Zynga Adds Online Poker Executive

Online games giant Zynga is dropping more than a few of its eggs into the online poker basket. We can surmise this because the company recently hired a woman named Maytal Ginzburg as COO of its newly formed gaming division. Ginzburg was most recently Senior Vice President of Regulated Markets for 888 Holdings.

Zynga has experienced some setbacks recently which have been reflected in its declining stock price. Slowing growth in its most popular games and the loss of key executives have taken a toll on the company. Over the last two months, CEO Mark Pincus, has publicly stated the company’s intention to enter the lucrative real money online gaming market and leverage its tremendous user base.

Due to the current illegality of online poker in the United States, Zynga poker will begin its foray into real money gambling in Europe. This may end up being an unfair test for the new venture. The European online poker market is mature and more than one site is well established. Of course there is the behemoth, Pokerstars, which may account for better than 50% of the total number of players online at any one time. Then there are the next two most popular sites, 888 Poker and Party Poker. Point is that there is stiff competition in this market and Zynga might not get significant traction from the get go. Starting off in a young, developing, regulated US market would have made for a much more exciting debut.

We believe that there will be several mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, etc. over the next year in the online poker industry. That activity will intensify as things progress on the regulatory front in the U.S. Zynga will, no doubt, be a much sought after partner given its huge database of players. In April of this year, Forbes reported that the company was in talks with Wynn Resorts to form an online partnership. What a great combination that could be for poker players – Zynga’s worldwide popularity and expertise in social gaming combined with the prestige of the Wynn brand. The most sought after partner out there will be Pokerstars, but there will be other potential alliances similar to Zynga/Wynn that can become formidable competitors. All that competition will ultimately benefit players.

Nevada Online Poker MICS

What are Minimum Internal Control Standards?

Online poker, by it’s very nature, will present new challenges for regulators and jurisdictions that are already well on their way to formalizing laws and codes for the industry. Let’s consider another very important reason why Nevada should lead the way and become the hub for online gaming in the United States, and poker in particular – Nevada’s Minimum Internal Control Standards (MICS).

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has established a strong foundation of guidelines and defined terms with the passage of the MICS. System operating standards, player protection, record keeping and security are the predominant subjects covered. Standards are set for items ranging from the maintenance and location of the physical servers that underpin gaming websites, to how player funds are to be segregated and processed during transfers.

The Nevada Online Poker MICS provide very specific rules on the subject of access and remote access to the different layers of the overall system. The layers broadly include: the operating system, computer servers, network infrastructure, application software, databases and other components. The Gaming Control Board is well aware of the complexity of running and maintaining online gaming businesses and understands that this complexity provides ample opportunities for cheating, fraud and theft. Only expressly permitted IT workers and employees are given access to certain facets of the system and detailed access logs are to be maintained. (For example, IT personnel are prohibited from having any administrative access to specific player account info such as deposits, withdrawals and balances.) Random audits will occur to ensure that access rules have been maintained and appropriately logged. These detailed procedures make sense because segregating access among the different parts of the system and maintaining access logs will deter fraud and will make any potential security breaches easier to detect in as short a time as possible.

Default and administrative accounts, which can enable fraud, are controlled and must not be enabled for remote access. This is key since cheaters would need to also bypass physical access controls to use these accounts. Passwords for such accounts must also be changed regularly as prescribed. Modification to software, operating system, network and database applications are subject to the change control process which creates a record of any modifications made and notes the individual responsible for these changes.

Another area of concern for regulators is the management and oversight of player funds maintained by the operator of the site. Obviously no one in the poker world wants to witness a debacle like Full Tilt ever again. But even barring such gross examples of malfeasance there are still potential problems that need to be considered. The MICS stipulate “that funds deposited into an interactive gaming account from a financial institution shall not be transferred out of the” account “to a different financial institution”. Also, transferring funds between authorized players is not allowed. There are also rules governing the transfer of funds between players’ online accounts and accounts maintained at affiliated brick and mortar casinos.

