2/18/2007

FirePay Bans Canadian Gambling Transactions

Posted on: Online-Casinos.com

WHY IS FIREPAY BANNING CANADIAN

ONLINE GAMBLING TRANSACTIONS?

Another payment option closes its

doors to online gambling.

Canadian online gamblers who use

the FirePay e-wallet will be scrambling
to mobilise their funds following a surprise
notification from the company just before
the weekend.

The online payments processor has

now extended its ban on US online
gambling transactions to Canadian
consumers, according to an on-site
notice this week.

The notice reads:

"Effective February 21, 2007,

FirePay www.firepay.com will
no longer allow Canadian consumer
payments to online gambling merchants.

"Effective February 28, 2007,

FirePay www.firepay.com will
no longer allow Canadian consumers
to receive payments from online
gambling merchants."

Unlike their US counterparts,

who are having serious difficulties
in retrieving monies from e-wallets
as a result of US Department of
Justice activities, Canadian Firepay
account holders will at least have
time and alternative channels to
withdraw their account balances.
The notice includes guidance on
non-gambling exit options:

"All Canadian FirePay account

holders will continue to be able
to make purchases and receive
payments from non-gambling
online merchants, as well as to
"Deposit From" and "Withdraw To"
their Canadian bank account.

Although online poker sites like

Poker Stars ceased accepting
US player deposits from FirePay
last October 13, these sites will
now find Canadian players lost
to them from the FirePay route
as well.

2/13/2007

Amarillo Slim Robbed at Gun Point

According to Amarillo.com the Texas News Site,
Thomas Austin “Amarillo Slim” Preston Jr.
was robbed on Sunday night. He returned
home after a night out to find two men, armed
with Slim’s own shotgun, waiting to rob him.

This all comes 4 months after a robber shot
at his pickup truck striking it with 2 bullets.
“I told him, I said now ‘Pull the trigger on
that damn thing or put it down,’” Preston said,
recalling the robbery at his home Sunday night.
“I said ‘I don’t feel real comfortable with that
shotgun pointed at me.’”

But it isn’t the trauma of the robbery that has Preston,
a famous poker player and gambler, worried, he said. It is a prized belt buckle he had made in Seattle more than 40 years ago.

The belt buckle has “Amarillo Slim”
emblazoned on it in platinum along
with jade. Slim is willing to pay big money
to get this belt buckle back. Fortunately,
Preston was not hurt during the robbery.
“Nobody in the world is going to wear it,”
he said. “They are going to either melt it
or throw it away. Just tell me where it is
and I’ll go get it.” The robbers also made
off with two shotguns and a large amount
of cash he had on him, Preston said.
He would not say exactly how much.

This is the 2nd incident Slim has had
with robbers in the past 4 months.
On October 4th, he was cut off by robbers
who demanded cash from him at gun point.
Slim declined, slamming his car into
reverse, which led to the robbers firing
3 rounds at his car.

Preston said he had been watching
a Los Angeles Lakers-San Antonio Spurs
game Sunday afternoon at a friend’s home.
But when he walked into his home about
6 p.m., he saw two men, one masked
and the other unmasked, in his apartment
with his shotguns in their hands.
“They were just waiting for me to
come in,” Preston said.

The masked robber then told Preston
he was going to kill him, Preston said,
which spurred a profanity-laced retort
from Preston. The masked man then
took one of Preston’s shotguns and
shoved it into his belly, Preston said.

“The man without the mask didn’t
abuse me at all,” he said. “He was
damn near cordial.” The two men then
stripped Preston and tied his hands
and feet with three bolo ties they found
in his apartment, and told him to lay down
on the floor, a request Preston did not
want to comply with.

Preston, who has a pacemaker, said he
didn’t want to be placed on the cold floor,
and face the risk of no one coming by to
check on him. So the robbers decided to
put him on the couch, Preston said,
with the masked robber saying he was
going to get a pillow. “I thought that
was the end,” Preston said.

