News

Tuesday, 14 June 2011 02:48

This year's World Series of Poker tournament being held in Las Vegas is a shadow of its former self with notable absences from all the top US players.

Since the DoJ's slam dunk on the top three online poker websites in April on the Black Friday of the poker world, the US based cream of the crop have either decided to stay away voluntarily or have had that decision made for them. What is preventing many players from attending this year's extravaganza in Las Vegas is a serious cash flow problem. That problem comes from having their bank rolls locked in the deposit accounts of one of more of the three online poker companies that have yet to pay their members what they are owed.

This is nothing to do with gambling winnings, but the large sums of money left on deposit at Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars or Absolute Poker. These companies have promised to pay back those deposits but so far have failed to do so to many top professional poker players. As a result, most players simply do not have the extra cash available to stump up the $10,000 buy in for the tournament.

The most notable absence is Phil Ivey, who has taken a stand against the owners of Full Tilt Poker by handing them a lawsuit for breach of contract. Ivey is one of the big crowd pullers of the tournament because of his calm, composed and calculative playing tactics. Players and spectators all love to watch Ivey play. Players love the chance of going up against him in a game and learning from a true master of the game, while for others, getting the slim chance of actually beating him attracts them like a moth to a flame.

The missing big names from the US will also have ramifications for media coverage, with an expected drop in audience numbers with the knock on effect of reduced revenue from advertisers. The game of poker is an integral part of the history of the United States and its popularity has never been greater.

Yet lawmakers in Washington are dragging their heels with the process of making the online game legal, which can only be good for the poker players along with the financial state of the nation. This is simply because the players will get a regulated industry that is safer with rogue offshore sites being squeezed out and the government will benefit from the revenue it can generate from the industry in taxes.