The Boyd School of Law at UNLV will host an Internet Gaming Regulation Symposium on May 18. The conference is being sponsored by Lewis & Roca. You can read more about the conference and speakers and register for it here. I’m preparing a paper on financial transaction handling (with a focus on anti-money laundering) for the event, and that’s why I haven’t made time to blog on Pokerati lately. (Apologies to Dan.)

The conference is really an interesting concept. True to the symposium definition, different authors with familiarity in the gaming space – and anyone else who wants to attend – are getting together, presenting a series of papers, and critiquing them. Later, each writer or writing team will return home and make further changes and amendments to her, his, or their article. The whole collection of papers will then be published as a book by the UNLV Gaming Law Journal sometime in the fall.

The symposium and the resulting book has as its objective the compilation of selected worldwide best practices in the regulation of Internet gaming and betting. Topics that will form discrete chapters include location verification; fraud and cheating detection and prevention; responsible gaming; accounting, reporting, and audit requirements; taxation; and, advertising. I don’t expect that the presentations will just rehash the papers. I hope that mine, for example, goes beyond what’s in the article to try to explore where international regulation of the igaming sector is going.

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LAS VEGAS–This week J Todd travels to the Global Gaming Expo. In his exclusive video interview with Andre Wilsenach, the CEO of Alderney Gambling Control Commission, Mr Wilsenach clearly points the blame at Full Tilt Poker for their ‘deceptive’ reporting and business practices. However, this leaves many to wonder if the AGCC really believes they are free of blame in this situation, and how “regulation” will change in the evolving online gambling and poker industry.

Have a listen to the premiere episode of Pokerati “all up in” @G2EVegas. Still workshopping the title … but come along for the ride as I find a sucker friend and colleague to fill me in on what’s been going on at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.

In this first episode, Mike, aka Lavigne in Austin aka @AustinML, discusses a session titled:

Online Gaming: The Legal Landscape, Part 2

download
[audio:/tao/g2e-2011-aga-online.mp3]

It featured Frank Fahrenkopf from the AGA, Caesars’ DC powerhouse Jan Jones (the former mayor of Las Vegas is recipient of this year’s lifetime achievement award), a lobbyist for companies looking to do business with licensed casinos, and a guy representing Native American interests. Here why they all seem convinced that intrastate online poker is going nowhere, but interstate online poker is right around the corner.

Some of you probably remember Mike Lavigne. He’s not much of a player (lol), but the former Texas state director of the PPA and fellow co-founder of the Texas Poker PAC, has been part of Pokerati since way-back. And with my government and public relations cronie in town for G2E … well, it made me think we needed a cheap knock-off of Tao of Pokerati, obv — not just to keep me posted, but to let the busy people out there doing real work get a taste of the wonk-fest and sales orgy going on at the Sands Convention Center this week.

G2E is arguably the biggest annual confab of gaming industry brainpower in the world … and though some may find it hard to get interested in a Las Vegas convention that doesn’t even include a poker tournament … what goes on here will be affecting your poker (and overall casino) experience in the future whether you like it or not.

According to Team Pokerati local femme fave @LasVegasPokers, today is “girls day” in Las Vegas. Currently running is the Ladies event in the Caesars Palace Kickoff Classic (a $130 NL event) … and then at 7pm is a $105 Pink Ladies $1000 guarantee at the new Tropicana poker room. (Yay?)

Today is also the final table of the Epic Poker League’s 8-handed NL event. No woman has yet to cash in an Epic event, save for maybe in a satellite to a $1,500 pro-am. In fact, only one woman two women entered this week’s $20k Epic event (J.J. Liu and Vanessa Selbst) … and only one woman cracks the Global Poker Index’s ranking of the top 150 players in the world (Vanessa Selbst #20). Not sure what that says about the only poker league run by a woman save for maybe Pink Ladies … but listen to Epic Commish Annie Duke’s keynote address last week at the Women in Poker Hall of Fame ceremony, where she speaks to essentially the Vegas-to-LA power poker sister set — a potentially hostile audience considering Annie’s public opposition to Ladies Events in the past.

CORRECTION: Vanessa Selbst also entered Epic’s 8-handed event; she was one of the first players eliminated. ALSO: LIPS and HHPT are poker tours or leagues run by women.

MORE CORRECTIONS: Vanessa Selbst also cashed in the first Epic Pro-Am, making Epic a little less women-dry than suggested above.

(Sexist to say rrreow?)

