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Poker, until recently a blossoming game in Russia, is not outlawed with all casino gambling, leading to a state demand that the Russian poker federation be closed.

The continuing assault by the Russian government on casino gambling, which quickly spread to envelop poker, has led to an order from the country's Prosecutor General to the Justice Ministry demanding the closure of the Russian Federation of Sport Poker. Authorities say the decree placing poker out of the category of sport and into the category of gambling amounts to removal of the federation's credentials.

As of July 1st, all gambling venues were ordered shuttered and gambling became illegal in all Russia, save for four distant special zones. Gaming has not developed in the zones, which lack infrastructure and are located in unappealing and desolate areas.

Poker had been exempted, as Russian law defined poker as a game of skill and, as such, under the ministry of sport. But casinos facing closure tried to morph themselves into poker rooms to skirt the new law, and officials acted quickly to cast poker out along with casino gambling.

The European Poker Tour had planned an August event in Russia as its first tournament in the country, but was forced at the last minute to relocate to the Ukraine.

Before the change in policy, Russian poker was booming, with players honed in online poker achieving high levels of success at the World Series of Poker and earning international respect for their play.

Published on August 23, 2009 by A.J.Maldonado

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A new chief executive running Macau for China means an unsure future for casinos and gambling in the area, just as accelerated growth was returning to the gaming industry.

Just as growth was returning to Macau after moves by the Chinese government had slowed the gambling zone's economic boom, a new leader for the former Portugese colony brings uncertainty regarding sustaining the recent rise. Fernando Chui took over as Macau chief executive today, with orders from Chinese superiors to rein in growth spurts and find other means for expansion than just casino gambling.

Macau had seen double-digit growth for the first few years following the opening of its gambling market, as major operators such as Las Vegas Sands, MGM Mirage, and Wynn arrived to compete with the established Stanley Ho empire. But Chinese officials, worried that out-of-control growth was creating social disorder, put limits on visas of mainland citizens looking to travel to China's only legal gambling area.

Recent easing of restrictions led to new growth this year, and the US casino operators held or planned IPOs on the Hong Kong exchange to raise money to continue development and expansion. Now, Chui's ascension has gaming industry analysts watching carefully to see what policies are enacted toward the gambling venues.

"After 10 years, Mr. Chui's job is to stabilize growth," Macau political expert Larry So told the Wall Street Journal.

According to the Journal, gambling creates three-fourths of government revenue in Macau, and October gaming income set an all-time record at $1.59 billion. But rumblings from China, which would love to draw more foreign money while capping mainland Chinese gambling, have included a potential limit on gaming tables in Macau and a raise in age limit from 18 to 21.

As Macau attempts to control corruption and stress on infrastructure and labor pools caused by overly rapid growth, new competition  prepares to aim at Macau's customer base, beginning with the opening of Las Vegas Sands' project in Singapore early in 2010.

Published on December 20, 2009 by A.J.Maldonado

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Published on April 24, 2014 by Susan Torres

A new report by McAffee security firm released on Thursday revealed that money laundering and bribes at online casino and poker sites are not only highly probable, but the activities are actually happening right now.

A bribe, for instance, might work by a 'donor' playing a poker game heads up against a public official and intentionally losing so that the public official earns the winnings and can cash out.

Less of this type of activity is seen in countries with regulated casino games, like the UK, where gambling scams are at an all-time low, according to Jeffrey Maxwell, analyst for the UK gaming industry.

"Because gambling at internet casinos is legal and regulated in the UK we can catch criminals and prosecute them with the help of the internet gambling companies," said Maxwell.

"Instead of fighting against the operators, who are just trying to run a good business, the government works with them to thwart criminal activity," Maxwell suggested.

When a 'player,' or 'punter,' as they are called in the UK, shows irregular activity in their account, the operator investigates the situation and if that activity is deemed suspicious enough it is reported to the gaming commission. This deters criminals and limits the criminal activity, according to Maxwell.

"Criminals really avoid the sites that run in regulated territories and instead head to the USA where online gambling is still in a gray area, where there are no federal regulations.

"What the US government seems to not realize is that if they want to get rid of criminal activity, banning online casinos is not the way to do it," Maxwell said. "The online gambling operators are friendly business people. It is the punters that can be criminal, and without the collusion between the gaming companies and the government the criminal activity will continue to proliferate in America."

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I'm standing in the middle of the Rio's Amazon Room, and I'm thinking about dead people. I'm thinking of a dead couple in a pink Cadillac. I'm thinking of a body falling out of the back of a trash truck. I'm thinking of a frozen corpse in a meat truck.

What I'm thinking of, to put a finer point on it, is a cull.

