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EPT Vilamoura

EPT Vilamoura is a 5-day event taking place between 28 August and 2 September in Vilamoura, a magnificent sea-side resort in Algarve, Portugal. This 1100€ contest is an excellent opportunity for players to enjoy sea baths and golf fairways.

This tournament has a special format: players have to buy-in or win a golf/poker package of €1100 which they will use in a 2-day golf contest and, in the remaining of time, at the poker tables.

Some of the best poker players are waited at this event. Daniel Negreanu, a keen golfer and an expert poker player, is the right man at the right place since this event seems tailored to his skills.

Other famous poker players to be expected at Vilamoura are: James Dempsey (WSOP bracelet winner), David Williams, John Duthie (EPT founder), Arnaud Mattern, Pieter de Korver, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, JP Kelly, Dario Minieri, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Lex Veldhuis, Marcin Horecki, Matthias De Meulder, Luca Pagano, Ruben Visser, Vicky Coren, Teddy Sherigan (friend of PokerStars and football legend).

More than 130 players have already qualified via PokerStars to play in this tournament.

Poker or prison - the McMaster case

There are moments in life or life situations that just seem inspired from movie scenarios. Something of this sort has occurred in the life of Samuel McMaster, a 59 year old stockbroker and professional poker player.

In his position as a stockbroker, he has stolen the beautiful sum of over $400,000 from more than 20 clients. Nothing that others have not done already, you may say. The interesting part however, the one that seems taken out of a movie, is the court’s decision. In order to repay the due sum, McMaster has to play poker!

The judges have come up with this conclusion because poker is McMaster’s last resort to pay back his debts. He has the court’s permission to leave New Mexico, his home state, and go to tournaments and cash games. According to the court’s ruling, he has to raise $7,500 per month as a restitution sum and if he fails to do this for the first 2 payments, he will be immediately sentenced to almost 12 years.

Prosecutor Phylis H. Bowman declared: “There’s nothing to indicate that he’s a violent threat to society. So based upon those factors, that’s what determines conditions of release. It has nothing to do with profession.”

It remains to be seen now if he will come back victorious from his tournaments or if he will come back at all. Anyhow, this is one of the most unusual court rulings ever heard. To be continued!

Box and poker at Realdealpoker.com

The well-known boxer Evander Holyfield has recently signed with Realdealpoker.com. This box champion has won against Mike Tyson and George Foreman and is a popular figure among the Americans. Counting on its popularity, Realdealpoker.com hopes that having Evander Holyfield as representative can attract poker players.

Realdealpoker.com is the only site using the innovative technology of distributing real cards instead of using a randomizing algorithm. This technology may catch or not to the public depending on how well Realdealpoker.com and its ambassador communicate with the poker players community. “Our revolutionary technology uses real cards and this ensures the fairness of the game. We have achieved something that everyone deemed as impossible, that is distributing real cards in an online environment” said Gene Gioia, founder and president of Real Deal Poker.

Holyfield will be present at the poker event ‘Poker in the Park’ taking place on 2^nd and 3ed September in London. “We are delighted that a superstar such as Evander comes at Poker in the Park. We are used to having guests the most famous poker players but his presence here illustrates the synergy that exists between poker and the major sports, and the exciting development of poker in general” declared the event organizer Michael Caselli.

State lottery withdraws site after security breach

The British Columbia Lottery Corporation had to take down its newly relaunched PlayNow.com online gambling site due to a security breach last Friday which resulted in 134 user accounts being compromised.

In 12 cases, users had access to other people’s personal information. A “data crossover” system error determined several players to be accidentally switched to other players accounts. Wagers totaling $8000 were put by players who used other players’ accounts before the breach was revealed and the site taken down.

BCLC president and chief executive Michael Graydon stated that the breach was not announced to the public sooner because he wanted to know all the details and contact first the players who have been affected. “Our first priority was really to our players and making sure we got to them first. We wanted to make sure that they heard from BCLC and not read it in the newspaper,” he said.

