The NBA and Major League Baseball want to have a say in how sports betting will be legalized around the US, if the federal ban goes down in flames. And they certainly deserve to have a seat at the table. …
The post The NBA And MLB Officially Can’t Get Any More Shameless When It Comes To Sports Betting appeared first on Play NJ.
Poker´EM is an annual live poker festival held at the stunning Casino Velden in Austria. Featuring seventeen prestigious tournaments and a “Cash Game Championship”, the festival attracts players from all over Europe. This July, you could be part of the action if you take advantage of Intertops Poker´s latest promotion.
Change is in the air in the Northeast casino market.
New casinos are popping up across the region. The big change isn’t necessarily new though, it’s old.
Over the course of the last 12 months, eight casino properties (six active casinos and two shuttered properties) have gone/are going through ownership changes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
In New Jersey:
Pennsylvania has been a game of musical chairs:
With the exception of the Eldorado purchase of Isle of Capri Casinos, the sales in both states have a common thread:
They all occurred after the legalization of online gaming. Additionally, they came after the passage of sports betting legislation, pending a favorable Supreme Court ruling.
It’s safe to say that these new opportunities are some of the driving forces behind the sales.
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Visit Golden NuggetOnline gaming is not only providing opportunities for large casino companies looking to expand their online gaming footprint, it’s an opportunity for companies that oppose online expansion or don’t have the resources and assets to compete in a national online market to jump ship as well. And if they do, they get top dollar for their suddenly in-demand properties.
The recent flurry of sales in Pennsylvania really highlights this dynamic.
Big national casino companies are entering the market. Boyd Gaming, Churchill Downs, and Wind Creek Hospitality are all new players. Penn National was already part of the Pennsylvania casino market. Elsewhere, Eldorado maintained its PA presence by selling Presque Isle but keeping Lady Luck.
Exiting the market are the anti-online gambling Las Vegas Sands and Valley Forge Convention Centers Partners. The latter’s only casino asset was the Valley Forge Casino.
With the acquisition of Tropicana, Eldorado Resorts is now a player in the two largest online gaming states.
The forthcoming Hard Rock AC and Ocean Resort Casino both announced online gaming partnerships with GiG and GAN respectively.
Similarly, the companies entering the New Jersey and Pennsylvania markets are all well-positioned to capitalize on sports betting opportunities. That is, should the SCOTUS issue a favorable ruling.
Both states have already passed sports betting bills. Therefore, it’s not surprising to see companies with a strong national presence trying to get in on the ground floor of these two markets.
It’s probably not a happy coincidence that the new entries in Pennsylvania and New Jersey already have properties in other states with sports betting legislation. West Virginia and Mississippi already passed laws. Several states where properties reside are seriously considering sports betting as well.
A quick look at company assets shows Eldorado and Penn National operate casinos in both states. Boyd Gaming, Hard Rock, and Churchill Downs all have a presence in Mississippi as well. Moreover, Wind Creek Hospitality is in the process of building a Mississippi casino.
… a lot of interest in states with legal online gaming and legal sports betting (pending SCOTUS approval).
Photo by Lenscap Photography / Shutterstock.com
The post It’s A Casino Arms Race As Companies Try To Enter PA, NJ Markets appeared first on Play USA.
The two-time bracelet winner who has been playing and beating the biggest games in the world since the 1980s has one of the most incredible legacies in the poker world.
As official support for the online poker bill in the New York Assembly increases rapidly, the legislation’s author remains tepid on its prospects for this year in the face of opposition from Assembly leadership.
The post Dozens Of Lawmakers Line Up Behind NY Online Poker Bill, Which Could Be Combined With Sports Betting appeared first on Online Poker Report.
Americas Cardroom was back making waves on Twitter feeds this week.
It began with a simple promotional tweet.
The problem is the tweet is a misrepresentation of the facts and is designed to exploit a player’s desire to enter the World Series of Poker Main Event.
The WSOP, held every summer in Las Vegas, Nevada, is the most anticipated series of the year. It is also very protective of its brand and affiliations.
The team behind the WSOP Twitter handle wasted no time in responding to Americas Cardroom.
The WSOP tweeted, “Reminder that we have nothing to do with ACR. These are illegal satellites they are unauthorized to run. We will not be able to honor anything related to this company.”
Americas Cardroom was quick to reply. Here’s a screenshot:
Many found it amusing that the WSOP accused Americas Cardroom of running “illegal satellites” and ACR responded with a tweet that started with “Correct.”
Here is ACR’s updated response after deleting the first one.
In a time when authenticity and transparency are essential, Americas Cardroom seems to be taking another route.
ACR is using the WSOP brand to attract players to the site. It is claiming to award “50 WSOP packages” when it is actually awarding winners of each qualifier $12,500 cash.
Now, most people will look at the situation and say it is basically the same thing. But it is not. Those two things are very different.
When players win a seat in a tournament, they are often required to play. Most of the time, there isn’t an option to turn in the tournament ticket and take the cash.
When a player is awarded the cash to buy a tournament ticket, the player has the choice whether to play the tournament or not. It is a lot of money, and recreational players may opt to choose the sure thing and keep the cash.
A satellite by definition is a qualifying event. The winner(s) of the satellite earn a seat into a larger event.
By all appearances, ACR is using the WSOP brand to promote their “satellites” when there is no relationship, affiliation or promise of a seat. Then, if the player elects to keep the cash, the money is more likely to be put back in play on the ACR poker site.
Bottom line: by advertising WSOP satellites, Americas Cardroom is deceiving its customers.
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As part of the Winning Poker Network, Americas Cardroom operates an unregulated online poker room in the U.S. It is not available in Louisiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Nevada and Washington State.
The controversial online poker site has been under fire lately with complaints about collusion, cash out issues, and a tournament loophole that allowed players who late registered for a tournament to sit down at the same table.
Americas Cardroom opened a thread a few years back in the Two Plus Two Poker Forums to answer player questions. The first question in that thread was, “how are you able to be open to the US market?” It is telling that they didn’t offer a response.
It is understandable that players without regulated opportunities to play live or online poker will seek other options.
There is a risk when players sit down at a poker table on an unregulated site. The most significant risk is that there is no third-party oversight; monitoring the integrity of the game is up to the site itself.
Should a player trust an online poker site to regulate itself when the site’s motivation is to make money? That is the million-dollar question.
In the end, every player must decide the level of risk they are willing to take. Players should do their due diligence before taking a seat on Americas Cardroom.
The post Americas Cardroom Advertising Fake WSOP Main Event Qualifiers appeared first on .
XL Inferno Series returns in May with $3 million guaranteed over 34 events.
XL Inferno, part of 888poker’s online Championship Series, is set to return in May with almost $3 million in guaranteed over 34 events.
The series is almost exactly the same as what was seen during January’s Blizzard Series. A $100,000 main event tops proceedings and there is a high average guarantee per event of approximately $87,000.
Plenty of promotions now fill the April calendar, taking operators through to the start of the major spring tournament series that will dominate May.
PokerStars
PokerStars’ cash game promo this month is Golden Button Challenge, running globally. Players need to collect aces at Hold’em cash games to fill out a puzzle board. Once completed, random prizes up to $20,000 will be awarded to players.