“There is just one reason to go get a pillow.
A shotgun makes some noise. You put that
pillow over (that weapon) and pull the trigger,
you are going to hear nothing. It’s not
a good feeling.” Preston said while the
robbers took a large amount of money
off him, he was just worried about surviving.
“Money is just how you keep score,” he said.
“It was of secondary importance.”

Preston said he was able to loosen the ties
around his hands and feet and went to his
apartment complex’s office, where
a woman there called police, he said.
“I probably would have never called
(the police),” he said.

Despite this traumatic incident, Preston
said he has no plans to move from Amarillo.
“I am too old to let some pimp, drug dealer,
dopehead make me do that,” Preston said.
“I have been advised to, but I am going
to stay right where I am, and I want
everyone to know it.”

Amarillo Slim said anyone who has information
about the robbery or the buckle should call
Amarillo Crime Stoppers at (806) 374-4400
or the APD Detective Division at (806) 378-4251.



No more Tony G Poker for USA

Tony G Poker Closes Doors To U.S. Players

Tony G Poker will be closing its doors
to U.S. Players. According to a post on
PokerWorks by Tony G, the hand of the
U.S. government has left them with
no other choice, but to stop allowing
U.S. players on their site.

In his post, Tony G says:

“I feel very sad for all of you good
folks in the USA but your government
is very aggressive right now and is
running loose. $55 million dollars in
Neteller money has been seized from
people that have done nothing wrong.
Who knows if and when it will be
returned to the people it belongs to.
And where will the government stop in
its quest to wipe out internet poker?”

This news release comes only a few days
after an annoucement was made that the
FBI has freezed Neteller accounts.

Tony G Poker is continuing to work
with U.S. players to get the money
out of their accounts. They have
provided the following instructions
on how to remove your money:

“*The only way possible to withdraw
your funds from Tony G. Poker at this
time is by doing the following:
1) Transfer your funds to Tony,
his player id is “Tony G”
2) Once the transfer is complete,
send an email to “support@tonygpoker.com”
detailing the amount you transferred,
your player id, and one of the three
accounts you would like your funds
transferred to: UltimateBet, FullTilt,
or PokerStars - also giving your player
ID on the site you want your funds
transferred to. Regrettably, there is
no banking option open at this time
since everything is being closed to
USA citizens and the government’s
strong arm tactics of protecting our
borders from poker has removed yet
another freedom.”

Will's note: Bravo to Tony G. Many other online rooms have simply chosen to freeze players accounts, holding their money without any stated future plans on if/when they will return it.

2/12/2007

No More Paradise Poker

Sportingbet effectively closing down
Paradise Poker Sat, 10 Feb 2007

The British online gambling group
Sportingbet.com has had to make some
tough business decisions regarding its
poker operations, culminating this week
in the announcement that it will effectively
be closing its Paradise Poker.com platform
at a cost of some GBP55 million (US$107million).

The company intends to transfer Paradise
players to its existing Boss Media-managed
Sportingbet poker platform. Facilitating the
move, Sportingbet has extended its contract
with Boss for for a further three years of
both poker and casino services.

Explaining the numbers that led to the decision,
Sportingbet CEO Andrew McIver said in the
three months to October 2006, rake from the
Boss platform amounted to GBP4.3 million,
up 72 percent year-on-year. By comparison,
Paradise Poker generated rake of
GBP3.8 million from non-US players in the
same period, up only 9 percent year-on-year.
Average daily active money players on both
systems amounted to around 6 500, with yield
per active player approximately 60 percent higher
on the Boss platform due to its bigger action.

"This deal combines all our poker players in
one destination, maximizing liquidity whilst
reducing the complexity of running two
separate poker operations. The addition
of the Paradise Poker players to the Boss
poker network will make the Boss network
one of the largest in Europe," McIver explained.

"By combining all poker players in one network
we aim to maximize yields," a spokesman said.
Sportingbet will retain the Paradise poker brand
and migrate all Paradise players to Boss
"in due course" the announcement said.
The combination of the two poker businesses
will provide some cost savings for the group,
however this will be offset to some extent by
the loss of revenue that may occur as a result
of migrating players from one platform to another.

