During a Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board hearing, Boyd Gaming executives detailed several reasons the company purchased Valley Forge Casino, including online gaming.
The post Boyd Gaming CEO On PA Entry: ‘Online Gaming Is Important To Us’ appeared first on Online Poker Report.
The Pennsylvania Lottery is still not totally clear on what it will offer as part of the online lottery, but the list of what they won’t offer keeps getting longer.
The post PA Lottery Clarifies It Will Not Try To Step On Online Casino’s Turf appeared first on PA Online Casino News.
Poker’s premier tournament series has decided to adopt a new and popular tournament structure format tweak that started in Las Vegas and is quickly spreading around the world.
The 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) will go off May 29 to July 17 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas with a record 78 gold bracelet events. When play begins, it will do so with a number of events featuring a new big bind ante format.
In games with an ante, instead of each player posting that ante each hand, the new format asks the player in the big blind to post an amount equal to the big blind as an ante for the entire table.
The ante ceases being a specified amount each player pays each hand. It becomes a specified amount each player pays each round, keeping things even.
Players no longer have to remember to ante every hand. There’s no need to determine who did or didn’t ante and there are no disputes over that fact. Plus, with dealers no longer collecting antes from all players at the table every hand, the pace of play is sped up. This allows players to play more hands at every level.
The format was first popularized in a series of High Roller events held at ARIA Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. It has since spread to tournaments all over the country and beyond.
Play Online Poker With A Free Bonus From WSOP
Visit WSOP.com
The WSOP began testing the Big Blind Ante format at its WSOP Circuit events. After positive results, organizers announced this week eight of the 78 gold bracelet events at the 2018 WSOP will feature the format.
Side events, including two of the Daily Deepstacks, a variety of Mega Satellites, and the $25,000 and $50,000 weekend tournaments in King’s Lounge held throughout the series will also use the format.
A WSOP press release says the format will be used across the series’ full range of buy-ins, allowing WSOP staff to decide whether to expand its use in the future.
The list of 2018 WSOP events that will use the Big Blind Ante format includes:
The post WSOP Testing The Big Blind Ante Waters This Summer appeared first on Play Nevada.
In May of 2017 the Mid-States Poker Tour FireKeepers $1,100 no-limit hold’em main event drew a massive field of 1,066 entries to the FireKeepers Casino Hotel in Battle Creek, Michigan. …
A group backed by a Las Vegas casino magnate is seeking to exploit ongoing concerns about data privacy in the wake of the Facebook scandal to further its quest to …
In recent years more and more poker rooms have offered tournaments featuring a new format that fundamentally changes how antes are approached. Known as “big blind ante,” this new format …
One of the more contentious and critical issues surrounding regulated online gambling in Pennsylvania has been resolved.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) announced today that it has approved several new online gambling regulations, including how many independent brands (commonly referred to as skins) can operate under each key online gambling license in the commonwealth’s regulated iGaming market.
While the regulations have not yet been published, a source familiar with the regulations told Play Pennsylvania that licensees may operate multiple skins, as long as they are run through the domain of a land-based casino. How exactly that would function in practice is not clear.
Counsel for the PGCB at a meeting on Wednesday briefly described the regulations for “skins” in broad terms, saying they dealt with the “appearance and content” of skins and how they can win approval in the state.
The decision about skins fell to the PGCB because lawmakers failed to address it in the legislation that authorized online gambling.
While the enabling bill referenced the concept of skins, it was silent on the concept of how many — if any — skins could exist under each operator license.
Following the passage of the bill, it became clear that the question of skins was a pressing one for several stakeholders, and that the state’s land-based casinos were split on the question.
With no guidance from the legislation and pressure from stakeholders for clarity, the decision on skins became difficult for regulators to sidestep.
In New Jersey’s regulated online casino market, key license holders can operate multiple individual brands or sublease their license to partner brands.
For example, Borgata’s online gambling license is home to four distinct brands:
All told, there are nearly 20 unique online casino and poker brands operating in New Jersey.
As Steve Ruddock recently argued on Online Poker Report, New Jersey’s positive experience with the multiple skins model provides a powerful argument for Pennsylvania adopting a similar formula.
