The Poker News Cup has begun in the famous King’s Casino in the Czech Republic. The casino is located in the municipality of Rozvadov, an area that has Germany as its immediate neighbour. It is thus not surprising that the winner of the inaugural event this November 19th is German as it is convenient for neighbours to cross over and play poker in this vibrant gambling environment. Timothy Claude Weltner emerged the winner in a poker tournament where 163 entrants began the game.
Poker in the Czech Republic
The Poker News Cup is being followed closely by poker fans beyond the Czech Republic as well because it is open to poker players from all over the world. The country is relatively liberal when it comes to gambling games compared to many others worldwide. There are around 43 casinos in the country, and out of those, 32 have poker rooms. Casinos generally offer their patrons a variety of betting games and many of them also have slot machines that players have access to all day long. Online poker has also become well established here although the poker law requires that respective hosts get licensed first.
How the Thursday Winner Got To Share Winnings
Timothy Weltner who beat four other players in the opening day of the tournament took away €2,607. As he disclosed to Poker News, this was his first live poker tournament and he was very excited about it. Incidentally, the amount of money he took home is what each of the five finalists took home as well. After most of the other competitors fell on the wayside, the five remaining players made an unusual pact to share the remaining prize money in equal proportions whatever the outcome. And that is how each of the four other finalists got to take home a similar amount of €2,607.
The lucky finalists included Christian Pestel; Przemyslav Omylak; Matus Schnierer; and Tomas Scheubal. Evidently, there is more to a poker competition than the money. And that is true whether it is an online poker competition or poker hosted in conventional casinos like the King’s Casino.
PokerNews Tournament Continuing in the Czech
Despite all the excitement at Rozvadov, the PokerNews tournament has just begun. In a few hours’ time, the main event will start, and again many poker players worldwide will take a short break, including those registered on online poker sites, to share in the thrill of this poker competition. This time, competitors have their eyes on the €200,000 prize money. There is also the €10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event scheduled to take place on Friday, and both the players and the poker fans are looking forward to it.
Incidentally, the game of poker seems to get a great following in countries where state laws are friendly on poker. The populace get to engage in the game as a pastime and not just for the money, and so there is much enthusiasm when a poker tournament is taking place. A country like the Czech Republic is one of those destinations that travellers include in their itinerary just because they can have fun playing poker without looking over their shoulders. Others even hope to top up their travelling kitty with poker winnings. A good example of such poker lovers is Lewis Murray. Murray explained to Poker News that he came to Rozvadov with the intention of playing in the PokerNews Cup. He is Australian and has been travelling across Europe, and hoped to win some money from poker to subsidize his travel expenses. Although he was not lucky enough to reach the final table, he won some €281 andhad some fun. Murray has already had stopovers in Madrid and Barcelona; Montpellier and Lyon; as well as Munich.
Poker, for many players, begins as a hobby and then develops into a serious income stream. That is how a good number of renowned poker players began, including the young finalist in the just concluded WSOP tournament, 23yr old Thomas Cannuli. Online poker is, therefore, a welcome platform for poker players, whether they want to play poker merely as a pastime or play and horn their professional skills. This time, however, Jimmy Zhou was honoured with the coveted gold spadie within the precincts of a brick and mortar casino in Macau, where his poker prowess outshone every other player. Zhou was so excited he was lost for words and he said as much to the journalists who interviewed him immediately after his big win.
Owing to the enthusiasm that poker players have shown for the short duration various state laws have accommodated online poker in the US, owners of various hosting sites have decided to cash in and host serious competitions where there are respectable amounts of prize money. Poker Stars is one such poker hosting site. However, PokerStars has a common interest with other stakeholders in the poker fraternity, and that fact is clear from their sponsorship of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) that culminated in the final leg at Macau.
This year, the finals took place between 30th October and 15th November in the Hong Kong city and Jimmy Zhou became the lead in the tournament taking away a whopping HKD $5,885,000 (Hong Kong dollars) in prize money. Zhou is an avid poker player, though he was not the most familiar of faces. Poker fans seemed to be more familiar with Connor Drinan, a fellow competitor in the poker tournament. Drinan is Mexican while Zhou is an American of Chinese descent. He is also known by the name, Zhou Zhou.
