Florida State Bill 752 (SB 752) turned into a law this week, despite the absence of Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s signature. The said bill-turned-law will soon permit pari-mutuel card rooms to hold Texas Hold’em poker games and poker tournaments under more tolerant conditions than present.

SB 752 was approved by the Florida State lawmakers on 27 April.

Pari-mutuel card rooms that allow Texas Hold’em poker games will increase their bet limit to $5, in compliance with the law. Only games with buy-ins that are below $100 will be allowed to run without betting limits. Poker games will also be allowed to run in the said establishments for 12 hours each day. Should no races are scheduled to take place on the tracks, all these tournaments and games will still be held.

At the time of the bill’s passage, Florida Governor Charlie Crist has remained non-committal on whether he supports the expansion measures on gambling or not. He says, “It’s all in the eye of the beholder, I suppose”.

“It depends on whether or not they are things that already exist. I think my approach to it [will be] to see what passes, and then have a chance to evaluate it.”

As stated by the website of the Florida House of Representatives, SB 752 will be made effective on 1 July.

The European Union has joined Barbuda and Antigua in their demand for compensation from the US for not abiding by the global trade rules in line with its online gaming ban, Forbes announced.

Last year, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed by the United States to further the restriction on online gambling activities, which some contend, are not technically illegitimate. This new law obliged various British gaming operators which include PartyGaming Plc., PartyPoker.com’s operator, to shut off business with the American market.

The fact that around half the globe’s online gamblers are US-based and that it has around $15.5 billion market worth, the restriction is a substantial loss of revenue for any country with companies investing in the industry of online gambling.

The US has agreed to be a member of the World Trade Organisation’s rule on online gambling ban which is set out since the establishment of the organisation.

The US is working on a process to change their agreement with the organisation to exclude online gambling, instead of complying with WTO’s ruling against it.

Measuring the loss of the European businesses will be the first move in the negotiations, before working on concessions. In line with this, steps have also been taken by the US to amend its online gambling laws, including a legislation introduced this year bidding to regulate and legalise online gambling.

A “reasoned decision” was released by the European Union (EU) against France and Sweden. Both countries insisted on removing state-run gambling operations that discriminate against privately-owned and Internet-based companies based in other EU countries. Unibet’s cycling team sponsorship is also in question. "In the French situation, on the basis of the national legislation under inquiry, criminal sanctions have been threatened or imposed on the chief executives of sport betting companies licensed in other Member States. The legislation in question has also impacted sponsorship agreements in football, and more recently has resulted in a ban on participation in races by a cycling team".

An official EU statement said, "The European Commission has taken action to put an end to obstacles to the free movement of sports betting services in France, Greece and Sweden. The Commission has formally requested France and Sweden to amend their laws[...]. These formal requests take the form of 'reasoned opinions', the second stage of the infringement procedure laid down in Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If there is no satisfactory reply within two months, the Commission may refer the matter to the European Court of Justice".

The EU also commented, "In the Commission's view, existing national operators cannot be regarded as non-profit operations, given that they are subject to strict annual revenue targets and often rely on commercial retail outlets to market their various gambling services."

Italy and Austia have agreed with the EU’s directives. France and Sweden are still under the EU’s process of investigation.

The global poker game phenomenon is moving through the world’s most wonderful casinos as the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) enters Europe.

PokerStars hosts some of the largest Internet tournament in the world. EPT poker tournament events happen in Dublin, Vienna, Paris, London and Barcelona.

The Grand Final of PokerStars tournament is scheduled on 15-19 March 2005, and will be conducted in the beautiful Carlo Casino in Monaco. The prize to be given for this event is expected to be over EUR 2 million. Out of this total prize, over EUR 1 million will be given to the winner.

PokerStars EPT Executive Producer John Duthie said, “Finally, Europe will host a premier poker tour, as the EPT is the first pan-European poker tournament series. All across Europe, from casinos to online sites like PokerStars, interest in poker is booming, so it’s only natural to provide a circuit for the serious European poker player”.

