Poker News
1. New Zealand Online Gambling
A survey by the Racing Board has found that New Zealanders spend some NZ$40 million on overseas websites weekly - almost double that being gambled in the state lottery, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reports.
The Board's survey findings revealed that 5.7 percent of the population, or 177 000 New Zealanders, gamble on offshore websites, overseas lotteries and sports betting, wagering about NZ$2.1 billion annually, a figure that translates to $40 million every week. In addition, only $5.5 million is being spent per week on overseas racing and sports betting, with the remainder going to other gambling forms.
David Coom, spokesperson for the Problem Gambling Foundation views the survey as confirmation that overseas online gambling was indeed "a really fast-growing problem".
Read the full New Zealand Online Gambling article!
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2. Facebook Terminates Selling Of Poker Chips
AlertPay, an online payment company and social networking site, Facebook, have decided to bring to a halt a number of potentially illegal online gambling transactions conducted through Facebook's "Texas HoldEm Poker" application, such as selling virtual poker chips, the eCommerce Journal reports.
Both companies were in agreement on the issue on grounds that: "Facebook does not permit online gambling on its platform and some sellers attempted to convert the Texas HoldEm Poker application into monetized online gambling," according to a statement on AlertPay's official blog.
Read the full Facebook Terminates Selling Of Poker Chips article!
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3. Ban On Online Gambling Expensive For Search Engines
This week saw a cost assessment exercise being conducted to determine the financial impact a ban on Internet gambling paid search ads would have major US search engines, reports Steve Baldwin of WebProNews.
Baldwin used a list of 200 suggestion keywords generated by Google to determine estimated monthly keyword volume and CPC figures, calculating a benchmark figure for money left on the table by the search engines for April 2009, arriving at the conservative projection of a 15 percent CTR rate in paid clicks for every gambling-related SERP.
Initial findings indicate that even a cautious take on the revenue lost to the ban amounts to a staggering $9,632,382 each month, equating to about $115 million annually in possible income.
Read the full Ban On Online Gambling Expensive For Search Engines article!
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4. Event 27 of WSOP
UK poker pro, Roland De Wolfe, was triumphant at the $5,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Split 8 or better event. He is the second player in poker tournament history to win the European Tour, World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour titles. Only Gavin Griffin has matched that record.
The 27th event of WSOP saw 198 players register, which included the likes of Andy Black, Scott Clements, Antony Lellouche and Alex Kravchenko. The field had generated a prize pool of $470,000.
Scott Clements, Roland De Wolfe, Brett Richey, Robert Campbell, Alex Kravchenko, Andy Black, John Racener, Armando Ruiz and Anthony Lellouche took to the felts at the final table.
Read the full Event 27 of WSOP article!
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5. Event 26 of WSOP
The 1,500 buy-in Limit Hold'em contest attracted some 643 entrants but by day 3, the field had reduced immensely to just 15, four of whom were eliminated in the first half an hour of renewed play.
The final table came down to Al Barbieri in the lead with $495,000, followed by Glenn Engelbert, Demetrios Arvanetes, Rep Porter and Tomas Alenius, Jason Tam, Richard Brodie, Cole Miller, Kim-Phong Duong and Dominik Kulicki.
By the time play reached the three handed stage, it was a close contest between Jason Tam in the lead on $970,000, Swedish pro player Tomas Alenius on $930,000 and Al Barbieri on $850,000, with Barbieri going into a card decline which finally saw him eliminated in third place for a payday of $80,072.
Read the full Event 26 of WSOP article!
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