Nov 17, 2015 | News
Poker, for many players, begins as a hobby and then develops into a serious income stream. That is how a good number of renowned poker players began, including the young finalist in the just concluded WSOP tournament, 23yr old Thomas Cannuli. Online poker is, therefore, a welcome platform for poker players, whether they want to play poker merely as a pastime or play and horn their professional skills. This time, however, Jimmy Zhou was honoured with the coveted gold spadie within the precincts of a brick and mortar casino in Macau, where his poker prowess outshone every other player. Zhou was so excited he was lost for words and he said as much to the journalists who interviewed him immediately after his big win.
Owing to the enthusiasm that poker players have shown for the short duration various state laws have accommodated online poker in the US, owners of various hosting sites have decided to cash in and host serious competitions where there are respectable amounts of prize money. Poker Stars is one such poker hosting site. However, PokerStars has a common interest with other stakeholders in the poker fraternity, and that fact is clear from their sponsorship of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) that culminated in the final leg at Macau.
This year, the finals took place between 30th October and 15th November in the Hong Kong city and Jimmy Zhou became the lead in the tournament taking away a whopping HKD $5,885,000 (Hong Kong dollars) in prize money. Zhou is an avid poker player, though he was not the most familiar of faces. Poker fans seemed to be more familiar with Connor Drinan, a fellow competitor in the poker tournament. Drinan is Mexican while Zhou is an American of Chinese descent. He is also known by the name, Zhou Zhou.
Prize Money in the 2015 ACOP Final Leg
Macau has always been viewed as the Las Vegas of China when it comes to matters of poker, and there was no shortage of competitors and poker fans in this year’s event. The other finalists who joined Zhou in the APPT ACOP tournament included, Thomas Ward, who came 2nd overall and won $482,000 in prize money; Nan Tu, who ranked 3rd and took away $311,000; Hsien Yuan Yang, who took 4th position and scooped $249,000; Connor Drinan who was number 5 and won $196,000; Qi Luo who won $155,000 in 6th position; Xixiang Luo who won $124,000 in 7th position; Sergey Lebedev, who came 8th and won 101,000; as well as Guoliang Wei who took the 9th position and took home a respectable $78,000. Many among these poker finalists will, definitely, be looking forward with enthusiasm to next year’s APPT.
Prize Money in Hong Kong Dollars
The APPT is said to be the richest, and this year 27 poker players benefitted from it by winning cash prizes. At the end of the tournament, the few lucky poker giants who took home the big sums of money had it in even bigger figures in the local currency. The prize money for New Zealander Thomas Ward translated to HKD 3,736,000; for Nan Tu came to HKD 2,411,000; for the Taiwanese Hsien Yuan Yang translated to HKD1, 928,000; while that for Connor Drinan who is Mexican came to HKD 1,519,000. Qi Luo, yet another Chinese had a figure of HKD 1,205,000 and for Xixiang Luo, a Chinese as well, came to HK$964,000. The main event in Macau took five days, which means there was a lot of economic activity going on in this Chinese peninsula, some of it outside of poker.
Nov 16, 2015 | News
Pennsylvania borders New Jersey, one of the states that have legalized online poker. As such there is pressure on Pennsylvania from its residents to follow suit and pass a poker law that also accommodates online poker. Twice hearings have been scheduled to discuss the way forward for online gambling, and both times the hearings were cancelled. One of the hearings on the future of online poker was scheduled for October 21st while the second one was expected to be October 27th. Nevertheless, John Payne, who is the state’s Gaming Oversight Committee chairman, says the issue is still alive.
Apparently, the delay in passing the relevant state laws emanates from the need to consolidate the requirements of all the gaming sports and catering for them in one gambling law. In March this year, Payne expressed his commitment in making sure the gaming environment is healthy. He is not just concerned about online poker but also poker and other betting games that take place within brick and mortar casinos. He would like to see a situation where the state laws lead to collection of reasonable amounts of revenue from online gambling as well as regular gambling in casinos and other public places.
Pennsylvania’s Legislature to Look beyond Online Poker
Although residents of Pennsylvania have been eager to see the enactment of the state online poker law, they would also like to see other sports that fall under online gambling catered for. As for the legislature, members have been checking out various betting games even within conventional casinos with a view to regulating them under state laws.
Among the gambling activities the state is evaluating are online lottery sales; tavern gaming; slot machines in airports and betting parlors; resort casino activities; and a host of other events that accompany gambling. Casino owners would particularly like to see the state laws allowing them to serve alcohol for more hours than currently permitted. It is uncertain how liberal the state laws will be, but considering that the budget deal calls for discussions of give and take, proponents of online poker and liberalization of other betting games and related activities may have many of their proposals accommodated within 2016.