The final event will include 10 runners-up and finalists chosen from the preliminary events. Those contestants will then battle for the EPT Series 1 Grand Champion title.

Players from different countries around the world also have a chance to join in the Grand Final. Internet satellite competitions for the final event are organised to be played on the PokerStars.com. Winners of these satellite games will be given the same amount of prize given to the live tour winners.

At Dublin, 195 players prepared for the start of European Poker Tour Stop’s Day One ‘A.’

The host for the said tournament is the Regency Hotel, which prepared a large tournament area with plenty of rooms for the poker players as well as the media. Unlike many European Poker Tour Stops, the hotel prohibited smoking at the tournament so that the players will not have ashtray-like smell upon leaving the area.

The tournament officials also implemented the ‘CardRoom Magic,’ a new system that will manage the entire tournament from the start until the end. The system also announces the break schedules, new blind levels, and many more. This new system has been approved by the British Gaming Control Board, and it is already being used throughout Europe.

On the other hand, majority of the main games are scheduled on Day One ‘B,’ which will be held tomorrow, but some of the big players decided to ‘have a look’ at the poker room today. Ram Vaswani played Chinese poker and he gave tips to his tablemates, while Greg Raymer did some freerolls.

At the end of the day, only 49 out of the original 195 players managed to make it for Day One ‘B’. Having a chip count of 117,400, Jonas Helness from Norway is the chip leader. Some of the European poker players that made their way for Day One ‘B’ include Roy 'The Boy' Brindley, Paul Testud, Andy Black, Johnny Lodden, Marc Goodwin, Kevin Breesey, Stuart Fox, and Joakin Hammar.

The European Poker Tour (EPT), sponsored by PokerStars announced its fourth Season from 2007 to 2008, including Bahamas as its new venue. It describes the place as the “most relaxing stop” of the series of poker tournaments. An increase in the buy-ins of the tournament has also been implemented to avoid what took place in the third season, wherein the sell-out attendance nearly reached 3,500, resulting to a grand prize of almost 27 million Euros.

John Duthie, EPT founder stated that they have increased the buy-ins across the board to 8,000 Euros. The decision is based on limited number of people who can be accommodated the EPT venues and the fact that the 10,000 Euro EPT Grand Final - is most expensive event - proved so popular.

Duthie also announced the inclusion of PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) at the Bahamas’ Atlantis Casino Resort in Season 4’s schedule.

The Bahamas is added to the tournament’s full schedule, featuring stops in various European cities including Barcelona, London, Dortmund (Germany), Baden (Austria), Copenhagen, Dublin, Warsaw, Prague, with the EPT Grand Finals to be held in Monte Carlo, yet again.

Season 3 saw not only a large turnout of players, but also formidable poker players from the United States journeying across the Atlantic to participate in the EPT events. In fact, Gavin Griffin, an American, was the one who won the grand prize of 1.8 million Euros in EPT’s Grand Finals.

The results of a study that Everest Poker commissioned Jupiter Research have yielded some interesting results.

The study which was aimed at examining the attitudes of poker players in six European nations was conducted through an online survey which was joined in by almost 2,000 consumers in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, and Italy.

According to the resulting demographics, European poker players are 25- to 34-year-old males who have an annual income of 35 euros. Results from southern European countries revealed that poker is still a predominantly male game as 70% of all online and offline players surveyed were male while Spain and Italy indicated that 80% of their players are male. The countries that have greater female representations were France and Germany with 34% and 31%, respectively.

The average age of the online poker players of 25 to 34 is indicative of the general trend in France, Italy, Sweden, and Spain while Germany proved to be the exception to the rule as its poker players included a big percentage from an older age bracket.

