{"id":6337,"date":"2011-04-15T14:14:07","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T22:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=6337"},"modified":"2023-01-23T06:55:46","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T14:55:46","slug":"pokergeddon-as-it-happens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/pokergeddon-as-it-happens\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Pokergeddon’ as it happens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Today’s Department of Justice<\/strong>\/FBI<\/strong> surprise attack on PokerStars<\/strong>, Absolute Poker<\/strong> and Full Tilt Poker<\/strong> is a story that’s moving so fast<\/a> that there’s scarcely time to mull or comment upon it. Almost nobody saw this coming<\/a>, although<\/a> Nathan Vardi<\/strong> of Forbes<\/em> was prescient<\/a>. PokerStars’ Nevada lobbyist-in-chief, Richard Perkins<\/strong>, was a veritable virtuoso of spin doctoring. Queried by the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> he basically said, “See? This proves<\/em> the need for an over federal solution!” Unfortunately, for the moment, the “federal solution” to online poker is a pair of handcuffs.<\/p>\n

Perkins’ allies, such as Steve Wynn<\/strong><\/a>, however, may find themselves high and dry — or at least facing tough questions about how much due diligence they performed before hopping into bed<\/a> with Internet<\/strong> casinos. Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> CEO Gary Loveman<\/strong> may look damn foolish, or at least politically tone deaf, for his insistence that federal-level legalization was just around the corner. But he was very smart to partner with a firm — 888.com<\/strong> — which has erected a ‘Chinese wall’ between its online-betting operation and U.S. customers.<\/p>\n

Besides, Caesars Interactive Entertainment<\/strong> CEO Mitch Garber<\/strong> has had a scrape or two with the feds himself, so he presumably knows the value of circumspection. Bottom line<\/em>: Caesars was careful. Wynn Resorts, etc., weren’t. (It looks like Scientific Games<\/strong>‘ new, online, joint venture is a bust right out the gate.) Also ruing the day are a Las Vegas<\/strong> man, as well as a Utah<\/strong> banker, both of whom were placed under arrest<\/a> for their alleged roles as intermediaries in a grander scheme.<\/p>\n

(Update<\/em>: As of this moment, Full Tilt is still operating full-blast in the U.S., according to a reliable source.)<\/p>\n

Payback’s a bitch<\/strong>. At the center of the sting is renegade entrepreneur Daniel Tzvetkoff<\/strong>, whom the G-Men flipped<\/a> after a high-profile arrest in Las Vegas (proving definitively that what happens here does not stay here). Ironically, Tzvetkoff was nailed while staying at Wynncore<\/strong>, supposedly ratted out<\/a> by his former online clients. From an undisclosed location<\/a>, Tzvetkoff traced the roundabout course of payments to various online casinos, enabling the G-Men to strike. A couple of his confederates may soon be singing like canaries, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"Back here in Nevada<\/strong>, Assm. William “Will Legislate for Junkets” Horne<\/strong> (D), a recent beneficiary of PokerStars’ considerable largesse, insists that it’s all systems go for his Internet poker bill<\/a>. As Jon Ralston<\/strong> tartly noted, “When in hole, stop digging” (especially since the junketeering of Horne and fellow solons might now be subject to legal scrutiny). In a further irony, Horne put the Perkins-penned bill into the hopper on the exact same day (March 10) that is date-stamped on the now-famous federal indictment. If not dead, the Perkins-Horne bill is essentially redundant since it has been amending to make any Nevada online-betting setup contingent upon legalization at the federal level.<\/p>\n

And what is the likelihood of Congress<\/strong> and the White House<\/strong> legalizing Internet gambling without federal regulation? Somewhere in the thousands of a percentile, I’d say. Gov. Brian Sandoval<\/strong> (R-NV), who has been one of the more sagacious voices in the debate, lost no time saying that “today’s federal action is a reminder of the complexity of the issue.”<\/p>\n

Translation<\/em>: Told ya so!<\/p>\n

Speaking of which …<\/strong> I always thought The New Yorker<\/em> had lost its marbles, jumped the shark, basically forfeited credibility when it ran a glowing ode to the financial genius<\/a> of Lenny Dykstra<\/strong>, a former baseball player not generally renowned for his acumen away from the diamond. Turns out that Dykstra may soon have a date with the Big House<\/a>. (And I don’t mean the one that John Boehner<\/strong> runs.) The supposedly astute Dykstra is alleged to have torn a sink and granite tiling out of his house so as to shield the furnishings from bankruptcy proceedings. “Nails” never fails, huh?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Department of Justice\/FBI surprise attack on PokerStars, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker is a story that’s moving so fast that there’s scarcely time to mull or comment upon it. Almost nobody saw this coming, although Nathan Vardi of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[113,28,7,22,37,33,25,32,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6337"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32238,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6337\/revisions\/32238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}