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Denmark Awards Online Poker Licenses
2011-12-18The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) has announced a list of operators that have been awarded licenses to operate online poker services in the country from January 1st, 2012.
Some of the top names in the online poker industry, including 888, Party Poker, Poker Stars (under the name Reel Denmark Limited, Red Club Poker, Entraction, Betfair, PKR, Ladbrokes and Unibet are included in the list of thirty eight licenses awarded by the Danish government. Scandic Bookmakers and Bet32 were also listed among other Ongame skins.
All in all,Denmarkhas awarded 55 licenses to 38 online poker operators.
Minister for Taxes in Denmark, Thor Moger Pederson, revealed that as from January 1st, 2012, the gambling market will be orderly and that they will ensure that holders of a betting and online casino license to operate on the Danish market will also contribute to the society.
In terms of the orderly market, any online gambling or poker operators who are caught offering their services to Danish players without a license after January 1st, 2012, are liable to have their website blocked byDenmark’s Gambling Authority and risk their payments being seized.
The Danish Tax and Customs Administration issued a press release in which Pederson was quoted as saying that the new and open gambling market inDenmarkhas been underway since the Parliament’s decision in 2010.
Pederson added that “On Tuesday next week, the Danish Gambling Authority will hold an information session for the new license holders to inform them about upcoming activities on the gambling scene. License holders will, among other things, be briefed on how the Danish Gambling Authority will monitor the Danish gambling market and how the Danish Gambling Authority will cooperate with gambling authorities in other countries.”
More than 180 “dot.dk” domain names will be permitted to offer online gaming to Danish customers with operators paying a 25% tax on gross profits.
It will be necessary for Danish residents to undergo a verification procedure before playing.
Sam Holden Wins Late Night Poker
2011-12-14Sam Holden, the 22 year old Team 888poker Ambassador has managed to take down the prestigious 2011 series of Late Night Poker TV Show. This win comes shortly after Sam, who hails from Canterburyin Great Britain, coming of an 8th place finish in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event when he won a whopping $782,115.
Viewers who watched the series on UK Channel 4 saw 32 players competing for a cash prize of $150,000 as well as the much sought-after Late Night Poker trophy. Padraig Parkinson, the former Late Night Poker Champion and quite a number of other world-class players also participated in the Late Night Poker TV Show.
Sam gave a spectacular performance in the series, taking down his heat in an intense style with $50,000 chips and a guaranteed seat at the final table. The young Brit then managed to make it to a heads up match against Luke Schwartz with a strong chip lead advantage.
After being dealt AJ against Sam’s KW, Luke’s chip stack went all in pre-flop. Sam called and a 9.10 and J on the turn gave him his winning straight to win the Late Night Poker TV Show.
This win makes Sam Holden the 10th champion of the Late Night Poker and one of the youngest players ever to win the trophy.
Sam has managed to bring a spot light on British poker by being named the “Last Brit Standing” in the World Series of Poker November Nine and his latest win of the long running UK Late Night Poker.
Sam will be joining several of the other Team 888poker ambassadors and online qualifiers at the 2012 World Poker Tour inDublinin January 2012, as well as at the 2012 Aussie Millions which is the second largest poker tournament in the world.
888poker.com is a leading online poker brand that hosts thousands of poker enthusiasts all over the world at any given time.
24 Poker has License Suspended by Kahnawake Gaming Commission
2011-12-06The Micrigaming Poker Network’s sudden announcement last week when it revealed that the Canadian based Kanhawake Gaming Commission regulatory authority had revoked 24 Poker’s gaming license on November 24, 2011, took many online poker players by surprise.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission took the action to take the 24 Poker site offline as a result of the many complaints received from both players as well as the authorities with regard to the online poker site’s lack of response to inquiries from them. The Gaming Commission has also revealed that it has issued a Show Cause Notice against 24 Poker giving the poker operator 30 days in which to respond.
In response to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission’s suspension of 24 Poker’s gaming license, Microgaming immediately issued a statement announcing that it had suspended the network on which its games were played and had blocked all game play on the 24 Poker website. Microgaming’s statement also revealed that the Kahnawake Gaming Commission as well as Microgaming was unsuccessful in their numerous attempts to contact the 24 Poker management team.