It's 15 minutes before the beginning of Day 6 of the WSOP Main Event, and the coda to "Layla" is playing over the loud speakers. It's amazing that the song exists as it does at all (Eric Clapton saw the Allman Brothers while he was recording in Miami, invited Duane Allman to the studio to record some electric slide, and boom, one of the most famous recording sessions ever), but it's even more amazing that those four minutes of electric slide and piano make me think of dead people.

But here we are.

It's Martin Scorsese's fault. If you've seen Goodfellas, you know the scene (er...spoiler alert...) where all of the Lufthansa robbers start showing up dead because Jimmy wanted to keep all the money for himself. That scene became one of film's greatest and most gruesome montages while the "Layla" coda plays dreamily in the background. There's some cognitive dissonance involved in the almost-stoned pace of the song and the horror playing out on the screen, but on repeated viewings, it's pretty clear what we can draw from it: if what we're hearing and what we're seeing doesn't seem to fit, it's because that's exactly how life is. Nothing really fits. At any point during the time of Goodfella's "Layla" might have been playing on the radio, and at any point, a bunch of people could've ended up culled from the herd because of one man's greed. It's the perfect soundtrack because, like most of life, it just doesn't fit how we feel things should be.

As it's said of Jimmy during the montage, "He had the cash. It was his...It made him sick to have to turn money over to the guys who stole it. He'd rather whack'em."

And that's what I'm thinking about as I stand by the giant television stage where ESPN will film, among others, Daniel Negreanu in the quest to make the final table of poker's biggest event.

Much like the mafia, we are here for a cull of such epic proportions that people in the square world don't get it. When this event began more than a week ago, 6,420 people had put up $10,000 apiece for the chance to walk away with millions. Today, only 69 of those people remain, and for each one that's culled from the herd, the remaining players get richer. The winner will get $7.68 million dollars, which (not accounting for inflation) is more than the mafia boys stole from Lufthansa nearly 40 years ago.

Before we even consider the biggest money, however, we have to re-start this game and play through two more full days, and even then, there will be nine people left.

Pierre Neuville cuts across the carpet with his eyes aimed at his table. ESPN's Kara Scott trails him, shooting questions that go largely unanswered. For all the talk of this being a young man's game, Neuville leads them all at age 74.

He grabs my palm with a sweaty hand. "Bonjour!" he says.

I tell him good luck, and he mimes taking my wish in his palms as he walks away.

Outside the room, yellow-shirted security officers are keeping the crowds at bay until the players find their seats. Negreanu cuts through them and darts across the carpet with a dealer and floorman flanking him like consiglieres. Security gives chase.

"Hey!" one of them yells.

"It's okay," the floorman says. "We're good."

The security guy stops his tracks and looks frustrated. "Fine," he said. "But how am I supposed to know we're good?!"

And that's when I think of Goodfellas' Jimmy again. As the cops tried in vain to track the robbers, Jimmy went about his business, knocking off his fellow robbers, and getting richer with every one he culled. Negreanu, already rich and famous, gets more rich and more famous every time someone is eliminated.

The real Jimmy Burke never went to prison for the robbery, but his young protege did eventually turn on him, and Burke went to prison for murder. It was the result of leaving too many people alive.

There are a lot of people left here who learned a lot of their game by watching Negreanu play, and any one of them could end up spelling his end. That is, if we're to believe Goodfellas, leaving any proteges behind is a bad idea in a game where the only objective is to get rid of everybody else.

But hey...what do I know? After all, Negreanu is a fan of the Rocky movies, so he's not hearing the same song I am, and his coda may fade out in a way Clapton, Allman, or Scorsese could never write.

---

Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging. Photography by PokerPhotoArchive.com

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Pokerfest was a huge success on partypoker, with the 80 scheduled tournaments decimating the combined $2.5 million guaranteed prize pools by awarding players over $3,355,118 in prizes. The tournament festival just ended its action-packed 15-day schedule this past weekend with its events taking place from Oct. 25 to Nov. 8.

Part of the reason for the huge success is that the tournament festival featured something for every type of poker player, with buy-ins ranging from as low as $5 to as high as $2,100.

Most of the events took place in the most popular no-limit hold'em format, however, the schedule also featured six pot-limit Omaha events. Additionally, the schedule featured a variety of poker tournament formats including full-ring freezeout, six-max, turbo, hyper-turbo, rebuy, reentry, and bounty.

As you might imagine, the highlight of the online poker festival was the Pokerfest $300,000 Gtd NLHE Main Event on Nov. 8, which was Event #73 on the schedule. This tournament attracted 1,469 players for $250 each to generate a $342,277 prize pool.

The winner of the event was "Tschilli", banking $52,506 for his efforts. Also scoring big in this tournament was "zupersherlock", snagging $38,129 for second place ,and "easylimppp", taking home $27,656 for third place.

