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.

Thank You Andrew….for your support…

God I love this site too!

Let’s put it this way, if Harrah’s went to Harry Reid and said “Harry, your next re-election depends on you making sure that online gambling isn’t legalized without a clause that prohibits offshore operators who were previously illegally operating in the US from getting a license” how much of a freakin chance do you really think FTP and PS stand?

I also believe everyone overrates the chances of regulation getting through, and the timing. Though Harrahs getting into the business clearly increases the probability.

While we all might assume the worst based on Hellmuth’s comments, I think Scott nails it here. While Harrah’s might want to make some major changes in this arena, I think they’d realize that they can’t push the extremes at this point. They can flex their muscles, and they will, but in our current environment, I can’t see it being 100% successful.

That said, I’m commenting from my POV and in no relation to ESPN’s business with Harrah’s.

Dan PLEASE if you only knew what I know about Men from his court appearences!

On-Line sites as we all know are way to important to the B&M casino’s success.

I do not think there would be a 12-18 month hiatus but I do see the federal Government asking for a certain amount of cash for “back taxes” to help with our financial woes.

I mean seriously though if PS and FT had to pay a 10 milliom or a 100 million tax would that really help the USA and it’s budget crisis ?

These politicians will not give unless they receive something!

Pollack being a old Nascar guy also would not be happy about a one patch player in my opinion but again, money talks.

As to Phil I am so tired of seeing him on ESPN year in and year out, whats the difference between the 2005, 2007 2008 WSOP broadcasts other than his STUPID entrances to the RIO!

I have had the opportunity to play at the same table with him and what he does for Law Enforcement is very commendable, However this Poker boom has created several monster ego’s and Mrs. Hellmuth should sit down with Phil and have a nice talk because (Hoping I do not get finally banned from Pokerati) Phil ,,,I kinda like him!

I hope you’re not confusing notoriety and likeability. Phil has the former, and Doyle (now, at this stage of his career) the latter. Villains and antiheroes stick in the memory first for those with little exposure to any given human situation.

I’m curious about the possibility that a regulatory agency would block the currently exisiting sites…when it’s the sites themselves who are leading the charge for regulation. I’d like to think that the brain trusts at the major online sites have considered that ironic possibility and have received assurances that they would be eligible for licensing…and that they wouldn’t be blackballed for their interpretation of a murky legal situation. Then again, this is government we’re talking about here.

If Harrah’s IS able to use their muscle to destroy the existing online sites, again, that’s not going to sit well with the players affiliated with those sites. And, I’d expect, not well with online players in general, who would still have options (Party Poker, anyone?).

Of course these arguments will all be rendered somewhat moot when the proposed new laws to legalize and license online poker go down to defeat, something I still think is the far more likely outcome.

I’ll look forward to reading that post of yours, Bill. Just be sure to tweet about it. And likewise, not to give away the farm, but similar forward-thinking hedline thoughts: “Goodbye UIGEA! Now What?”

I really can’t imagine a 12-18 month pullout … maybe. But I think we might be getting a little ahead of ourselves with that. So many intangibles, which will continue to change as the law does or does not. But in the immediate future — with Harrah’s ready to run Euro-sats presumably for the 2010 WSOP, and sponsor-signage issues in play theoretically as early as November … yeah, it’s gonna be a super-interesting ongoing battle to watch.

Though I still predict eventual compromise, I see Phil Hellmuth having just officially started the fight. And the only real certainty is that the poker industry will look a lot different three or four years from now.

I’m so gonna hoard all Full Tilt-UB-PokerStars swag to someday sell on eBay.

Well, that’s something I was saving for a post myself, Dan. What happens when the US says “Okay boys, it’s legal. Now we just need 12 – 18 months to put together a regulatory commission, licensing requirements, and such. Oh, and if you open your doors to US players while we’re getting all sorted out, no license for you. Bad poker room.”

Would Stars and Tilt pull out of the market for 12 – 18 months? Wouldn’t that all but negate any huge lead they had? Players would simply go where the traffic was going. And if Harrah’s could shut Tilt and Stars out of the market for a year they very well could use that time to market the shit out of WSOP.com and basically be even with Tilt and Stars on opening day.

But thanks for the link, as I hadn’t seen that post yet. And indeed, I think a lot of us saw something like this — I first heard murmurs of the alt-WSOP a couple weeks ago — but hearing things so directly from Phil Hellmuth’s mouth … that’s quite the confirmation and salvo.

Perhaps the UB-FT-Stars alliance realized it was all coming to boiling point, so let’s bet into it early?

The only thing I don’t agree with you on is that Tilt-Stars-UB will could be license-blocked. OK, well maybe UB … but the other two … c’mon, there’s a reason they’re spending as much time (and money) with the politicos as possible.

However, at the same time, you do point out one key difference … Garber et al have already paid the US Feds hundreds of millions and put their paperwork on file, no one from UB-FT-Stars has yet (as far as we know). Surely UIGEA dot-net nose-thumbers are not gonna be let in for free in a post-UIGEA world.

And likewise, Harrah’s woudn’t even want to give off the perception of hanging with any Jeremiah Wright’s of Poker.

(OK, I’ll workshop that metaphor. But you obviously get the point.)