You may have noticed that we publish quite a bit here at pokerfuse.
Pumping out upwards of 20 articles a week, even for news junkies and hardened 'fuse fans it can be hard to keep up. And with the PPA meeting with the DOJ, the brouhaha in Belgium and some top-notch original features from the Team 'Fuse writing team, the last week has been no exception.
So today we’re debuting a new weekly feature to highlight the most important news published over the last seven days. In reverse order (to build up suspense) are the most viewed articles published in the last week.
And don’t forget, if you like your news in bite-sized form, you’ll want to subscribe to the weekly newsletter. Spam free and uncluttered, it goes out every Thursday night with the week’s latest and greatest.
10. National Association of Convenience Stores Urges Members to Support Reid/Kyl
In at number 10 is the NACS throwing their support behind the reid/kyl draft legislation, urging its members to get behind the pro-online poker bill.
With 47 of the 50 largest convenience stores represented by NACS, its endorsement is welcome, although its reasons for supporting the bill are less to do with championing online poker as a healthy recreation and profession for millions, and more to do with keeping lottery ticket sales off the internet.
Still, we’ll take what we can get.
9. Microgaming Rooms Roll Out Lobby Redesign
With all the attention on Full Tilt, its easy to miss the latest in the smaller networks. But Microgaming has been quietly building its player base of late, benefiting from the recent closure of a rival network to entice more skins onto its platform.
This week saw the launch of a revamped lobby. Find out what’s new.
8. Full Tilt Money 'A Long Way Away’ for US Players
Bad news for ex-FTP US players this week as the PPA reported back from its Department of Justice meeting that no real progress had been made towards putting together a system for reimbursing players. No reason was given for not yet selecting a payment processor, and no time frame for doing so was provided.
7. Full Tilt Deposit Backlog Traced to December ’10 FDIC Banking Order
The second part of Haley’s excellent in-depth look into Chad Elie, Jeremy Johnson, and the shady world of online poker processing exposed more new information. Based on recently acquired court documents, Haley shows how the Black Friday indictments were a multi-agency operation spanning years, and produces evidence of Lederer’s involvement with Elie as early as 2010.
6. Germany’s Remaining States to Join Anti-Online Poker State Gaming Treaty
North Rhine Westphalia signed the German online gaming treaty this week, and the last-remaining hold-out state Schleswig-Holstein also committed to join soon. The new system grants a restricted number of sports betting licenses, but nothing for poker.
5. PPA to Discuss Full Tilt Player Refunds with DOJ
Published the day before the meeting, a lot of readers were crossing their fingers for better results (see #8).
4. Reid/Kyl in the Lame Duck: What You Need to Know
Not just one of our most read stories of the week, but also the longest comment thread ever on pokerfuse. Who would have thought a Q&A piece would have brought such controversy?
The lame duck session began officially this Monday. If you have any questions about what this means for online poker, then this is the canonical resource for all your answers. Chris Grove lays out clearly point by point the feasibility of the Reid/Kyl bill, the steps required for it to pass, and its many hurdles.
And once you’ve read that, let us know what you think in the comments—if you dare.
3. Full Tilt Relaunch Boosts Worldwide Online Poker Traffic 10%
With negative news coming from various corners this week, its not surprising a Full Tilt Feel Good Story breaks into the top #3. Not only has the FTP relaunch been a broad success, but it has lead to a global boost in poker traffic—as PokerScout reports, nearly all Full Tilt’s traffic is new action, and not coming from other sites.
Who would have thought $186m injected into the poker economy would have had such an effect?
2. Belgian Authorities Detain bwin.party co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger
Hosting your annual Responsible Gaming Day conference in Belgium, the only major Euro country that bwin.party—whose co-CEO is also Chairman and lead speaker at said conference—does not hold a valid license, continues to operate, and is embattled within the courts.
What could possibly go wrong?
1. Aria Poker Players Petition to Ban Howard Lederer
So much going on in online poker and you think everything is winding down but then out of nowhere: the big story of the week.
Dave Ferrara was the first to give all the details on the petition to have Howard Lederer banned from the Aria casino. It has lead forum posters and podcasters alike to debate the merits of the grass-roots player petition.
The article includes personal interviews with Nick DiVella, the Aria mid-stakes regular circulating the petition and Leon Wheeler, the Aria poker room manager.