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June 5, 2013

Phil Ivey Accused of Cheating in London Casino

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 6:09 am

Genting Group, a casino giant in Europe, as accused poker super-star Phil Ivey of cheating while playing baccarat. Genting Group alleges that Ivey won millions at baccarat but did so by cheating.

Genting Group is based in Malaysia and in court documents that were filed with Britain’s High Court they allege Ivey, along with an accomplice, employed a scam in order to amass nearly $11.9 million (of 7.8 million pounds). This is said to have happened last summer. It was also alleged that the game in which this took place occurred during the time period Aug. 20-21 at took place at Crockfords, which is one of oldest London casinos.

The news of this dispute went public in April when Phil Ivey filed his own claim in the High Court against Genting Group. Ivey’s attorneys state that the casino has refused to pay out the money Ivey won while playing a variant of baccarat at Crockfords. Crockfords is owned by Genting Group.

On May 14, the casino made its response to the court saying that Ivey had cheated and that any winnings were now invalid as they were “based on illegal acts.” Generally, Phil Ivey avoids the media, but May 15 he put out a statement denying any misconduct or cheating.

The casino group went on to say in their court papers that these illegal acts gave Ivey a significant advantage during the play of the games. It said that Ivey used improper means as a way of determining if the first card dealt would be a strong or weak card.

The game being played was Punto Banco Baccarat. In court papers, Punto Banco Baccarat is described as being played with six or eight decks of playing cards that are placed inside a dealing shoe. The aim of the game, played with two or three cards, is to get as close to nine as possible. In the game, the players are able to bet that they will win, of the bank will win, or the hand will result in a tie.

Court papers indicate Ivey and the accomplice were able to find a shoe that had decks of cards that had uneven designs. It is alleged that the two were then able to get the dealer to turn the open cards in one direction or another thus revealing some form of design flaw that Ivey used to win the hands.

The Genting Group owns Resorts World New York, which is located at the Aqueduct Race Track, as well as the Resorts World Sentosa which is in Singapore. Last March, Genting Group said that it plans to build a $2 to $7 billion facility called Resorts World Las Vegas that will be on the Vegas Strip where Echelon project now sits.

Ivey, who is 37, has stated that while he dislikes having to take a casino to court, it seems to be the only way to get the matter resolved. In his poker career, he has won an estimated $14 million or more. More details should be forthcoming soon.

June 3, 2013

Vegas Jury Goes With Businessman Against Sands

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 6:07 am

On May 14, a Vegas jury awarded $70 million to Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman, in a settlement against Las Vegas Sands Corporation which is run by Sheldon Adelson. Suen had claimed that he had been denied payments of as much as $328 million for his assistance in securing a gambling license in Macau for the Las Vegas-based casino company. Macau is the only location in China that allows legal casino gambling.

Attorneys for the Sands argued that Suen was not owed anything as he allegedly did not come through on his promises to help executives of the company. The jury of deliberated two days and then came back with the award going to Suen. It was an eight-person jury. It is thought that this judgment will end what has turned out to be a nine year fight.

For his part, Suen has said that he was hired by the Sands to help bring about favor with the Chinese government back in the first part of the 2000’s. He states that he was successful in these efforts and that he deserved to be paid for his work. His first suit was brought in 2004 and reported that his company was owed 2 percent of the casino’s profits (net) as well as $5 million for its assistance in getting the Macau gambling license.

Attorneys for Sands do not deny the company had offered Suen pay, but that that pay was based on a successful outcome which they claimed had not occurred.

After the judgment was read, the attorneys for the Sands asked that a retrial be allowed. They stated that they had learned that one of the jurors had a prejudice against Sheldon Adelson. The judge said that he was not convinced of any such prejudge and said that the attorneys for the Sands should have made their case for a retrial earlier. Adelson who had been at most of the proceedings was not present on Tuesday.

The Las Vegas Sands has already opened some four resorts along the Macau area known as the Cotai Strip. It is reported to be making nearly 60 percent of its profits from these facilities. Macau is an hour away from Hong Kong via ferry. The Sands operates on the Vegas strip as well with its Venetian and Palazzo casinos.

As for this current case, the Sands ended up partnering with Galaxy Entertainment (based in Hong Kong), and it was then awarded the gambling license. However, the mentioned companies were not able to reach a contractual agreement, and the partnership folded. It was at this time that Macau gave the Sands a sub-concession. This, according to Suen, was the successful outcome that he had promised.

This was not the first time this case has been before a Clark County court. Back in 2008, Suen was awarded $58.6 million. However, that verdict was overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court. One reason for the overturn was that the judge at the time should not have allowed hearsay evidence to be presented.

June 1, 2013

WSOP Online & Carnivale of Poker News

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 5:58 am

It has been reported that there is a possibility that the WSOP will run online satellites for the Main Event of 2103 WSOP. This will be a first. The Main Event will happen later this summer. If this happens, the next world champion might just come from an online tournament.

There is much to be done before any of this occurs however. But if it does, WSOP.com will be only the second website within the state of Nevada that offers real-money poker. According to WSOP officials, they are hoping to get started with new software at the next WSOP series. This begins on May 29 and will be at the Rio.

If possible, they would like the launch to occur in before the Main Event which starts July 6. This would allow players to compete for entries into the world famous championship through the planned online satellite tournaments.

The news came out during a conference call. WSOP said that is now planning to have an online site that is to be active by summer and that, too, the popular Carnivale of Poker is going to return.

According to the VP of corporate communications for Caesars Entertainment, Seth Palansky, they are working right now on making the software that will be used as perfect as possible. As real money will be involved in the online site, this is an important issue.

