Interesting op-ed in the New York Times today about the WTO and China, particularly pointing out the need for China to not just stop pirating American music and movies, but also to respect WTO rulings outright:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/opinion/14fri2.html

China has also increasingly turned to the W.T.O. to defend its interests. Last month, it challenged an American ban on Chinese poultry imports. It has another case against American anti-dumping policy. And there will be more. China has as big a stake as the United States in a well-functioning, lawful trading system. If it wants to protect its own rights, it will accept the W.T.O.’s rulings.

Funny. You’d think in the world of trade, this might be a two-way street. Perhaps the NYT is just a bit clueless on the US’s thumbing its nose at the WTO as it pertains to online gambling? And considering that we owe China more than they owe us … who’s really in the driver’s seat on this one?

Lawrence Burns, 65, was found guilty of gambling yesterday, despite arguments the real-money tournaments he organized were not gambling because poker is a game of skill. After 2 1/2 days of testimony, the Westmoreland jury took less than 2 1/2 hours to return a verdict.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09225/990677-100.stm

Though a judge will determine Burns’ sentence, the prosecutor has said he does not believe the offense merits jail time. Burns plans to appeal the court’s ruling.

Regardless of these semi-bummer results, we should probably all take note: while it’s not too hard to convince non-poker people that poker is different from slot machines, lotteries, craps, etc. — and we might even convince them that Texas Hold’em tournaments are as skillful endeavors as fishing tournaments (where the pros generally win, but an amateur can always get lucky) — we’re always gonna have a really hard time persuading them to believe that poker isn’t gambling, game of skill or not. Sucks, but oh well … now we don’t need to hide all the players that like to say things like “gamble gamble!” when all-in on a draw.

(Thanks Marvin-in-Bedford for the heads-up.)

Barack Obama is in Montana today — where he’ll be cavorting with Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)*, who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and therefore has to come up with ways to fund any major health care reform. A daunting challenge to be sure, but a good time to float the possibility of floating Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) online poker bill as a potential source of much-needed revenue.

An op-ed in today’s Missoulian — titled “Fund reform with Net poker tax” — does exactly that:

Instead of raising taxes during an economic slump to pay for these programs, what if Baucus and his colleagues could collect revenue that’s currently going to other countries from an industry that’s ready and willing to be taxed?

That industry is Internet poker, and Baucus can help make this a reality by supporting his colleague from New Jersey, Sen. Bob Menendez, who recently introduced a bill to license and regulate online games of skill such as Internet poker.

According to recent economic studies, tax revenue from licensing will add billions to the U.S. Treasury. Projections have shown that as much as $3 billion annually could be raised through Internet poker, which can be used to help fund key domestic priorities, like health care.

If the Dems are serious about passing Obamacare, then they should have a hard time turning their back on a few billion to pay for it annually. Of course, as we know, politics is seldom about what makes sense.

* Not to be confused with the strongly anti-poker Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL).

The issue of legalizing intrastate online poker in California seemed like a longshot for quite awhile, as AB 2026 was introduced in February of 2008 and not much has happened since. Though there is no question that Cali could use some extra revenue, the tribal casinos seemed to be the biggest barrier to moving this initiative forward. No more! Morongo recently took the initiative to reach out to legislators and even promised to advance 1/2 of the $10 million it would take to establish the online poker network.

According to the Sacramento Bee:

A proposal being circulated among gambling interests calls for a management structure with two representatives from card clubs and two from tribes, including a permanent representative from the Morongo band.

The plan was discussed at a recent gathering of the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations. The group includes Morongo and powerful casino tribes including the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs and the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians in Temecula.

Morongo also circulated an e-mail inviting dozens of tribes for a conference call in which Forman and tribal councilman Damon Sandoval were to outline the “Morongo Initiative – Tribal Intrastate Poker Consortium.”

Todd Witteles is saying over at Neverwin that there’ll be another report on a “major network” regarding corporate greed — and part of the show will be mentioning the UB/AP scandal.

Doesn’t sound like necessarily new info — but regardless, the kinda rehash that both sides of online-poker legislation will try to claim as an example of why we need to legalize/ban online poker.