Despite "Tschili" having the honor of winning the most prestigious event on the Pokerfest schedule, it was "nipa3p3" who won the most money in a single event after shipping Pokerfest #75: $75,000 Gtd NLHE Super High Roller for $57,510.

This event proved to be much more popular than partypoker realized when scheduling it, with 135 runners buying in for $2,100 to generate a $270,000 prize pool — or 360 percent larger than the $75,000 guarantee.

Here is a look at all the final table finishes for Pokerfest events that generated at least a $50,000 prize pool.

Pokerfest #3 – $5,000 Gtd NLH Ante-Up

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$100+9	Oct. 25	892	$89,200

Place	Player	Prize
1	strj200099	$14,606.50
2	komel21	$10,347.20
3	Sergio "EV4dGloryOMC" Garcia	$7,314.40
4	tommytime.	$5,708.80
5	Granite89	$4,620.56
6	VT_chisna	$3,728.56
7	herioslen10	$2,836.56
8	ffswtfrofl	$1,962.40
9	FLAP5	$1,507.48

Pokerfest #7 – $250,000 Gtd NLH

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$233+17	Oct. 25	1,097	$255,601

Place	Player	Prize
1	Das-Sackgesicht	$40,513.14
2	HungarysHero	$29,074.61
3	domano111	$20,857.04
4	bubs26pp	$15,975.06
5	kuximaxi	$13,022.87
6	JimmyJazz55	$10,466.86
7	Albert_77	$7,910.85
8	PASHKA987555544	$5,367.62
9	Kaeleaben	$4,064.05

Pokerfest #9 – $60,000 Gtd NLH

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$233+17	Oct. 25	862	$86,200

Place	Player	Prize
1	RipWinamp	$14,115.25
2	orsenjack27	$9,999.20
3	moderecepcia	$7,068.40
4	HomeDelivery14	$5,516.80
5	Rofl_Lolboom	$4,465.16
6	LVa_HEth_BRI	$3,603.16
7	spetsern	$2,741.16
8	Jakub "nevytocimnic" Šenk	$1,896.40
9	BOOMALOOM	$1,456.78

Pokerfest #10 – $150,000 Gtd NLH High Roller

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$500+30	Oct. 25	350	$175,000

Place	Player	Prize
1	Lena900	$32,410.00
2	I_AM_ZLATAN	$22,767.50
3	icenigel	$16,275.00
4	wwwsop	$13,300.00
5	Partyyycular	$11,375.00
6	domano111	$9,625.00
7	alidaei1010	$7,875.00
8	mehpkr	$6,125.00
9	NehmenDiesePot	$4,375.00

Pokerfest #16 – $40,000 Gtd NLH Rebuy

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$46.30+3.70	Oct. 27	350	$175,000

Place	Player	Prize
1	Dennis "DBerglin" Berglin	$11,205.36
2	wwwsop	$7,929.10
3	richking	$5,596.27
4	HNR06	$4,464.44
5	butihasreads	$3,772.77
6	Tonny "benzen." Jensen	$3,143.97
7	NittyGrinder	$2,515.18
8	gimmeyawallet	$1,949.26
9	nicecallLOL	$1,383.34

Pokerfest #31 – $50,000 Gtd NLHE Re-Entry

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$186+14	Oct. 31	250	$50,000

Place	Player	Prize
1	woody1234321	$8,102.67*
2	nelisschuf	$8,032.34*
3	CNTHARIV	$4,900.00
4	Maatedyret	$4,050.00
5	trucking_67	$3,400.00
6	lindstroem44	$2,900.00
7	Robert "TheCropSnagger" James	$2,400.00
8	Treizee	$1,900.00
9	DELLINHONo1	$1,400.00

_{*Reflects heads-up deal}

Pokerfest #40 – $250,000 Gtd NLHE

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$233+17	Nov. 1	1,134	$264,222

Place	Player	Prize
1	Jes_hansen	$32,596.80*
2	cpt_lechuck	$32,096.20*
3	Arekias	$28,155.46*
4	F4anor99	$16,381.76
5	S.Sarnelli	$13,448.89
6	trixibelle1	$10,780.25
7	D0nKanaille_	$8,138.03
8	peteb177	$5,495.81
9	Sam "sammy_squid" Grafton	$4,174.70

_{*Reflects three-way deal}

Pokerfest #42 – $75,000 Gtd NLHE

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$100+9	Nov. 1	889	$88,900

Place	Player	Prize
1	Wade "ricestuud" Townsend	$14,557.87
2	massi_83	$10,312.40
3	Leqenden	$7,289.80
4	Doug "dlanger610" Lang	$5,689.60
5	ilik3turtl3s	$4,605.02
6	jotaefe2810	$3,716.02
7	DeathByOnions	$2,827.02
8	Dr.WALTZ	$1,955.80
9	Frutosex	$1,502.41

