More support for Barney Franks’ attempt to regulate online gambling in the USA.
 
The
latest American politician to join the fight against the unpopular
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act by signing on as a
co-sponsor for Congressman Barney Franks’ HR 2046 Internet Gambling
Regulation and Enforcement Act is Representative Steve Cohen.
 
Representative
Cohen hails from the Memphis – Shelby County in the state of Tennessee
and becomes the 39th sponsor of a move to license, regulate and tax
online gambling in the United States which has been slow to gather
momentum but continues to gather political support.
 
A
politician with a public service record that dates back to the
’seventies, Cohen is a lawyer by profession who currently serves on the
House Judiciary subcommittees for courts, the Internet and Intellectual
Property and the Constitution and Civil Rights. He is also a supporter
of the attempt to legalise poker as a skill game proposed by
Representative Robert Wexler.

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Antigua and Barbuda will on Thursday outline its case before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) arbitrators in the ongoing Internet gaming dispute with the United States.

The government of Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer is seeking US$3.4 billion in trade sanctions against the United States after it banned cross-border Internet gambling.

On Thursday, a three-member panel of arbitrators will hear oral arguments in Geneva from both sides before making a ruling. Officials say a decision is expected on November 30.

Earlier this month, the Antigua government filed a motion with the WTO requesting the suspension of concessions and other obligations.

The 53 page document outlined the country’s rationale that in the absence of Washington agreeing to follow its original WTO commitments, lifting copyright law is the only way the country could be fairly compensated for losses.

Though the Spencer administration has signalled a willingness to negotiate an amicable settlement, Washington is yet to give any indication that it is prepared to come to the bargaining table.

“So far, we have been the only ones willing to negotiate, and it takes two to get a deal done. That is what we have always been wanting to happen. Hopefully, they will come around and see that it is the best and right thing to do,” Antigua’s lead attorney Mark Mendel said.

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Amid the rising popularity of poker, the Oceanside City Council voted last night in support of more card-room tables in the city.

The council voted 4-1 to change the city’s gambling ordinance and to eventually increase the number of tables allowed in the city from 45 to 56. The ordinance would affect any card room in the city, but as of now it applies only to Ocean’s Eleven on Brooks Street just off Interstate 5 – Oceanside’s sole card room. It also is the only card room in North County not associated with a tribal casino.

More tables means more revenue for the city, which receives $2,000 per table annually plus 4 percent of the card room’s gross. Ocean’s Eleven brings in about $27 million a year, general manager Bob Moyer said before the council meeting. Four percent of that amount would mean more than $1 million in revenue to the city annually.

“Our business on Friday nights has exceeded the number of tables,” he said, because the popularity and television exposure of Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments have drawn new gamblers to the game.

Councilwoman Esther Sanchez cast the dissenting vote, saying she is unhappy with casino patrons parking on other businesses’ property.

Other council members said parking problems will be discussed when the city Planning Commission holds a public hearing on whether to give the casino a conditional-use permit for the extra tables.

The council emphasized that the tables cannot be put into play until the commission acts.

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Gamblers will soon be able to play round-the-clock poker at West Virginia’s two Northern Panhandle tracks.

Both Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort and Wheeling Island Racetrack & Gaming Center will be allowed to start offering poker games to the public starting Friday, state Lottery Director John Musgrave announced Thursday.

The decision followed days of strenuous review and observation by Lottery regulators stationed at both tracks, he said.

Mountaineer President and Chief Executive Officer Ted Arneault says the Chester track will open its River Poker Room at Mountaineer at 4 p.m. Friday.

Wheeling Island’s poker room opening is set for 10 a.m. Friday.

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from the Los Angeles Times:

In other actions Wednesday, Schwarzenegger rejected SB 152 by Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter), which would have
allowed a 45% increase in the number of gaming tables that some card
clubs could operate without requiring voter approval. The bill, he
said, would have created “a significant exemption to the current
moratorium on expanding local gaming establishments.”

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On a good night, players crowd the poker room at Salem’s Rockingham Park, wagering thousands of dollars on Texas Hold ‘Em, 7-card Stud and Omaha Hi-Lo. It costs at least $20 for a seat at a table; some games require $250 to buy in. Dozens of tables spread across the space that can hold up to 85.

This is the face of charitable gaming in New Hampshire.

While state lawmakers debate gambling – prompted by an effort to legalize slot machines – an evening at Rockingham Park shows that millions of gambling dollars are already changing hands in New Hampshire.

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Taken from: VillageSoup/Waldo County Citizen

Maine State Police broke up an illegal “Texas Hold-Em” poker game last weekend at the Bath Country Club. Two detectives from the licensing division interrupted the game, which involved about 50 players. Police seized $2,377 and a list of participants. No charges have been filed, but game organizers could face charges and the club may be cited for violating its liquor license by serving alcohol during the illegal gambling. A new law went into effect Sept. 20 that allows the game to be held in Maine, providing organizers obtain a license. So far, six licenses have been issued. The game in Bath was not one of them.

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Press Release:

Harvard Law School’s new student-led Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) and a leading Harvard professor have scheduled a series of lectures and conferences to examine the role of poker in the law and education.