Prize Money in the 2015 ACOP Final Leg
Macau has always been viewed as the Las Vegas of China when it comes to matters of poker, and there was no shortage of competitors and poker fans in this year’s event. The other finalists who joined Zhou in the APPT ACOP tournament included, Thomas Ward, who came 2nd overall and won $482,000 in prize money; Nan Tu, who ranked 3rd and took away $311,000; Hsien Yuan Yang, who took 4th position and scooped $249,000; Connor Drinan who was number 5 and won $196,000; Qi Luo who won $155,000 in 6th position; Xixiang Luo who won $124,000 in 7th position; Sergey Lebedev, who came 8th and won 101,000; as well as Guoliang Wei who took the 9th position and took home a respectable $78,000. Many among these poker finalists will, definitely, be looking forward with enthusiasm to next year’s APPT.
Prize Money in Hong Kong Dollars
The APPT is said to be the richest, and this year 27 poker players benefitted from it by winning cash prizes. At the end of the tournament, the few lucky poker giants who took home the big sums of money had it in even bigger figures in the local currency. The prize money for New Zealander Thomas Ward translated to HKD 3,736,000; for Nan Tu came to HKD 2,411,000; for the Taiwanese Hsien Yuan Yang translated to HKD1, 928,000; while that for Connor Drinan who is Mexican came to HKD 1,519,000. Qi Luo, yet another Chinese had a figure of HKD 1,205,000 and for Xixiang Luo, a Chinese as well, came to HK$964,000. The main event in Macau took five days, which means there was a lot of economic activity going on in this Chinese peninsula, some of it outside of poker.
Pennsylvania borders New Jersey, one of the states that have legalized online poker. As such there is pressure on Pennsylvania from its residents to follow suit and pass a poker law that also accommodates online poker. Twice hearings have been scheduled to discuss the way forward for online gambling, and both times the hearings were cancelled. One of the hearings on the future of online poker was scheduled for October 21st while the second one was expected to be October 27th. Nevertheless, John Payne, who is the state’s Gaming Oversight Committee chairman, says the issue is still alive.
Apparently, the delay in passing the relevant state laws emanates from the need to consolidate the requirements of all the gaming sports and catering for them in one gambling law. In March this year, Payne expressed his commitment in making sure the gaming environment is healthy. He is not just concerned about online poker but also poker and other betting games that take place within brick and mortar casinos. He would like to see a situation where the state laws lead to collection of reasonable amounts of revenue from online gambling as well as regular gambling in casinos and other public places.
Although residents of Pennsylvania have been eager to see the enactment of the state onlinepoker law, they would also like to see other sports that fall under online gambling catered for. As for the legislature, members have been checking out various betting games even within conventional casinos with a view to regulating them under state laws.
Among the gambling activities the state is evaluating are online lottery sales; tavern gaming; slot machines in airports and betting parlors; resort casino activities; and a host of other events that accompany gambling. Casino owners would particularly like to see the state laws allowing them to serve alcohol for more hours than currently permitted. It is uncertain how liberal the state laws will be, but considering that the budget deal calls for discussions of give and take, proponents of online poker and liberalization of other betting games and related activities may have many of their proposals accommodated within 2016.
John Payne is a proponent of online gambling. However, there is a formidable group of lobbyists in Pennsylvania that is against online gambling and sometimes Payne has become their target of attack. One such group named Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling has particularly been vicious, using public ads to attack Payne. However, Payne is unperturbed as he has a big number of iGaming enthusiasts urging him on with the fight for favorable legislation on online gambling. It also seems like some legislators want to frustrate online gambling through tax laws. While some have proposed an understandable 14% tax on gaming revenue, others have suggested a hefty 54%.
The State Of Casino Activity in PA
Brick and mortar gaming venues in Pennsylvania are vibrant with activity including poker. In 2004, the state legalized use of slot machines in fourteen unique locations. Conventional casinos within the state account for around 5,000 slot machines and legislation continues to allow for more gaming tables within those casinos. So, despite the slow pace legalization of online gambling has taken, betting activity in ordinary casinos is thriving. In fact, the state laws allow the casinos to operate 24/7.
As for the gambling age allowed, the state laws permit teenagers to engage in pari-mutuel betting activities after attaining the age of 18yrs. However, they are allowed to play on gaming machines only when they have attained the age of 21yrs.
