The father of Andreas Oscarsson, the PokerListings cofounder murdered in Sweden two months ago, says his son was the victim of a professional hit. He spoke on Swedish TV (their equivalent of America’s Most Wanted, I believe) in hopes that the public can help police solve this crime.
Apparently there was almost no evidence left behind.
Oscarsson, of course, was one of the biggest success stories of the international online poker boom — not as a player, but in helping bring players to online sites — and he accumulated vast wealth in a relatively short period of time. The semi-retired poker affiliate kingpin was on a brief holiday to his family home in Sweden this past August when an unknown assailant quietly broke into the house. He was shot six times with what investigators believe was a silencer-capped pistol as his wife, parents, and two-year-old son slept.
Hear Oscarsson’s father in his own (chilling) words:
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You don’t need to speak Swedish to kinda-sorta understand what this is really all about …
Click below for two recent stories (Google translations) about the highest-stakes murder the Swedes have seen in a long while … one police do not seem close to solving.
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:
Ed. Note: Will be curious to see what gets more views — the latest episode of Perspectives Weekly or Face the Ace. LOL. -dm
Breaking News! A grand jury has just indicted an online gambling payment processor! Plus, a New Jersey Senator rolls out new poker legislation, and affiliate programs change their Terms & Conditions!
Word about the payment processor shizznit was definitely part of the buzz around the Rio today. We should know in about a week whether this is poker’s version of the swine flu, or if it spreads into something far more significant. Supposedly Full Tilt checks are back to clearing. However, at least one major PokerStars affiliate had his check bounce — and that’s money he lives on.
The fallout from our Cardspike investigation continues, as the partners who have run Casino Affiliate Programs (CAP) for years have now turned on one another in a power struggle battle royal. Whether you’re a webmaster or a player in this industry, you should be very concerned about the negative attention being generated for our industry.
The Kentucky domain name seizure case has a verdict, and it’s good news! Also, not such good news for the online poker room Cardspike, as we finally get closer to the truth, and how Casino Affiliate Program’s Lou Fabiano may be connected.
We have online gambling news from the UK as Google loosens advertising restrictions for our industry. Also, what can US poker players do right now to help their cause?! Plus, we start to put the pieces of the Cardspike puzzle together!
And earlier in the week … Are we finally starting to learn the truth about Cardspike? Yes! But is it the whole truth? That’s still to be seen. See the latest “confessions” from those involved in the Cardspike scandal. Plus a visit to the Affiliate Summit and take a brief look inside!
We continue our look into Cardspike’s alleged connection to Casino Affiliate Programs. Plus, indusry news that could tie online gaming to terrorism as we wait on an important decision in Kentucky!
Just got back from the porn awards (AVN) — it was one of those “love Vegas!” days — and the first pokery thing I found interesting there was one of the hall of fame inductees supposedly was the creator of affiliate marketing on the internet. Poker really is a lot like porn.
The next thing I learned was that Full Tilt is supposedly going to be opening an online sports book. I don’t have a date or any details — other than that it will be only for non-American players, Europeans specifically, and that it’s super hush-hush.
Again, this is just rumor, and I have not called anyone from Full Tilt to confirm — because I’m pretty sure they won’t tell me, and I fear “aggressive interrogation” should I say too much — but I can attest that it comes from a reliable enough source that were there an online sports book that took wagers on such likelihoods, I would definitely bet on it.
Online gambling news, as the founder of Party Gaming pleads guilty to violating the US Federal Wire Act. We also give a follow-up report on the Grand prive’ Casino Group, with evidence of thier lies as they continue to steal affiliate commissions.
Many of you already know that the Grand Prive Casino Group has elected to steal webmaster commissions. These guys have shut down their affiliate operations while maintaining all the casinos where webmasters sent their traffic. Their casino are eCogra Approved, licensed by Kahnawake, and powered by Microgaming… so what do they think of all this?
The Grand Prive Casino Group recently shut down their affiliate program. However, they continue to run their casinos and profit from the players their webmaster partners sent to them in the past. They have cut their “partners” out of the deal they made with them, and are keeping all the profits!
Webmasters should be informed and take the action they feel is best. Players, do you really want to trust people like this with your deposits or your winnings?
If there seems to be a little more action than usual on Ultimate Bet these days, it’s because a lot of players have been given new cash with the promise “this time we won’t cheat you out of it.” Donkey Bomber got a rebate of about $1,400 — see, Tom, the economy is already looking up, as you just got back what you lost to me on the presidential election — which showed up unexpectedly in his account along with an email with a bunch of legal documents attached. That’s small potatoes compared to the couple hundred-k that Josh Arieh supposedly got refunded.
(If you were someone who unknowingly lost money to the cheating, wouldn’t you love to study the replays of the hands where your action seemed to go bizarrely awry?)
