Fish and Chips: The Rounder's Radio Poker Tournament at the Golden Nugget and Shrimp Cocktail Run to the Golden Gate ... It's All Set for June 27

I’ll be in Las Vegas this week for the World Series of Poker—primarily to play in some side games and see friends. But I’m also going to play Saturday night in a 7 p.m. small buy-in tournament at the Golden Nugget, sponsored by Rounder’s Radio.

My weekly webcast radio show, Keep Flopping Aces, is heard live, worldwide and in real time on http://www.roundersradio.com/ each and every Thursday night at 6 p.m. Pacific Time (9 p.m. Eastern Time) and equivalent time zones all over the world. The show can also be heard on demand, by visiting the web site and downloading the show.

This week, with me and most of the guys from the station in Las Vegas, I’ll be heard in rerun only, but if any listeners are planning to be in Las Vegas on Saturday evening June 27, please stop by and play in the tournament or just come over to visit. Many of the station’s other show hosts will be playing too, so it will be a terrific opportunity for us to meet some of our listeners.

But before the tournament, at about 5 p.m., a group of us are going over to the Golden Gate for a shrimp cocktail run. Anthony Curtis’ Las Vegas Advisor newsletter, which includes his top ten values, has listed the Golden Gate’s 99-cent shrimp cocktail among Las Vegas’ top deals for years. Actually, for 99 cents, you get those smallish, bay shrimp, but for a couple of bucks more, you can get jumbo shrimp cocktails instead of bay shrimp, and unless you’re really on a shoestring budget, it’s worth the upgrade.

I hit the Golden Gate just about every time I’m in Las Vegas. I love the shrimp and I love the Golden Gate’s art deco ambiance and occasional honky-tonk piano player that entertains all the shrimp-eating diners, bar patrons, and table game players. For a hotel that’s over 100 years old, it’s quite a cool spot, located just about half a block toward the Plaza from the Golden Nugget, with it’s main entrance right on Fremont Street.

If you want to join me and a few others from the radio station, meet up with us in the Golden Nugget poker room at about 4:45 p.m. Saturday, June 27 and we’ll go over to the Golden Gate for our shrimp cocktail fest before the 7 p.m. tournament start. See you there. This is one time where the association between fish and poker players is a positive one.

Poker Player Alliance's National Poker Week Set for July 19 - 25

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) announced National Poker Week will be held July 19-25, to rally the PPA’s nationwide membership and send a message to lawmakers that their constituents support poker and legislation that regulates and licenses online poker.

“Our members—the poker players of America—are our best advocates to protect the future of poker,” PPA Chairman and former Senator Alfonse D’Amato (pictured right) said. “National Poker Week, with events in Washington, D.C., and across the country, is the PPA’s way to make it clear to my former colleagues in the U.S. Congress that poker is important to voters and is here to stay.”

PPA’s state directors and half a dozen professional poker players will meet with members of Congress in Washington, DC to ask them to support Barney Frank’s (D-MA) bill to license and regulate online poker,. They will also deliver a petition to President Obama asking his support to exempt poker from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), and for the licensing and regulation of online poker. To sign the online petition visit, http://www.pokerpetition.com/.

PPA will also organize telephone and email campaigns to Congressional offices for poker players to make their voices heard. You can visit http://www.nationalpokerweek.com/ to learn how to be an advocate for the game during National Poker Week.

In addition to meetings with members of Congress, PPA will host a charity poker tournament on Tuesday, July 21, benefiting the USO and the Malone House at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Wounded servicemen and women will be playing alongside poker pros, PPA’s state directors, members of Congress and their staff. PPA is covering all administrative costs so that all proceeds from the event go directly to the USO.

PPA is working with leading technology providers to host a “tech demo” that highlights the ability to regulate online poker through programs to verify age and ensure fairness of play, among other things.

PPA also announced MyPokerStory.com, a program to collect and record stories from poker players across the nation on why poker is so important to them and why they believe the government should keep poker legal. People can record their own video and upload it directly to http://www.mypokerstory.com/, or visit the PPA booth at the World Series of Poker and record and submit a video there. Everyone who submits a video will be entered into a drawing to win our special Grand Prize: a two-night Las Vegas vacation (with airfare) for two. Runners up will also be selected for other special PPA prizes.

For more information, please visit http://www.nationalpokerweek.com/, and to sign the PPA’s petition to President Obama, please visit http://www.pokerpetition.com/.

World Trade Organization Report Claims US Internet Gaming Laws are Illegal and Discriminatory

This past April the World Trade Organization (WTO) claimed that internet gambling laws in the US were illegal and contrary to US treaty obligations under the WTO. Recently the WTO released the full text of the report.

EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton was quoted as saying, “Internet gambling is a complex and delicate area, and we do not want to dictate how the US should regulate its market. However, the US must respect its WTO obligations. I hope that we will be able to reach an amicable solution to this issue.”

The report concludes a year-long investigation set off by a request by the Remote Gambling Association (RGA), a London-based trade organization. RGA said that the US ban on foreign internet gambling providers was unfairly discriminatory and constituted a violation of world trade rules.

European gaming providers point to falling profits and declining stock prices since the 2006 passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which forced many online poker providers to leave the US market. The EU report supports these assertions.

Even if Barney Frank (D-MA) is successful in overturning UIGEA through legislation introduced earlier this year, the European Union (EU) believes that action by the WTO would still be justified because the US is now engaged in legal proceedings against European internet gambling providers for actions they took before UIGEA’s enactment.

The US claims it was illegal for foreign online gaming providers to operate in the United States even before UIGEA was enacted, while RGA and EU firms believe US law was unclear at the time.

Despite the report, a WTO case may not be forthcoming. Instead, it would be a step in ongoing negotiations between the EU and the Obama administration.