It occurs to me that we might well see some poker on Court TV, too. If not … we should. Payment processors fighting for their freedom, hundreds of millions of dollars, and the rights (and money) of Regular Joe others … that’s good stuff! Especially if they mix some whammies in with it all.

The folks at G4 have put out some revised bios (below) on the stars of the online-poker-geek reality TV show, which debuts this Sunday (9 pm ET/PT) and runs for 10 weeks.

Wow, so that’s a lot of new poker on TV. Seriously — 2005 again? At least the shows are getting a bit creative and trying new approaches. But will some of this appeal to the non-poker masses, or will they get just downright sick of our kind?

Let’s see, we’re gonna have:

Two Months. Two Million.
2009 WSOP
Face the Ace
Inside Deal (online)
Tiffany Michelle/Maria Ho on The Amazing Race
How’d You Get So Rich (single episode)
Sam’s Game (online)

High Stakes Poker?
WPT?
Poker After Dark?

Are we forgetting anything? Seems like we might be do for a new poll on which Poker TV sucks and which doesn’t. I give 2M2MM a 62 percent chance of being OK or better:

More…

Everyone says the same thing about the Hard Rock Poker Lounge — beautiful room, but not much action … some like the loud music and smoke-and-leathery bar just a turn-and-a-river away, others don’t … But it does seem like things have been picking up. And with the new tower at Hard Rock opening earlier this month — I dunno, it just seems the right wheels are in motion to make it a Top 5ish player on the LV poker scene eventually, if not soon.

The void they’re currently trying to fill is the bargain-price deep-stack tournaments — of which there were almost none in August. Hence the “Mega Stack Poker Showdown in Las Vegas” … an 18-event series that started on Friday and plays through Aug 25 … with $340, $550, and $1,070 buy-ins … and starting stacks from 12,500 to 20,000.

The Poker Atlas has early results … from the looks of it Event #1 ($340) drew about 100 runners, and the first $550 event got 50ish. Not bad. Semi-respectable … and look, even Hollywood Dave got paid!

Event #1 Results
Friday, August 7th at 12:00 PM
$340 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Tournament

1st – Robert Tannira, Nevada – $7750
2nd – Joshua Rose, Florida – $3650
3rd – Roberto Betbase, Argentina – $3200
4th – Mark McPherson – $3150
5th – Stephen Seffense – $3150
6th – Jeffery Ditanna – $3107
7th – Dave Stann – $1083
8th – Christopher Hughes – $947
9th – Steven Hiltz – $676
10th – Rosh Wave – $350

The “main event” (planned for four days) is somehow connected to the World Poker Showdown and Canadian Poker Tour (it’s their championship?) … a $2,650 buy-in with 50k starting chips.

… for USA vs. Mexico!

It’s 1-1 in the second half. Great game, from Estadia Azteca, where the Americans have never one. Supposedly Pauly put some big money against the Americans when we were bigger favorites. Click here for info on watching the game live online (en Espanol). And here for info on real television viewing. And, of course, @Soccerati @Pokerati has some micro-coverage, too. We will be back to regular programming shortly.

You should be taking this same brief pause from poker, too. It’s good for you.

The defendant, Kevin Raley, has already been found not-guilty … but the state’s appeal succeeded in getting the testimony of Robert Hannum, Professor of Statistics at the University of Denver, thrown out on the grounds that Colorado law had already put poker in its gambling place. So now Raley is moving forward, even though he’s already — and still — in the clear.

From thePPA.org:

Poker Players Alliance Supports Appeal to Colorado Supreme Court

Washington, DC (August 12, 2009) –The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide and more than 13,000 in Colorado, today expressed its support for efforts to appeal a ruling in state intermediate court that poker is predominately a game of chance as part of Colorado v. Kevin Raley.

The defendant, Kevin Raley, will file a petition in Colorado Supreme Court requesting an appeal of the intermediate court’s ruling that poker is gambling under Colorado law.

“The PPA is going to do everything in its power to support Mr. Raley’s efforts in order to protect PPA members and all poker players in the state of Colorado,” said Gary Reed, PPA’s Colorado State Director. “I am especially alarmed because this ruling ignores the abundance of research that proves poker is a game of skill and confuses rather than clarifies the matter for law enforcement that may use their scarce resources to raid and arrest poker players instead of investigating real unlawful activity in the state.”