Challenges to the Online Gambling law
John Payne is a proponent of online gambling. However, there is a formidable group of lobbyists in Pennsylvania that is against online gambling and sometimes Payne has become their target of attack. One such group named Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling has particularly been vicious, using public ads to attack Payne. However, Payne is unperturbed as he has a big number of iGaming enthusiasts urging him on with the fight for favorable legislation on online gambling. It also seems like some legislators want to frustrate online gambling through tax laws. While some have proposed an understandable 14% tax on gaming revenue, others have suggested a hefty 54%.
The State Of Casino Activity in PA
Brick and mortar gaming venues in Pennsylvania are vibrant with activity including poker. In 2004, the state legalized use of slot machines in fourteen unique locations. Conventional casinos within the state account for around 5,000 slot machines and legislation continues to allow for more gaming tables within those casinos. So, despite the slow pace legalization of online gambling has taken, betting activity in ordinary casinos is thriving. In fact, the state laws allow the casinos to operate 24/7.
As for the gambling age allowed, the state laws permit teenagers to engage in pari-mutuel betting activities after attaining the age of 18yrs. However, they are allowed to play on gaming machines only when they have attained the age of 21yrs.
Nov 16, 2015 | News
Josh Beckley is only 24yrs old and played alongside poker veterans in the just completed WSOP finals in Las Vegas. The two poker veterans who reached November Nine were Belgian Pierre Neuville who ranked 7th overall and bagged $1,203,293 in prize money, and American Neil Blumenfield whose prize money was $3,398,298 for coming 3rd overall. Beckley was, however, not the only young player to grace the final table. The winner, Joe McKeehen is his age mate.
Beckley is rather quiet in nature but his prowess as a poker player, definitely, speaks volumes. He came into November Nine with a stack of 11.8 million chips whereas the lead, Joe McKeehen, had a stack of 63.1 million. Still, other competitors beat him in the chips count with Zvi Stern coming in with 29.8 million chips and Neil Blumenfield entering with 22 million chips. Suffice it to say, Beckley beat only two other WSOP finalists in chips count as he began the November Nine competition.
Clearly, in gambling, whether in online poker or conventional casino games, nothing is certain until it happens. At the end of the WSOP series, only McKeehen ended up beating Beckley. And $98,348, which has been Beckley’s big win so far, dwarfs in the face of the prize money he won this year for his 2nd place in the WSOP tournament – $4,470,896!
Beckley’s Poker Life and Back-up Plan
The 24yr old is not just a poker enthusiast. He literally lives in the gaming arena. Among those who would love to see US state laws drawn in favor of poker are people like Beckley whose only time away from the game is possibly when they are asleep. Beckley was quoted after the July poker competition as saying he considers his job the best because he earns from what he loves to do. For this time, however, he was ready to take some time out and enjoy a holiday with friends.
Though playing poker professionally, Beckley has a fall back plan should he stop playing poker. He graduated from Cherokee High School and proceeded to do mechanical engineering at Drexel University. The pursuit for a degree did not, however, deter him from engaging in the game he has loved since he was 16yrs old. Months before graduating with his Mechanical degree, Beckley won his biggest prize money ever – $98,348!
This put his mother’s fears to rest as she knew he was, without a doubt, destined for a serious career in poker. Before then, she would worry about her son getting hooked to the game and not being able to make it in life. As she observed after her son qualified for November Nine, he has a passion that goes beyond the money aspect of the game. And speaking to Poker News around that time, Beckley disclosed that he used to play $1/$2 games with his friends when he started, and those were just home games. And though he soon graduated to $5/$10 games, it was not until August 2014 that he entered any tournament.
However, after this big win, chances are this poker enthusiast is going to concentrate on tournaments and hope to clinch the big win soon and join the list of world poker champions.
All Poker is legal in Beckley’s State
Beckley hails from Marlton, New Jersey. He is lucky that he can play poker whenever he wishes without legal limitations. New Jersey’s poker law is friendly and residents can play online poker as often as they wish. The state of New Jersey is one of the few states that have explicitly made online poker legal. Other US states are either silent on the issue of online poker or outright outlaw it among other online gambling activities.
Nov 14, 2015 | News
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Source: www.theguardian.com
Gambling is viewed very differently in the world. In some countries it is welcomed with both arms while in others it is abhorred. The rest of the countries fall somewhere in-between the two extremes. Some countries have gray areas in their law while some are comprehensive. Without universal regulation, each country makes its own regulation. Asia in particular has both extremes on the same continent, more so on the restrictive side rather than the welcoming side.
These restrictions have not slowed online gambling’s growth. Its popularity continues to grow in leaps and bounds. The fact that people can now play online games where they stand to make money from the comfort of their homes makes online gambling very appealing. Where there are gray areas, you may find that while brick and mortar gambling houses are not permitted by law, citizens of a country can still play their games right in their houses. Now restrictions are coming up left, right and center in Asia. Here are some countries with strict gambling and poker laws:
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Japan: Gambling in its real sense is illegal in all of Japan. You will not find gambling resorts and crowded poker rooms here. This applies to online gambling as well. The closest thing to gambling that you will find here is lottery tickets and sports betting. Plans to have gambling results are ongoing with parliamentary bills to that effect tabled in parliament a few months ago. It is not clear if online gambling and poker laws were included but the outcome will be of profound effect to those on opposing sides.