The lectures, open to the media and to take place at 5 p.m. in Room 102 of Hauser Hall on the law school campus at 1563 Massachusetts Avenue, will begin on Monday (October 15) and continue for the remainder of the Fall Semester. They are being sponsored by Harvard’s Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, which is organizing student poker societies on university campuses nationwide, and Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson, who is focusing on the study of poker as an academic exercise.

More information on the lecture series can be found at http://www.gpsts.org.

Events scheduled thus far include:

Poker: A Game of Truth In Life and Law (to take place at 5 p.m. on Oct. 15) features Crandell Addington, co-founder of the World Series of Poker and a member of the Poker Hall of Fame, and Howard Lederer, a professional poker player who has won millions of dollars in prize money. They are going to examine how the game of poker mirrors the challenges of life in terms of risk- taking, management skills, decision-making, and strategic thinking. Moderating the lecture and adding insights will be Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson, the founder of the Berkman Center on Internet Law and Society, and Andrew Woods, a Harvard Law student and the director of Harvard’s student poker club (called the Poker Strategic Thinking Society).
This lecture will take place on Oct. 15 at 5 p.m. in Rm. 102 of Hauser Hall.

Law as Rhetorical Poker: Antigua v. USA in the WTO (to take place at 5 p.m. on Oct. 16 in the same location) focuses on the current international trade dispute over online gaming that pits the tiny island nation of Antigua against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization. The W.T.O. recently ruled that the U.S. has violated its international treaty commitments by barring overseas online gaming operators from the U.S. market. The implications of this novel case will be discussed by Simon Lester, an expert in international trade law; Steven Donziger, a lawyer involved in aspects of the W.T.O. matter who will discuss asymmetrical litigation strategies (when a seemingly weak litigant like Antigua is able to defeat a more powerful adversary, such as the U.S. government); and Jonathon Cohen, a lawyer and communications strategist.

The Educational Value of Poker, an academic conference in Austin Hall on Nov. 10 that will feature Jim McManus, Mike Sexton, and Dr. Alan Schoonmaker. McManus will present his new book “The History of Poker”, analyzing past American luminaries, from senators to presidents to generals, for whom poker has been a significant aspect of their education. Poker celebrity Mike Sexton will discuss the explosion of the popularity of poker, the lessons that poker teaches, and the manner in which the intense
popularity of poker makes it possible to reach students. Alan Schoonmaker will present his article, co- written with David Sklansky, “Poker is Good for You”, analyzing the lessons of poker. The conference will be open, and anyone interested in the study of poker and in investigating the utility of poker is encouraged to attend.

The lecture series began on Oct. 9 with an examination of a Department of Justice policy to prosecute companies in the online gaming industry, which operates legally in most of the world except in the U.S. The lecture featured a debate between criminal defense lawyer Harvey Silvergate, trial and appellate lawyer Matt Feinberg, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Law Alex Whiting. The lecture was titled The Principle of Law and Prosecutorial Abuse of IT and examined prosecutorial power in eliciting guilty pleas.

In explaining the lecture series, Professor Nesson said: “The conflict between the U.S. government and the growing online gambling industry is a timely issue for law students interested in the impact of international treaties on domestic U.S. law, and Internet freedom and regulation.”

“I am excited that this lecture series will examine the complex legal and ethical issues relating to online gambling and poker, and will extend the Harvard Law classroom beyond the conventional setting via the Internet and Second Life,” added Nesson, who founded the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) and who has been a tenured faculty member at Harvard for more than three decades.

More about the lecture series

The lecture series forms part of a larger experiment in opening up legal education to a worldwide audience. Taking advantage of new technology, each lecture will be produced in successively more complex ways in order to engage with a cyber audience, culminating in a live webcast into Second Life. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening in 2003, it has grown explosively and today could accommodate small classrooms of students from around the world. Welcome to Poker University coming to you from Berkman Island.

About Charles Nesson

Charles Nesson is the William F. Weld Professor of Law, Harvard Law School and Founder and Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He is joined on the GPSTS board by Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, who is the author of Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace and a previous Berkman Professor of Law.

Click here to go to the press release.

Specific guidelines for charities trade one set of problems for another.   

Officers with the state’s newly created Gaming Control Division swooped into Kendallville this week, arresting people and confiscating cash and equipment allegedly connected to illegal gambling.

But if LaShonda Wilcox’s Para- dise Billiards had simply been a bit more “charitable,” she might be counting her share of the take today – not facing up to three years in prison.

The rise, fall and rising again of Fort Wayne’s Hold ‘em Palace – and its imminent marriage to the Jaycees – proves it.

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Westmoreland County attorney Larry Burns refuses to fold and insists his for-profit poker tournaments are legal in Pennsylvania.

But it wasn’t in the cards Tuesday for him to get back more than $11,000 in cash confiscated by police this summer.

Attorney Larry Burns told a judge yesterday that money he earned from organizing Texas Hold’em tournaments in Seward and Hempfield was not the proceeds of an illegal activity.

The 63-year-old Burns was charged earlier this year with misdemeanor gambling counts for running tournaments for a profit. Authorities confiscated about $11,000 in cash during raids of the Seward Volunteer Fire Department and Burns’ Derry Township home in August.

Prosecutors agreed to return to Burns about $2,000 in cash seized from his bedroom as well as nine books about poker and gambling.

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