1. Annie Duke: Women in Poker Hall of Fame ceremony, 2011 – 15:50
2. Jan Fisher, emcee follow-up – 1:50
[audio: http://pokerati.com/podcast/pokerati-raw/AnnieDuke_wiphof.mp3, http://pokerati.com/podcast/pokerati-raw/JanFisher_wiphof.mp3]

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Special thanks to Tricat in Vegas, who snapped a video of Pokerati Game, the Movie, as it played on the big screen outside on Flamingo. It’s an epic saga of … er … it’s an action/adventure in NLH/PLO told as a silent film of about 12 seconds. Powerful stuff:

And speaking of the game … congrats to TJ Downing and @JaKatkin … who won president and vice president in our Pokerati Game “election” on Thursday. For the wins, TJ will be representing in tonight’s $340 satellite* to the $1,500 Epic Pro-Am at Palms Poker Room … and Katkin will be taking a stab in a Sunday $180.

* special bounty tournament

A fancy Pokerati sign inside @PalmsPokerRm had me feeling like a big swingin' dick until Annie Duke had to show me hers was bigger than mine.

I’ll be playing in a satellite for Annie Duke’s and Jeffrey Pollack’s $20k pro-am event tonight, at the Palms, starting at 7pm. I hope you are busy and can’t show up. Come by later for 1/2 NLH/PLO, sure … the Pokerati action @PalmsPokerRm has been bumpin’ all summer … but at 7 is the Federated satellite, and I probably like my chances better without you there.

Official qualifier info here.

It’s a $340 buy-in, with 20 percent of the field winning seats into a Federated 1500 later this month (or next?), with that event putting players into the Federated $20k Pro-Am. I think that’s how it works … I dunno, you better stay away until I make sure.

Federated’s first attempt for qualifiers didn’t go so well, as our good friends at Wicked Chops pointed out — only three people showed! Not necessarily surprising for a still forming league; it’s kinda hard to draw people to a qualifier for something that hasn’t ever happened before — no matter how big the names are behind it. The WSOP ran for I think like 11 years before they started filling satellites.

But tonight, our other good friends at the Palms Poker Room are guaranteeing not only 1 seat for every 5 players, but also 1 minimum no matter how few buy-in. That, of course, is why I’m playing tonight. By my math, if no one else is there tonight, I win!

The grand prize, of course is that $20k seat, where I’ll be able to play against big-name pros and hardcore grinders for $10 million!!! a six-figure payout and/or a chance to tell many of them en masse once and for all to suck-it!

Ahh, getting ahead of myself here … it’s supposed to be a professional league encouraging fair play, proper behavior, and golf etiquette … so have to wait for the right moment to make my made-for-TV scene.

First I gotta win tonight’s event, where my best shot, frankly, comes by just showing up.

I know it runs counter to conventional poker(ati) wisdom that this could be true, but, well, it kinda is:

Republicans offered some hope Tuesday to online poker players sidelined by the Obama administration’s “Black Friday” crackdown.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is planning to introduce legislation that would legalize and regulate online poker and said he hopes the measure can pass both chambers of Congress this session.

“Poker is a game of skill,” Barton said in defense of the sites during a press conference outside the Capitol.

He suggested those who believe poker to be a game of chance should try playing with their own money against world champion Greg Raymer, who stood behind him at the press conference.

Shockingly, too, most Pokeratizens will probably find this curious:

Barton said he has spoken to the leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, including Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and hopes to move a bill through the committee in the near future. Barton said the bill is being finalized in consultation with the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).

OK, that’s enough from me — I’m just a morlock, and I’ll probably be locked up for this, but hey…breaking news!

Via genes @ Big Bill Quick’s joint…who’s kind of got his headline wrong, unless I’m so drunk I can’t read the news.

Not everyone is calling it “Black Friday”. For Euros who opted out of the US in ’06 and mighta started believing that coulda been a wrong decision, it was “White Friday”.

The DOJ’s virtual handcuffing of Full Tilt and PokerStars two weeks ago not only neutered two industry giants (who made billions in North America while others sat on the sidelines), but also supposedly leveled the playing field worldwide for US-abstainers who supposedly found it harder to compete in Europe or anywhere against companies benefitting from the vast liquidity American players provided.

Thus the inaugural iGaming North America conference in Las Vegas next week is kicking off their new-era industry confab with a special session called Assessing ‘Grey Friday’ and the Expected Fallout … get it? Black + White = Gray Grey.

Should be interesting to hear from gaming industry insiders who’ve never appeared on Poker After Dark or in Day 1 chip counts speaking about “the road to regulation”, as per the theme of @iGamNA‘s shindig.

Check out the lineup here. You’ll see both Stu and I are serving on panels. @GamingCounsel‘s gonna be schoolin’ about Canada …

… while I’m a panelist for the closing session:

There’s no live-stream as far as I know, but I’ll be sure to report back as influential industry experts (and a token blogger) assess the important questions moving forward … for me probably starting with, do I need to get a tie?