Poker News Highlights
So far in September there have been many interesting poker news highlights. The first interesting tid bit has to do with on-line poker. On-line poker has become extremely popular. You don’t need playing cards or casino poker chips; just your mouse and computer in the luxury of your own home. Well, in June delegates of the House of Representatives were meeting to discus issues regarding legalizing on-line poker. No conclusions were reached at the end of the session; however $34 million in payments to on-line poker players was seized by the Southern District of New York.
On-line poker sites scrambled to gather enough funds to pay the players that were anticipating the money to show up in their bank accounts. The business savvy poker site owners decided to operate business as usual and within days they had accrued enough income to pay their customers. Now the companies are leaning towards setting up bank accounts overseas, which will leave American legalities behind. One draw back for the players is it would take up to 30 days for money to post to their accounts. Legalized on-line poker is still an ongoing conflict that will hopefully be resolved sooner than later.
More fascinating highlights for the month involve the states of California and of course Nevada. Due to the economic depression these two states (and soon probably others) are trying to get legislation to legalize the possession and use of marijuana. This may not seem related to poker, but if marijuana is legalized casinos will also eventually be able to allow patrons to not only smoke cigarettes, but weed as well. With legalizing marijuana they hope to further stimulate the economy. They believe that casinos would benefit greatly because pot smokers would be looser with their poker chips, stay longer, and eat more at the restaurants. If the bill passes Las Vegas will have yet another reason to be called “Sin City”.
Last but not least the World Series of Poker-Europe event is currently taking place at London’s Empire Casino where thirty-five players gathered for the Omaha event. Of course it is no surprise that Howard Lederer is one of the 9 players that will be at the final table. This event marks his 25th WSOP event and his second consecutive year of playing in the WSOP event in Europe, good luck Howard.