As was reported yesterday changes to online gaming laws have already affected live tournament coverag, tournament registrations are next.
Casino’s under advisement from their legal departments can no longer accept direct payment of tournament entries to tournaments from online gaming companies.
Their position is totally understandable, no one wants to put themselves and their business in a position where the full force of the US government could come down on them.
The problem for the involved parties is how do we ensure players still attend these events.
The casino’s have benefitted from the increased patronage brought on by online qualifiers.
And at the same time online poker rooms have benefitted from the huge number of players wanting to qualify for these live tournaments, all dreaming of being the next sanghoki Moneymaker.
Previously players who won seats to live tournaments had their buy-in paid for by their online sponsor, now since the casino’s can’t accept money from online poker rooms the situation would seem to be that satellite winners need to be given their tournament buy-in in cash and all parties must hope that they player decides to participate.
Just how much this inconvenience will affect registrations probably wont be clear until after this years WSOP. I think all poker related business’ are going to keep a close eye on the 2007 WSOP, its going to be a fair indicator of just how well poker can survive the changes in laws relating to the online form of the game, and the loss of the advertising revenue it provided.
Televised Poker games a dying breed
Former host of the World Series of Poker, Binion’s casino in Las Vegas was to host 52 weeks of nationally televised poker tournaments.
However, the filming of the The Ultimate Poker Challenge which was to be a year long series of events hosted by Binion’s has been cancelled.
With increased pressure on online poker rooms to pull out of the US, the advertising dollars they put into the game have followed their swift exit.
In the case of the Binion’s promotion, with no major sponsor, they have had to pull the plug on the cameras. Binion’s have offered assurances that the tournaments will still go ahead, just without the TV camera’s.
This announcement comes hot on the heels of the postponement of the previously scheduled filming of two popular poker shows, High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark.
Both shows had a sound stage at the South Point Casino booked for a week or more of filming this month, but both were put off to an indefinite future date. One of the shows has since re-scheduled a possible filming date for next month.
It would appear that the attack on online poker is now starting to affect other aspects of one of America’s favorite pastimes, and as far as television coverage the WPT or the WSOP could be next.
Cardplayer launches CardplayerTV
Continuing their strong poker coverage online, Cardplayer has recently added CardplayerTV to its features.
With great resolution, and an already growing number of videos to watch, it can only get better.
Articles include tournament coverage, player bio’s, game explanations and the nightly news styled “The Daily Deal”
