WPT Claims They Are Responsible for Poker's Boom and Are Happy That Congress Is Trying to Ban U.S. Players from Playing Online Poker

Listen, like most people who have penises instead of vaginas, we don't like to read into things too much and over-analyze words. We simply don't have time for that shit.

However, we can't help but notice that the WPT's General Counsel, Adam Pliska, whose name sounds like something we'd make up if we were hitting on some skanky chick at a bar and didn't want them to know who we "really" are ("My name? Uh, I'm Adam. Adam...Pliska."), sounds a little bit "gloaty" in a press release from the WPT concerning the anti-Internet gambling bill. In fact, if you need to put out a press release to state that "you were right" all along about gambling law in America and that you don't expect it to affect your (what) profits because you were right and planned for this all along, well, you end up sounding like someone who we'd really like to punch in the face. Says Pliska:

"The Justice Department has been very clear that it believes online gaming to be illegal in the United States and our policies have been always been tailored accordingly...This law clarifies the rules and makes it possible for everyone to move forward on an even footing."

The WPT's press release also says that poker rooms were closing at a rapid pace pre-WPT, and are now booming all over the country. Yes, the WPT takes full credit for this. ESPN and Chris Moneymaker and online poker had absolutely nothing to do with it. Says Steve Lipscomb from his evil ivory tower overlooking Los Angeles:

"It was a wide-spread love of this game and the reinvention of poker as a televised sport that ignited the poker phenomenon...And, that is what will continue to drive the future of the sport. WPTE remains committed to growing the domestic poker market through traditional franchise opportunities like consumer products, sponsorship and events."

In related news, next week the WPT is planning on dropping a press release claiming they were the first to discover the female orgasm and that they, not Ronald Reagan, deserve all of the credit for the fall of communism.

Comments

[dan m]

you go, oliver!

whether it's by design or not, if and when online poker is able to operate in the U.S. thanks to a legislative carveout or court decision (i give it two years), the bottom line is AMERICAN gaming companies will be in much better position to enter the fray.

and in the big scheme of things, what's two years no matter how many players they make wanna cry in the interim?

[wiley]

Pansy Ho...that's awesome.

[olivert]

I sound like a broken record, but I have been saying the following for WEEKS, if not MONTHS.

I have ALWAYS maintained that WPT Enterprises, which aspires to achieve TOTAL GLOBAL DOMINATION of the online and land-based tournament poker businesses, is one company that absolutely NEEDS online gaming to be curtailed in the U.S. in order to have a chance at achieving its goal.

WPTE's rivals, including PartyGaming, TiltWare (Full Tilt Poker), and MANSION have spent tens of millions of dollars buying TV time in the U.S. in an attempt to "choke off the air supply" of WPTE, which currently derives the bulk of its revenue from a legacy TV contract (signed in 2004) with the Travel Channel that calls for the Travel Channel to pay about $10 million a year to WPTE.

Furthermore, all the "time-buy" TV poker programs in the U.S. have effectively killed off WPTE's spinoff PPT TV product, as WPTE cannot get any TV deal done in the U.S. for PPT Season 2 that does NOT require WPTE to pay for its own TV time.

There is no way WPTE will buy time to air the PPT as long as the Travel Channel continues to pay $10 million a year to air the WPT in the U.S.

Regardless of whether WPTE supported the U.S. online gaming ban or not, the passage of the new law has accomplished what WPTE has wanted: WPTE's online gaming rivals, notably PartyGaming, just had 75% of its "air supply" "choked off" by the U.S. Congress.

The common tactic used by all Bill Gates-wannabes who want to achieve TOTAL GLOBAL DOMINATION in their respective industries is "choking off your opponents' air supply".

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At this point in time, WPTE has about $40 million in cash while PartyGaming has less than $100 million.

The playing field in the online gaming industry going forward has certainly been tilted back toward WPTE, which has the one thing that PartyGaming, TiltWare, and MANSION do NOT have: political allies and business partners in the #1 gambling market in the world, namely CHINA.

With the U.S. market now closed to online gaming for the forseeable future (it generally takes 3 to 5 years of intense lobbying to get something such as a carveout for online poker passed in the U.S. Congress), the pressure for the online gaming industry to get explicit licenses to operate in the world's #1 gambling market will be intense.

WPTE in particular already has an alliance with MGM MIRAGE, which has an alliance with Macau/Hong Kong businesswoman Pansy Ho, who is the daughter of Macau gambling kingpin Stanley Ho.

The MGM Grand Macau, where the first WPT event to be held in China will likely take place in 2008 or 2009, is a 50-50 joint venture between MGM MIRAGE and Pansy Ho.

Even though the Mainland Chinese ("Communist") government does not particularly like Stanley Ho for the way he has done business in the past (alleged vice activities taking place in Mr. Ho's Casino Lisboa in Macau, including "triads" in the private gaming salons and "ladies of the evening" loitering on the gaming floor), the Mainland Chinese government still has to grudgingly respect Stanley Ho and let him do business in Macau so that Stanley Ho won't yank his investments from Macau and open up a rival gambling destination in Vietnam and/or North Korea.

WPTE recently signed TV deals in Macau (Macau Cable TV) and Singapore (MediaCorp's over-the-air broadcast TV channel 8), thereby exposing Texas Hold'em, and the WPT in particular, to Chinese-speaking markets for the first time. (WPT will air in English with Chinese subtitles in Macau, and in English in Singapore on a channel that airs programs mostly in Mandarin Chinese.)

(Note that ESPN is currently unable to air the WSOP in most of Asia except Japan, as ESPN-branded TV networks in Asia except Japan are managed by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp under the Singapore-based ESPN STAR Sports [ESS] joint venture.)

The global battle for control of the online gaming business, including the online poker business, has just begun, with the ultimate prize in China now in play. WPTE is currently way ahead of PartyGaming and TiltWare in positioning itself for an explicit online gaming license to operate in China.

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[email protected]

[snake]

yes..thats our favorite part as well

[Ian M.]

This is my favorite part of the WPT's release.

"The WORLD POKER TOUR launched the poker phenomenon when it first aired on the Travel Channel on March 30, 2003, and it continues to lead the way in developing poker as a major international sport."

haha

[ragecg]

I LOVE how they say this, all the while taking money from Bodog as one of their sponsors.
(See the WPT web site for a convenient link, lol)

So if they were to read the new law as we've read it, because they are affiliated with, do business in the US with, and take money from a company that the US deems illegal, they are breaking the law themsevles.

Having a .NET is no longer the comfortable blanket it once was.

[Kid Dynamite]

all WPTE is trying to say is "our online poker room sucks ass because we couldn't market to US players, and now others are in the same boat"