According to a report filed by John Caldwell of PokerPlayersNewspaper.com WSOP will "most likely not" be taking online poker room qualifiers for the 2007 World Series of Poker.  Emphasis is on the "most likely" since there is still plenty of time and Harrah's may just be pumping its chest this early in the game. 

Harrah's stands to lose millions of dollars assuming it goes along with such a decision.  Last year, PartyPoker alone spent millions in advertising revenue while dozens of online poker rooms spent a million a pop to exhibit at Harrah's Rio Hotel.

The majority of the players who played in this years World Series of Poker Main Event qualified online for the tournament, according to Caldwell.

"Players would win online satellites, and be registered for the tournament by the online poker room, which would pay the players' buy in.

"All of that will apparently change in 2007, as Harrah's has told the online poker rooms that they will "most likely not" be accepting third-party registrations from them for the Main Event in 2007. Harrah's indicated they "most likely" would be taking brick & mortar casino satellite winners, and other types of promotional third-party entries, such as contest winners. If this decision sticks, it could severely reduce the number of entrants into the Main Event, unless the online rooms devise another way to let satellite players in."

This year's entries totaled nearly 9,000 and it doesn't take a math genius to figure out how much money Las Vegas made during the months of July and August with an additional influx of poker fans visiting the city.  Even a cash cow like Vegas will take a severe hit come next summer.  The amount of entries nearly doubled from the year previous and we can only assume the amount of revenue generated probably doubled as well.

Alas, we can only imagine that casinos based outside the US will soon be embracing the online poker community and developing its own version of the World Series of Poker.  Atlantis quickly comes to mind.  After all, this is too good a model to pass up. 

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Ace King, www.gambling911.com

Originally published October 23, 2006 8:16 pm ET