In the summer of 2005 the World Poker Tour Enterprise (WPTE) stock peaked at over $29.00 and many professional poker players owned a great deal of shares, which actually financed several players bankrolls. It was also rumored at this time that Doyle Brunson made a $700 million unsolicited bid to purchase the WPT.

Doyle might have caught a big break by not obtaining the WPT as three years later the stock has been trading under $1.00 with roughly 20,000 shares trading per day. NASDAQ has a listing rule where a stock can’t close below $1.00 for 30 consecutive business days and sine July 1st their stock has not closed above $1.00.

On Tuesday the World Poker Tour announced and acknowledged that they have received a letter from the NASDAQ informing them of the possible determination of their listing. NASDAQ has given the WPT 180 days to meet the requirements, which will require them to trade the stock above 1.00 for ten consecutive business days. If the WPT cannot meet this goal they will be officially delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange.

The World Poker Tour executives will have a few options and tough choices ahead of them. The most likely option is to execute a reverse stock split, which decreases the amount of shares by 50% while increasing the value of the shares by 50%. Another option would be to trade Over the Counter, which is commonly referred to as Pink Sheets.

The World Poker Tour Enterprise still remains confident that they can turn things around and can be seen as a profitable company to investors. Especially, since they announced a new exclusive broadcast deal with Fox Sports Network.

This morning Chan Poker confirmed these reports via email to all their players and through notices posted notice on their website. Their full notice can be read at http://www.chanpoker.com/closing/

Chan Poker has promised that all players’ funds are secure and that they will do their best to process withdrawals in a timely fashion. Also Chan has stated that they are searching for a room players can move to where their point balances will be honored or compensated for and that they’ll keep players up to date as developments on that front are made.

At this time no reasons for the closure has been given and sources we’ve reached inside the company have all declined comment. Popular internet forums are filled with guesses on why Chan Poker made the decision to close, but these appear to all be speculative unconfirmed rumors at this point. One of these rumors suggest Johnny Chan plans to sign with a new room while another suggests the poker room had never been all that profitable and Chan seen better opportunities focusing on the All In Energy product line while not being associated with a particular online poker room himself.

In a few days we’ll likely have new information to report on exactly while Chan Poker has closed. In the meantime, if you have funds on Chan Poker we strongly advise cashing them out immediately in order to hopefully circumvent any potential processing delays.

The game introduced with the update is the popular trick-making card game Euchre. If you’re not familiar with this game, refer to Carbon Poker Now’s page Euchre online for real money. What’s unique about the addition of this game is that it’s a four player game that uses partners and most online poker rooms have avoided offering partner type card games due to concerns over collusion. Carbon Poker answered this concern by setting up multiple game tables. When a player registers they are automatically taken to a random table, and the deal, their partner and seat position is also chosen at random, greatly reducing chances of collusion.

The changes made to the Backgammon games are much welcomed additions. The most noticeable change is the increase in maximum stake from $100 per game up to $1000 per game. This upgrade also fixed a software glitch that had previously in certain situations forced players to play one roll of the die before the other even though both dice had independent moves available. One other backgammon item worth mentioning is a policy change: timed out games used to be scored as losses by gammon and are now scored as losses by backgammon.

In somewhat related news: The parent company behind Carbon Poker, Merge Gaming, announced yesterday that their less marketed and popular brand pokercs.com (formerly poker.com) has once again been rebranded and going forward will be pdcpoker.com.

To learn more about Carbon Poker visit carbonpoker.com, or their leading independent fan site Carbon Poker Now.

Jennifer says she is looking forward to being associated with Iron Duke as the site fits into her tastes, as they offer a wide variety of games including Badugi, A-5 Lowball and 7-2 Lowball. One thing Jennifer is looking to do is help the site grow and in turn grow with the site, she intends to play all limits as she recognizes that not all players can afford to play at the highest limits in the world.

One of the things she is looking forward to doing is getting back on the live circuit and playing many more events. In a very unfortunate set of circumstances she found herself unable to play in this past summers WSOP as she was summoned for jury duty in her home state of Delaware. After looking into multiply avenues to get out of it, she reluctantly did her civic duty and served saying after wards “It actually wasn’t that bad”

The one thing that will be tough on her when she begins to play more live events again will to resist the temptation to stay up late playing online. She said that she has found herself in past being online until 430am when her live event starts at noon the next day. Jennifer has already announced plans to play in the World Series of Poker Europe which is scheduled to kick off on September 19 2008 in London England. Currently, she has no set plans for events following London but expects to play some events in Asia.

We will definitely have to keep our eyes open for Jennifer as she looks to take on the World with Iron Duke tight in toe.

