Harrah's Clarifies Stance on Online QualifiersNext Year's WSOP Field Will Probably Be Smaller Thanks to Law Change |
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With the signing of the Safe Harbor Act by President Bush today, more and more questions surround online poker sites and their US-based satellite entry tournament policies for World Series of Poker events.
Gary Thompson, director of communications for Harrah's, wrote in a letter acquired by Card Player:
"While we're still reviewing registration requirements, it's likely we will accept third-party registrations from entities such as charitable and civic organizations and offline tribal and commercial casinos in the US and abroad with whom we have licensing agreements to conduct WSOP satellites, as well as entities for which we have sponsorship agreements that run contests for their customers. We will most likely not be accepting third-party registrations from other entities. We will, of course, continue to accept registrations from individuals."
Card Player estimates that almost half of the more than 8,700 entrants in this year's main event earmed their buy-ins through online satelittes.
One response to the satellite issue comes from Full Tilt Poker. Instead of providing players with tournament buy-ins at the actual tournament, the site will now award cash payouts (for the value of the prize package) to players through their Full Tilt Poker accounts and let the players register for the tournaments on their own accord.
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