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This will be my first time watching the show … expectations are high after good reviews for Episode 1:

A US District Judge has granted Costigan Media — the folks behind Gambling911 — their request to unseal seizure warrants and (heavily redacted) court documents related to the seizure of some $34 million that US attorneys allege are ill-gotten gains from illegal online gambling.

This is a semi-significant ruling because while the First Amendment has stood up for such requests in most criminal prosecutions, there is less case law directly addressing matters of civil forfeiture, according to Judge Laura Taylor Swain … but ultimately, yes, when thousands of American citizens are having funds they believe to be theirs seized by the government, yes, the public has a right to know what’s going on.

Click here for 49 pages of freshly released legal documents, not all of which look like this:

The losing side, btw, in this mini case-within-a-case are ultimately the same Manhattan federal prosecutors who followed up these payment processee seizures with an indictment against Douglas Rennick — the Canadian payment processor who faces more than 50 years in prison (cumulative), $1.75 million in fines, and the forfeiture of nearly $566 million on charges of fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling operations for his doing business with websites such as Full Tilt, PokerStars, Ultimate Bet, and others.

That indictment, of course, may or may not have come coincidentally on the same day Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced a Senate bill that would effectively make all the issues being adjudicated above moot in the future.

Regardless of what’s in play there, I think it’s clear why, indeed online poker related money issues really can’t be handled in the shadows — as much as some federal prosecutors would like such transactions to stay that way.

The LA Times’ Las Vegas correspondent, Richard Abowitz, recently celebrated his 10th year covering Sin City … and in doing so he wrote up the biggest changes he’s seen in Vegas over the past decade. Along with the rise of clubbing Celine Dion, and the fall of OJ Simpson:

The power of poker

What happened to blackjack? It would be hard to assign a specific moment when the poker phenomenon took off. But what had been at best an obscure part of the casino, the poker room, became a magnet for tourists and the best players (unlike any other gamblers) became celebrities. The World Series of Poker, after years in dirty downtown Vegas at Binion’s, now is owned by Harrah’s and held at the far more styling Rio with highlights broadcast on ESPN.

“Far more styling”, of course, makes me chuckle … though I suppose it is technically accurate. And the one thing he didn’t include, which was probably super-impactful and happened almost exactly 10 years ago: the election of Mayor Oscar Goodman as LV’s partyer-in-chief.

Lady Gaga has a new tattoo. WTF — no spade, heart, club, or diamond?

Not exactly … but like Michael Phelps, she did get a special invite — as the pop singer will be playing a show at the Galaxy StarWorld Casino at the same time. Personally, I’m gettin’ a little tired of being bluffed by muffins, but that’s neither here nor there when you’ve got a chance to make a cameo appearance in Johnny Chan’s forthcoming Chinese-language “Poker King” movie, right?

From EarthTimes:

Dear Lady Gaga,

“I wanna hold them like they do in texas please, fold’em let em hit me raise it baby stay with me.” We certainly hope so and cannot believe the coincidence that you are playing live in Macau on Saturday 15th August while the Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival is in full swing at the Galaxy Starworld.

Your ‘Fame Ball’ Tour has been a huge hit and we are sure the plaudits in Macau will be the same as in Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul and Manila but imagine the reaction if you showed your poker face at the Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival! Not only will the venue be full of the world’s best poker players, the tournament is also the backdrop to the first ever Chinese language poker movie ‘Poker King,’ which people would go ‘gaga’ for if you took on a cameo role. Forget the wigs, keep the bleached blonde hair and think about the exposure to a huge audience!

More…

Nothing new here … but I saw this old Dave Chappelle clip the other day on what it would be like if the internet were a real place. Though most of it is about porn and penis enlargement, “online gambling” finds its way into the skit in the last minute of it … and by the time Chappelle punches out the guy pimping “our kinda sites”, the crowd is cheering.

Anyhow, something to think about in lieu of online poker’s political efforts — that it probably doesn’t help us to be in the same game as debt consolidation penis enlargement free mp3 downloads paris hilton sex goat fucking:

EMBED-If The Internet Was Real – Watch more free videos

Maybe some day we’ll see “legitimate” sites refuse to reward affiliates who use such methods?