This move is a crucial step for the event as it seeks to take hold in Europe against the likes of the European Poker Tour. World Series of Poker marketing director Ty Stewart announced “We have enhanced the schedule to provide more variety and game play, greatly broadened the worldwide television exposure and have brought the event under one roof to better the player experience for this prestigious and premiere event.”

The WSOPE will have four events this year, as they continue the expansion outside of Las Vegas and continue to grow the Brand into a global event. Many of the worlds top pro’s have already committed to attending including but not limited to: Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth Jr. and many more. In addition, as the hype builds for the November Nine three of the nine have already committed to playing Ivan Demidov, Peter Eastgate and David “chino” Rheem will look forward to add to their clout and no doubt get some more experience against each other. ESPN will be covering the event and televising it to a North American audience this year which will no doubt help.

In last years WSOPE Main Event Annette Obrestad bested 622 of the worlds best to take home the inaugural title and also put the world on notice. Annette who has been crushing online poker tournaments for a few years is just turning 19, and is hardly known in the US as she is too young to play there yet. With her $2,013,102 USD first place cash she over took Annie Dukes record for largest single cash by a woman (WSOP Tournament of Champions 1,000,000). The four events that will be contested at the Empire Casino will be:

September 19 - Event 1 £1,500 No-Limit Hold’em (3 day event with two day ones)
September 22 - Event 2 £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. (3 day event)
September 24 - Event 3 £5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (3 day event)
September 27 – Event 4 £10,000 World Championship No-Limit Hold’em (5 day event with two day ones)

So for those who can’t wait till next June London is only an ocean away!

This stoppage is expected to last between nine to twelve months as the Boyd group awaits a resurgence in the credit sector and gaming industries, along with renewed consumer spending. From Boyd’s end, they had there financing in place, as they had already secured 4.8 Billion USD in inexpensive financing for the project. To date Boyd has spent approximately 500 million USD of their 3.3 Billion USD budget on the project pursuant to the stoppage nearly 800 workers found themselves out of work on Friday.

This stoppage continues a trend in the casino industry as this yet another project to be halted due to credit issues, due to an ever tightening US & Global Economy. Some of the projects that have been affected are City Center, The Cosmopolitan, as well as a project on Las Vegas Boulevard in which Crown Casinos Ltd. backed out of a 5 billion joint venture.

On a positive note for Boyd Gaming they released plans to buy back 100 million USD worth of commonly trade stock, upon which their stock made a 20 rebound despite 2nd quarter earnings report of -9.9 vs. last year. The stoppage of Echelon project has given Boyd Gaming stock some strength as it is now lowered its risk level.

Hopefully, as we look to the future the casino industry will see a resurgence along with US and Global economies. Other wise this trend will continue, and we may even begin to see Hotel Casino’s begin closing doors.

The judge agreed that cases like this have become common place as poker has seen its rise since Moneymaker won the Main Event in 2002, and it was said anybody can do this! The rest has been history.

Currently, in Pennsylvania that question is being asked yet again, as Larry Burns finds himself in court over organizing poker games in Westmoreland County Pennsylvania. The State’s Attorney General is on a crusade to eradicate poker and has been very successful at it to date. In the case in question when the game was raided by police they seized over $9,000 in cash and laid various charges, however as the investigation has unfolded the Attorney General is now also planning to seize $31,000 from the Westmoreland County Fire Department.

The Attorney General claims this money was donated to the County Fire Department by Mr. Burns in lieu of rent for using the Seward Fire Hall to host his games.

Burns is fighting these charges on a number of fronts, trying to succeed by whatever means possible, and as such has implored that poker is a game of skill and thus not subject to gaming laws. However, on Mr. Burns’s side is the fact that other cases tried in Pennsylvania have found that poker is not defined as “gambling” or “unlawful gambling”.

Nonetheless, to his dismay this appeal was tossed out by the judge and the case is moving forward, with other appeals and defense avenues being pursued by Mr. Burns. It shall be interesting to watch how this unfolds, and more importantly to see if the government will in fact seize the money from the Fire Department which is a branch of the government.

Following the airing of this expose the State Arizona immediately issued a Public Health Alert, however following investigation by the State of Arizona it was rescinded after their investigation failed to produce the same results as the expose. This was furthered backed by a story in the Las Vegas Sun which claimed it was physically impossible for either gaming staff or patrons to receive a harmful dose of lead by simply handling or using the chips. Following this story Channel 15 Phoenix pulled its original expose.

Fast forward to now and following an outcry from a citizens group in the State of California. An investigation was launched leading to the discovery that GPI chips where made in Mexico and actually contained lead in the ingot, as well as the dye to color the chips contained lead. In addition, it was noted that of the 30 largest casino’s in the USA 28 of them used the chips manufactured and distributed by GPI. After negotiations between Center for Environmental Health (CEHCA) a non-profit group that monitors lead content in all products, Gaming Partners International and 21 Casino’s in the State of California, it has been arranged no later the November 1st 2008 all 21 Casino’s will use chips with a lead content no greater than 0.005. Each casino will post a health warning in the meantime in their facilities.

