Poker515

Those who said “poker is no child’s play” are in for a surprise. Teemo’s Tic- A- Tac Poker combines Poker and Tic- Tac -Toe in an exciting new game that’s sure to be a hit with poker lovers. It’s available on iPhone and iPod touch platforms and all you need is a minimum OS 2.0 or higher to run this application. Once you have installed the game, it’s quick to load and the touch screen interface is pretty responsive.

First you need to log in and create a user profile, then you can proceed to play any of the three variations of the game - Poker Challenge, Draw Poker and of course Tic- A -Tac Poker. The Poker Challenge uses a Tic -Tac -Toe type grid, with the player using poker cards to create increasingly difficult combinations with every passing level. The Draw Poker is a lot like your usual three or five card Draw Poker and in Tic -A -Tac Poker, cards are treated as playing pieces. You can discard a given number of cards, creating various combinations that get you bonus points at the end of the round.

Though there isn’t any real money to be made here, the good news is that all scores are uploaded to a community website for everyone to see. The game also continually tracks and uploads scores as long as you are logged in.

Tic- A- Tac Poker doesn’t promise you cutting edge 3D graphics or state of the art SFX for that matter. What is does give you is a nice clean dealer table feel. A lot of people actually like a bit of the old world charm in this genre of games, and this works perfectly for them. All in all its simple, entertaining and interactive, the three things that make it a must have this season. On a scale of one to ten, this easily scores a respectable seven. Let’s just say, you aren’t going to be left poker faced with this one.

When it comes to tax, few people want more of it, except perhaps for the passionate Texas poker players. Texas poker enthusiasts prefer to pay tax and get a safe legal place where they can play poker to their heart’s content. Vernon Harrison, president of the 500-member Texas Card Players Association said, “Poker players are the only people in the state of Texas saying, ‘Please tax us’.”

Lawmakers are considering a bill to legalize poker. Texans players have been playing poker just for the sake of fun, entertainment or some casual money-making at their home. But whenever the casual money turns into a big win, and the house or dealer gains handsome profit this game is frowned upon and is considered illegal, taking away the player’s spirit to win.

Now, Texas state representative, Jose Menendez is planning to propose  gambling measure in front of the  House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee. The bill would actively issue poker licenses to a few institutions, while allowing them to acquire fees on poker hands and game buy-ins. Taxes will be imposed on the poker operators, on the basis of their revenues. This bill also demands video surveillance cameras, security at the poker games, and the players must be adults.

The committee has yet to vote on this measure, so Menendez, a San Antonio democrat, who serves on the committee remarked, “We want to make sure when poker is being played, it’s played in a place that’s safe.”

Texas poker players have displayed valid reasons behind their support for the tax. They say every week in Texas thousands of tax-free dollars are exchanged and earned in illicit backroom poker games. If the state taxes these games, it can reap huge profits too. Gamblers seek the tax because it would provide them much safety. Underground games are surely lucrative, but are also illegal.

People against legalizing poker say that it would create an opportunity for the casinos and slot machines at racetracks. They also add that it won’t cut down on the numbers of underground gambling.

But Rob Kohler says, “Our concern is the expansion of the games.”

Shelbyville-based Indiana Live! Casino will soon get ten new automated ProkerPro tables from PokerTek Inc. Aaron Gomes, Vice President of operations and marketing for the Cordish Company – the company that owns Indiana Live! Casino – sounded quite positive with this new development and he is hoping to increase footfalls in his casino.

“Our poker playing guests will appreciate the amenities in our new state-of-the-art poker room,” said Aaron Gomes and went on to add further, “We have a beautiful new venue, and the poker room is a key addition that would not be possible without the PokerPro system. We’re proud of this new room, and excited to finally bring poker to the Indianapolis market.”

Indiana Live! Casino is just 20-minutes south-east from downtown Indianapolis. The casino has slot machines and electronic table games installed in its sprawling 233,000-square foot facility. Paul Cornish, Vice President of Slot Operations for Indiana Live! Casino showed confidence in the ambience the casino is creating for to its poker games player. Through a press release he informed the media about Indiana Live!’s plan, and as stated this facility will also host Seven Card Stud, Omaha and Texas Hold’em tournaments as well as some cash games. PokerTek Inc. is responsible for installing all the automated poker table in the facility.