Further reports say at least one of the above-mentioned refundees has been playing with it, and winning a lot. Considering that most new players on UB clearly haven’t done some basic searching on the internet, it’s plausible that the games here are particularly soft these days.
I really wanna believe what Annie Duke says about the fantastic security now in play at UB … and heck, beyond playing there, might Pokerati actually be able to make some affiliate bucks off any pimpage? For now, of course, all we’ve got to go on giving necessary reassurances is an AP/UB infomercial explaining it all that has since been taken down once people actually started to see it.
Congressional Hearings on UIGEA… Barney Frank Heads to the Hill…
We all know our friend Barney Frank isn’t shy about speaking his mind, calling UIGEA the “stupidest”law ever passed. Now, he’s taking his straight talk about the law before Congressional Committees on the issue. See what was said!
Coverage of the Amsterdam Conference… Reporting from Amsterdam!
We’re hear and we’re causing trouble! See our exclusive report from the Casino Affiliate Convention, and where J. Todd has been having to spend the night!
There are some in the European Union who are not at all happy with last week’s announcement of a deal to compensation over the online gambling ban. In fact, it looks like the US may have even mislead the EU on what the deal was about
This could help our industry stay on life support a bit longer… and we’re not dead yet!
Antigua gets $21 Million and Piracy Rights…
The World Trade Organization has decided to allow Antigua to recover $21 million in damages by violating US copyrighted products, just like the APCW predicted in November of 2006!
Antigua was asking for $3.4 billion, and the award is well below that. So can a measly $21 million make a difference at all? Maybe…
Germans Give EU the Finger…
Germany has decided to ban internet gambling as of January 1st, 2008. They say that they have to protect their monopoly, and they expect the EU Court of Justice to come after them… and they don’t care.
Didn’t see this one coming … wonder what’s behind the move. Perhaps Brunson just learned about superaccounts?
Excerpts from an email sent by the Doyle’s Room Affilliate and Sales Director:
It gives me great pleasure to inform you that DoylesRoom.com is back in the USA Market. Commencing October 19, 2007, all US-players are welcomed to enjoy our redesigned, faster and better poker tables.
DoylesRoom.com US-players that moved to Full Tilt will be allowed to re-access their existing account. The affiliate referral code will remain the same and will continue to track their play.
This change will not affect our other projects with the Canada, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America markets, as we are committed to work closely with ALL our affiliates.
During the past 6 months our affiliates department has been working on new tools for the affiliates, including special promotions and a brand new member’s area. If you have not seen our new affiliate interface, we encourage you to login to your account. Also, we have been working to improve our poker client and we added new features and games for all your players.
Not to make it all about blogging, but poker players should be proud of the “citizen journalism” at work in this case. When “former” chief operators of a company are allegedly the ones pegged as playing with “superaccounts” … that clearly can’t be a good thing. Absolute looks to have done themselves in here. Short-term greed catches up with the offenders. This page now seems like a sadly ironic case of Strong Means Weak.
So as the evidence against Absolute becomes more and more solid, it raises a lot of other questions, including:
Will anyone go to jail? In an unregulated environment can anyone go to jail?
What other sites might be engaging in similar activities?
How can we trust that any particular site is not?
Will politicians in the United States see this as an example of why online poker needs to be regulated, or will it be their case for why it needs to be more comprehensively banned?
Will UB pros — Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke specifically — speak out on the matter? And/or will they leave Ultimate Bet?
Will major online affiliates — such as CardPlayer, PokerNews, and PokerListings, for example — stop sending players to Absolute?
Big questions for online poker. How different folks with a vested interest in the answers react to this situation will tell us a lot about what kinda players we really are dealing with in this biz.
UPDATE: PokerListings is currently refusing to send players to Absolute and Ultimate Bet:
PokerListings.com has temporarily suspended the listing of the Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet poker rooms as a result of serious problems with both historical and current payments due PokerListings for services rendered. We are aware that our decision not to list these two brands may be an inconvenience, but as a trusted guide and resource, we do not believe it is appropriate to continue listing them.
(Wonder if youwannapoker.com will even read this before they gank it.)
I had pretty much forgotten about the abundance of poker content thieves out there — was just gonna keep doing my thing and not let them bring me down. But then I read Gary Carson’s blog … and he reminded me that really, while maybe we can’t stop this practice outright, that doesn’t mean we should stand idly by as our “good friends” at Full Tilt continue to profit off the “work” of known internet thieves.
I’m being kinda serious: I think it might be time for a good-ole-fashioned lawsuit! Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Clonie Gowen, Ray Bitar, Michael Craig … so many others — just dropping a few names who might take note and have a concerned interest in this matter — are you listening?
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