The market for online gambling in California is amounts to nearly $13 billion every year. Close to 2 million Californians gamble online, making it the largest online gaming market in the United States.

Two months ago, Senators Rod Wright and Darrell Steinberg introduced Senate Bill 1463 to legalize online gaming in California. This bill was designed to enhance state revenues and offer protections for consumers.

While opponents continue to argue that online poker could encourage addictive gambling, support for the bill is growing. Although advocates of an online gaming bill are pitching the potential to create revenue to legislators, that is not the reason the bill is gaining support. More people are beginning to support the bill because they are concerned about protecting consumers.

Without a proper regulatory environment, consumers are at considerable risk of losing their money when gaming through offshored sites. Although this is a point that has been raised to state and federal regulators for several years, California lawmakers are listening more closely over the past couple of months. During January, a number of California citizens reporting losing a substantial amount of money to the Ultimate Bet website. They are suing the firm for $20 million in federal court.

The fraudulent practices Ultimate Bet allegedly participated in strike too close for home for many Californians. Lawmakers now understand why they may need to create gaming regulations to ensure the protections of their constituents.

The regulations in the most recent bill resemble those of California’s existing gaming regulations. Therefore, lawmakers may be able to get the bill passed much earlier than anticipated. Some experts project California may be able to legalize online gaming by next year.

Discussions among New Jersey senators regarding the regulation of online gambling are becoming intense. A bill was due to arrive on Christie’s desk on Thursday and be voted on next week. That bill was delayed and won’t be voted on for next week.

Lawmakers were stunned when Christie announced that he would support the legalization of online poker. Christie said he is working closely with Senator Ray Lesniak to ensure the bill fits the needs of all stakeholders. Lesniak said that he intends to reintroduce the online poker bill to the senate in the near future. He believes the other senators will be more willing to support the bill once he informs his colleagues that Christie is on board.

Lesniak believes that they will be able to get a bill compiled and signed by the governor in the first few weeks of the new session. Lesniak concurs with Christie’s position that online gambling will have a positive impact on the state of New Jersey. He told reporters that it will revolutionize the state’s gaming industry and in turn help stimulate the new economy.

Lesniak said that the state will be able to bring in new tax revenue, create jobs and encourage the development of new technology. As the state struggles to get back on its feet, online poker may help turn things around. However, Lesniak agrees with Christie’s opinion that online gambling is an incredibly difficult process to get right.

The bill that Lesniak is about to vote on is similar to the bill that Christie already vetoed. This version has been improved to protect the interests of the public. The bill has revisions that provide penalties for anyone engaging in online gambling operations outside of Atlantic City. Under the new bill, many large gambling and entertainment companies would be eligible to apply for gambling licenses in New Jersey.

Trickett, was nominated in three categories, winners of which were selected by online voters. The awards were announced recently at the Poker in the Park ceremony at London’s Hanover Square. He won Best Cash Player but was also nominated for Best Tournament Player and Best Social Media User.

In 2010, the first year of the British Poker Awards, Trickett won Best New Player.

Other award winners included Jason Mercier for Best International Player, Jake Cody for Best Tournament Player, and Chris Moorman for Best Online Player.

Finally, the big award, Player of the Year, was awarded to Jake Cody. This award was not voted on by fans, but was instead decided by a panel of judges including poker magazine editors and others. This decision backed up by the voter’s decision that Cody was also the best tournament player of the year. Cody was highlighted as an excellent real money player, not someone who just excels at online play.

“The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the indictment unsealed by the US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York on 15 April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation,” said a statement issued by the Gambling Control Commission.

The commission said its investigation shows that Full Tilt employees and their associates have operated contrary to the gambling laws. Full Tilt, PokerStars, Absolute Poker and other poker sites lost their right to operate in the United States on April 15 when the government handed down indictments charging the companies and their founders and employees with bank fraud, money laundering and other crimes.

Shortly after the shutdown, most of the online poker rooms were either working on returning money to players or had already done so. Full Tilt, however, did not return player money and most American players report that they still have not received money they held in their Full Tilt accounts.

Poker star Phil Ivey even officially disassociated himself from the site, for which he was a sponsored Pro, due to concerns about players not receiving their monies. He also filed suit against the company.

When it heard the news of the shut down, Moneybookers, a major online payment site for online poker and casino sites, announced it would no longer accept deposits made to Full Tilt Poker anywhere in the world.

Full Tilt Poker Now Sold?

Rumors have been circulated in the poker world that Full Tilt Poker has been sold. LA Times first broke the story that they have been sold to European investors. No one knows who the buyer is but many have thought it could be Bwin.Party.

The Kahnawake gaming commission, which issued the license to Absolute Poker, said in a statement that it is concerned about players who have registered at Absolute Poker and the safety of their accounts. It also has said it will discuss player safety issues with Absolute Poker and will conduct a review of safety practices, after which it will release a statement about that investigation.

PokerStars, which operates on the Isle of Man, was also targeted by the DOJ recently and the Isle of Man Gambling Commission said it is conducting regular discussions with PokerStars officers. Isle of Man officials say that the PokerStars license will not be modified or altered but will remain as it is for the time being.

