3-Bet: World Poker Tour Releases Schedule of Remaining Stops; PokerStars Championship Barcelona and Prague Announced & Pennsylvania Senate Committees Passes Online Gambling Bill

3-Bet
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  • PG News May 26, 2017
  • 3 Minutes Read

In this edition of PokerGuru 3-Bet we bring news about two new announcements for this year’s poker calendar with both World Poker Tour and PokerStars announcing additional stops with the latter announcing the Barcelona and Prague stop officially.

Rounding up this edition is an interesting development which could change the fate on online gambling in US as Pennsylvania Senate may pass the online gambling bill with full vote.

 

World Poker Tour Announces Seven Remaining Stops

The World Poker Tour (WPT) this week came out with dates and venues for its remaining events this year. Sticking to tradition, the schedule features familiar stops in Oklahoma, California, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, Canada and Nevada.

Season XVI of the World Poker Tour continues with WPT Choctaw at Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma. The stop will be the highlighted by the televised Main Event that runs from August 4-8 making it the third time WPT will be coming back to Choctaw.

Following WPT Choctaw will be two more televised events i.e. the WPT Legends of Poker and the WPT Borgata Poker Open.

Adam Pliska, CEO of the World Poker Tour spoke about the news stops saying, “At the World Poker Tour, we believe in strong, lasting partnerships with our casino partners, and I am delighted to welcome the return of Choctaw Casino Resort, The Bicycle Hotel & Casino, Borgata Hotel, Casino and Spa, Maryland Live!, bestbet Poker, Simulcast & Racing, Playground Poker Club, and Bellagio for Season XVI. Each of these venues helped make Season XV of the World Poker Tour our most-attended season in history, and we look forward to returning to these popular properties this year for seven world-class poker events.”

Season XVI on the World Poker Tour has already kicked off last month with the first-ever WPT Beijing event followed by WPT Amsterdam.

 

PokerStars Championship Barcelona Schedule Released and PokerStars Championship Prague Announced

The Barcelona leg of the PokerStars Championship has been a permanent fixture on the schedule ever since the tour was announced last year and it will remain a prime event in PokerStars Championship’s inaugural year events apart from Bahamas, Panama, Macau and Monte Carlo.

The Barcelona stop of the European Poker Tour has always been one of the most popular ones, and few people doubted the event would return as part of the new tour.

The year’s Barcelona event, which will run from August 15 – 27, and feature a slate of big events.

The biggest guarantee, €7,000,000, is reserved for the €5,300 buy-in Main Event and if recent years’ numbers are any indication, it’s highly unlikely that PokerStars will need to add anything to the prize pool.

Here is the complete schedule of PokerStars Championship Barcelona –

On top of that, PokerStars has also officially announced PokerStars Championship Prague.The event, which is slated to run from December 8 – 19, will have a total of €7,000,000 in guaranteed prizes, with the lion’s share of that going to the €5,000,000 guaranteed Main Event.

 

Online Casino Bill Passed by Pennsylvania Senate Committees, May Get Full Senate Vote

In a major move that can change the face of online gaming industry, May 24 will be remembered as a momentous day in United States online gambling legal history as a bill to regulate online casinos was passed by a couple of key Pennsylvania Senate committees setting it up for possibly a full Senate vote.

Fantasy sports contests, online gaming and online poker are few of the key components of the bill named House Bill 271, which was amended by the Senate on its way back to the House.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will oversee the online gambling industry and will have authorization to issue up to a dozen online poker licenses and a dozen online casino gaming licenses. There will be separate licenses for online poker and casino gambling.

The Senate Community, Economic & Recreational Development Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee signed off on the omnibus bill that included setting the tax rate for online casino games revenue, which includes games like slots and blackjack among other table games at 54%, while calling for a 16% tax on internet poker revenue.

All the casinos in Pennsylvania would be eligible for online gambling licenses under the bill.

The bill if passed is projected to generate between $109 million and $147 million in additional revenue.

A web poker license will cost $5 million, and same cost will be involved to acquire a slot/table game license.

The only issue currently is that the $3 billion casino gambling market in Pennsylvania hasn’t seen much growth over the past years, leading lawmakers to seek other ways for the industry to generate revenue.

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