BCLC tried to keep a low profile on this issue. This is why an official of the company announced last Friday that the site had been taken down because response times were slowed by high player volumes. Some reacted to this announcement by accusing the government and BCLC of lying but Graydon denies having lied to anyone: “We’ve only been open and transparent with the customers affected. We identified them very quickly and we communicated with them very quickly.”

The platform provider for PlayNow.com is currently working with BCLC to bring back the site online but no date has been announced for its come back.

Special 4th of July Celebration

The online casino Jackpot Capital will organize a special promotion on this 4^th of July called the Teddy Bear Promotion. Why this name? Because the story goes that in 1902 president Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear in a hunting trip. This fact struck a sensitive chord with the Americans and so “the Teddy Bear” was born. This is why the Teddy Bear has become related to the Independence Day and is celebrated as a national symbol. In fact the Teddy Bear has become Americans’ favourite toy since then.

The casino is offering 50% deposit bonuses, each up to $100. This promotion will last from the 4^th until the 8^th of July and players that want to benefit from the bonus must enter Teddy Bear as a coupon code when making a new deposit.

If you now make your first account on Jackpot Capital you will receive a 100% Welcome Bonus up to $100. You can read more about how to claim this bonus on their website.

Be aware that a special contest will run this weekend before the start of the Teddy Bear promotion. If you deposit a minimum of $50 and play between Friday and Sunday you can participate in a contest with $50 prizes. All you have to do is to check your email to see if you are one of the lucky winners. Good luck!

Mangas chief executive: record winnings on the regulated market

The opening of the French online gaming market has created  a positive growth environment for the online sport betting operators, considers Nicolas Béraud the boss of Betclic.

“The taxation levels are too high for a newly opened market” he said. “However, the French market has registered a boom of new clients who have refrained from playing online until now because this activity has been considered illegal according to previous legislation. Now, that this activity was ‘legalised’, record profits have been made in the last few days according to Béraud. Of course, he gives credit to the World Cup for bringing new clients to join Betclic and start betting at this major sport event.

There are still a few problems with how the French market  is regulated. First, according to Béraud, is the high level of taxation on the French market that  determines clients to search illegal operators which offer cheaper services. “It is still difficult to trace these operators and stop them from activating on the online betting market” he said and gave the example of the Italian market where the measure of blocking the websites lead to unsatisfactory results.

Besides confronting illegal operators and high taxation rates, another issue is that “the new legislation leaves out the online casino games which are very important because they create margin and without them it is difficult to be profitable.” The equilibrium between the taxation and the array of authorised  games is a common theme in Béraud’s speech. He predicted that a wave of regulation will continue in other European countries such as Denmark, Germany and Spain and this will ensure Betclic a more stable business environment attracting more and more clients.

Regarding the French market, Béraud hopes that online operators will be allowed to extend their games offer  in the next 18 months. He also stated that the French market will remain less profitable during this period due to high taxation rates on e-gaming revenues.

Belgium passes new gaming legislation

The online casino and poker players in Belgium have now a reason to be happy as they are free to play their favourite online games without fearing legal prosecution. The nation’s Chamber Of Representatives has recently passed a law which legalizes the online gaming market and opens it to foreign operators.

This law is due to come into force by the end of 2010 and it regulates the online poker and sports-betting activities without affecting the state lottery and consequently leaving unaltered the state monopoly in this area.

Though theoretically this new legislation is supposed to open the market, in reality the situation is not so simple. In order to offer services on the Belgium market, every operator has to obtain a license but this number of licenses is limited and they are given with prevalence to the domestic operators. Therefore the market may not be so open in the end. This has been noticed also by many experts of the gaming industry who speculate that, given these legal conditions, the foreign operators will continue to offer their services from abroad which is illegal. It remains therefore to be seen if the local authorities will take further measures to stop all illegal gaming activities in the future.