24 Poker describes itself as an online poker room that offers state of the art online poker software, including reliable transaction systems and professional 24 – 7 customer support. The poker room is operated by theStanley,CountyDurhamcompany BPR Services Limited in theUnited Kingdomand was granted a license by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission during 2004. The online poker site has since then had a very good track record with its license due to expire at the end of January, 2012.
Neither the Kahnawake Gaming Commission or Microgaming have as yet been able to make contact directly with the 24 Poker management and ownership team and poker players who were hoping to receive some details with regard to the revocation of 24 Poker’s license are, therefore, still being left in the dark.
The scenario is very familiar to poker fans who, not long ago, experienced similar issues with Full Tilt Poker whose licenses to operate from both the AGCC in the British Channel Islands and with Kahnawake in Canada, were also suspended
“12 Paydays of Christmas” launches at PaddyPowerPoker.com
2011-11-30PaddyPowerPoker.com is running the “12 Paydays of Christmas” promotion at the poker room this month during which time it will be awarding players with some great prizes that includes a Samsung Galaxy, an Xbos 360 Kinect pack and an Acer Netbook. Players are also offered an opportunity to win an amount of $3,000 in cold cash.
Those players wishing to participate in this great promotion that will commence on Wednesday, 30th November and continue until Friday, 23rd December, are required to opt in. There are 12 Poker Challenges taking place during the period of the promotion which will be followed by 12 Christmas Free-rolls which will each offer one amazing prize and $250 cash in the pot.
Players will be offered a different challenge every other day and entry into the Christmas Free-roll the following day will be granted to them once that challenge is met.
Entry into a final Christmas Free-roll which is due to take place on Friday, 6th January, 2012, will be granted to those players who have completed 10 or more challenges. There will be a massive $2,000 added to the pot of this final Christmas Free-roll.
Communications Manager for PaddyPowerPoker.com said “Christmas is just around the corner so we’ve decided it’s time to put on our Santa hat. Who wants a partridge in a pear tree when you can get your hands on an Xbox, iPod, Wii, Camera and much more on PaddyPowerPoker.com. Just log on each day, complete the challenge and you’ll automatically qualify for the following day’s Free-roll with great prizes. Happy Christmas from all of us atPaddyTowers”.
PaddyPowerPoker.com was launched in February 2005 and has since then taken the poker world by storm with it’s sponsorship of the Irish Poker Open. The online poker room offers players the opportunity to win over $3 million each month in their free to enter and guaranteed tournaments.
Jake Cody Signed up for Team PKR Pro
2011-11-21Next-generation online poker room, PKR.com, is thrilled to announce the addition of Triple Crown winning superstar, Jake Cody, to its Team PKR Pro squad of sponsored players.
Cody added a World Series of Poker bracelet to his European Poker Tour and World Poker Four titles thus making him the youngest of poker’s four Triple Crown winners. The twenty two year old currently has more than $3 million in lifetime earnings and is known to be one of the most accomplished poker players in the world after being active on the live tournament circuit for only three years.
Upon discovering poker for the very first time the twenty two year old superstar made a small online deposit of $10 and is very proud of the fact that he has succeeded in turning this initial investment into a small fortune without making any further deposits. Cody finds himself in the forefront of European poker after winning four major live titles and many other online tournaments.
According to Cody, he is thrilled to be joining Team PKR Pro as he has been waiting patiently for a long time to find the right sponsorship and said “When I spoke to PKR I was really impressed with the whole setup and the ideas that they have going forward, and I knew straight away I wanted to be part of it! It’s a great site to be involved with right now and I think I can help take it to the next level.”
PKR Poker is the most advanced poker room in the world, offering its players 3D graphics together with life-like avatars.
Cody will be joining Scott Shelly, Sofia Lovgren, Vladimir Geshkenbein, Sasha Walter, Marc Bariller on Team PKR Pro to become the official seventh member of Team PKR Pro.
The superstar, a native ofRochdale, took to the virtual felt as a bounty in two Bounty Day tournaments on Sunday evening.