You can read the full EU report here: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2009/june/tradoc_143405.pdf.

Feds Ask Banks to Freeze $33 Million in Poker Player Assets

Feds Ask Banks to Freeze Funds Owed to Poker players

Federal prosecutors asked four American banks to freeze $33 million owed to 27,000 players at four offshore poker sites, including PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

According to John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, prosecutors asked Citibank, Wells Fargo and two smaller banks to freeze funds in accounts belonging to two companies, Allied Systems and Account Services, which process payouts on behalf of the poker sites.

The government’s action came to light when checks issued to poker players by the two companies began bouncing. Pappas said that the online casinos had assured him that they planned to pay players what they were owed.

Feds Refuse to Comment on Actions

Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for the office of the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is bringing the legal action, declined to comment.

Stephen Cohen, a spokesman at Citibank confirmed that the bank received a request from prosecutors. He said that as a matter of policy Citibank complies with such requests.

Wells Fargo, which received a court order to freeze the money, said it had a policy to comply with “valid instructions to seize funds” but declined further comment. It is not clear whether the other banks received court orders or simply requests.

I. Nelson Rose, a professor of law at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, CA and specialist on gambling law, called the government’s move a surprising and significant new effort to police wagering on the Internet.

Gaming Law Expert Nelson Rose Calls it "Aggressive ... a Gamble on the Part of the Prosecutors"

“It’s very aggressive, and I think it’s a gamble on the part of the prosecutors,” Rose said. He added that it was not clear what law would cover the seizure of money belonging to poker players, as opposed to the money of the companies involved.

Past government efforts have focused on sports betting on the Internet, not on poker playing, Rose said, noting that he and other legal authorities, and some courts, have considered poker to be different from sports betting because poker involves a transaction between people, not a bettor and the casino.

A. Jeff Ifrah, a lawyer representing Account Services, with offices in San Diego and Canada, said that to his knowledge, the government “has never seized an account that belongs to players who are engaged in what I would contend is a lawful act of playing peer-to-peer poker online.”

Here's What I Think

This seems to be overreaching, to say the least, on the part of the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. Especially now, in light of pending legislation that would pull UIGEA's teeth and provide a basis to license and tax online gambling. But the Southern District has always overreached when it comes to online gaming.

The issue here is what law are they basing their aggression on? It's clearly not the Wire Act, which has does not to apply to online poker, but to sports betting instead. UIGEA, which was attached to a port security bill, did not create any new law designed that made online gaming illegal. Instead, it was an "enforcement act," designed to go after financial institutions that received and processed gaming funds.

If we look at it from the perspective of the poker players we are, I'd read the Southern District for a naked bluff. They don't hold the cards. They don't have the law in their corner, and all they have going for them is their ability to posture and trumpet their opinion. It may make some quake in their boots, but I think if this case is resolved in court, the Southern District will find themselves exposed for what they are: weak, foolish, overreaching bullies who will back down the first time someone plays back at them.

International Federation of Poker established in Lausanne, Switzerland

Founded on April 29, 2009 as a global governing body—a federation based on the same legal criteria and principles as those of other mainstream sports—the International Federation of Poker (IFP) was established in Lausanne, Switzerland, a venue symbolizing international sports cooperation. Lausanne is the home of the International Olympic Committee and many other international sports federations.

The founding members are

Danish Poker Federation (Denmark)
Fédération Française des Joueurs de Poker (France)
Stichting Nederlandse PokerBond (Holland)
UK Poker Federation (UK)
Russian Sport Poker Federation (Russia)
Ukrainian Poker Federation (Ukraine)
Associacao Brazileira de Poker (Brazil)

Negotiations with 20 other countries are in the works, and many are expected to join the Federation over the coming weeks.

Its first President, acclaimed poker writer Anthony Holden (pictured right), says this is “the only way to free poker from the cruel and unfair restraints of gambling legislation across the globe.”

Holden, who was elected IFP President at the Lausanne meeting, said that poker developed beyond all predictable measure over the past decade, and is now a major international mind-sport. But the international coordination and representation of the game had not matched the speed of its expansion, resulting in conflicting levels of acceptability around the world.

“The Federation will help to make an international case for poker as a mind-sport,” said Holden. “We have already had encouraging conversations with the International Mind Sports Association, based in Paris, who organize the Mind Sports Games alongside the Olympics every four years. If we can achieve membership, it will help the game become legal everywhere and start eliminating the restraints some countries are imposing on it.”

IFP will also draw together all the arguments, evidence and testimony gathered around the world by national federations or their equivalents which have been called upon to contest restrictive laws or punitive taxation.

IFP will work to standardize tournament rules internationally, as well as compile international rankings. These will be used to determine the teams sent to IFP-approved events. IFP also plans to stage international team poker events along the lines of golf’s Ryder Cup and tennis’s Davis Cup.

A state-of-the-art website is in the works to provide a forum for members as well as the latest poker news from all over the world. Its custom-built TV channel will offer footage of numerous TV poker events past and present.

IFP’s president, Anthony Holden, is an award-winning author and journalist, whose 30-plus books include bestselling biographies of the Prince of Wales and Laurence Olivier, Shakespeare and Tchaikovsky. He has also been a war correspondent, diarist, critic and editor, writing for all major publications on both sides of the Atlantic in his 40-year career.
Holden is equally well-known for his books about poker. Big Deal: A Year as a Professional Poker Player is frequently described as a cult classic, enjoying no fewer than six editions since its first publication in 1990. Holden’s long-awaited sequel, Bigger Deal: A Year on the New Poker Circuit, appeared in 2007, followed in 2008 by an expert strategy manual, Holden on Hold'em.