The open question of how many skins would be allowed per licenses was one of a few factors clouding the landscape in Pennsylvania.
With the issue resolved, we expect that we’ll see a string of announcements on two fronts:
The upshot will be a far clearer view on the currently murky partnership picture in PA’s online gambling market.
State regulators expect to begin taking applications from both platform providers and casinos with the next month.
The post Pennsylvania Regulators Approve Multiple Skins Per Online Gambling License appeared first on Play Pennsylvania.
Supreme Court cases inherently have the potential to bring about seismic change in whatever area of society or business they pertain to. However, those shifts typically come after the SCOTUS reaches a decision.
In the case of Murphy vs. NCAA, the fact they even decided to take up the case – and the manner in which oral arguments seemed to play out in New Jersey’s favor back in December — has already moved a previously stagnant needle a substantial amount.
The most overarching influence of Murphy vs. NCAA thus far is the change in the conversation around sports betting. Essentially, all of the major sports leagues are now openly — if somewhat begrudgingly — acknowledging that generational change with respect to legalized wagering.
Admittedly, the NBA was a proverbial pioneer among the major sports leagues. The organization had an open-minded, even supportive position on the push for legalized sports betting. NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s pro-sports betting legalization New York Times op-ed piece in November 2014 was an unprecedented public stance by someone in his position.
However, MLB, the NHL, and particularly, the NFL, are much more reticent to support legalized sports wagering. In fact, they’ve often been dead set against it. There have been notable shifts in that approach since buzz began to build about a possible full repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).
Some of this change in attitude hasn’t exactly come with a conciliatory approach, however.
For example, the NBA and MLB seemingly saw the light on their dwindling chances of prevailing in Murphy vs. NCAA in January. The groups acknowledged the increased likelihood that exponentially large sums of money would soon be wagered on their games. Realizing they were not getting a cut, they began lobbying for a controversial integrity fee in many states.
Integrity fees remains an ongoing point of contention that is sure to take months, if not years, to settle. Meanwhile, in recent days, the NFL finally re-entered the sports betting conversation. And for a change, commissioner Roger Goodell’s comments don’t include a proclamation that the league is “very much opposed to gambling on sports.”
Instead, Goodell took the podium at the NFL owners’ meetings last week and acknowledged that he and the owners engaged in conversation to ensure “that people understood how the prospects and potential for gambling can change” moving forward, depending on the SCOTUS decision.
Goodell also went on to say that this type of discussion didn’t constitute “new work” for the league office or owners. And, that they’d been focused on the topic for “several years.” Yet this type of chatter from the NFL is unprecedented to the ears of the general public.
Goodell uttered the word “integrity” on several occasions during his press conference. But, it was in the context of how the legitimacy of its contests must continue to be of utmost priority in the future legalized sports betting environment. Tellingly, the dreaded “fee” never followed it.
In other words, the NFL, at least for the moment, has given no overt indication it plans to lobby in favor of an integrity fee.
Let’s agree to put a pin in that one, though. After all, an anonymous NFL owner was recently quoted in a Wall Street Journal piece with the rhetorical (and foreboding) statement:
“Why would we let other people have all the benefit of something we’re creating?”
It’s difficult to say whether the NFL will eventually obtain a wagering royalty. Yet they’ve been indirectly profiting from real-money gaming on their product for decades.
Examples from just the past several months include:
Furthermore, the fact one of the NFL’s signature franchises, the Raiders, will call Las Vegas home beginning in 2019 is no mere footnote. Especially since they’ll play eight dates per season in a stadium in which fans will very likely be able to wager on games through any of the state’s sportsbooks’ mobile apps.
The winds of change are definitely in the air when it comes to the leagues and sports betting. That the NFL is finally beginning to come around – especially when the activity has significantly propped up its popularity for so long – is yet another component of the fascinating pre-decision domino effect of Murphy vs. NCAA .
Photo by dean bertoncelj / Shutterstock.com
Play At Golden Nugget Now With Free Signup Bonus
Visit Golden NuggetThe post Is The NFL Really Coming Around On Sports Betting? appeared first on Play USA.