This (long) weekend’s #WPBT festivities are coming to a close … and as I type the poker bloggers are gathered for Sunday football at Lagasse’s Stadium in the Palazzo. There some of them are experiencing, for the first time, what many say is the future of gambling: handheld, semi-portable real-money action.

A new-ish device, “eDeck”, lets you gamble Blackberry/iPhone-style theoretically from anywhere, but currently within the confines of three Las Vegas casinos — the Venetian, Palazzo, and M Resort. Global Gaming Business Magazine named it Best Table Game Product or Innovation for 2009. And none other than Doyle Brunson has been pimping it:

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It’s pretty safe to assume that Darvin Moon didn’t get the memo that complementary promotion of the NFL goes against the ways of the pay-for-play online sites. However, it is not clear if his donning of attire for his local card room came at a cost. Check it out … though I didn’t see this yesterday, he’s clearly getting some good logo placement for the Wheeling Island Casino in Wheeling, West Virginia:

click for more Darvin

We’ll see if we can’t find out what sorta deal is in place there if any, or if this is just a friendly gesture to the card room where he won his seat into the WSOP. Regardless though, it does make you wonder why sponsorships from the likes of The Venetian, Caesar’s, Bellagio, and other B&M card rooms have yet to come in play.

Beyond being the alligator on Darvin Moon’s Izod, here’s what we do know about the place, via the ThePokerAtlas:

Great Room
Wheeling Island
Wheeling, West Virginia
by fiftyouts

Even though this room has only 20 some tables it is very nice. Great staff and friendly folks. This is a “MUST PLAY” room if you’re in the area. The casino is upscale (you might think you’re in Vegas) with good action. This is the ‘Best Kept Secret’ of West Virginia !!!

photos: IMPD for WSOP.com

The (American) football season is upon us … fantasy sports drafts and all that stuff. But more than that, some new NFL lottery tickets are hitting the 7-Elevens near you! $5 Eagles and Steelers scratch-off tickets (seen here) went on sale last week in Pennsylvania, and the New Jersey lottery will give the NFL a cut on Jets and Giants tickets sold … despite the fact that the super-duper majority of participants in this game of chance are guaranteed to lose.

UPDATE: A Dallas Cowboys scratch-off also went on sale last week.

In Massachusetts, Patriots lottery tickets are selling at a record pace, and have already awarded their first two million-dollar prizes. Wanna be a little disgusted by one of the poker industry’s biggest political opponents … check out the familiar pitch the NFL itself is using in promoting their rake game:

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We cover industry news from France to the United States, as professional sports leagues & governments have a dramatic affect on gambling. The NFL joining with others to sue the state of Delaware? Plus, an announcement about Bodog.

Why has the well respected online casino, Intertops, parted company with the worlds largest online gaming software provider, Microgaming? Find out why, and see what Harrah’s Entertainment and the National Football League are up to!

Semi-related to poker … was working on a post over at Soccerati (our baby brother site), about how an online gambling op (188Bet.com) has come in to buy up the jersey space on two English Premier League teams. It just seems kinda funny to me — considering that the NFL is so anti-online gambling, and the EPL is so pro. Soccer in general seems to have totally embraced the online gambling biz. Such a clear distinction between American football and European football.

In fact … check this out … you have very major teams across the pond (and a few minor ones) that have direct links and betting pages on their official sites. The Spurs, for example, are supposedly working with their sponsor Mansion to develop a Tottenham skin, and already host weekly freerolls for game tickets.

The people making money off Peyton Manning jerseys hate online poker; meanwhile the other kind of football teams proudly support it — or are being supported by it.

Now you know I’m not much of a boycotter — really, I generally think they’re stupid and ineffective — but it does occur to irk me how much “free advertising” poker players give NFL teams by wearing their jerseys. Considering that American football gives nothing back to poker, and in fact subtracts from it … maybe it might be time for poker players to hang up their lucky Tony Romo jerseys, ya know? Just sayin’ … all it takes is watching a little soccer to realize how wearing any NFL promotion at the WSOP wouldn’t be too different from wearing a Bill Frist or Jim Leach campaign button un-ironically.

