Haden Ware and the rest of the gang at the World Sports Exchange were never afraid of being industry pioneers. From the time they first took a wager through their online sportsbook 10 years ago, they were determined to make it the best available to their customers.
Through word of mouth – few dollars were spent on advertising – the sportsbook became one of the leaders in the new industry. Its simple, straightforward website appealed to serious bettors, and still does, Ware said. Its World Poker Exchange room was founded in 2001 because its sports bettors requested one. Now, World Poker Exchange is making a push to revolutionize the online poker industry by introducing its no-rake policy. By going rake-free, it maintains the spirit that helped bring the poker room online in the first place.
"It was really all designed around being a community," Ware said. "We figured, why not just give it to the players."
This move follows the site's sponsorship of last year's London Open, of which the second installment will take place this autumn. Qualifying events will take place at World Poker Exchange. This year's London Open has a projected $3 million prize pool. Last year's event had a $2 million guarantee (something WorldPX believed was needed as a first-time event), but fell 60 players short of the number needed to generate the $2 million prize pool. Ware did something that would make other men wince; he pulled out his checkbook and covered the $600,000 gap, just like that.
But then again, Ware and the rest of the men responsible for the World Sports Exchange and the World Poker Exchange have a history of going to bat for their customers and the industry they support. They have been indicted by the U.S. government and are still in the middle of a dogfight that will either allow residents of this country to legally make wagers online or make criminals out of many Americans. Ware hasn't been back in the United States for eight years. Another colleague spent 21 months in jail, and yet they still keep moving like a bunch of sharks that surely swim in the waters of Antigua, where the business is located, where Ware makes his home, and where no-rake poker begins.
No Rake for the Weary
On April 4, the World Poker Exchange (WorldPX.com) changed its policy and announced that its tables could now be considered rake-free. This is not a gimmick. World Sports Exchange will not make any money from its poker site. Players will not be charged to play at WorldPX.com. The site's able to do this because it doesn't depend on poker as its sole revenue stream.
"It's completely free, there's no strings attached," said Ware, who is the World Poker Exchange's managing director. "We're in a unique position to do this. Our hope in this, and the business logic behind it, is that our poker players who enjoy other wagering products will enjoy our other gaming products, as well."
Under WorldPX.com's "no-rake" program, the rake for both cash games and tournament play will still be collected as players play, but at the end of each week, 100 percent will be refunded to players' accounts.
"Really, in essence, every WorldPX.com player becomes a shareholder in the poker room," Ware stated. "We consider ourselves pioneers and trendsetters, so we're hoping this will take off."
As many poker players know, rake is the hidden goblin that is always nibbling at one's bankroll. It takes a bite out of each and every pot a player manages to win. It's how online and brick-and-mortar cardrooms continue to operate. Curious players can find a link to the calculator at WorldPX.com that estimates just how much money is raked weekly. The calculator gives estimates for players at all stakes. It's worth visiting the site just for this feature.
Although the new no-rake policy may be the biggest change that the folks at WorldPX.com are making to attract more players to the site, it's hardly the only reason players might want to check it out. Single-table and multitable tournaments are spread 24 hours a day, no-limit hold'em games start at $25 buy-ins and go up to $400, and limit games start as low as 10¢-20¢ and go all the way up to $30-$60.
WorldPX.com is the only place on the net to qualify for a $10,000 London Open entry. This year, officials are expecting 300 players for the event that will be held at the Whitehall Palace, and if that happens, a prize pool of $3 million will be generated. Qualifiers for the open are scheduled to begin at WorldPX.com in June.
Not everything has been easy for Ware and the founders of World Sports Exchange. While the owners of other online sites choose to sit on the sidelines as the fight to make sure online gambling remains accessible to the residents of the United States, World Sports Exchange officials have risked their personal safety in order to fight for their industry.
In the Ring
The U.S. government has repeatedly tried to stop online gambling by indicting online bookmakers, threatening media outlets for running advertisements, and passing new laws to end online wagering in the United States. As it stands, billions of dollars are still wagered by U.S. residents every year.
