Poker is a sport, the WSOP and their partners at ESPN would like you to believe. Except when it comes to sports betting because that might violate the Wire Act everywhere except in Nevada (and maybe soon New Jersey) … and all of that is at least tangentially wrapped around your ability to bet on “sports” anywhere with Leroy’s app, owned by British bookmaker William Hill … but I digress … this year you can have extra fun at the WSOP by betting on any player who advances to a tournament’s final day, which also gives backers the ability to hedge and/or press their bets on various WSOP horses who make it deep.

Earlier this month, the Nevada Gaming Control Board approved proposition sports betting on almost all events at the 2012 WSOP. Every event except #1, the $500 casino employees NLH champonship … because letting a representative of one casino bet on his or her gambling activity in another casino and hedging that action in yet another casino … well that would just be crazy … and we don’t even need to get into the absolute nuttiness of what might happen if a WSOP exec were to accidentally win a bracelet.

(Watch it live, with hole cards, on just a 30 5 15-minute delay!)

Plausible perceptions of impropriety aside, my best guess is that Nevada regulators are so confident in their ability to prevent collusion, chip dumping, and made-for-Hollywood murder-for-hire that they’re willing to create opportunities for possible malfeasance just so they can show what isn’t happening … and anything else will eventually right itself with the introduction of complex poker derivatives into the game.