August 24 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

You made it to the middle of the week. If that doesn’t call for a margarita, we don’t know what does. So catch up on the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s Internet poker proposals, the latest online poker traffic numbers, and more. Then relax, or work on that fantasy football draft prep you’ve been putting off.

In Case You Missed It

Day 1b of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour kicked off on Wednesday with 43 players taking their seats at the felt. When the six-hour day concluded, 28 players remained and Marcel Schreiner was on top of the leaderboard for his Day 1 flight.

ESPN continued its 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event coverage Tuesday night with Day 3 action. The episode feature Amanda Musumeci and Daniel Negreanu to name a few. If you missed any of the two-hour episode, get caught up with our WSOP on ESPN recap.

Caesars Entertainment is planning big things for the Las Vegas Strip — world’s tallest observation wheel big. It looks like O’Sheas will be the property that suffers from The Linq development.

Not only do we want your brain full of all of the news going on in the poker world, but we want you to stay healthy and fit, too. That’s why we’re introducing our new Stay Stacked series. In our first edition, you can find out why sitting could be killing you.

Over the summer, the World Series of Poker announced changes to its 2011–2012 Circuit. The Main Events on each stop are now re-entry events and the $10,000 Regional Championships no longer exist. In our latest PokerNews Debate, we discuss whether the changes are really enhancing the tour.

Proposals Released

On Wednesday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board released drafts of regulatory proposals that would allow the state to establish Internet poker in accordance with Assembly Bill 258, which was passed in the 2011 Nevada legislature.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal spoke with Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli regarding the proposals. “”Internet poker has become a multibillion dollar business around the world. The technology supporting it, while not perfect, has improved dramatically since its introduction. Similar to our land-based requirements, Nevada will establish high standards giving players as much confidence as possible in the entities and technologies that might eventually gain approval,” Lipparelli said.

The proposals, which include rules for customer enrollment and technology approvals among other things, will be put through a public regulatory workshop. The workshop will provide for amendments and revisions to the proposals and the first one is scheduled for Sept. 26.

“We can’t predict what may happen with any national legislation and we have attempted to frame these regulations in a manner that will provide appropriate flexibility. This will be a rigorous process and these regulations will, no doubt, undergo a good deal of revision,” Lipparelli told the Las Vegas Review-Journal regarding the state being ready for federal legislation.

Want to know more? Check out the article on LVRJ.com and you can read the proposals at Gaming.nv.gov.

PokerScout Traffic Numbers

According to PokerScout, online poker traffic dropped last week by 3 percent, with nine of the top 10 sites recording a loss. The Merge Gaming Network was the only one of the top 10 that saw an uptick in traffic – 4 percent.

It seems that PartyPoker and the iPoker Network are battling it out for the second-place spot on the top 10. The race is a close one. There’s only a 5 percent difference in traffic between the sites. For the second time in three weeks, the iPoker Network sits just below online poker giant, PokerStars.

As for year-over-year numbers, PokerScout’s ACES indicator shows that online poker traffic has decreased by 24 percent. Some sites that have seen increases in year-over-year traffic include 888poker (124%), Merge Gaming Network (91%), and Bodog (70%). Microgaming (down 22%) and Everest Poker (down 21%) are just a couple of the sites that have seen decreases in year-over-year traffic.

PokerScout.com has more online poker traffic numbers.

World Poker Tour Legends of Poker

The World Poker Tour kicked off its tenth season overseas already with the Spanish Championship and WPT Slovenia events. On Thursday, WPT Season X officially kicks off stateside. Day 1a of the WPT Legends of Poker will get under way at the Bicycle Casino. The 2011 Main Event buy-in dropped to $3,500+$200 from last year’s $5,000. The Main Event is also a re-entry event this year meaning that if you bust on Day 1a, you can fire another shot off at Day 1b.

Last year, the event attracted 462 players, creating a prize pool of $2,151,072. The field was stacked with well-known players, and in the end, Andy Frankenberger finished in the top spot, collecting $750,000. His win at Legends was the start of his run for WPT Player of the Year, which he earned by making two final tables and earning a total of $944,985 on Season IX of the WPT.

Find out more at WorldPokerTour.com.