“The new Indiana Live! Casino is a great location and showcase for PokerPro. We’re excited to partner with Indiana Live! to bring poker to the Indianapolis region,” said Chris Halligan, CEO of PokerTek.

Headquartered in Matthews, NC, PokerTek is the world leader in automated poker tables and related software applications. In the time when some casinos are thinking about filing bankruptcy while others are helplessly watching their money going down the drain, PokerTek’s automated poker tables and software applications do help casinos in keeping their expenses low and in increasing their revenue. This new system provides interactive poker entertainment that is fast, fun and completely mistake-free, as claimed by the manufacturer. Casinos using PokerTek systems have reported an increase in flow of new players to their poker rooms. Seeing the condition of current economy, casinos should consider this as an option to squeeze some profit from the failing economy.

Hotel Leela Ventures Limited (HLVL), a Goa-based offshore casino has moved in the Panji bench of the Bombay High Court against the government’s decision to relocate Goa’s offshore casinos to Aguada bay some 3 kilometers away from their current base in Mandovi River, which is near Panji.

Hotel Leela Ventures Limited runs Casino Rio in Goa and the company decided to take the government to court over the decision to remove the casino from the Mandovi River. On February 26, 2009, the state cabinet of Goa made a decision concerning the relocation of all six offshore casinos to new locations.

In the hearing, the Bombay High Court saw merit in HLVL’s petition that questioned the constitutional standing of the current bill. To strengthen his claim the lawyer representing the interests of Casino Rio said that because they have obtained all the required licenses and also gotten permissions from concerned authorities, the decision of Goa’s government is unconstitutional and will a have bad effect on the casinos’ revenues.

In representing the state, Advocate General Subodh Kantak tried to convince the High Court by trying to build a nonexistent connection between the presence of casinos in Mandovi River and the accidents happening in the sea. He claimed the presence of casinos is obstructing the flow of ferry and barge traffic. Panji-based Bombay High court wasn’t convinced and put a stay order on the government’s decision. At the same time, the High Court has asked the Shipping Corporation of India to check if the casinos have all the required documents.

Last week, there was a piece of news about a rift between Francisco Pacheco, tourism minister of Goa, and Goa-based casinos over disposal of waste in the sea. Pacheco blames all six casinos for discharging their sewage in the ocean, which has a negative impact on Goa’s environment (click here to read the complete story).

The presence of casinos is a bone of contention between the ruling Congressional coalition government and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Now as the parliamentary election is approaching, political parties have started to woo the public, and this can be seen as one of the election stunts by the ruling party to blunt the perceived edge of the opposition.

The news is coming direct from the horse’s mouth; Harrah’s entertainment has announced the schedule for 40^th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the pre-registration for this 2009 WSOP has just begun. If you are interested in participating in this grand poker event, you need to visit the World Series of Poker’s web site and submit your pre-registration form. A player can also get pre-registered by visiting the main cage of Las Vegas-based Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, which is also the host of 2009 WSOP.

Full schedules for the event can be obtained from WSOP’s official website. Events in this 40^th annual WSOP have caps on the maximum number of attendees, and the entry will be on a first come, first served basis. If you want to be part of this, get yourself registered now. The event will be declared sold out by Harrah entertainment’s officials as soon as the maximum attendance is reached or the expected table capacity is filled.

“As customary, no alternates will be seated at the 2009 World Series of Poker. We encourage players to pre-register early to guarantee their seats,” said Jack Effel, WSOP tournament director.

WSOP will begin its 40^th journey from May 26, and the tournament will last until July 15, 2009. Starting with registration on May 29, WSOP will feature 57 bracelet tournaments. Buy-ins for the events have also been declared. For the main event, the No-Limit Hold’em Poker World Championship, buy-in remains at $10,000, but for the open event, the buy-in range will be between $1,000 to $ 50,000.

Pre-registration will remain open until two weeks before the start of each particular event. All pre-registrants are required to bring proof of identity (driver’s license, passport, military identification card or state identification card) to Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino to finalize their registration. Upon verification the registrant will be assigned his or her table and seat.

All Winners will have to produce a valid photo ID to claim their winnings, and Harrah entrainment employees will complete the tax form for the player with a winning in excess of $5,000 net of event buy-in. Foreign players from non-tax treaty countries and players without a tax identification number will be subject to up to 30 percent tax withholding.