Cody will be contributing to the PKR Community and will be representing PKR in the largest poker tournaments in the world.
WSOP Winner Paying no Taxes on Win
2011-11-16Twenty two year old Pius Heinz who is this year’s champion of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, will be able to benefit by a United States-German tax treaty whereby German players are exempted from payingUnited Statestaxes on any winning that they make from gambling. This will result in Heinz being able to keep every penny of the $8,715,636 first place prize. Heinz would have been required to pay 30% of his prize, amounting to approximately $2.6 million in taxes if the treaty had not been in place.
Denmark’s Peter Eastgate, the winner of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, was left with less than $3 million of his prize of $9.1 million after having to pay out a massive 72.77% of his prize to his home country.
The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2010, Jonathon Duhamel, was required to pay over nearly half of his $8.9 million win toCanada’s taxman. Duhamel was required to pay tax at a rate of 48% amounting to $4.3 million which left him with $4.6 million.
TheUnited Statesalso shares a tax treaty exemption with theUnited Kingdomand ninth place finisher, Sam Holden, was therefore able to keep all of his $782,115 in winnings. Unfortunately, the rest of the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event final table players are required to pay taxes on their winnings. A list of how much in taxes each November Nine player will be paying is set out below –
Country Before Tax After Tax Prize
Pius Heinz Germany $8,715,638 $8,715,638
Martin Stazko Czech $5,433,086 $4,618,123
Ben Lamb USA $4,021,138 $2,497,127
Matt Giannetti USA $3,012,700 $1,964,058
Phil Collins USA $2,269,599 $1,417,119
Eaoghan O’Dea Ireland $1,720,831 $1,025,813
Bob Bounahra Belize $1,314,097 $910.868
Anton Makievskyi Ukraine $1,010,015 $838,359
Sam Holden England $712,115 $712,115
Totals $28,279,219 $22,778,220
PokerStars Announces Launch of New World Record Attempt
2011-11-07PokerStars, the leading online poker room in the industry, recently announced that, although they are the holders of the current record of 149.106 players simultaneously playing in one online poker tournament, they intend to try and smash their own existing world record.
The poker room intends to hold a guaranteed tournament with a buy-in of only $1.00 on Sunday, December 4th when they will attempt to attract more than 149,106 players to the tournament.
PokerStars have guaranteed that the winner of the tournament will receive a guaranteed $50,000 with an extra amount of $10,000 in bonuses if they knock out any participating Team PokerStars players whether or not they smash their existing world record or not.
The Guinness World Records (previously known as The Guinness Book of Records) will oversee and confirm PokerStars’ attempt to break the previous record and will list the result in their esteemed database of “world bests”.
The tournament is due to commence at 5.30 pm GMT on Sunday, 4th December, 2011, and registration for this event has already opened.
Players wishing to participate in this tournament will find the event in the main tournament lobby and should follow the menu to >> Tourney >> Special and thereafter scroll down to “World Record”. The event will be run with 5 minute blinds and a minimum sized bubble of 12,150 and PokerStars will not accept any late registration for this tournament.
Those who are not yet PokerStars players and wish to register an account at the world’s number one online poker site should download the free software. New players can benefit from a 100% match bonus of up to $600.00 when making their first deposit and have a chance to qualify for several live tournament events and also take advantage of PokerStars’ 10th birthday celebrations next month. These 10th birthday celebrations will see PokerStars giving its players opportunities to win cash and prizes in numerous promotions.
Sky Poker offering First Ever UK Online Poker Series
2011-11-01Sky Poker, the popular poker firm, has announced that it will be featuring the very first UK Online Poker Series at the site with a poker festival that began on Monday, 31st October and will continue until Sunday, 6th November, 2011.
The poker festival will consist of eight events and this UK Online Poker Series will no doubt become one of the leading online poker circuits on theUKpoker scene. Online players are strongly encouraged to take up the opportunity of visiting Sky Poker.com in order to start winning as the event is offering a massive £140,000.
The poker festival commenced with a tempting £20,000 Bounty Hunter on Monday, 31st October which was the first of eight successive events which will all offer impressive jackpots.