The Delaware legislature passed a bill allowing sports gambling to return to the state on Tuesday. Governor, Jack Markell will be signing the legislation later this week. Delaware is one of 4 states (Oregon, Nevada and Montana being the others) that were exempt from a 1992 federal law that banned gambling on sports.

The NFL, unsurprisingly, filed a brief with the Delaware Supreme Court against the bill. Their reasoning for blocking the bill is surprising; because they state that sports betting is a game of skill, while Delaware state law states that only games of chance are allowed. Could they be unknowingly opening the door to allow all sorts of gambling on games of skill, such as poker?

As the online gaming industry anxiously awaits the introduction of pro-gaming legislation, the mainstream media has picked up on the story – online gaming versus the NFL and Christian Coalition. And today’s newspapers are all over the story, looking at the possible revenue for the U.S. government and online gaming’s enemies. Could this mean that Rep. Barney Frank is ready to introduce the bill in the coming days?

Eric Pfanner of the New York Times writes about the chance for legal online gaming in the U.S. here.

Frederic Frommer pits poker players against the NFL in this Chicago Sun-Times article.

The pressure – and the press – is on.

Fans of the National Football League probably didn’t start off on the right foot anyway, since football is done for awhile and they’re forced to see baseball games/references everywhere. But there is another source of annoyance for NFL’ers, and that is the knowledge that the biggest opponent of online gaming in the United States is their very own football organization.

The NFL has promised to fight any effort by Rep. Barney Frank to push legislation that legalizes online gaming. With a lobbyist, an office in D.C., and a PAC donation committee in place, the NFL is ready to fight online gaming with the help of the Christian Coalition and Rep. Harry Reid of Nevada. Wait…What? Reid on the same side of this fight as Bob Goodlatte? Yessirreee.

Well, one NFL fan in particular sees the ridiculousness of it all. Dan Boone, of Bleacher Report:

The NFL, always a bright beacon of morals in a blighted land, has decided to self-righteously step into the public morals debate. The NFL does not want a bill allowing online gambling, that is a current bill legalizing poker, to pass.

The NFL behemoth is so against people playing online poker that they have hired a high priced Washington Lobbyist, opened a DC office, and set up a PAC Donation committee to help its noble cause.

So that’s where ticket increase money goes. That’s why the stadium beers are nine bucks and the exhibition games are full priced flops. Perhaps that explains the PSL’s. The league needs just craves some spare change to pay some politicos for favors.

Read the rest of “NFL Declares War on Poker” here.

Rep. Barney Frank has yet to introduce (or reintroduce) the legislation, but the likelihood of its passage has already been debated and practically set up for defeat. But just as the words in poker and mainstream media outlets were being penned that any UIGEA repeal effort will likely fail, the PPA raised that bet.

Poker Players Alliance Chairman Alfonse D’Amato first put his thoughts into an article for The Hill with regard to the bipartisan support that has been building for this effort. Shortly thereafter, the Associated Press reported that the PPA has allocated $3 million for lobbying Congress during this upcoming session. (More details can be found in my article on the Bluff Magazine website.)

Sure, the NFL and other opposing groups may have stacks big enough to call that raise, but the PPA might just have the best hand in the end. Still early in the game…

In one of the most unique episodes of Perspectives Weekly ever, we discuss major industry news as former Bet on Sports CEO David Carruthers enters a plea in St. Louis. Plus, we follow-up on Party Gaming’s deal with the US Department of Justice, and the National Footbal League’s takes a strategic aim at our industry.

Though I’m not yet ready to declare football the new poker — or sports wagering for that matter — it is now safe to tell you about my dominance in something called U Pick’em.

You may recall a post a while back about the heated non-poker competition in the Michalski family, where I was proving my prowess as a no-spread football picker. Of course in the week right after that post, I totally tanked — dropping dramatically on the family leaderboard and several percentage points nationwide.