The 21 Casinos are as follows California Commerce Club, Inc., Cameo Club, Capitol Casino, Casino Poker Club, Casino Real, Club One Casino, Inc., The 500 Club, Golden West Casino, Hustler Casino, Kelly’s, Lake Bowl Cardroom, Limelight Card Rooms, Lucky Derby Casino, The Nineteenth Hole General Partnership, Ocean View Card Room, Palace Card Club, Phoenix Casino and Lounge, Inc. and The Players Club. The only question left will other casinos follow suit, to give you an indication each chip costs roughly for a major casino in the neighborhood of 0.10 – 0.15 USD now think how many chips a single major casino has. It is an extremely costly venture to change all the chips in a casino.

The money was seized from bank accounts in the US said to be part of the US based operations for Bodog. Court documents list the seizures as have started happening in January 2008 and continuing throughout the course of this year. In January and February US Officials seized over $14 million from accounts at Wachovia, Regions Bank, Bank of America, and Sun Trust Bank. The accounts were listed as having belonged to JBL Services and Transaction Solutions.

The process for holding and confiscating the funds requires Federal Officials to file a civil suit and then wait for a predetermined waiting period. Leaving any entity the opportunity to come forward and challenge the seizure and make a claim to the funds. The funds that were confiscated in January and February have had that time frame elapse.

The most recent seizure came after Federal Officials caught a break when one of their undercover staff members got a pay out check from Bodog was honored. Thus establishing a link between Bodog and the account at Nevada State Bank. This link led to a seizure of just shy $10,000,000 USD.

The Canadian. Calvin Ayre who is the founder of Bodog remains at the center of a large investigation which is believed to carry secret indictments against him. Calvin Ayre is said to have relinquished all control of Bodog earlier this year, yet is still wanted on a number of gaming issues. Calvin Ayre is believed to still be in the Caribbean “hiding out” from US officials.

Bodog released a statement in which it stated, that the seizures were that of third party companies and not Bodog’s brand. They also mentioned that regardless of these seizures no person failed to receive the funds they were owed. They state that the third party companies are aware of the legal situation in United States and that is a part of doing business. They also stated that much of the article’s interpretations are out of context and inaccurate and that all parties involved are fully aware of the situation and all its implications.

We will continue to watch this closely and see if it has any impact on the way Bodog continues to operate in the United States, as it is a major source of United States Online Gaming due to the unlawful internet gaming act.

Nearly a year ago mega company Dubai World bought into the City Center Project, and became partners with MGM on the project. The deal set at 5.1 Billion USD was seen as a huge positive step for the project. This was due to MGM’s ever soaring debt and Dubai World’s world wide credibility and financial standing. Dubai World is a share holder in a number of major financial institutions around the world and has a credit rating on the world stage that is second to none. So this merger was seen as a way for MGM to gain sub-prime mortgage rates during this turbulent economic state in the United States.

However on July 29, 2008 Bloomberg reported that the two mega companies had pasted deadlines to acquire 3.5 Billion USD in financing to keep the project on track. This missed deadline starkly outlines the difficulties being seen across the board in the US economy. As it is showing that even major companies such as gaming companies and banks are having difficulties as well.

The two major banks that appear to be holding up the project are Deutsche Bank (major German bank) and Credit Suisse (Swiss Bank). Both of these banks have had major affiliations with MGM and Dubai World in the past. Even to the extent that Credit Suisse was the financial group advising Dubai World about potential investment in City Center. Deutsche Bank has had extremely strong ties to MGM over the last decade, as since 1998 there has not been an MGM project that hasn’t been partially or fully financed by Deutsche Bank.

One of the major problems in this situation is that both these major lending institutions are part of the 27 Billion USD buyout of Harrah’s. As well the Casino industry is showing first quarter losses across the board, due to the sagging economy. The casino industry was once believed to be recession-proof, but over the last 20 years these major casino companies have made a large move, in that the majority of there revenue is no longer gaming driven. That combined with the great number of Indian Casino’s around the US, Las Vegas is no longer the only game in town.

On the stock front this news won’t affect the price of MGM shares as they are already in steep decline due to the sagging economy. In October 2007 MGM shares traded at over $100/share, as of late last week the shares were sitting at $21.65/share and are currently at $28.60/share (in the middle of the trading day July 30, 2008). As of right now the City Center Project isn’t dead in the water as the two companies have come up with just over 2 billion of the required financing. This will leave them with a number of options moving forward.