A Web site promoting campus gambling and containing links to online poker sites uses the University of Massachusetts name and logo to promote itself, and school officials are demanding that it be taken down.

UMasspoker.com contains the trademarked UMass-Amherst lettering and Minuteman athletic logo and depicts the Minuteman peering over stacks of cash, dice, cards and poker chips. School officials will send a cease-and-desist demand to the site’s operators.

“If they don’t comply then we go to court,” school spokesman Ed Blaguszewski told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “The UMass name and logo are university property, and they cannot be used without the university’s permission. This Web site is not an appropriate use.”

The site appears to be operated by students and recent graduates, billing itself as an information exchange about poker strategy and cash games and tournaments on and off campus.

Brett Burdick, who graduated from UMass-Amherst last spring, said he’s been the site moderator for the past year.

“We never got any grief over it,” he told The AP in an interview. “There’s sites just like this all over the country on college campuses.”

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Despite sound reasoning, taking on gambling law not a good bet.

Up until a few weeks ago, Don Signore spent several nights a week
playing Texas Hold ‘Em poker in a league that rotates among south
suburban bars and restaurants.

The poker league was a nice social outlet for Signore, 44, helping
him get back in circulation after his wife died two years ago. Signore
never lost any money during the games. He never even wagered any.

In an effort to stay within the bounds of Illinois’ gambling laws,
organizers of the poker league charge no fee to play in their
tournaments, ban wagering and offer only nominal prizes to the winners
such as gift certificates from the host establishment.

And that’s why Signore can’t understand why the Illinois Liquor
Control Commission has effectively shut down the “free poker” league by
cracking down on liquor licenseholders that host the games.

“We should have a right to play as long as we’re not gambling,” says
an angry Signore, who lives in West Beverly and owns a catering
business.

State officials don’t quite see it that way.

Rather than trying to sort out those playing poker for fun from
those playing poker for money, they say it makes more sense to simply
prohibit poker tournaments in liquor establishments.

“Usually when you’re playing poker, you’re gambling,” says Ted Penesis, a spokesman for the liquor commission.

True enough, which is why we all start from a position of skepticism
about a “free” poker league. Doesn’t everybody play poker for money,
even if it’s just nickels and dimes? Why bother, otherwise?

For Signore, it was about the competition, improving his game and
making friends. The most he ever won was a $50 restaurant gift
certificate, although he’s proud that he has twice qualified for the
“final table” at the conclusion of the four-month league season. (The
league has three “seasons” a year.)

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Although a company wanting to run legal poker games has found locations in Milford and Brookline, it’s still betting it can find a suitable location in the city.

“We’ve always been interested in Nashua. We just want to find the right place,” said James Rafferty, president of New Hampshire Charitable Gaming.

That right place looks like it might be on Northeastern Boulevard.

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A Westmoreland County attorney already facing charges of unlawful gambling for holding Texas Hold’em poker tournaments at area fire halls was charged this week with holding three other tournaments in Seward.

State police are accusing defense attorney Lawrence J. Burns, 63, of 16 Romar Ave., Derry Township, with several counts of violating state gambling laws for holding illegal poker tournaments April 27, May 4 and Aug. 3 at the Seward fire hall.

Last month, state police charged Burns and his business partner, James L. Hricko, 41, of 1400 Swede Hill Road, Hempfield, with violating state gambling laws for holding tournaments in Hempfield and Seward. The first set of charges were filed before Hempfield District Judge Mark Mansour.

Since early August, state police have executed three search warrants in connection with the case, seizing almost $43,000 in alleged gambling funds, according to court records.

The Hempfield and Seward tournaments were advertised on a sign outside the fire hall and a Web site, www.riverloc.com, registered to Burns, the affidavit states.

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taken from Riverloc.com:

Go to Riverloc.com to see recent articles on the case.

The PPA Will Bring Members Face-to-Face with Elected Officials

In a little more than two weeks, the Poker Players Alliance will host a two-day policy conference in Washington, D.C., that will bring its members right to the people who will ultimately decide poker’s fate in the United States.

John Pappas, the PPA’s executive director, recently sat down with Card Player to talk about the conference. His interview follows the story.

PPA members who head to D.C. from Oct. 22-24 for the conference will attend seminars outlining the legality of poker and the ways to go to battle for poker at local levels. Then, PPA members will head over to Capitol Hill and meet face-to-face with their elected officials and staff members to tell them exactly how they feel about current laws concerning poker.

