GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 26 - October 2013

Barton, PPA believe time is now for federal online poker legislation By Aaron Todd D espite repeated failed attempts over the past several congressional sessions, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) believe that now is the time to regulate Internet poker at the federal level. As he did in the last Congress, Barton has introduced the Internet Poker Freedom Act, which would create a regulatory framework for the game. States would have the ability to opt out of the federal regulatory scheme if they did not wish to participate. The legislation was introduced just two and a half months after Ultimate Poker became the first U.S.- regulated online poker room to accept real-money play. Ultimate Poker, operated by Station Casinos, is only open for players located within Nevada’s borders. Delaware and New Jersey have also passed online gam- bling regulations, and several states are considering leg- islation that would regulate online gambling. “I don’t think this policy of ‘just say no’ is going to last much longer,” said Barton during a conference call with the PPA. “As soon as neutral Congressmen and Senators who may not have an affinity or an aversion for poker one way or another see that it’s happening intrastate, I think my bill will get a lot of support and has a good chance to pass and to become law.” Barton says he crafted his bill to be a poker-only bill because it is a skill game as opposed to casino games, but his bill will not bar states from regulating intrastate casino games or lottery sales on their own. Another major hurdle that Barton claims to have cleared is opposition by Indian tribes, who say their sovereignty has been threatened by previous bills aimed at regulating the industry. “We really worked closely with the various tribes, and I’m proud to say that while we don’t have universal support, a lot of the issues in the last several years that the Indian tribes were concerned about we think have been resolved with extensive meetings and outreach to those that represent the Indian tribes.” Barton has not yet released a list of cosponsors, but says he expects to have about two-dozen representatives, with a mix of both Democrats and Republicans, sup- porting the bill. He also says he doesn’t have a commit- ment from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) to hold any hearings on the matter at this time. Yahoo beats Google in U.S. Web traffic By Aaron Todd I n the war for Internet supremacy, Google still reigns supreme. But there was an important, albeit small, battle won by Yahoo in July, as comScore reported that Yahoo logged more than 4.3 million more unique visits than Google for the month. It was the first time since May 2011 that Yahoo beat Google in the rankings. The top spot may not be fleeting for Yahoo, either, as July’s numbers did not include Tumblr, which Yahoo recently acquired. Microsoft was third, 17 million be- hind Yahoo with 179.6 million unique visitors. When it comes to search, however, Yahoo still lags far behind Google, with comScore reporting that 67 per- cent of Internet searches originated with Google in July. Yahoo ranked a distant third, netting just 11.4 percent of searches, while Microsoft sites were second with 17.9 percent of searches. LAC to move to new venue in 2014 LONDON -- The London Affiliate Conference (LAC), now in its eighth year, will be taking place in London Feb. 6-9, 2014. iGaming Business, the conference organizers, have announced that the conference will be moving to a new venue for 2014, the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London. LAC 2013 drew over 3,000 people – the biggest London event to date. And this year, to accommodate the increased number of delegates and exhibitors, the conference has had to move to a bigger venue. Earls Court ExhibitionCentre is an exhibition, conference and events venue in London that opened in 1937. Located within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, it is the largest such venue in central London and has a number of purpose-built conference rooms. “We are extremely excited that the show has grown to the extent that we have to move venue,” said Shona ODonnell, Head of Operations for iGaming Business. “The success of the London Affiliate Conference is down to the ongoing support that we have had from our exhibitors, speakers and delegates and we hope that they will be as excited by this move, and the new opportunities that will be available, as we are.” The 2014 event will also see the addition of a new marketing acquisition zone which will feature a wide variety of service providers in the digital marketing sphere. 7 Webmaster News