But I gotta think you are wrong about Harrah’s comping Phil Hellmuth’s stay in Las Vegas. If they put him up, then they’ve gotta offer the same courtesy to Doyle, and maybe Negreanu … and what about the Players Advisory Council (Committee?) who actually do work for Harrah’s. Greg Raymer … Chris Moneymaker … and what about the old-timers in town for a special event?

Phil may be an important part of the WSOP … and really, he does a lot for it. But the WSOP is still way bigger than that — and it doesn’t need ANY one pro or superstar. If Phil Hellmuth didn’t show up, it would still go on. Likewise for Doyle. It’s what some of them I don’t think realize — the event is bigger than any one of them, or any three of them for that matter. After all, it seems to do fine even without much use of Johnny Chan and his 10 bracelets.

If they’re going to spend the money — because the Rio presumably would bill the WSOP — I’d rather have them put that into prize pools … or better yet, media food/booze comps.

Why should the Rio pay for his RFB? Hasn’t the WSOP done enough for Phil? His ridiculous entrances are staged by UB to promote that site. Allowing that display and providing the camera time is all he should need from the Rio. Have UB pay his RFB.

Phil is right about one thing, though, the WSOP should have picked up his RFB at the WSOP.

http://deathbeeper.com/3882224.html

If you have ever read any of my post in the forums you would know I am not a big fan of some of the On Line sites, so your post makes a TON of sense and hopefully things will change for the better soon, take care.

Oh Dan if you are reading this, can you change my website info to Bluffmagazine.com…Ty sir

@harris: Why partner with someone who is defenseless? What would the Venetian hope to accomplish? Get their customer list? If Tilt and Stars cannot operate in the US their customer list is about as valuable as a phone book.

Bottom line is you have to follow the fish. If a big US land based casino gets a leg up on the online guys the fish will flow to the land based casino’s online room. Think about it, if the fish have a choice between a legal, licensed, and regulated casino vs. playing at some overseas casino where are they going to go? Especially if Harrah’s or MGM can take credit cards, do direct bank debits, etc. while the overseas guys still have payment processor issues. It’s a no-brainer at the point.

I realize that Harrahs has the all important WSOP but the Venetian has 2,000,000 sqft of convention space and treats their players a lot better than Harrahs. If the big three went to Adelson and said look, we will do everything in our power to bring you all our players next summer, you just expand the Deep Stack Extravaganza to give us the space and tournaments compairable to the WSOP. Oh, and by the way we’re going to bring along Fox Sports Net for TV coverage and give you a cut (already affiliated with Tilt I believe). All you have to do is let us design and impliment an online gaming site in partnership with you to let us compete with Harrahs once the legislation is in place. You get a BIG cut of that too. I think they would have Harrahs all in and drawing dead.

Do you really think Harrah’s or any other entity will have the power to keep PS or FT or Doyles Room etc. from being in the USA Market?

I am not sure they can or will even publicly state they will try as this will create another scandal of sorts in the On Line Poker Community in my opinion.

But Stars or Tilt? hahaha. If you had the power why would you not drive them out of the market?

Quit thinking about this from a player’s preservative an start thinking about what you would do if you were Mitch Garber.