can all be played for unlimited practice money
as well as for the thrill of real money.
CRUISING FOR POKER
A big new tournament from the Party people
Not since pirates floated on the Spanish Main has so much money been up for
grabs on the high seas, says the Party Poker blurb.
Capitalizing on America's newfound passion for poker, PartyPoker.com will
set sail March 13 next year for a weeklong cruise on Holland America's
luxurious MS Ryndam, culminating in the March 14-18 PartyPoker.com Million
III, the world's largest No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament.
More than 500 players are expected to compete for a record-smashing $3.5
million prize pool and a spot in the "World Poker Tour" Championship, airing
on the Travel Channel. First prize will exceed $1 million. PartyPoker.com is
the world's largest online multi-player poker room offering players a safe,
secure and friendly environment to play poker.
Anyone can win their way into The PartyPoker.com Million III by going to
PartyPoker.com and competing in preliminary tournaments that cost as little as
$1 to enter. Winners who qualify in those preliminary satellite tournaments
will receive a $9,000 package -- the $1,800 cruise for two, plus their $7,200
"buy-in" for the event. Nearly 300 have already qualified through
PartyPoker.com satellites, super satellite and semi-final tournaments, but
more than 200 seats are still in contention.
"After two incredible tournaments in the last couple of years, The
PartyPoker.com Million III will be an even more monumental leap forward, "said
Mike Sexton, PartyPoker.com executive host and spokesman. "Tripling the prize
money makes this the richest event in poker and certainly one of the most
competitive. Someone's going home with a million-dollar payday and lots of
folks will win a portion of that huge pot."
The PartyPoker.com Million III is the third installment of the fabulously
successful tournament. Last year the event drew 130 players and offered
$1,013,000 in prize money. One of the players who made the final table, Tim
Lark, qualified online at PartyPoker.com by winning a $1 satellite tournament
and parlaying his winnings into a spot on the cruise. He was outlasted by
Howard Lederer, of Las Vegas, a World Champion and two-time winner of 2003
World Poker Tour tournaments. The year before, Kathy Liebert of South Gate,
CA, became the first woman ever to win $1 million in a single poker
tournament.
As for those big bets, players will begin the tournament on the first day
with $7,000 in chips and play till they lose or until they make the Final
Table on the fifth day. That final table of six players will be filmed for
airing on the hugely popular World Poker Tour television series. Players
closing in on the PartyPoker.com Million III championship will be sweating out
bets and bluffs that risk hundreds of thousands per hand. After a tough day at
the poker table, a Mai-Tai on the Ryndam veranda may be just the thing!
Launched in August 2001, PartyPoker.com is the world's largest online
multi-player poker room offering players a safe, secure and friendly
environment to play poker. With more than one million satisfied users,
PartyPoker.com is the market leader in the popular and fast growing online
poker games market. PartyPoker.com is fully licensed and regulated by the
Kahnawake Gaming Commission, Quebec, Canada. The site typically hosts more
than 20,000 simultaneous players playing an assortment of live classic poker
games including Texas Hold `Em, Omaha Hi/Low, and Seven Card Stud and single
and multi table tournaments.
Poker has become the nation's hottest cultural trend and phenomenon.
Everyone from PhDs to construction workers, from grandmothers to Miss America
contestants have caught the fever, spurred by the "World Poker Tour"
television show and best-selling books like James McManus' "Positively Fifth
Street." PartyPoker.com is where many new enthusiasts begin their poker
lessons, playing for FREE, and then progressing to tournaments like The
PartyPoker.com Million III.
TAX PRECEDENT
EC implications for Finnish case
An interesting tax precedent was set by an EC court this week, and it
protects gamblers from taxation on international winnings.
The Court of Justice of the European Communities has decided that the
Finnish government may not charge income tax on money won in foreign
lotteries and Internet sites. The ruling came following a case brought
by a Finnish woman who, after having won EUR 100,000 in a Swedish
Lottery was forced to pay full income tax on her winnings. Winnings
from Finnish games of chance are tax-free.
The court ruled that Finland’s policy is a direct violation of free
movement of services in the European Union – good news for Internet
casinos and bookies. There are about ten foreign companies who have
Finnish-language web pages for placing bets, and there are several
hundred in English. The ruling will set a precedent throughout the EU
and send a message to governments who wish to unfairly discriminate
against foreign companies.
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