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Online gaming in USA underway By Reid Cherner, USA TODAY Sports2:29 p.m. EDT April 30

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mrquincy

mrquincy

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It's baaaack! Sort of... in Nevada anyway

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/poker/2013/04/30/poker-ultimate-poker-las-vegas-nevada-gaming/2123275/

Online poker players are out of the darkness.

At least in the USA. And at least on the internet.

Today, Ultimate Poker (ultimatepoker.com) became the first to provide legal online gaming in the U.S.

Tom Breitling, chairman of Ultimate Gaming said this "is a big moment" for the 50 million poker players in the USA "because its been this roller coaster ride over the past decade and we know taht people like to play online poker and know they can be in a safe and secure environment."

This is the first step to potenially multiple states legalizing online gaming which could generate billions of dollars.

Currently, New Jersey and Delaware have passed legislation but have yet to play their hand. Nevada for now remains the sole state to have put their legislation into action.

The first deal was at noon ET today. Players must be at least 21 years old and be located in the state of Nevada. Players can register from other states prior to their arrival in Nevada.

Ultimate Poker: Players can sign up here

Games will be as small as 25-cent bet tournaments and $300 limit table. The company believes the games will be a complement to casino gambling and not a competitor. The goal is to allow players who may be intimidated in a casino or otherwise more comfortable in an online setting.

With millions of Americans who play some form of poker, the company is pledging to create the tools to protect players and regulate the gaming space.

"This is, for Nevada, a new day," Reno gaming analyst Ken Adams told the Gazette-Journal. "There's been a huge amount of speculation on what online gaming means. Estimates in New Jersey run from $20 (million) to $30 million to $2 (billion) to $3 billion. The only way to find out is when it starts. Up to now, we've been talking in theories. Now we'll get a peek at reality."

Ultimate Poker is a subsidiary of Station Casinos LLC of Las Vegas, which operates 16 locals-oriented casinos in Nevada.

Breitling said casino poker generates just 1% of all gaming revenues in Nevada and that online gambling should only aid casino gambling.

"A lot of people want to play online and offline poker," he said. "We think it will drive what we call poker tourism. People will come here to play online but might qualify for an offline tournament. We're all about making poker fun again."

Added CEO Tobin Prior: "At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when you want a game, it is a lot easier to put those people together on the internet than it is to do it in a physical environment. It is a logical way to grow the market."

According to the Associated Press, iInternet poker, has been strictly outlawed since 2011, when the Department of Justice seized domain names of offshore sites catering to U.S. customers. AP says the crackdown was dubbed "black Friday" and left poker fanatics with two options: visit a card room, or break the law and log into offshore sites.

"I think the real excitement will be when we get a very populous state like a California or a New York allowing these companies to expand," ITG casino analyst Matthew Jacob told the AP. "But these changes often take longer to occur than people assume. It requires a change in law and then it takes a while from when the law passes until the sites are up and running."
 
here is a pretty good article on ultimate poker

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2013/...storic-first-legal-hand-of-online-p-14874.htm

"Ultimate Poker, a majority-owned subsidiary of Station Casinos LLC, is the exclusive online gaming partner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and recently made headlines by signing poker’s all-time leader in tournament earnings, Antonio Esfandiari.

Ultimate Poker is open to anyone age 21 and over located in the state of Nevada. Whether you’re a resident or just visiting the Silver State, you can create an account and deposit online. You can also make a deposit and cash out at any of Station Casinos’ 16 locations across the Las Vegas valley. What’s more, any player in the world can sign up and deposit at UltimatePoker.com in advance of visiting Nevada — a great option for those planning to attend the World Series or Poker over the summer.

Here are some more details on Ultimate Poker Version 1.0:

Limit Texas hold’em and no-limit Texas hold’em ring games ranging from $0.01/$0.02 to $10/$20. Other games are planned to be offered moving forward.

Players can deposit funds to their account with: 
MasterCard ($10 minimum deposit), checking account ($10 minimum deposit)
, mailed check ($50 minimum deposit)
, bank wire transfer ($500 minimum deposit)
, or 16 Station Casinos cage locations (no minimum deposit)

Benefits for Station Casinos Boarding Pass members

Once-in-a-lifetime prizes and rewards as the exclusive online gaming 
partner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship

Any player located in the state of Nevada and over the age 
of 21 can play now and for free

Register and deposit from anywhere in the world 
so you can play as soon as you land in Nevada

Wide range of tournaments at many stakes every day, including 
nine- and six-handed tables, as well as winner-take-all heads-up tables"

Read more: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2013/...storic-first-legal-hand-of-online-p-14874.htm


 
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It's the first step since the Justice Department has stated that the Wire Act doesn't apply to online poker.

The hope is that people from any state will be able to play eventually.

It's progress. For whatever that's worth...
 
Ars spoke with Chris Derossi, Ultimate Poker's chief technology officer (and former chief architect of Macintosh system software, leading the design team for Mac OS 7.1), only very briefly described how this would be enforced.

"They include your network [IP address], to the location of your mobile phone device and some stuff that we can't talk about,” he said. "We do require that players have a mobile device that we can locate through the mobile networks."

He clarified that the company was partnering with Locaid, a San Francisco startup that works directly with mobile phone carriers to ping phones as a way to determine their location.
 
I don't think they are doing it with GPS or apps but the geolocation service every feature phone has. Just pinging it to a cell tower would be enough. As you go about the city you leave traces as your phone jumps into a new cell tower area, software analyzing these routes they could tell if a phone is always in the same place or if it has a more natural use pattern. Have no idea if they would go as deep but it sounds logical that they would.
 
RogueJuror
I don't think they are doing it with GPS or apps but the geolocation service every feature phone has. Just pinging it to a cell tower would be enough. As you go about the city you leave traces as your phone jumps into a new cell tower area, software analyzing these routes they could tell if a phone is always in the same place or if it has a more natural use pattern. Have no idea if they would go as deep but it sounds logical that they would.
Click to expand...

Yeah. This.

I don't think they check to see if it's moved, but they do check its location.
 
It's the same feature all phones have to call 911. By law every device in the US must have it. If you're on the run in Chicago and turn off your phone and then turn it on in Oklahoma, as soon as it turns on it will look for a friendly tower and it register with the phone company. That's how LEA can locate wanted people to certain area. In this case it will be on the ToS.

I once saw a show about a serial killer I forgot in which city that used to taunt the police. With service or no service phone companies must accept all 911 request. The guy was using an old phone to taunt the police of where to find the victims for like a month. He finally got to an area where he was in reach of 3 different cell towers helping them create a gps like grid of the area and they were able to pinpoint his location to something like 50 meters in an abandoned building.

In lots of cases this has been alibi killer. Your phone is not your friend.
 
RogueJuror
I don't think they are doing it with GPS or apps but the geolocation service every feature phone has. Just pinging it to a cell tower would be enough. As you go about the city you leave traces as your phone jumps into a new cell tower area, software analyzing these routes they could tell if a phone is always in the same place or if it has a more natural use pattern. Have no idea if they would go as deep but it sounds logical that they would.
Click to expand...

Just pay someone to keep your phone in their car.
 
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