February 23rd, 2009

For a while it looked like the thousands of poker players on www.fleetstreetgames.com would be kicked to the virtual street after the site closed down, but PokerStars has decided to forge a deal with FleetStreet letting all its players transfer their balances to PokerStars’ online poker site.

Fleet Street Games started just last February and had a unique format, which offered subscribers from all over the world the chance to enter numerous poker tournaments each for just one fixed monthly fee.

Unfortunately the site was particularly hard hit by the economic downturn, and Fleet Street Games was unable to raise its second round of funding.

PokerStars, on the hand, is the world’s largest online poker room, with 19 million players worldwide. Its tournament selection and sheer volume of games are virtually unmatched.

Dan Goldman, president and CEO of Fleet Street Games, told outgoing FSG players they will have a solid home at PokerStars.

“Many FSG players will, I am sure, already be familiar with PokerStars,” he said.

“It is, as I know from long personal experience, the best all-round online poker site in the world and although we are extremely disappointed we couldn’t make a go of FSG in the present economic climate, we are thrilled that we have been able to secure such a great new home for our players.”

February 17th, 2009

The online gambling domain case continues as lawyers for the Commonwealth of Kentucky are asking to submit a much longer appeal brief than is allowed by rule.

The motion asks for an additional 30 pages added to the standard 50 pages allowed in its appeal of the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling that the seizure order issued by Judge Thomas Wingate against gambling sites’ domain names should be set aside.

Kentucky is now taking the case to the State Supreme Court, and the state’s lawyers believe they need additional pages to state their case in the appeal as well as an extra 10 days beyond the filing deadline for their brief.

“They’re certainly within their rights to make their request, but they don’t really seem to be bringing anything new to the table,” said Joe Brennan Jr., iMEGA’s chairman.

Brennan said the motion will be a repetition of the same arguments that failed in the Court of Appeals. Kentucky had argued that iMEGA is an illegal gambling association and had no right to represent its members in court, and that domain names are “gambling devices” according to Kentucky law.

“Those arguments didn’t work before, but maybe they feel the added volume of pages will overcome the flaws found by the Court of appeals in their attack on our members,” Brennan said.

Brennan also suggested Kentucky’s attorneys might save space in their brief if they dropped the assault on iMEGA’s standing.

“Perhaps they might review Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission, where the U.S. Supremem Court establish the right of associations to stand in court on the behalf of their members,” Brennan said. “Since that’s been a settled issue since 1977, I think it’s time for the Commonwealth’s attorneys to move on.”

February 10th, 2009

Antigua’s trade dispute over online gambling, initiated in 2003 and under negotiation since 2007, may be looking at delays again now that a new U.S. president is in power.

In 2003, Antigua filed a case with the World Trade Organization claiming that the United States’ total prohibition of Internet gambling services offered by Antiguan operators to consumers in the United States was in violation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) treaty.

The WTO agreed. The United States appealed its decision, but lost in early 2007.

Rather than comply, the United States then decided to pull online gambling unilaterally from its international treaties, despite the commitments it had made under the GATS treaty to free trade in such services.

Following the ruling against the U.S. on appeal, the United States and Antigua began discussions regarding monetary compensation due to Antigua under the WTO findings. In addition, the countries continued talks aimed at getting the United States to change its policy toward Antigua’s online gambling services.

Last month, Antigua’s Finance Minister, Dr. Errol Cort, flew to Washington D.C. to meet with representatives of the U.S. Trade Relations (USTR) as well as “high-ranking officials of the Justice Department” to try to reach an overall agreement before the end of the Bush administration.

Cort left empty-handed and, thus, almost six years after the trade dispute began between the two countries, they are no closer to a resolution. Now they will have to deal with President Barack Obama’s administration to settle the matter.

February 8th, 2009

In an offer exclusive to PokerListings.com players, PokerStars and PokerListings.com are putting up 1,000 seats to the Sunday $200k tournament and $15,000 cash in a freeroll tournament.

The freeroll tournament will take place on March 14 at 8:00 p.m. GMT.

On top of playing for a share of $15,000 cash, the top 1,000 finishers in the tourney will receive a seat to the next Sunday $200k event.

In order to get your seat, you need to:
Be a PokerListings player on PokerStars (new or existing)
Collect 100 frequent player points between Feb. 1 and Feb. 28

The total prize pool for this freeroll event is worth $25,000.