Josh Beckley is only 24yrs old and played alongside poker veterans in the just completed WSOP finals in Las Vegas. The two poker veterans who reached November Nine were Belgian Pierre Neuville who ranked 7th overall and bagged $1,203,293 in prize money, and American Neil Blumenfield whose prize money was $3,398,298 for coming 3rd overall. Beckley was, however, not the only young player to grace the final table. The winner, Joe McKeehen is his age mate.
Beckley is rather quiet in nature but his prowess as a poker player, definitely, speaks volumes. He came into November Nine with a stack of 11.8 million chips whereas the lead, Joe McKeehen, had a stack of 63.1 million. Still, other competitors beat him in the chips count with Zvi Stern coming in with 29.8 million chips and Neil Blumenfield entering with 22 million chips. Suffice it to say, Beckley beat only two other WSOP finalists in chips count as he began the November Nine competition.
Clearly, in gambling, whether in online poker or conventional casino games, nothing is certain until it happens. At the end of the WSOP series, only McKeehen ended up beating Beckley. And $98,348, which has been Beckley’s big win so far, dwarfs in the face of the prize money he won this year for his 2nd place in the WSOP tournament – $4,470,896!
Beckley’s Poker Life and Back-up Plan
The 24yr old is not just a poker enthusiast. He literally lives in the gaming arena. Among those who would love to see US state laws drawn in favor of poker are people like Beckley whose only time away from the game is possibly when they are asleep. Beckley was quoted after the July poker competition as saying he considers his job the best because he earns from what he loves to do. For this time, however, he was ready to take some time out and enjoy a holiday with friends.
Though playing poker professionally, Beckley has a fall back plan should he stop playing poker. He graduated from Cherokee High School and proceeded to do mechanical engineering at Drexel University. The pursuit for a degree did not, however, deter him from engaging in the game he has loved since he was 16yrs old. Months before graduating with his Mechanical degree, Beckley won his biggest prize money ever – $98,348!
This put his mother’s fears to rest as she knew he was, without a doubt, destined for a serious career in poker. Before then, she would worry about her son getting hooked to the game and not being able to make it in life. As she observed after her son qualified for November Nine, he has a passion that goes beyond the money aspect of the game. And speaking to Poker News around that time, Beckley disclosed that he used to play $1/$2 games with his friends when he started, and those were just home games. And though he soon graduated to $5/$10 games, it was not until August 2014 that he entered any tournament.
However, after this big win, chances are this poker enthusiast is going to concentrate on tournaments and hope to clinch the big win soon and join the list of world poker champions.
All Poker is legal in Beckley’s State
Beckley hails from Marlton, New Jersey. He is lucky that he can play poker whenever he wishes without legal limitations. New Jersey’spoker law is friendly and residents can play online poker as often as they wish. The state of New Jersey is one of the few states that have explicitly made online poker legal. Other US states are either silent on the issue of online poker or outright outlaw it among other online gambling activities.
Gambling is viewed very differently in the world. In some countries it is welcomed with both arms while in others it is abhorred. The rest of the countries fall somewhere in-between the two extremes. Some countries have gray areas in their law while some are comprehensive. Without universal regulation, each country makes its own regulation. Asia in particular has both extremes on the same continent, more so on the restrictive side rather than the welcoming side.
These restrictions have not slowed online gambling’s growth. Its popularity continues to grow in leaps and bounds. The fact that people can now play online games where they stand to make money from the comfort of their homes makes online gambling very appealing. Where there are gray areas, you may find that while brick and mortar gambling houses are not permitted by law, citizens of a country can still play their games right in their houses. Now restrictions are coming up left, right and center in Asia. Here are some countries with strict gambling and poker laws:
Japan: Gambling in its real sense is illegal in all of Japan. You will not find gambling resorts and crowded poker rooms here. This applies to online gambling as well. The closest thing to gambling that you will find here is lottery tickets and sports betting. Plans to have gambling results are ongoing with parliamentary bills to that effect tabled in parliament a few months ago. It is not clear if online gambling and poker laws were included but the outcome will be of profound effect to those on opposing sides.
Malaysia: Malaysia is a country with a Muslim majority and Islam is considered the state religion. Gambling is prohibited in all of the country except for one resort in the highlands of Genting. Even there, Malaysian citizens who happen to be Muslims cannot engage in gambling either. Despite attracting millions of tourists every year, the rules do not seem to be easing anytime soon and that will extend to online gambling for sure.