Pokerfest #42 – $75,000 Gtd NLHE

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$100+9	Nov. 1	230	$230,000

Place	Player	Prize
1	Graftekkel	$41,436.92*
2	MnVriendjeDeZon	$32,784.09*
3	Mike "PokeHerPlayerHer" Carter	$22,540.00
4	Estratega18	$18,630.00
5	GreenAsFelt	$15,640.00
6	skiw-moi	$13,340.00
7	Owain "ows86" Carey	$11,040.00
8	spetsern	$8,740.00
9	Gagurgel	$6,440.00

_{*Reflects heads-up deal}

Pokerfest #49 – $30,000 Gtd NLHE ½ Price Rebuy

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$46.30+3.70	Nov. 3	747	$52,054.30

Place	Player	Prize
1	tunantis	$9,380.56
2	Ne4mal99	$6,647.33
3	Vinkyy	$4,684.88
4	Mads "MadsMP-_" Pedersen	$3,852.01
5	Mario "TH3K1D_M8" Sánchez	$3,305.44
6	skycyp	$2,784.90
7	DeathByOnions	$2,264.36
8	Paul "senterpied99" Senter	$1,743.81
9	powerflowerz	$1,228.48

Pokerfest #64 – $50,000 Gtd NLHE

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$186+14	Nov. 7	321	$59,706

Place	Player	Prize
1	My5016	$11,057.78
2	Olegsazonov	$7,767.75
3	Simon "Igorkarkarof" Rønnow Pedersen	$5,552.65
4	I_GO_DEEP	$4,537.65
5	zaaqq	$3,880.89
6	shadoww0rm	$3,283.86
7	alakazoo81	$2,686.77
8	Kelvin "OMGflyngbaby" Beattie	$2,089.71
9	Russell "rdcrsn" Carson	$1,492.65

Pokerfest #69 – $50,000 Gtd NLHE Slow Grind

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$100+9	Nov. 8	916	$91,600

Place	Player	Prize
1	richking	$12,814.82*
2	SryGottaFeeling	$12,810.29*
3	David "dcoates3" Coates	$7,511.20
4	HERRPP DERRPPP	$5,862.40
5	Clowis	$4,744.88
6	erikUff	$3,828.88
7	reddog95	$2,912.88
8	wobanlve	$2,015.20
9	Szadiziom	$1,548.04

Pokerfest #73 – $300,000 Gtd NLHE Main Event

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$233+17	Nov. 8	1,469	$342,277

Place	Player	Prize
1	Tschilli	$52,506.38
2	zupersherlock	$38,129.65
3	easylimppp	$27,655.98
4	KidAlex13	$20,776.21
5	Kevin "MattSplatt" Gibson	$16,874.25
6	murderlicious	$13,451.48
7	Nath07951	$10,028.71
8	mightyboossh	$6,811.31
9	Guus Geluk4	$5,099.92

Pokerfest #75 – $75,000 Gtd NLHE Super High Roller

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$2,000+100	Nov. 8	135	$270,000

Place	Player	Prize
1	nipa3p3	$57,510.00
2	crisronaldo2	$39,150.00
3	LetitbeBeetle	$29,430.00
4	Gooooooaaal	$24,300.00
5	TJ "RandyB0bandy" Ulmer	$20,790.00
6	clown_baby	$17,820.00
7	FergieTime5	$14,850.00
8	JohnyK91	$12,150.00
9	Joao "TDurdenWAR" Mathias Baumgarten	$9,450.00

Pokerfest #76 – $75,000 Gtd NLHE

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$100+9	Nov. 8	922	$92,200

Place	Player	Prize
1	Jude "jthaddeus555" Ainsworth	$12,790.62*
2	semislaktarn	$12,610.49*
3	BOOMALOOM	$7,541.96
4	cpt_lechuck	$5,831.65
5	Ben "Ch1pJam" David	$4,739.08
6	kuximaxi	$3,817.08
7	cbanken	$2,895.08
8	Calcasus	$2,009.96
9	Bryan "StringerBell44" Leskowitz	$1,530.52

_{*Reflects heads-up deal}

Pokerfest #77 – $150,000 Gtd NLHE High Roller

Buy-in	Date	Entries	Prize Pool
$500+30	Nov. 8	429	$214,500

Place	Player	Prize
1	JohnyK91	$32,943.44*
2	OurodeTolo	$32,328.92*
3	Frederik "Brink82" Jensen	$19,090.50
4	woody1234321	$15,229.50
5	Ca11MeMaybe	$12,870.00
6	HereToPartyy	$10,725.00
7	shadoww0rm	$8,580.00
8	Kevin "THEDREAMER77" Killeen	$6,649.50
9	Gooooooaaal	$4,719.00

_{*Reflects heads-up deal}

Special thanks to the partypoker Blog and PocketFives.com for information used in this article.

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