DAILY BUZZ: Legalization Longshot, Keno vs Poker, Beal’s Trump Bid

Jason Kirk | November 27, 2009

Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the entire internet for all the latest news in and around the world of poker. If it involves chips and cards, or people known to associate with chips and cards, we’re there.

Experts: Legalized online gambling in U.S. unlikely in 2010

The online poker community has plenty of reason to celebrate with the recent Treasury Department and Federal Reserve decision to delay implementation of the UIGEA by another six months. But a panel of experts assembled by the American Gaming Association says that we should all curb our enthusiasm when it comes to the prospect of full legalization and regulation in the near future.

Of the 17 experts surveyed by the AGA, only one thought that passage of Rep. Barney Frank’s legislation to legalize and regulate many forms of online gambling, including poker, was “somewhat likely.” Even Sen. Robert Menendez’s bill, which would legalize and regulate online games of skill such as poker, only had five panel members willing to say it was “somewhat likely” to pass in the next year. Many of those surveyed said they doubted the United States would be able to lure online gambling operators to the United States because of the low operating costs and taxes in offshore havens like the Isle of Man. And all of them cited the number of pressing issues on Congress’ agenda such as health care, which are more likely to be worked out than any legislation legalizing online gambling.

Among those who doubt online gambling will become a reality is Harrah’s Entertainment senior vice president of communications and government relations Jan Jones, who said that Frank’s bill “has no chance of passage next year or maybe ever.” Jones held out some hope for Menendez’s legislation, though, since it would do wonders for the Harrah’s-owned World Series of Poker.

(Experts say online gaming in U.S. is still a long shot - Las Vegas Sun)

Washington State online poker foe pushes keno on the masses

There are few bets in any casino worse for players than the game of keno, but that’s not stopping Washington State Senator Margarita Prentice from sponsoring legislation that would expand the game’s presence within the state to help balance the state’s $2.6 billion budget shortfall.

Prentice, as you may remember, was the sponsor of the 2006 legislation that made playing online poker, a game that doesn’t benefit the Indian gambling concerns that help to fund her re-election campaigns, a felony on par with animal torture and possession of child pornography within the state of Washington. Now that the state’s books aren’t balancing she says that expanding gambling is “an absolute necessity,” but rather than give players a chance to win based on their own skill by allowing them to play poker, Prentice wants to make them guaranteed losers by only offering them bad bets like keno.

According to the Seattle News, the Prentice-sponsored keno bill currently before the governor “would allow tickets to be bought at all lottery retail locations…(and) monitors displaying the drawings every four minutes would be placed in restaurants, bars and taverns.”

(Gregoire considers 4-minute Keno games to fill budget gap - Seattle News)

Andy Beal looking to buy Trump casinos - without Trump on board

Andy Beal has broken away from Donald Trump and made his own offer to take over three bankrupt casinos in Atlantic City bearing Trump’s name.

Beal, the billionaire Texas banker whose battles with poker’s biggest stars were the focus of Michael Craig’s book The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King, had originally backed Trump’s attempt to regain control of Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc., which controls the Trump Marina, the Trump Plaza, and the Trump Taj Mahal. But last week Trump backed out of their compact and announced he was supporting the company’s bondholders in exchange for an ownership stake in the casinos. Many assumed the bondholders were favorites to win control of the company with their $225 million offer, but that was before an affiliate of Beal Bank offered to turn its $486 million mortgage on the three casinos into equity.

According to the Press of Atlantic City:

Beal’s mortgage on the Trump casinos makes his bank first in line among bankruptcy creditors. Beal attorney Thomas E. Lauria told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Judith H. Wizmur that the bank’s offer was superior to the bondholders’ deal because it would leave the casinos debt-free once they emerge from Chapter 11. Lauria also said that bondholders and Trump Entertainment’s unsecured creditors would be given rights to invest in the casinos.

Kristopher M. Hansen, attorney for the bondholders, argued that Beal’s offer is nothing more than a delaying tactic designed to “squeeze” more money out of bondholders in buyout talks.

Judge Wizmur originally gave Trump and the bondholders until December 3rd to work out a deal, and she also set hearings for January 20th to decide on Trump Entertainment’s new owner. It’s unclear for now whether the Beal offer will derail that schedule.

(Bidding war erupts for bankrupt Trump casinos - Press of Atlantic City)

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