Inside Straight -- News

‘The Brunson 10’ Hopes to Take DoylesRoom to New Heights
Doyle Brunson’s Site Launches New Campaign Featuring Young Pros
By Stephen A. Murphy

Welcome to the all-new DoylesRoom.com — home of the legend and the next generation.

DoylesRoom.com is re-branding itself as the home of the next generation, and recently announced that it was launching a new campaign that features some of best and brightest talent that the online community has to offer.

The site has selected Alec Torelli, Amit Makhija, and Zach Clark as the first three members of an exclusive 10-member group called “The Brunson 10.” The seven remaining members will be selected and announced in the months ahead.

“It’s definitely just such an honor to be selected by them as one of the 10,” said Clark, the nephew of the late Chip Reese and the winner of nearly $2 million in tournaments. “I’m definitely going to try to live up to it.”

Torelli said the fact that DoylesRoom.com was focused on such a select group of representatives was a major reason that he decided to sign with the site.

“It’s really cool that it’s very exclusive. One of my big concerns about signing with a site was that these days, what’s another pro with a website? Everyone’s a pro on Full Tilt or Stars,” said Torelli, who made the final table of the World Series of Poker’s new $40,000 event this summer.

The Brunson 10 not only will wear DoylesRoom gear in live tournaments, but will advise the site on what it must do to become better. Clark believes that with the players’ input, the site can establish itself as one of the premier places to play.

“There are a lot of improvements that they can make and that they need to make, but there’s tremendous upside for them,” said Clark. “I see big things for DoylesRoom.”

The new pros are clearly psyched up to be on board with the biggest name in poker.

“We have the legend as our mentor,” said Torelli. “He’s just done so much for the game.”

World Poker Tour Sold to Gamynia Limited for $9.1 Million
Investment Vehicle Purchases Most of the WPT’s Assets
By Brendan Murray

World Poker Tour Enterprises, owner of the World Poker Tour, recently announced that it had sold most of its operating assets (other than cash, investments, and certain excluded assets) to Gamynia Limited for $9.075 million plus a percentage of future revenues from its WPT and Professional Poker Tour brands.

Gamynia will continue to operate WPT TV, sponsorship, distribution and licensing, and, significantly, aims to exploit and develop WPT brands in the online gaming market.

It has secured the services of “an industry-leading online gaming marketing company, Hardway Investments Ltd., which will seek to exploit and develop the WPT brands with the goal of maximizing future revenue opportunities.”

Hardway Investments counts Playtech and Titan Poker among its current clients.

Steve Lipscomb, president and CEO of WPT Enterprises, said, “We believe this transaction will enable the World Poker Tour to realize its full potential across both its existing businesses and the lucrative online gaming market. Gamynia and its partners possess highly complementary resources that will help it invest in and effectively integrate with the World Poker Tour efficiently and profitably.”

The poker industry has been awash with talk of consolidation in recent months, and the sale of WPT Enterprises is a clear example of this trend.

Concern Grows Over U.S. Attorney’s Poker-Related Lawsuit
Man Charged With Three Counts of Conspiracy
By Stephen A. Murphy

Online players at some of the biggest poker sites around have received checks for their winnings from companies such as KJB Financial and Account Services. Now, a U.S. Attorney is saying those companies never had the right to issue that money.

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed an indictment in early August against Douglas Rennick, allegedly the owner of several poker payment processors, for violating three counts of U.S. Code.

Rennick is alleged to have provided payment services to online poker players through several shell companies. He is being charged with fraud conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy, and gambling conspiracy.

Greg Raymer, the 2004 world champion of poker and a prominent member of the Poker Players Alliance, decried the indictment.

“Casino games aren’t illegal under any federal law for online gambling sites; only sports betting is,” said Raymer.

The 13-page indictment indicates that Rennick, a Canadian citizen, made payments on behalf of online companies for “different types of online gambling, including poker, blackjack, slot machines, and other casino games.” The indictment doesn’t address sports betting.

This is the same district court that seized more than $30 million in online poker funds in early June of this year.

With the charges levied upon him by the U.S. Attorney’s office, Rennick could face up to 55 years in prison.

The U.S. Attorney’s office claims that the $566 million is “property representing the amount of proceeds obtained as a result of the bank fraud conspiracy offense.”

Raymer predicts that these developments will have little or no effect on the immediate lives of online poker players in the U.S. Yet, he encourages poker players to write their members of Congress and to join the PPA if they haven’t already done so. **

Sen. Robert Menendez Introduces New Poker Legislation
Bill Would Tax Poker Sites and Establish 21 as Minimum Age to Play
By Stephen A. Murphy

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) introduced a bill in the Senate in August that seeks to regulate and tax online poker in the United States.

The bill would garner both federal and local revenue, while instituting consumer-protection safeguards and age-verification procedures to ensure that citizens under the age of 21 are not able to participate.

The 91-page bill, titled the “Internet Poker and Games of Skill Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act of 2009,” is much more specific than the poker bills that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this year.

While Frank’s bill applies to online casinos, lotteries, and bingo, Menendez’s proposed legislation deals only with games of skill, such as poker. Both bills continue to explicitly prohibit sports betting.

It is common procedure on Capitol Hill to introduce companion bills in both the House and the Senate, to speed up discussions on an issue.
Each approved and licensed poker site in Menendez’s bill would be responsible for paying a monthly tax equal to 10 percent of all of its American players’ deposits — of which 5 percent would be allotted to the federal government and 5 percent would be allotted locally.

In the bill, Menendez says that the government has a responsibility to regulate online poker “to prevent underage wagering and otherwise to protect vulnerable individuals; to ensure that games are fair; to address the concerns of law enforcement; and to enforce limitations on the activity established by the States and Indian tribes.”

The bill provides an opportunity for individual states to opt out of it, as well as a self-exclusion list for problem gamblers who voluntarily give up their right to play. The legislation also would fund a national campaign on gambling issues.