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According to real-time tracking of independent industry monitor Market Pulse, September has been a great month for online poker, reports InfoPowa News. The month ending yesterday showed a remarkable level of growth in player action — particularly noteworthy considering all the recent gloom and doom in international economic news.

PokerStars.com and Full Tilt Poker.com continue to lead the global charge. PokerStars remains the leader by a wide margin, with a of 43 percent traffic increase and an average of 18,644 players a day in September. Its peak day was Sunday the 28th, when 21,340 players mobbed the website. Full Tilt’s growth was slightly more modest but still impressive, with a reported 30 percent growth and a daily average that reached 8,039. Its peak day was Wednesday, September 17th, when it pulled in 8,598 players.

Further down the list were Titan Poker (up 2 percent to a daily average of 5,070), Party Poker (a 3 percent rise to land at 4,288 players), and Mansion Poker (up 12 percent to 4,185 players). Everest Poker saw an increase of 4 percent to 2,331 players; Paradise Poker was up a significant 16 percent to 1,643; Doyle’s Room surged 9 percent to pull in 1,613 players; and 888.com’s Pacific Poker was up 7 percent to 1,007.

See the complete Market Pulse list for September at http://www.pokerlistings.com/market-pulse/online-traffic.

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Fortunately, the promised judicial action by the state of Kentucky to forfeit and seize 141 online gambling domain names has so far been all bark and no bite.

That may well be a direct result of the huge amount of interest groups who have turned out to protest the state’s action. Online gambling operators and parties such as the PPA, Interactive Gaming Council, GoDaddy.com and iMEGA have an army of lawyers among them to try to stall and/or prevent the action. Representing the state of Kentucy in this action is Robert Foote, who has demanded that all opposing parties establish their legal standing by identifying the owners of the domains.

“A domain name has no right to have a lawyer, only a corporation or person can have a lawyer,” Foote said. “And no one here is going to tell you they represent anyone.”

From the InfoPowa report:

This was argued by lawyers for online gambling companies, with William Johnson revealing that he was there representing seven clients and Alice Grimes claiming she represents Goldencasino.com. But they — and other attorneys — declined to say who owned those names.

Instead, they argued the action against 141 domain names took place “under cover” and with no notice to their clients. They sought a continuation to brief Judge Wingate on matters of law that they contended will demonstrate that the court has no jurisdiction and should dismiss the action.

Judge Thomas Wingate took the correct course in giving all involved until October 7 to submit detailed legal briefs on their positions and qualifications for legal standing. The judge pointed out that the case was a complex matter in law where decisions reached could set precedents and have far-reaching effects. It was therefore appropriate that those with the right to be heard submitted their arguments for debate and examination.

However, the judge sounded an ominous note when he told lawyers representing the domain names at issue: “You are going to have to eventually pony up and say who these people are.”

In the meantime, the judge’s temporary seizure of the domains would remain in place.

Even before the parties entered the courtroom there were negotiations in progress between Kentucky officials and some online gambling sites — GoldenCasino.com allegedly among them — which had started banning Kentucky players. According to Associated Press, Justice Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin confirmed Friday morning that lawyers for Kentucky and online casino operators are holding talks in advance of a court hearing scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

Brislin said state lawyers want the online casino operators not only to block access in Kentucky but also to pay an unspecified amount of financial damages for ‘lost revenue’.

In court, Foote told Judge Wingate that the state is seeking two things: agreement by owners of the domain names to block access from the state of Kentucky, and compensation for previous gambling activity from Kentucky residents. He said the state would not shut down domain names of any person or corporation willing to appear and claim ownership of the names while the two sides “work out a deal.”

The Poker Players Alliance, IGC, and iMEGA filed friend of the court briefs opposing the state’s action as industry bodies.

The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association has previous legal standing before a federal court and issued a Motion to Dismiss.

“I have a good feeling about our Motion,” Edward Leyden, President of iMEGA, said. “County Judge Thomas Wingate is a very straightforward, common sense judge, and a thoughtful guy, so we are in good hands.”

Kentucky Justice Secretary J. Michael Brown said the state’s goal is to stop the activity in Kentucky using the only available legal route it has — a 1974 Kentucky law that allows the state to seize illegal gambling “devices.”

The state contends the domain names constitute gambling devices.

The PPA later issued a statement on its position, saying that it contends that poker, including online poker, is legal under Kentucky state law and is a game of skill, not chance. As such, the basis for the state’s seizure of poker-only website domain names is unfounded.

“The actions by the state of Kentucky are not only extreme, but groundless in that it can be clearly proven that poker is indeed a game of skill and not chance and thereby poker websites should not be part of the state’s action,” said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA. “The amicus brief filed on behalf of the PPA today proves this.”