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Malaysia: Malaysia is a country with a Muslim majority and Islam is considered the state religion. Gambling is prohibited in all of the country except for one resort in the highlands of Genting. Even there, Malaysian citizens who happen to be Muslims cannot engage in gambling either. Despite attracting millions of tourists every year, the rules do not seem to be easing anytime soon and that will extend to online gambling for sure.
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Hong Kong: Poker laws are not friendly here. Gambling is strictly controlled in the territory of Hong Kong. The only form of betting allowed is football betting on a government site. Poker and other forms of gambling, land based and online are illegal. To have any gambling here, you will need to board some gambling vessels that motor out to the sea and open their gambling operations on international waters.
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China, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia are other Asian countries with prohibitive laws against online and land based gambling.
The future of online gambling
Despite the restrictions in Asia and other parts of the world, online gambling’s growth is not about to slowdown anytime soon. In fact, it is set to grow with many countries embracing regulation of online gambling operations.
The “Global Online Gambling and Betting Market (2015)” which is published by a business intelligence company, yStats.com opines that globally, online gambling is a growth industry with a lot of potential. This will go to full-blown growth once more countries embrace regulation and open up the market to their citizens.
Gambling and poker laws in Asia aside, today Europe leads in regulation of online gambling. This has promoted the industry in a big way. With many countries embracing regulations for iGaming, the result is increased clientele and more gambling sites coming up.
Elsewhere, online gambling continues to face hurdles with only a handful of states in the U.S.A legalizing the industry. South Africa have consistently resisted any attempts to legalize online gambling while other countries and like Brazil and Mexico have bills in their legislatures aimed at making online gambling legal and regulated.
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Nov 13, 2015 | News
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Source: www.foxsports.com
Joe McKeehen, the 24yr old poker player who went into the final leg of the WSOP with a commanding lead in chips, has taken the 2015 WSOP championship. He has, therefore, taken home a whopping $7,683,346 in cash and the gold bracelet that every poker competitor yearns to have. He came into the last leg with 128,825,000 chips while his fellow competitors, Neil Blumenfield and Joshua Beckley, came with 40,125,000 and 23,700,000 respectively. The new WSOP champion hails from North Wales, Pennysylvania.
While this young poker player may wish to take a break and relax after the challenging WSOP series, his love for the betting game may not keep him away from the poker tables for long. And even if he decides not to grace casinos for a couple of weeks, there is always online poker that is just as thrilling and which he can access from the comfort of his home.
How McKeehen Led From Start
From Day 1 of the November Nine, McKeehen had great advantage over everyone else as no other player was close to him in the chips count. His stack was almost a whole third of the total chips held by all the nine finalists. In poker, you have an edge when you have a bigger pile of poker chips as you can afford to lose a sizeable number to competitors and still make a comeback. So McKeehen began to fight for fame and riches in Las Vegas this week with a stack of 63,100,000 chips.
And he has made it to the top and indelibly written his name, not just within the precincts of Rio’s Penn & Teller Theater and Las Vegas, the unofficial home of poker, but in the history books of world poker. His name will always come up as the champion of the 46th Annual World Series of Poker.
His rival in the very last leg of the poker tournament, Joshua Beckley, had come to November Nine with just 11,800,000 chips and he managed to clinch second position and qualifying for the 2nd position cash prize of $4,470,896. This goes to show the unpredictability of poker.
There were others who fell on the wayside and had come into November Nine with higher piles of chips, including Zvi Stern who brought with him 29.8 million chips; Pierre Neuville who came with 21 million, Max Steinberg who had 20.2 million, 23yr old Thomas Cannuli who came in with 12.3 million and third position holder, Neil Blumenfield, who had entered with 22 million chips.
Elderly WSOP Contenders
2015 has seen two elderly poker players reach the last leg. There was Neil Blumenfield, the 61yr old who hails from San Francisco and who ended up in a respectable third position. Then there was Pierre Neuville, the 71yr old poker player of Belgian descent. This resilient septuagenarian was the last to be eliminated in the first day of the finals and he secured himself a respectable 7th position. The competitors who entered the WSOP tournament were over six thousand.
Blumenfield has taken away the 3rd position cash prize of $3,398,298 while Neuville took away the 7th position cash prize of $1,203,293. That is impressive, especially considering the massive number of entrants there were. This year’s prize pool for the poker series was $60,355,857 and the Buy-in was $10,000. The poker tournament cash prizes graduated upwards is ranges from $15,000 for the players ranking 649th to 1,000th position.
The WSOP series has many other beneficiaries besides the poker players. This year’s beneficiaries include ESPN the official broadcaster who transmitted the final leg of the poker series live, thanks to the Nevada’s friendly state poker law.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