Full Tilt Poker’s license is issued by the Alderney Gaming Control Commission, and that commission recently made a statement in which it indicated it’s going to review the various U.S. government documents that are specific to Full Tilt Poker. It also says it will conduct a thorough independent investigation into the allegations leveled against the owner-operators of the online poker room.

The move is directly related to what’s become known as “Black Friday”, the day when the DOJ issued indictments of 11 individuals associated with online poker (including the operators of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker) and seized domain names of several online poker rooms.

Following the indictments, many online poker rooms announced their voluntary withdrawal from the U.S. online poker market. It seems that the two Merge Network poker sites are the next to follow suit.

According to most reports, the sites will close on May 1, but will continue to allow current players to play with real money on the site; no new U.S. registrations will be accepted. Sportsbook has been a major player in the U.S. market for more than a decade now.

US players will not be allowed to play at PokerStars.eu. This will surely change the dynamics of online poker. Likely since PokerStars has such a large base outside the US they will be able to compete with other European brands that left the US in 2006.

Federal prosecutors officially announced the indictment of Isai Scheinberg, founder of PokerStars and Raymond Bitar, founder of Full Tilt Poker, as well as nine other people.

The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan also announced Friday that the government had seized five internet domain names used by the three main companies operating in the U.S. and that a federal judge has issued a restraining order against 76 bank accounts in 14 countries that are used by those online poker companies.

The government also announced it is bringing a $3 billion civil lawsuit against all individuals; the government alleges that the poker companies laundered money by disguising money they’ve received from U.S. poker players. The suit contends that the companies disguised the payments by making them look like payments to online merchants selling golf balls and jewelry.

The 51-page indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan argues that Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker, “used fraudulent methods to avoid restrictions and to receive billions of dollars from United States residents who gambled.”

All the online poker companies in question operate offshore; PokerStars is operated from the Isle of Man, while Full Tilt is run from Ireland. Although the U.S. government officially argues that online poker is illegal in the U.S., many online poker companies have argued that because poker is a game of skill and not chance, it doesn’t violate any federal law.

The online poker rooms recently go the help of a powerful ally in the form of Steve Wynn, owner of Wynn Resorts, who announced last month a strategic partnership with PokerStars; Wynn hopes to help get online poker legalized in the United States. He said at the time that while “the justice department has an opinion, but several states have ruled and courts have agreed that poker is a game of skill; it’s not gambling. PokerStars rests their argument on that.”

Making that argument just got decidedly harder, however. PokerStarsWynn is now a question mark and it is currenlty not known how this will effect the relationship.

Poker Stars has announced they will continue operating for players outside the us at the web address: pokerstars.eu.

4/15/2011 5:30 PM (PST) – Steven Wynn has stated that he has cut ties with Poker Stars as a result of the indictment reported by Forbes. So there will be no PokerStarsWynn.com partnership as previously reported.

4/15/2011  3:30 PM (PST)- With the recent government seizure of the PokerStars.com domain name; US residents are not allowed to play real money at the poker site. Their has been no announcement from either Wynn or Poker Stars on how this will impact their partnership.

Poker Stars Wynn Partnership

Poker Stars and Wynn have announced that they will be working together to pass legislation in the United States. This is a historic partnership that will likely become a major turning point for proponents of legalizing online poker.

Wynn operates the Wynn Resort & Casino and the Encore Resort in Las Vegas as well as additional casinos in Macau. Wynn in the past has been against online gambling but with the tides turning and many see online gambling as inevitable it was only time before Wynn and other major players in the industry partner up with established online gaming sites.

Poker Stars is currently the largest online poker room and has hundreds of thousands of US players already playing on the site. They currently run everything offshores but have been fighting for legislation against Las Vegas casinos but with the recent deal…likely legislation will finally happen as both parties will benefit from legalizing online gambling for United States players.

Poker Stars + Wynn = PokerStarsWynn.com

In a press release Wynn has said if online poker is legalized they will open PokerStarsWynn.com. Which will likely use Poker Stars software with the Wynn’s brand and will create a monster brand from the get-go.

PokerStarsWynn.com is currently a parking page (a page with ads) and is not in use by either company. They likely own the domain and haven’t figured out what they want to put on it because they won’t allow online poker on the site until it’s legalized which could takes months or worse case scenario years to have legislation passed.

Poker Stars guaranteed $5 million dollars for their 5th anniversary tournament. Although in hindsight they could have guaranteed a lot more as over 50,000 poker players registered bringing the prize pool past $10 million dollars.

The first prize winner is guaranteed $ 1 million dollars and a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4. The buy-in for the event was the usual $200 + $15. This tournament has been Poker Stars staple event for the past 5 years and other online poker rooms including full tilt poker began their own million dollar events not long after and they are also played on Sunday.

Registering is still going on while writing this story and since then another 1,000 players have registered adding another $200,000 dollars to the prize pool. Poker Stars has stated that registration for the event will last till 120 minutes after the event started or until the max has been reached which is said to be 65,000 players.

Poker Stars 5th Anniversary Mid-Tournament Update:

2:36 PM (PST) -  56,400 – $11,280,000

Final Tally -  59,128 for a prize pool of $11,825,600.