Moscow’s casinos have their eyes set on the July 1, 2009 deadline, and they are working hard to reorganize themselves to prevent a closedown. Turning into poker clubs is the move being contemplated by the casinos so that they can remain functioning. Gambling business will cease to exist in Moscow on July 1 2009.

According to Moscow’s Deputy Mayor Sergei Baidakov, 90 percent of gambling outfits (that includes Moscow’s casinos as well) are preparing to turn into entertainment centers, concert halls and restaurants, instead of allowing people to roll the dice. Moscow has 549 gambling establishment out of which 32 establishments are casinos.

By the coming summer, the Russian gambling industry was planning to relocate to four special zones. The government has already approved three zones: Yantarnaya, in the Kaliningrad region, Sibirskaya Moneta, in Altai, and Azov-City, on the border of the Rostov and Krasnodar regions. The decision over the fourth zone in the far eastern Primorye region is yet to be made. Seeing the current development, none of the zones is positive about starting operations from July 1.

According to an executive of The Gaming Business Association, Moscow’s casinos are keeping themselves abreast with the recent developments and one-third of them are set to hold poker tournaments once the July deadline is reached.

Since 2007, in accordance with the March 26 2007 order signed by Vyacheslav Fetisov, the head of the Federal Sports Agency, poker has been classified as a ’sport’. Three months later Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Seven-Card Stud Poker, got officially listed in the All-Russia Registry of Sports.

“This game doesn’t have any connection to the gambling business, since in sports poker the players are competing against one another not the casino. In Austria, Denmark and several U.S. states, poker has been removed from the list of games of chance,” said the Gaming Business Association official.

The Federation of Competitive Preference is holding talks with different gaming officials for holding tournaments to keep the business going. Such tournaments will require video surveillance systems, certified personnel, certified equipments etc.

“We’re holding talks with the poker federation and are considering holding tournaments as an alternative use of the space after the ban comes into effect,” said Timofei Belyayev, the financial director of the Kosmos casino.

Despite their sleek look, stunning graphics, and mesmerizing sounds addiction specialists say video slot machines have same addictive qualities as crack cocaine.

In relation to his plan to install three slot parlors in Massachusetts, the mental health and gambling fraternity has warned state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, that new machines provide such incredible gambling highs that they could lead to gambling addiction. After all, it already has been reported that some players wear adult diapers to avoid bathroom breaks while playing video slot games.

Now mechanical wheels with spinning fruits of yesteryears have been replaced by sleek looking, computerized machines, that come loaded with real-life animations, extravagant graphics and matching sounds. Video slot games operate at a frenzied speed and the decision of winning and losing just takes a few seconds.The speed at which the next game loads itself is equally overwhelming, which according to Bob Breen, director of the Rhode Island Hospital Gambling Treatment Program is equivalent to an intravenous drip of an intoxicating drug.

“When you sit in front of the slots, especially if it’s 24/7, there are no cues for you to quit,” he said. “There’s no time to stop and think. You’re getting that constant drip, and people describe it as being in the zone,” said Breen.

Countering the gambling industry’s argument about there being no correlation between the spread of video slot machines and addiction problems, Breen stated that gambling becomes pathological more quickly among video slot machine players than among people who bets on card games, races, sports or even lotteries.

If Breen is to be believed the development of pathological conditions among video slot game players just take one year, as opposed to five years for other types of gambling players and the main reason stated is the speed and the absence of any waiting period.

“What the research is telling us now is that addiction is a relationship between a vulnerable person and the object of addiction, which can be just about anything,” said Christine Reilly, Executive Director of the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders. She further added, “We don’t believe any one activity is more addictive than any other.”

Christine Reilly and Holly Thomsen, spokeswoman for the American Gaming Association have denied any correlation between the proliferation of video slot machines and gambling addiction by pointing to the unchanging figures of gambling addiction. According to reports, only about 1 percent of the population in the United States despite the growth in the gambling industry over the years.

After pushing for legalizing slot machines in order to support residents’ property-tax cuts in the state, Edward G. Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania has now gone public with his plan to install video poker machines at bars and restaurants in Pennsylvania.

In his statewide campaign to garner support for this plan, Gov. Rendell also visited universities and on Thursday at Millersville University tried to woo the citizens by pitching his plan as a way by which people can pay for their colleges.

The casino industry that has a vested interest in the failure of this plan didn’t seem very enthusiastic about the idea of installing video poker machines in bars and restaurants across the state. In their opinion if Gov. Rendell wants to go ahead with his plan of expanding gambling within Pennsylvania then he should consider table games, not video poker.