It was also announced that WSOP.com has been running ads for a few months now. These ads are said to be teasing potential players that real money online poker will be coming to them soon. Ads or not, it is up to the Nevada Gaming Control Board to give its approval before anything concrete can be said or done. As of this writing, there is no information as how the Board is leaning in this matter or what it thinks about adding real money online poker to the state’s gambling venues.

It was also announced that Carnival of Poker will be coming back with 21 events. This is a completely separate set of events that offer much lower buy-ins but will run simultaneously along with the WSOP events that constitute the championship.

As of information we have now, Carnivale of Poker events will have buy-ins of $300, $500, $1000 and $1,675. The event winners will also get a gold medallion. It was also announced that there is to an Open-Face Chinese event. And, that WSOP is going to add $100,000 toward the top 10 earners of points which will be at the close of the Carnivale. It has been ten years since the last Carnivale of Poker took place.

While many younger players will not remember the Carnivale of Poker at all, those that do often state that the events were great fun and they are eager to see its return.

As more details come out on the WSOP plan to bring in online tournaments or more information comes out on the return of the Carnivale of Poker, readers will be advised.

May 30, 2013

Lock Poker Losing Pros Over Cash-out Controversy

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 5:46 am

It is no secret that Lock Poker has been in the news recently over its cash-out policies, or lack thereof, some might say. The online poker site has been under heat for many months now over its long wait period when it comes to sending cash-outs to its players. In some cases, the wait has been as much as five months for some US players. To make matters worse, the site has offered little in way of explaining itself.

As if that were not enough, in April, the site put into place a new cash-out policy that forbids players from taking cash-outs if they have transferred money to other players or received money from other players. The site went so far as to cancel pending withdrawal requests, even those that had been in the process for months.

Lock Poker sent out a short, and not at all helpful, email telling their customers that winnings derived from transfers are no longer eligible for payout. That was the jist of it and nothing else.

As one might imagine, this caused an uproar with the site’s players as well as the site’s professionals who are members of the Lock Poker Elite Pro team. These pros represent the site at both live tournaments and online events. Some of these pros have been drawn into the fray when rumors went out that they were getting huge salaries that were being paid by monies that were suppose to be used for cash-outs. Because of this, Paul Volpe, along with several other Lock Poker Elite Pros put out recently that they, too, have been having to wait for their pay. They were not given any priority when it came to payments.

Other speculation is that the site has become insolvent, but that it is still taking deposits from new and old players. So far, the company is hesitant to make comments about the allegations.

Recently, Paul Volpe and Chris Moorman decided that they were not going to renew their contracts with Lock Poker. This, of course, means that these two will no longer be sponsors or players on the Lock Poker Elite Pro team.

Even though Volpe and Moorman plan to leave the site’s association, others have elected to stay. Some of Lock Poker Elite Pro members who will stay have put out statements of their own which can be found online. These include Matt Stout, Melanie Weisner, and Brett Jungblut. Each has spent time addressing the site’s issues and generally saying that they had no knowledge of the site’s financial woes or knowledge of its payment processing problems.

It is not entirely clear at this time what will happen in the near or far future in terms of players getting their cash-puts or whether or not the site can weather this very ominous storm that it has found itself in. One thing is sure, however, this is one of those gambling issues that will not go away on its own. Further details will be reported as they come out.

May 28, 2013

NH Casino Plan Voted Down by House Panel

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 5:42 am

It was reported this week that a New Hampshire special House committee that has been charged with researching the possibility of gambling in the state has voted against it. The vote was very close.

According to reports, a panel formed of the New Hampshire House Ways, Means and Finance committees had a vote that ended up being 23 to 22 to recommend that the House kill the Senate bill. The Senate bill, if kept, will allowed as many as 5,000 video slot machines as well as some 150 table games. The House is scheduled to vote on the bill next week.

Before the panel voted, they heard information concerning 17 amendments. These amendments covered a lot of ground including strengthening regulatory controls, making a license good for 20 years rather than 10 years, and allowing new applicants to request licenses. Another proposed change would allow businesses with a valid liquor license to also provide video slot machines if they wished. Other amendments would change the way profits are divided.

Additionally, amendments were put forth that would prohibit political contributions if those are made to state candidates and it would also ban them from soliciting donations from casino operators. Other changes would limit to 1500 seats any indoor entertainment events and would require all applicants to go into agreements with other local entertainment centers that might be affected by the casino’s live shows. It was also proposed that casinos stop selling alcohol at 1 am.

None of the amendments were voted on before the panel voted to kill the currently proposed bill. Many of the bill’s supporters were frustrated and disappointed by this move. Opponents to the bill argued that current bill was flawed.

This latest vote was only a recommendation. Supporters of the bill plan to continue to fight for it on the state’s House floor. Because of House rules, those same supporters will need to defeat the voted motion to kill the current bill before any movement forward will be considered. It should be noted that NH House has, in the past, considered dozens of different casino bills but has never passed a single one.

Maggie Hassan, the governor of NH and a Democrat, has long lobbied for members in the House to give their support to the Senate bill. In fact, the governor included about $80 million in her budget that would come from licensing fees. The NH House budget that was recently passed and sent to the Senate contains no gambling revenue. Many of the Senate Republicans claim that their budget would actually spend less than what is in the House proposal and that it does not accept the House budget assumptions of gambling revenue.

Even so, it can be said that both sides do at least agree that it is not likely NH would realize any gambling revenue within two years other than the fees from the gambling licenses.

The next move for the proposal will take place in the House and insiders believe that this next stop vote will be close. If supporters cannot move forward, no one is sure what will happen next or when that might happen.

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