2011 May 01 Poker News, Events and Happenings

The Czech Government may want to act against online poker rooms, but the Czech police keep saying no. More than once the police have been approached by the Czech Government to shut down foreign poker sites. The police rebuff each attempt with the same response, that no crimes are being committed. According to Czech law online betting is legal as long as the it is fixed-odds style, and the five regulated and licensed companies that operate in the country do so. While no poker rooms are operating in country, those five betting companies are looking for the opportunity to do so.

The first report on the effects of poker's Black Friday have been released. According to one online poker source poker rooms have seen a decline of 22%. This is a decline in the number of cash poker players, which has a big impact on the online poker industry, as poker rooms take rake from every hand played. This report covdrs the two weeks since April 14th, known as Black Friday, when the United States Department Of Justice pulled the domain names of PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker, as well as UB.com.

Since the US Government acted against three major online poker companies it is estimated that as many as 50,000 poker players have lost their jobs playing poker. Black Friday is the name given to April 14th, the day that PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and UB.com domain names were seized by the US. While most of those poker players likely have full time jobs outside of the poker rooms, it is undeniable that some at least have lost a significant source of income.