Table games are getting more support from the power-circle, referring to the Spectrum Gaming report that documented the negative effect of the video lottery terminals on the state casinos of West Virginia, and Rep. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomery County showed his loyalty towards table games.

“This is really a dollar-and-cents thing. I also don’t want to get into the business of robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Vereb.

Although table games seem to have much more support from officials and politicians than the video poker installations in bars and restaurants got, people seem to favour video poker more - at least the result of a Franklin & Marshall College poll suggests so. 58 percent of participants either strongly supported or partially supported the Governor’s move to legalize video poker to pay for their colleges.

Defending its move, the Rendell administration said that the state’s agenda is not to expand gambling, but to regulate the already present illegal video poker facilities in private clubs and bars of Pennsylvania, and open a new source of income for the state.

Table casino or video poker, whatever comes to Pennsylvania, the casino industry that spent millions of dollars to build slot parlors and to secure gambling licences is going to face the competition from 14,000 bars, restaurants and private clubs running in the state.

In the United States, everyone from the common man to the president is worried about the state of its economy. The desperate president is even trying to tighten the noose on the companies who are sending jobs outside the US in an attempt to revive the ailing economy; only time will tell if he will succeed or fail in this attempt. But for now, a piece of good news has arrived from the quarter where it was least expected.

The accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in its study found that legalizing gambling on the Internet in the United States can provide a rich source of revenue for the US government.

The accounting firm believes that if the US lawmakers succeed in regulating online gambling in the states then this industry will generate $52 billion in revenue over the next decade. The estimate shown in the study conducted by PWC about how much the US government can add to its treasury by regulating online gambling industry has risen by 20 percent over the 2007 estimate.

This news might bring some relief to the government who has almost forgotten the way to generate cash; the government only seems to know how to spend its reserves. This move might not get much support from the far right but if the recent election is an indication of anything then the rest of the United States will say, yes we can.

“Americans have spoken out and what they are saying is that they want the right to legally gamble online. No matter what laws are passed in the US, it will not stop Americans from spending their leisure time at online casinos,” said Neil Schwartz, an observer.

As people in the United States claim, they don’t have much respect for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) imposed upon them and defying this law they actively partake in rotating online roulette wheel. One representative, Barney Frank, accepts this populist mood and is taking this cause forward.

Representative Frank is preparing an updated version of a past bill that he had proposed. If this bill gets approved UIGEA will be revoked and Internet gambling will be legal in the United States and people will be allowed to legally spin a win. This time Frank believes that the wind is blowing in his favour, and the bill will get approved.

Mr. Obama, this is the time to say, Yes We Can!

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has warned Las Vegas casinos against gamblers using iPhones or the iPod touch devices seeing the possible use of these trendy gadgets for counting cards in Blackjack.

A new application, Blackjack Card Counter, developed for the iPhone and the iPod touch platforms has alarmed the Las Vegas Casino owners and they are stealthily hunting for the suspicious gamblers.

The officials of the Nevada Gaming Control Board believe that the ‘blackjack card counting‘ application has a reliable method for calculating the True Count – the method used to ascertain the proportion of high to low cards in a deck.

What is causing more worry for casino owners is the fact that this application can work even in the stealth mode, which means even if the screen of the device is off the user can use the application to count cards, provided the user knows where the buttons are located.

This news might have created garboil in casino circles but the developer of this killer app seems unconcerned; rather, to be more precise, he is reaping the rewards from all the free publicity the application is getting.

“Since the Nevada Gaming Control Board warned casinos … there’s been an unprecedented demand for this app,” quoted the developer of Blackjack Card Counter application. Riding the wave of confusion and excitement, the developer is even offering a temporary discount to ensure the maximum penetration among gamblers with iPhones or iPod touch devices.

The absence of a legal disclaimer about the usage situations of Blackjack Card Counter might put its developer in trouble. This is not the only application that should give sleepless nights to the casino operators, but a similar application, Card Counter, is equally a threat.

However, Card Counter comes with a disclaimer that ‘its use at a casino table is illegal and that its purpose is to teach users how to card count legally,’ which might save it from getting into legal difficulty at least in Nevada where counting cards is illegal only when a device is used to do the counting. Counting cards without a device may not be illegal in Las Vegas, but usually the casinos throw the suspected card-counter out of their premise.

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