Holding true for all countries covered by the survey, the average household income of poker players in Europe is below 35,000 euros annually. But in so far as the industries in which the poker players work, the results varied for each country. For example, while seven percent of the respondents from France work in the professional and consulting industries, seven percent of the poker players in the Netherlands work in the field of education.

European poker pro Harry Demetriou was sent out from both the table and the venue of the $2,000 No Limit Hold'em event after witnesses saw him arguing over some rules.

Demetriou was escorted out when he shouted loudly and angrily at a floor person during the early beginning of the tournament.

The heated argument sprouted when Demetriou felt there was a serious irregularity in the game’s structure as published which prompted him to ask for a refund on his buy-in. It happened after Demetriou was already playing for like 15 minutes already and that it was decided to remove four stacks from each table which made the players to take on a 6-handed shoot-out.

The manager demonstrated an obvious disagreement with Demetriou’s demand and instead ordered the player’s disqualification and eviction out of the hall with escorts.

After nearly an hour of delay, Demetriou was able to speak with a senior WSOP executive who insisted a reconsideration of the rules after admitting that the eviction had been an error and therefore Demetriou should be reinstated and be refunded of his buy-in.

He readily accepted the offer but requested a productive meeting with WSOP tournament director on enhancing channels of communication.

At the end, an agreement was arrived at where a player’s consultation booth was formed to provide proper venue for players to voice out their concerns.

Demetriou said he is already unsure of his future support for the tournament because of what had happened which he describes as a form of disregard to the players’ demands.

The battle for European poker supremacy takes place next month at the Casino Star City in Birmingham, and team-nation representatives are ready to give their all for their home countries.


About 42 players from France, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales will battle it out for two consecutive days, playing today's hottest game, No Limit Texas Hold'em. The players are set to bring their A-game, hoping to take down individual cash prizes and bragging rights for their country.


Sky Sports will broadcast the entire event in March 2006 and will be broken down into six hour-long episodes. With the national loyalty of Europeans, this heated action should see great ratings and will give more reason for European countries to dislike one another.

The 42 players will have to ride the wave of the cards that will flow relentlessly throughout the day if they want to make it to the final event. Only three players will make it to the final table and get the cash. The third place will take home €20,000 ($23,400), second will earn €30,000 ($35,100) and the first place will take home €50,000 ($58,600).

To sweeten the pot, the hosts have offered the country with the most accumulated player points by the end of the tournament, €110,000 ($128,900), and a share in the first-ever Poker Grand Slam title.

Players that qualify through paddypowerpoker.com can play, but several pros such as Gary Jones, Donnacha O'Dea, Chris Bjorin Dave Colclough, and Ivan Donaghy, can also be seen in the action.

The court of the European Union in Luxembourg has ruled in favour of Gibraltar's state. It has allowed Gibraltar to impose a 15% corporate tax in the profits of companies along the coastline. Gibraltar is a tourist destination that includes an industry for online gaming as a base for operations of the British territory.

The said ruling served as a response to the European Commission’s challenge that its objection was based on Gibraltar's fiscal autonomy from United Kingdom. It was in 2002 when the new system on corporate tax was proposed by Peter Caruana, Gibraltar's Chief Minister, for the territory. The European Commission (EC), charged the said companies because the territory is considered as part of the UK and they should be subject to corporate tax rates. Caruana has defended that the 1969 Gibraltar's constitution gives fiscal autonomy to the territory.

On the other hand, the challenge made by the European Commission has ended by the decision against Gibraltar in 2004. Their judgment has annulled that decision but the EU court dismissed the European Commission’s conclusion about the Gibraltar and its relationship with the UK. The EU court has drawn the 2006 decision on Azores’ tax regime that the political and administrative status of Gibraltar's is separate from the government of UK.

Meanwhile, the Gibraltar-based online gaming companies are PartyGaming, 888 Holdings and Mansion and it is said that they are listed in London Stock Market. This industry has employed 12% or more of the territory’s overall workforce.