Hong Kong: Poker laws are not friendly here. Gambling is strictly controlled in the territory of Hong Kong. The only form of betting allowed is football betting on a government site. Poker and other forms of gambling, land based and online are illegal. To have any gambling here, you will need to board some gambling vessels that motor out to the sea and open their gambling operations on international waters.
China, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia are other Asian countries with prohibitive laws against online and land based gambling.
The future of online gambling
Despite the restrictions in Asia and other parts of the world, online gambling’s growth is not about to slowdown anytime soon. In fact, it is set to grow with many countries embracing regulation of online gambling operations.
The “Global Online Gambling and Betting Market (2015)” which is published by a business intelligence company, yStats.com opines that globally, online gambling is a growth industry with a lot of potential. This will go to full-blown growth once more countries embrace regulation and open up the market to their citizens.
Gambling and poker laws in Asia aside, today Europe leads in regulation of online gambling. This has promoted the industry in a big way. With many countries embracing regulations for iGaming, the result is increased clientele and more gambling sites coming up.
Elsewhere, online gambling continues to face hurdles with only a handful of states in the U.S.A legalizing the industry. South Africa have consistently resisted any attempts to legalize online gambling while other countries and like Brazil and Mexico have bills in their legislatures aimed at making online gambling legal and regulated.
The USA TODAY Sports Media Group announced yesterday, Nov 12, that they have signed a multi-year content partnership with Global Poker Index [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][GPI], the leading authority on live poker. Set to begin in January 2016, the partnership will see USA TODAY Sports host a dedicated poker-themed portal that features GPI assets, information and many of its initiatives.
Alexandre Dreyfus, Global Poker Index CEO said, “We’re extremely pleased to be announcing this multi-year content partnership with USA TODAY Sports”. Dreyfus went on to add, “The partnership will provide an essential platform to showcase our innovative new events and to promote the players ranked in the Global Poker Index.”
During the press release, Dreyfus was equally excited about the deal, “It’s great to have the support and passion of an industry leader like USA TODAY Sports, whose team shares in our vision to ‘sportify’ poker,” he said, going on to add, “We’re looking forward to working closely with them over the coming years.”
Dreyfus went on to state his belief that the multi-year content partnership with USA TODAY Sports Media will give Global Poker Index a platform on which to showcase their “innovative new events and to promote the players ranked in the Global Poker Index.”Through using nontraditional poker outlets in addition to social media-friendly content, Dreyfus hopes to reach an entirely new, untapped market by “bringing poker to people instead of bringing people to poker”.
Content is expected to appear in both digital and print, and with USA TODAY Sports being the “Official Media Partner of Global Poker League,” the dedicated portal will be focusing on GPI coverage, ranking, players profiles, event results and much more. In addition, the GPI will produce video content for USA TODAY Sports as well its other media partners [Sporting News].
The Global Poker Index is owned by Mediarex Sports and Entertainment, and their goal is to “sportify poker,” which it does through its administration of leagues and competitions as well as its rankings of the world’s top players. Soon to be included is the new Global Poker League which will feature teams that are competing globally live-streamed digitally by several GPI partners, and that includes USA TODAY Sports.
“The Global Poker Index has done more than any other organization to unify poker and to see the possibilities that exist for creating a ‘big league’ atmosphere in play,” observed Jason Ford, Sports Marketing VP at USA TODAY Sports.He added, “We’re looking forward to working together to create a 24/7 digital poker destination, and to provide coverage for some of the groundbreaking events that GPI will be launching.”
USA TODAY Sports has a powerful reach when compared to traditional poker media outlets. The media group accounted for 45 million unique views in July of 2015 alone. This is good enough to rank fifth among multi-platform digital sports providers in the industry. And with the launching of the Global Poker League that’s twined with engaging content on highly visible websites, Global Poker Index CEO Dreyfus believes he can convert sports fans into poker fans.
An anticipated Global Poker League [GPL] which aims to
“increase the entertainment value of poker, with immersive events and engaging consumer content”
is central to the GPI’s initiatives moving into 2016. The 12-team, two-conference professional poker competition that is the Global Poker League will see its inaugural launch for the first season during the first half of 2016. This will culminate in the GPL World Championships which is slated for later that summer. Among the cities expected to host franchises during the GPL eventare Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed but the partnership is expected to go into effect prior to the debut of the Global Poker League.