Some of the speakers already confirmed include Charlie Nesson, a law professor at Harvard; Sallie James, policy analyst for the Cato Institute; Keith Whyte, executive director for the National Council on Problem Gambling; and poker players Andy Bloch, Chad Brown, Barry Greenstein, Howard Lederer, Chris Moneymaker, Vanessa Rousso, and Victor Ramdin.

So far, just under 100 PPA members have registered. The PPA is hoping for 150, but isn’t going for just sheer numbers. Although the conference was announced to all PPA members, the PPA has been specifically targeting its members who live in what the organization has defined as key Congressional districts. The Congress members in these districts sit on the House committee for financial services as well as the judiciary committee, and are some of the most powerful members of Congress thanks to their seats on these committees.

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State Rep. Robert E.
Belfanti Jr. said Monday he will co-sponsor legislation that would
allow volunteer fire departments, veterans organizations and other
nonprofits to hold card tournaments as fundraisers.

“The popularity of Texas Hold ‘em, blackjack and other card games has skyrocketed,” said Rep. Belfanti, D-107 of Mount Carmel.

“These represent an important potential source of fundraising revenue for nonprofit groups.”

Volunteer fire companies and other
nonprofit organizations are already permitted to raise funds through
raffles, drawings, punch cards, bingo and other small games of chance
under Pennsylvania law.

Belfanti said the legislation he is co-sponsoring would add card games to Pennsylvania’s Local Option Small Games of Chance law.

Nonprofit groups already licensed to hold
raffles and other small games of chance under the law would also be
permitted to apply for a special permit to hold card game contests.

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Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., though he is a co-sponsor of Nevada-backed legislation to study Internet gambling, on Tuesday questioned its value.

“Studies don’t do much,” said Frank, who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

“What’s to study? Whether or not I should be able to make my own bet with my own money?”

Frank made his comments in a brief interview after he addressed members of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce at the Library of Congress. The chamber was meeting with lawmakers and federal officials in a series of briefings this week.

Frank told the Las Vegas group he is working with Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., on legislation to overturn an Internet gambling ban enacted by Congress last year.

Berkley and Jon Porter, R-Nev., introduced a bill in June calling for a one-year study of the $15 billion Internet gam- bling industry by the National Academy of Sciences.

So far, 64 members of the House, including Frank, have signed onto the Nevadans’ bill as co-sponsors.

Frank introduced his own bill in April to repeal the ban and require the Department of Treasury to regulate online wagering sites.

Frank’s bill has 37 co-sponsors including Berkley but not Porter.

Asked if he intends to move forward with his bill even though the study bill seems to have more support, Frank said, “Of course.”

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After UIGEA proposed rules were published this week, Congressman Barney
Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (IGREA), bill
H.R.2046, gained another co-sponsor. Congressman Raul M. Grijalva
[AZ-7] on Wednesday joined Frank and 37 others to become the 38th
representative of the United States House to join in the fight to
regulate online gambling.

Rep. Grijalva serves on the Committee on Natural Resources and
is Chairman of the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands
Subcommittee, the Committee on Education and Labor, and on the
Committee on Small Business.

Rep. Grijalva is also on the Homeland Security Task Force, as
well as the Jobs and the Economy Task Force, among other committees,
and he serves on Congressional caucuses regarding Port Security,
Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery, the STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics) Caucus, and is the pending co-chair of the
Congressional Progressive Caucus, and is a member of many other
congressional caucuses.

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Imagine that you’ve just won $100,000 in a poker tournament. But before you can pocket the cash, the casino swoops in to collect $25,000 to pay Uncle Sam.

That was the worst-case scenario feared by casinos and players after the Internal Revenue Service issued a bulletin last month saying that casinos would be required to withhold 25 percent of poker tournament winnings over $5,000.

The notice sent a shock wave through the poker community, which feared short-circuiting tournament growth in Las Vegas and beyond. Withholding taxes could have devastated legions of professional poker players who require a large cash bankroll to ply their trade, driving them from land-based casinos to offshore Internet competitors that allow players to dodge U.S. tax laws.

Or so everyone feared.

Negotiations between the IRS and the casino industry as recent as last week appear to have yielded the rarest of all outcomes: a win for all parties.

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