- Lesniak on PokerStars: “The More the Merrier”.
- Garden City Group Issues Round Two of Full Tilt Poker Remission Payments.
- Partypoker Streamlines Out High Stakes Sit & Gos.
We wrap up the week with a rundown of the most read news articles and features from the past seven days on pokerfuse. Never miss a story with our special feature every Saturday.
10. Bovada Confirms Comcast Connectivity Issues
The largest ISP in the US is blocking access to the Bovada website and gaming servers at the DNS level, players have reported. Players in the United States on ISP Comcast took to the forums en masse last weekend to report connectivity issues on Bovada, Bodog’s US-facing online poker room.
9. Player Spots Leak in PokerStars PLO Tables
Extra VPPs paid out in Omaha Hi/Lo tables for “months,” says rep. The Russian online poker community spotted a pretty big leak on certain PokerStars’ PLO tables late last week—they were paying out 8.5 VPPs instead of the usual 7.
8. Comcast Denies Bovada Block
Reports of players being unable to access Bovada have nothing to do with Comcast, says ISP. The issue reported yesterday of Comcast users being unable to access the Bovada site is not the result of Comcast blocking a poker room.
7. New York Proposes Internet Poker
A “bad actor” clause and shared liquidity provision headline the features in the proposed legislation. New York State Senator John J. Bonacic (R-Mt. Hope) introduced a bill last week that would legalize online poker in the state.
6. iPoker’s Secular Decline, in Numbers
Playtech believes online poker is in a long terms slump—but remains optimistic about its own business. Playtech’s quarterly and annual financial reports have described the decline in online poker as “secular,” meaning that it is expected to persist over a long period. A look at iPoker’s cash game traffic statistics across its markets explains why the company has taken that position.
5. GTECH Manages Orderly Shutdown of Dot-com Poker Network
The Bad Beat Jackpot is being distributed in freerolls, as the International Poker Network (IPN), aka Boss Media/SPIELO G2, prepares for May shutdown. As GTECH gets closer to closing its dot-com International Poker Network (IPN), commonly known as Boss Media, it has ended its bad beat jackpot promotion. The funds in the existing jackpot prize pool will be distributed via a series of freeroll tournaments.
4. Bwin.party to Migrate Brands in France, Italy to New Software Platform
French bwin brand slated for Q2 migration off Ongame. Global online gaming group bwin.party is planning to further consolidate its online poker products onto its partypoker network platforms, with a plan to migrate its bwin.FR site onto the French party network this quarter, a representative told pokerfuse PRO.
3. Partypoker Streamlines Out High Stakes Sit & Gos
Everything over $1,000 to go plus some less popular games. Partypoker has announced that it is removing a number of sit and go tournaments from the lobby in order to “reduce lobby clutter and streamline our offering.”
2. Garden City Group Issues Round Two of Full Tilt Poker Remission Payments
$81 million has now been returned to ex-FTP players in the United States. Approximately 2,200 payments totaling about $5 million were distributed to US victims of Full Tilt Poker on Tuesday in the second round of payments since the process began on February 28, 2014.
1. Lesniak on PokerStars: “The More the Merrier”
Senator clarifies that Rational Group is “not excluded” from igaming in New Jersey. Speaking at the iGaming North America 2014 conference last week, New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak dangled an unprompted olive branch to PokerStars-owner Rational Group.