Key points of the amicus brief include:

• Extensive research citing expert opinion that poker is indeed a game of skill;

• References to academic, gaming, and artificial intelligence experts citing the fact that skill is an essential element to winning at poker, be it against a human or a computer;

• Unequivocal consensus among experts that in the long run a skilled poker player will beat an unskilled poker player;

• Kentucky state law asserts that “a contest or game in which eligibility to participate is determined by chance and the ultimate winner is determined by skill shall not be considered gambling”;

• Under Kentucky law, poker is a lawful game of skill because the facts can easily sustain a finding that skill of the player predominates over chance in determining outcome;

• The current case provides no evidence to suggest that any of the poker games played on any of the 141 websites in question are based on chance as opposed to skill;

• Cases in other states as well as a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) letter verify that skill is the dominant factor in the game of poker; and

• The case raises First Amendment free speech issues in restricting residents’ access to poker websites that contain news, blogs, and forums as well as the ability to play poker.

The amicus brief concludes that, given the state’s lack of evidence, poker as played on any of the websites in question is not a permitted game of skill under Kentucky law, that there is “no reasonable chance of success on the underlying claim of illegality that would support its … basis for forfeiture of the domain names.”

Pappas urged the PPA’s 13,000 Kentucky members to lodge objections to the Governor’s actions. “Poker players in Kentucky are not taking the actions of Governor Beshear and the court lightly,” he said.

“They viewed the governor as pro-gambling, and our members helped support him in the election just last year. They view this as betrayal. They are outraged — and rightly so — and will speak their mind until this unfounded assault on their freedoms is stopped.”

Forbes business magazine reported that Governor Beshear based his election campaign last year on a promise to open casinos in Kentucky, which allows gambling at horse tracks and bingo halls and operates a state-run lottery. Blocking gambling websites, Beshear said, will protect those operations from unwelcome online competition.

Beshear, a Democrat, pushed the state legislature this year to approve a ballot referendum that, if approved, would have changed the state’s constitution to allow casinos. Beshear said allowing casinos to open, then taxing them, would have raised some $500 million in additional state revenue. Kentucky lawmakers rejected the proposal.

What do you think of this situation? Will it directly affect you in any way? Do you have any plans to participate in resisting the state of Kentucky’s action? Discuss in the comments; we’d love to know your thoughts.

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As you have no doubt heard by now, the state of Kentucky has roiled the online poker world this week by announcing its intention to ban 141 poker- and casino-themed domain names. (Actually, the entire list, which you can view here, goes pretty far beyond this characterization, and includes some entries that don’t exactly seem to fit in with the others.)

The PPA has spoken out strongly against this, and many news analyses have shown serious flaws in the court’s argument. Kentucky has backed off a bit, but the danger still remains.

What do you think of this? Have you been following this issue?

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Hey gang — please help us in welcoming the newest additions to the PAP All-In Program line-up: Red Star Poker and thisisvegas.com. These new programs also have their own dedicated sections on the PAP Forum.

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September 19, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — Times may be tough, with world economies feeling a strain, but online poker marches on! This seemed to be the theme for the August - September period, as tracking site MarketPulse reports surging visitor numbers at several of the premium websites.

The already-booming PokerStars has been particularly busy, with August traffic figures (as quoted by MarketPulse) up a very respectable 34 percent. The site currently hosts an average of 17,451 players over the course of a single day — placing PokerStars far ahead of its nearest rival, Full Tilt Poker.

September 14 — a Sunday — proved to be the busiest day of the year so far for PokerStars, as the average surged to 20,496 players, with peak periods running from 16:00 to 18:00. This peak time seems to be a common industry experience, and an estimated 80,000 players typically can be found online playing poker in this time slot.

Full Tilt Poker remains Poker Stars’s chief competition, and showed a 28 percent increase in traffic to an average 7,890 visitors. Gains at Titan Poker (up 2 percent to 5,025 players on average) and Party Poker (up 1 percent to 4,205) were positive but less spectacular, while Hollywood Poker showed gains of 11 percent to 6,495) and Mansion Poker surged 12 percent to 4,200. Paradise Poker also did well — up 20 percent to 1,701 players, as did Doyles Room, which saw increases of 12 percent to 1,656, and Pacific Poker, which was up 7 percent to 1,010.

The MarketPulse traffic page has the full report, where interested parties can find a comprehensive breakdown by day, month, and year, including industry averages and traffic volume charts.

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PokerListings.com reported today that popular online poker player Shaun Deeb “stole the spotlight” at PokerStars.com’s World Championship of Online Poker yesterday:

Deeb outlasted 747 players to take down $144,112 for first place and the coveted WCOOP title. The win secures Deeb’s spot as one of the best online multi-table tournament players in the world.

Pot-Limit Omaha wasn’t the only game being played at the WCOOP these past two days - Tuesday’s Event 24, No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw, saw 308 players combine to create a memorable final table with thousands of dollars up for grabs.

Check out the original article for more details.

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I’m sure it’s not news to you, but it does seem to be the topic of the day online: The Second World Series of Poker Europe starts tomorrow in London.

Can’t get to London in time? No sweat — it’s going to be covered on ESPN, of course. Read more about the event here.

The general consensus is that the WSOPE probably isn’t going to directly affect the online poker affiliate marketing industry. But then again, anything that draws attention to the game isn’t a bad thing, right? What do you think? Is this an event you look forward to following (or even attending)? Or is it under your radar?

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