By Earl Burton
After the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act
in October, there has been a flurry of thoughts, opinions and speculation
as to what effect it would have on the tournament poker world. Would
tournament numbers for World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker
events (especially the Championship Event) suffer because of the withdrawal
of several online poker rooms and the continued insistence of some
of these rooms to continue to allow American players? I decided that,
rather than speculate, to go directly to the entities involved and
get their side of the story.
For the World Poker Tour, they have decided that, rather
than making a blanket assessment, they will rely on their member casinos
to set the agenda. In
Pokerstars
an e-mail with a spokesperson for the WPT, it was stated that, since
the casinos own the tournaments, they "hold the right to accept
or reject these players" that qualify through online rooms. Since
it comes down to each individual casino to make the call, so to speak,
the various players and online rooms have to find out from those casinos
whether the third party registrations will be accepted.
I was able to speak directly to the man in charge of
the day-to-day affairs of the World Series of Poker, Director of Operations
Gary Thompson, regarding the World Series and Harrah's stance on the
subject. "We are doing business as usual and the legislation
will have no effect on our registration policies," he stated
in a phone call with this writer. "We haven't accepted third
party entries into any of our tournaments, either the main World Series
or the Circuit events, since 2005." Mr. Thompson was also adamant
on stating that, while the effects of the UIGEA are still unknown,
the World Series will continue to grow, as witnessed by the significant
increases in the 2006-07 Circuit events with the reduction in buy
ins for their Championship Events from $10000 to $5000.
While the major poker tours continue to draw record
numbers, what may be affected is the player base that has blasted
into the stratosphere since the inception of online poker. Many newcomers
to the game, especially younger players, women and foreign players,
have been able to amass a vast amount of experience online and have
been able to parlay that into a great deal of success on the live
tournament world. If prevented from playing online (through financial
restriction or outright ban), will the same numbers continue to be
generated, bringing us new blood to the game?
The tournament poker world has been shuddering at the
thought of what the impact of the legislation would be on high profile
events on the WPT and the WSOP. Those in charge who I have spoken
to don't feel that there will be a sizeable impact from the legislation
on participation in high profile tournament events or the activities
of either the WPT or the WSOP. But, it will be months, or maybe longer
before we can gauge the true impact of this legislation on the live
tournament poker world.
If the people that run the events are correct, and the
impact is minimal, this bodes well for the continued growth of the
game of poker and, rather than the recession of the game from the
bright lights it currently occupies, still indicates that there are
still great days ahead for the game in the live tournament poker world.