Poker on Degrassi

It seems that TeenNick is tackling poker on its show Degrassi. We first saw a thread on TwoPlusTwo discussing it, but it seems there’s an entire episode revolving around a poker game. We can’t tell if the thread, showing a screen shot from the show where TwoPlusTwo was featured, or the episode below are the same, because, well, we don’t watch Degrassi, but here’s the clip of the show anyway.

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August 18 2011, Matthew Kredell

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reportedly told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Internet poker legislation “will get done.” This is the first time the Nevada Senator has spoken so assuredly about the future of online poker. Whether Reid’s prediction happens sooner rather than later likely will depend on the debt super committee.

The joint select committee on deficit reduction has been tasked with finding at least $1.5 trillion in debt savings over the next 10 years. Licensing and regulating Internet poker is a way the committee could identify billions of dollars with little effort.

“I think there’s a very good chance we’re going to get in the discussion,” Poker Players Alliance executive director John Pappas said about online poker. “Whether it makes it into the final recommendation is the question.”

The super committee is a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, the debt-ceiling agreement signed into law by President Obama on Aug. 2. The law created the bipartisan committee, which has been called super because it has the unprecedented authority to craft a bill that may not be amended or filibustered. The bill, as written by the committee, will get a majority vote in the Senate and House. If passed it will go to President Obama for final approval.

If online poker is put on the bill by the committee, it is there to stay. Whether or not the bill passes will have little to do with poker and be all about politics, but poker will be along for the ride. If poker is put on the bill, the second hurdle will be for the committee itself to come to an agreement. With six Democrats and six Republicans, the committee will be in a 6-6 deadlock unless at least one member is willing to break party lines. The 12 members were picked by the leadership of their party, presumably with loyalty in mind.

The 12 members are Democratic Senators Patty Murray (Wash.), Max Baucus (Mont.) and John F. Kerry (Mass.), Republican Senators Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Rob Portman (Ohio) and Patrick J. Toomey (Penn.), Democratic representatives James Clyburn (S.C.), Xavier Becerra (Calif.) and Chris Van Hollen (Md.), and Republican representatives Dave Camp (Mich.), Jeb Hensarling (Tex.) and Fred Upton (Mich.).

The lineup doesn’t give particular reason for optimism on poker’s prospects. Upton, Clyburn, Becerra and Van Hollen all have grades of “B” in the PPA’s congressional ratings, Kyl and Camp have grades of “F,” and the rest are unknowns.

“The people holding the cards I think will be Kyl and Reid,” Pappas said. “Even though Reid is not on the commission, he appointed people who are. If Kyl and Reid can compromise on a deal to include online poker, I think it can happen. It’s handing Congress revenue without raising taxes, which is exactly what they’re looking for.”

Kyl blocked Reid’s attempt to attach an online poker proposal to must-pass legislation during last year’s lame-duck session. However, he wrote on his official website earlier this year that he would consider efforts to legalize online poker if other aspects of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act are strengthened. Then Kyl and Reid combined on a letter last month to Attorney General Eric Holder that wasn’t at all favorable to online poker but indicated that the two Senators were working together on the issue, sparking speculation that they were approaching a compromise that would allow for licensing and regulating the activity.

One has to wonder about the timing of Reid’s statement that Internet poker legislation will get done coming as the super committee approaches. The optimistic among the poker community might look at that as a sign that Reid and Kyl have reached an agreement.

There is no official word on when the super committee will begin its work. The Budget Control Act requires that the committee vote on a proposal by Nov. 23. Any poker legislation discussed is likely to be a not-yet-released Reid proposal rather than the bill introduced by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) in the House. It would also have to include tax language in order to estimate the amount of money licensing online poker could take off the deficit. There never has been poker-only tax legislation introduced, though the proposal floated by Reid at the end of last year did include tax language that could be adapted.

Although Pappas thinks the decision on whether to include poker will be made by Reid and Kyl, the PPA is recommending that poker players go all out in sending e-mails to members of the committee and posting on their Facebook pages in support of licensing and regulating Internet poker. Usually, the PPA recommends that players only contact their specific representatives. Since the committee is tackling a national issue, it is appropriate for players to contact all the members.

“If we’re able to get a lot of PPA members tuned up to contact members of the committee and say to include online poker, I think when it comes up in their discussions that it will be much more palatable to them than if they go into this without any understanding that there are a bunch of people out there who care about this,” Pappas said. “We don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket but, if we’re looking at something between now and the end of the year, this is our best shot.”

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