Investor reaction to the move will not be
long in coming - Sportingbet will announce its
results for the second quarter on 28 February.
The deal is good news for Boss Media.
Johan Berg, Chief Executive Officer said:
"The partnership with Sportingbet is material
to the success of Boss Media and is one very
important reason that we are one of the leading
providers of e-Gaming software. The strengthened
partnership will enable the two companies to work
together to bring second to none e-Gaming
products to the market."

2/08/2007

SONNY !

Many of you have met and know
Sonny Rattan, Tour Manager for PIC.
He will be appearing as Poker Analyst for
the PokerStars MoneyMaker Millions tournament
It will be on The Score, at 2 pm Sat Feb 10,
Sun Feb 11 @ 8pm and 11pm. (likely repeated...
and it will be on TSN later)

A whole bunch of Canadians qualified for the
Tournament and someone you know is hosting..
good reasons to check it out !

2/07/2007

PIC Wildcard Dates

For anyone interested,
Poker In Canada has announced
its Season 6 Wildcard Events.

Feb 11 Bobby D's
Feb 18 Collins
Feb 22 Lezley' s Chaps


See www.pokerincanadatour.com
for directions to these locations

The Season Championship will be
held Sun March 4th (noon start)

2/02/2007

WPT Returns to Fallsview

The World Poker Tour Season 6
has been posted including a stop at
Niagara Fallsview Oct 7, 2007 - Oct 13, 2007.

Grand Prix de Paris
05/06/07 - 05/11/07 Aviation Club de France

The Mirage Poker Showdown
05/19/07 - 05/23/07 The Mirage

Mandalay Bay Poker Championship
05/29/07 - 06/02/07 Mandalay Bay

Legends of Poker
08/25/07 - 08/29/07 Bicycle Casino

Borgata Poker Open
09/16/07 - 09/20/07 Borgata

North American Poker Championship
10/07/07 - 10/13/07 Niagara Fallsview


World Poker Finals
11/08/07 - 11/13/07 Foxwoods

Five Diamond World Poker Classic
12/13/07 - 12/18/07 Bellagio

PokerStars Caribbean Poker Adventure
01/05/08 - 01/10/08

PokerStars World Poker Open
01/21/08 - 01/25/08

Gold Strike Casino Poker Classic
02/23/08 - 02/28/08 Commerce Casino

Bay 101 Shooting Star
03/10/08 - 03/14/08 Bay 101

World Poker Challenge
03/25/08 - 03/28/08 Reno Hilton

WPT World Championship
04/19/08 - 04/25/08 Bellagio

1/20/2007

There will be NO POKER
Sunday Jan 21st at the
Bradley Roadhouse.

1/18/2007

Jan 18th
Winner

SEAN
"Chip"
SLEE

1/15/2007

Jan 15th
Winner


SAM
BYCZOK

1/14/2007


Jan 14th


Winner


CHEVY
GIES

1/12/2007

Friday Online Results

Congratulations to

PENNY
STODDART


who won fridays
PIC Tour online tournament
for $192 USD and 100 points.

1/11/2007

Jan 11th - Photo not Available
Winner

Chris
White

1/08/2007


Jan 8th

Winner

ROB
PINCOMBE

1/07/2007


Jan 7th
Winner

KIM
GIES

1/04/2007

Jan 4th
Winner


LUIS
COY

12/30/2006

Friday Online Results

Congratulations to the following
London PIC Tour players for
their great finish on Friday night.

7th Jeff Smith
6th Chevy Gies
4th Janice Meyer
3rd Linda Cunningham

12/28/2006


Dec 28th
Winner

Rob
Hamilton

12/25/2006

Online Tx Update

There will now be 2 opportunities
to play online every week.

Friday nights at 8pm
Saturday afternoons at 4pm

Poker In Canada Tour Online
tournament players will now receive
ten (10) points for participation.

Final Table (top 8) points will remain
the same as at live events, only the
participation points are changing.

12/21/2006

Stats

New Season 6 Statistics are now available
from me at tonights event. They should be
uploaded to the pokerincanadatour site
tomorrow.