But as in poker and life, you’ve gotta play 60 minutes of football! … And with that (as well as the knowledge that I probably shouldn’t post about my non-poker greatness) I clawed my way back to the top. With a last-minute switch to the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday, my end results for the 2008 NFL season:

Nationwide: 277th out of 145,498
For people playing through the LVRJ: 33rd out of 9,727
Michalski family: Tied for 1st out of 13

Total winners picked: 176 out of 266 (66 %)

So clearly, I need to develop a sports-betting habit in 2009 to make up for all my rivers that don’t hit in poker.

Shit-shit-shit, dirty politics man … in play like right now! Scary and shameful stuff. Floor!

From the International Business Times:

Bush Administration Moves Forward on Midnight Rulemaking to Force Banks to Ban Internet Gambling

NFL Lobbyist Turned Political Appointee Accused of Improper Involvement in Rush to Issue Regulations

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Bush Administration is working to finalize regulations to enforce a ban on Internet gambling despite concerns raised by leading financial service companies that the regulations are ambiguous, burdensome and not likely to stop millions of Americans from gambling online. It is expected that the regulations, issued to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), will be finalized at the last minute before they can be stopped by the Obama Administration – an orchestrated move being linked to a former National Football League (NFL) lobbyist now working in the Bush Administration. The NFL has actively campaigned against clarifying UIGEA and has opposed legislation introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to regulate online gambling in order to protect consumers and generate billions for critical State and Federal programs.

“At a time when the financial system is in crisis, it is irresponsible for the Bush Administration to rush through a fundamentally flawed regulation that even representatives of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve have stated on record is unworkable,” said Jeffrey Sandman, spokesman for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. “We are skeptical of the Administration’s motivation to get this done at the very last minute, especially given the apparent involvement of a NFL lobbyist turned Bush appointee.”

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Some of you may find this hard to believe, but I’ve never placed a sports bet in a casino. Horse racing, yes … but football, baseball, basketball, soccer … nope. Have come close a few times to betting on Wigan, but in the end decided to just “pretend bet” … and I went on to lose a pretend few hundred dollars. I guess it’s for the same reason I’ve never tried heroin. From what I understand, heroin feels great, but I suppose I fear I’d like it too much and/or would find my new junkie friends far more appealing than anyone I know from poker. But now I am starting to reconsider …

I play in a little free NFL pick’em league with my family each year — hosted online by the Las Vegas Review Journal with 7-Eleven gift certificates and Fatheads for prizes — and this year, seven weeks into the season, I’m kinda kicking butt.

Having correctly picked 71 of 102 winners, I’m in the top 1 percent: 21st out of 9,379 in Las Vegas, and 155th out of 131,525 nationwide.

Among the 13 people in the Michalski group, I am in first place. While I’m proud of that, you should realize that competition includes my 1-year-old nephew who always picks teams named after animals, Uncle Ray who writes in “Ditka” for every pick, and my cousin-in-law Phil the Filmmaker:

There’s also a cool little “Survivor” sidegame, where you have to pick one team that will be a certain winner each week — you get to use each team once. I’m still alive in that, too … 400 of us are in LV, and about 3,400 nationwide. I think winning that comes with some real prizes actually … man, if/when I go out in that, I know I’ll be feeling some serious withdrawal.

OK, sorry, back to poker …

Just watching a little WPT on GSN (for the first time in forever?) and saw the promo spot for an upcoming poker schedule change: World Poker Tour and High Stakes Poker blocked together, Sunday eves, 7pm/6 central.

Hmm. Seems like a smart move — grab all the poker dorks viewers at once, on a day where they’re likely camped out in front of a TV somewhere … and if they happen not to really care about the Sunday night NFL game … golden.

Only semi-related, was previously watching some election coverage and can’t help but wonder if the best of what McCain/Palin are offering is simply a matter of too-little-too-late.