Articles by: Dave Behr

California, Nevada and New Jersey continue to dominate the stage in THE FIGHT to legalize online poker. This week California has the lead, with a new proposal from the tribes, long-time antagonists of all online gaming legislation. Nevada and New Jersey, with online gaming already legalized, pushed forward in their individual efforts to bring the [...]

With the Rational Group’s fight against Colony Capital dominating the headlines in the early part of the week, and Lock Poker’s downward spiral dominating the headlines late in the week, it was a relatively quiet five days for THE FIGHT to legalize and regulate online poker. The biggest story of the week came out of [...]

This week online poker finally returned to the U.S. (hooray!) and Rational Group’s deal to purchase a casino in New Jersey died a curious death (boo!). THE FIGHT to legalize online poker played out with similiarly mixed results, as California began to circulate an online gaming bill with tribal support (hooray!) but Massachusetts failed to [...]

THE FIGHT is a day late this week, but it’ll never be a dollar short, especially with all the regulatory developments that continue to fan the flames of legal poker in the U.S. online poker market. We start this week with Legal Poker in Pennsylvania. Last week I mentioned that Rep. Tina Davis (D-Bucks) introduced [...]

A Pennsylvania legislator introduced an online gambling bill in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Friday, putting the Keystone State squarely on the map of states fighting to legalize online gambling. The bill, HB 1235, is being sponsored by Rep. Tina Davis (D-Bucks). Nearly a dozen legislators have signed on as co-sponsors. Under Davis’ bill, [...]

Former World Poker Tour champions Vadim Trincher and Justin “BoostedJ” Smith, former World Series of Poker bracelet winners Bill Edler and Abe Mosseri, and a host of other high-stakes poker pros were back in federal court today for their arraignments on charges that they were part of an illegal gambling syndicate linked to the Russian [...]

After a few weeks of relative quiet, THE FIGHT kicked back into gear this week, with the East Coast of the country taking center stage. Rep. Tina Davis (D-Bucks) of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives finally introduced her long-awaited internet gambling bill yesterday. Although the full text of the bill is not yet available online, [...]

The Press of Atlantic City is reporting this morning that Rational Group’s application to New Jersey regulators for permission to purchase an Atlantic City casino finally was completed last week, triggering the start of a 90-day review period. Rational Group, the parent company of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, announced in January that it had [...]

Federal authorities in New York unsealed a 27-count indictment today against 34 individuals, charging them with operating an illegal sports betting and poker syndicate that reaped tens of millions of dollars in proceeds and had extensive ties to Russian organized crime. Included among the named defendants are World Poker Tour champions Vadim Trincher and Justin [...]

Step by step, week by week, online poker inches towards a return in the United States. This week Nevada was back in the news, as it made halting progress towards dealing the first hands of regulated online poker. New York was also in the news, as the feds there prepared to sentence the last of [...]

If you thought things would get easier after New Jersey enacted online gaming legislation six weeks ago, you’re not going to want to read this week’s column. THE FIGHT remains as tough as ever. Legislation to legalize and regulate online gambling in California and Massachusetts continues to sit on the back burner. The online gaming [...]

The online poker legislative dominoes continue to stand upright since New Jersey enacted online gaming last month. This week brought positive news from Delaware – which has been leading the way for online gaming – but concern in Pennsylvania and Illinois. Let’s start with Illinois, where a bill that would expand nearly every aspect of [...]

After an eventful few months since the beginning of the year, the online poker legislative beat was relatively quiet this week. No major bills were proposed, passed, or killed. Instead the week was about some small gains. Nevada, the state that is farthest along the road to regulated online poker, leads the news again this [...]

Some wins and some losses this week. I feel it’s always better to get the bad news out of the way first, so let’s start in Iowa and Hawaii. Online poker-only bills in both of those states died quiet deaths this week. Despite Hawaii’s conservative stance on gambling – it is one of the few [...]