Tuesday, 1st November saw a £10,000 Omaha event take place while a £10,000 Double Stack event will take place on Wednesday, 2nd November. On Thursday, 3rd players will enjoy a £25,000 High Roller, on Friday, 4th a £15,000 Rebuy while on Saturday players are being offered a £15,000 Turbo Rebuy & £10,000 No Limit Hold’em. The £40,000 Main Event will end off the festival on Sunday, 5th November, 2011.
UK Online Poker Series satellites can also be won by Sky Poker players for a very small buy-in. Players can avail themselves of these Satellites during the entire week for a mere £2.40.
British Sky Broadcasting’s online poker division, Sky Poker gives users an opportunity to play poker online on their website. Sky Poker then chooses selected hands from numerous cash games and tournaments on Sky Poker TV, thus giving players on the site an opportunity to become the stars of the TV channel. Sky Poker concentrates mostly onUKpoker players as well as on its own Sky Poker Tour around the country.
APAT UK Team Championship won by Gambling Network Forum
2011-10-27The Amateur Poker Association and Tour (APAT) United Kingdom Team Championships was held at the G Casino, Luton on 22nd to 23rd October, 2011 when twenty three eight-player teams drawn from some of the largest United Kingdom poker forums and communities participated in the event.
Players were once again treated to a 10,000 starting stack, 45 minute clock tournament so as to bring affordable deepstack poker to recreational players.
Half of the prize pool of £9,200 that was created by the 184 runners went to the top three teams (points scored for the top 50 finishers) while the other half of the prize pool went to the top individual finishers.
The Amateur Poker Association Tour once again provided added value to the winner of the United Kingdom Team Championship with aUnited Kingdomand Irish Poker Tour seat.
A packed season of Live and Online National Championships and leagues are enabling APAT members an opportunity to win added value. In addition, players are not required to pay any registration fee for any of the season’s seventy five amateur, professional and online tournaments.
Hetton Social League, Blonde Poker and Hendon Mob were the best performing teams in the very competitive early part of the APAT competition with not one of these teams losing a player until well into Day One play. Rob Swindels won a big pot against Alan Lake of Black Belt Poker in the last level.
Thirty five players remained at the end of the day with Black Belt Poker being the top scorers, due to finishes in the top 50 positions while six teams had three players remaining.
The competition ended with the Gambling Network Forum winning the 2011 APAT UK Team Championship and Nick Mazur of Black Belt Poker being the winner of the Individual element of the tournament.
Online Poker Player Jailed for Six Months for Murder Threat against Casino Staff
2011-10-20Subsequent to threats made by aUKonline poker player that he would murder staff of an online poker room for losses incurred by him, together with a little extra, the online poker player was jailed for six months.
The 35 year old unemployed online poker player, Michael Gallagher,l received the jail sentence after threatening to “blow the f***ing brains out of every single person who crosses my path at the online poker room company headquarters”.
Evidently Gallagher joined an online poker site in June 2010 and immediately lost between £15 000 and £20 000 ($30 000). After his loss Gallagher accused the (unnamed) poker site of dealing him week cards. The poker room tried their very best to console him and to provide him with explanations and answers but this did not satisfy Gallagher.
Approximately a year later, Gallagher, in a completely drunken state, emailed the poker site in the early hours of May 25, 2011, stating “I hope you take me seriously because I swear to God I’m going to do it. I will have my vengeance. I have planned this for six months. It’s what makes me sleep a night. Drifting off to sleep, thinking about what I am going to do, knowing full well that the butchering I do will get you exposed for what you are… I will gladly take a life sentence for that. Believe me, it will be my finest hour… $50,000 in my account, or believe me, you will all be dead”.
After sobering up the following morning, theUKonline poker player realized what he had done and immediately forwarded a new email to the poker site apologizing for his drunken tirade and requesting them to ignore his previous email.
However, in order to play it safe, the online poker company decided to report the extortion attempt and threats to the police and the apologetic poker player was promptly arrested.
Gallagher decided to plead guilty to a lesser charge and if he had pleaded guilty to blackmail he could have received the top sentence of 14 years in prison.
