The Week That Was 5/19 – 5/23/08

While the poker world is only one week from beginning its annual World Series of Poker season, a number of billion dollar lawsuits and business decisions have erupted in the news. Here’s what’s happening:

 

• Even with a landmark lawsuit underway against them Ladbrokes has managed to report a 13% profit increase for the first quarter of 2008. While this announcement alone is worth noting, especially amidst the generally abysmal remote gaming business reports of the 2008 1Q, Ladbrokes made that announcement without factoring in the benefit of its “high roller” bets (bets larger than $10,000 USD are considered high roller bets by Ladbrokes.) Now that those bets have been collected and calibrated into total profits, Ladbrokes is totaling a 34% increase in first quarter profits from last year.
  
  
• Journalist Ed Brayton has finally followed up the infamous “National Security” response he received from the US Government when he requested official WTO transcripts between the United States Trade Representative and the European Union with a lawsuit. The transcripts –  which are largely thought to spell out a connection between the UIGEA, non-American business interests and the billions of dollars paid in penalties to multiple European nations – are being held from the public as “a matter of national security.” On May 19, Brayton filed an official lawsuit demanding those transcripts under the Freedom of Information Act. Meanwhile, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) has begun a circulating a letter through the newly elected Democratic Congress suggesting that, “there is a concern that the USTR may have been ambitious in its use of a 'national security' classification to avoid any publicity of which new business sectors are to be subject to the GATS treaty.”
  
  
• Unique online gaming site, PKR.com has announced that it will broadcast two tournaments on television in 12 countries including France, Spain, Germany and the UK. PKR is renowned for its animated online avatars and the many customizable options it offers its members.
  
  
• After crossing the one million member mark, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is offering one of its members a free ride to the WSOP. All dues paying members who make a purchase in one the “Buy and Win a WSOP Seat” merchants listed on http://www.pokerplayersalliance.com/ will be automatically entered into a June 16 sweepstakes for a WSOP package deal.
  
  
• Holland has gone in the face of European Commission warnings and instituted its own series of UIGEA type regulations. But it won’t be the European Commission who is first to take Holland to the European Court of Justice: that honor already belongs to Internet gaming giant Betfair.com. The lawsuit hinges on Holland’s fair competition practices: no gaming company is allowed to operate in Holland without a proper gaming license, but Betfair.com was twice denied the opportunity to even apply for that license. This lawsuit has been mired in the Dutch legal system for more than two years now, but has just been approved to be seen by the highest legal authority in the EU, the European Court of Justice.
  
  
• While UIGEA type regulations continue to pop up in more and more European nations, South Africa has initiated a different sort of regulation of its own: in an effort to combat a largely corrupt industry, the South African Parliament has passed The National Gambling Amendment Bill. According to Parliament-penned writings attached to the bill: “The purpose of this Act is to ensure that all gambling activities are conducted responsibly, fairly and honestly (and to) protect minors and other vulnerable persons from the negative effects of gambling.” The bill would require that all online gamblers register with a licensed interactive gambling provider (which would require a credible affidavit ensuring that any prospective player meet the National minimum age requirement of 18 years) as well as initiate the use of an electronic monitoring system designed to search out addictive behavior and automatically limit credit access for players who exhibit such behaviors. The National Gambling Amendment Bill is awaiting a signature from South African President, Thabo Mbecki, before it is enacted.
  
  

And that’s what’s happening in poker.