GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 27 - February 2014

- 9 a.m. - At this point, I decided I’d trymy luck with some of the other online casinos. I visited Ultimate Casino and CaesarsCasino.com, which are both played through Web browsers. Unlike PartyPoker, these sites asked me to download a geolocation plug-in that would help recognize my WiFi. They also asked for my phone num- ber during registration and sent me text messages as an additional way to verify my location (Party asked for my phone number, too, but did not send me a text). Still, after downloading the plug-ins and going through all the proper registration procedures, I was again denied access to both sites, which claimed I was outside the state of New Jersey. - 10 a.m. - I took a break for an hour because: 1. I hadn’t yet had my coffee, showered or changed out of my pajamas, and 2. I was so frustrated with these online casinos, my blood was boiling. After cooling off for a bit, I logged back in to PartyPoker, but this time to the brows- er-based client. This time, I was asked to install a geolocation plug-in, so I did. - 10:05 a.m. - Out of nowhere, I received a pop-up mes- sage from PartyPoker saying my loca- tion was verified to be in New Jersey and I could now play. Huh? Did the plug-in work? I wasn’t about to ask too many questions – it had been nearly 30 months since the last time I played online poker and I wasn’t going to waste time figuring out how or why I was finally able to do it. I just wanted to play. Using the $10 in bonus money I had in my account, I registered for a $1 multi-table tournament and a $5 one-table Sit-and- Go, bothof which started at roughly 10:30. - 10:30 a.m. - The tournaments started – this was re- ally happening! And it was just like I re- membered it! - 10:35 a.m. - Out of nowhere, I got the “message of doom” again. PartyPoker could not verify my location and I was no longer allowed to play real-money games on the site. I watched as my hands were automatically folded in both tournaments. I feverishly tried everything to get my location verified again, from closing the soft- ware to disconnecting from my WiFi and even re-downloading the geolocation plug-in. But it was no use. - 11:30 a.m. - After taking another break, I returned to the computer to see if anything had changed. I opened PartyPoker and, for some reason, I was again verified as being in New Jersey. To my astonishment, I was still alive in the $1 tournament, albeit with an incredibly short stack. But I was playing again. - 12 p.m. - I ended up doubling and tripling up a few times and came in fifth place in the tour- nament for a solid $2 and change. While I was at the final table, I popped open a $0.02/$0.04 no-limit Hold’em table with my remaining $4 and made about $1 in profit. By the time the tournament was over, I had a little less than $8 in my account. With my location verification firmly in- tact (it seemed), I figured I’d take my shot at unlocking the $5 bonus waiting for me in my account. The way I initially read the terms of the bonus, all I had to do was wager $5 in PartyPoker’s casino, and the bonus would be unlocked. So I went to the blackjack table and bet $1 five times in a row. I even managed to make a 50-cent profit thanks to a blackjack on the third hand. But when I returned to the lobby, my bo- nus had not been unlocked. After digging through the terms again, I realized that I couldn’t just wager $5 in any old casino game; it had to be through one of the site’s nine-payline, progressive jackpot slots. I opened one of the games and was set to wager $1 at a time, but for some reason it would only allow me to bet in $1.35 incre- ments. Again, this made no sense to me, but on the first spin I won $27. - 12:30 p.m. - I finished up with the slots, unlocked my bonus, and now had about $40 in my ac- count, all profit. There were no signs of any geolocation issues; I was finally play- ing online poker again, for real. I fired up a $10 heads-up Sit-and-Go and began playing. - 12:35 p.m. - You guessed it – I received the kiss of death. Again, I watched as my blinds went to my opponent, who seemed to catch on to the fact that I was disconnected from the site and began playing more quickly. I couldn’t get back on the site for an hour. - 1:45 p.m. - It was about 15 minutes until the start of the Casino City Gang podcast and I was set to give my review onmy day’s findings. To this point, I didn’t have toomany glow- ing things to say about the whole ordeal. I opened up PartyPoker again, and sure enough, my location was verified. Ho- hum, been there done that. Then I gave Ultimate Casino another shot. Somehow, I was able to get on and play for the first time all day. I tried Caesars again – I was in. I don’t know what was going on with the geolocators, but at 1:45 p.m. I was of- ficially recognized as being in New Jersey by three different online casinos. “ A minute or so into browsing the game offerings, a message popped onto my screen that read: ‘Sorry, you can’t play our games outside of New Jersey.’ ” Online gaming in the USA: In New Jersey is all about location – geolocation