Ware is invested heavily in this case, and it goes well beyond simple finances. He and fellow World Sports Exchange founders Steve Schillinger and Jay Cohen were indicted by the Department of Justice in 1998 for violating the Wire Act, a law that was created in the '60s to target interstate horse-race wagering among organized crime. It's this law that Rep. Bob Goodlatte is trying to revise to curb online gambling. One of the reasons Goodlatte has said online gambling needs to stop is the lack of regulation within the industry, but, in fact, WSEX is licensed in Antigua, which accepts and supports the online gambling industry wholeheartedly.
"If politicians knew that a large majority of the public was against this bill, I think it would make a difference," Ware said.
While Schillinger and Ware remained in Antigua, Cohen returned to the United States to fight the charges. But the courts agreed with the DOJ in 2000, and Cohen was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He lost his appeals and began his sentence in 2002. Ware and Schillinger haven't been back to the United States since they were indicted, and they still believe they are innocent of violating any current law. Every five years, the DOJ reiterates its stance and renews the indictment.
"None of us would have embarked on this project if we thought it would be illegal," Ware said. When the indictments came down, Ware, Schillinger, and Cohen had to make a choice about how public their fight would become. It was an easy one to make. The men decided to fight the government not only through the courts, but through interviews and articles explaining why they believed they're not violating any laws.
"It's a choice we chose to take; otherwise, we felt this industry would continue to always be on the defensive."
David Versus Goliath
A new chapter in the fight to support online gambling continues to be written, and World Sports Exchange, as a member of the Antigua Offshore Gaming Association, is immersed as deeply in it as anyone else. In 2003, Antigua, which has been a member of the World Trade Organization since 1995, filed a complaint that the United States had violated WTO rules by trying to prohibit people in the United States from gambling on Antigua-based sites.
Antigua also claimed that the U.S. government was discriminating against Antigua-based companies by threatening lawsuits against magazines and media outlets if they accepted advertising dollars from them. Despite the complaint, the DOJ continued to pass out "informational" subpoenas that told media outlets that they may be subject to court action if they continued to run ads for offshore gaming companies. To top it off, DOJ officials said that placing an online wager isn't prohibited at a federal level.
In April 2005, the WTO agreed with Antigua and told the United States that these preventive actions violate WTO agreements. It also rejected the U.S. claim that it is allowed to prohibit its residents from accessing offshore gaming operations because it's a moral issue. The WTO court pointed out that residents in states like New York can use their telephones to place bets at the state's off-track betting sites, negating the claim. A WTO appellate court upheld Antigua's victory later in the year, and gave the United States until April 3, 2006, to comply with the ruling. As the date came and went, the United States had done nothing, and has only said that it disagrees with the ruling. Antigua now has the option of imposing trade sanctions against the United States, but as the smallest country in the WTO, the sanctions would do more damage to the island nation than good, and would come off as merely symbolic.
"If larger countries are able to ignore rulings against smaller countries, the system is flawed and needs to be changed," Ware said.
If the United States wholeheartedly accepted the WTO's ruling, it would essentially stop politicians from trying to pass anti-gambling laws and the DOJ from handing out subpoenas, but that's not going to happen. The government remains silent about the ruling now, but politicians and the DOJ continue to pursue avenues to stop online wagering from continuing in the United States.
Ware and World Sports Exchange are determined to fight for the legitimacy of their industry. Lawsuits against media outlets that, in Ware's words, are forced by the DOJ to "discriminate" against the online companies based in Antigua may be filed in order to force the government and the courts to explore this issue.
And every month, Antigua will go to the WTO and "cry bloody murder" about the United States' silence. Ware and those who enjoy playing online are counting on that voice to be heard.
Maybe the government should buy a clue from Ware and the rest of the gang at WorldPX.com who are willing to bend, adapt, and try new things to make their business better. No-rake poker is one venture they believe will strengthen their company. It's never been done, but that has never stopped them before. They know it's something online players want, so they gave it to them, and that's a good thing. 