It is, in fact, near the end of this iteration of the MICS in paragraph #159 (out of 163) that the required reserve fund is touched upon. The poker playing public will be interested to know that at least once per quarter, the “interactive gaming account balance summary report” is reviewed to ensure compliance with Regulation 5A.125. This regulation requires that player funds are held in segregated, audited accounts and that the amount of the reserve is equal to or greater than the sum of all player accounts. This alone demonstrates the importance of player protection to the experienced commissioners and regulators in Nevada.

With such a clear head start and its pedigree as the world’s leading authority on all matters related to regulated gaming, Nevada is in a perfect position to lead the way and help foster online poker as a legitimate industry. The details will take a lot of time and work, but interstate compacts will soon be accepted as the best way to grow the industry and maintain high standards for player protection and proper taxation.

Nevada Online Poker 2012

Why Nevada Should Lead…the new era of online poker

Even though most in the online poker industry, poker sites and players alike, desire full fledged federal laws to govern the industry, the reality is that it is just not going to happen in the short term. Online poker initiatives at the federal level, such as the language that senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to add to a tax bill last year, have stalled. There isn’t a lot of broad national support for this type of legislation.

2012 being a presidential election year makes things even more difficult since a majority of the electorate either: a) doesn’t care; or b) is morally opposed to any type of gambling. So politicians don’t see a benefit in taking up the cause. Another headwind is created by all of the competing interests that are opposed to the expansion of gaming online in general. These range from Indian tribal casino operators to state lotteries. These are just some of the reasons why many observers, including this author, contend that successful implementation at the state level in Nevada (and then possibly New Jersey) will serve as a catalyst for federal legislation. So intrastate online poker will be rolled out first.

Earlier this year Governor Brian Sandoval ordered the long dormant Gaming Policy Committee to convene on the issue of online gaming, specifically poker. The committee is made up of: the governor, the chairmen of the Gaming Control Board and the Nevada Gaming Commission, various gaming executives, and members of the state legislature. The stated goal is to address the changing landscape of gaming in general and the effect of new technologies on the industry. One of the first statements attributed to the governor to come out of the committee proceedings dealt with the absolute need to protect players and prevent underage gambling. For now, the new interactive gaming regulations are limited to poker.

Probably the strongest argument as to why Nevada should lead focuses on its expertise in gaming. It’s a fact that no place in the world has more experience in regulating and hosting a thriving gaming industry. The existing regulatory framework and enforcement infrastructure can be modified and expanded to deal with all of the new aspects and challenges of maintaining a vibrant, controlled and fair online gaming industry. In fact, through its Gaming Control Board, Nevada has already demonstrated the need for technological innovation by setting standards for “independent testing labs”. The state regulators will outsource the testing and compliance of high tech software and platforms to these private companies which must demonstrate and maintain strict standards. This preeminence in the field will ultimately lead to compacts with other states and the beginning of interstate poker–leaving the administration and regulation of the industry in the capable hands of the Silver State.

Check back soon – ameripoker.com will publish comprehensive articles that look at the different important parts of the new interactive gaming regulations.

It makes sense, also, that the largest and most successful casino companies in the world would want to have a presence in online gaming. Las Vegas is home to these companies that view online poker as both a new source of revenue and a new channel to acquire and serve customers. The proposed regulations stipulate that applicants for interactive gaming licenses must be current casino license holders in the state or be affiliated with a license holder.

Large casino brands are significant factors and players will benefit from doing business with large, public companies rather than shady off-shores. The requirement of a reserve fund to protect players’ accounts is one of many safeguards called for in the legislation. Other significant items include protections against underage gambling and the availability of resources for people with gambling problems.

The Poker Players Alliance and established international poker sites are pushing for federal laws to govern online poker and would like to avoid a scenario where states all have their own set of regulations. In a perfect world, laws at the federal level would create the conditions for sites to compete on the national stage – with players ultimately choosing their preferred site to play on.

Online Poker Legislation

1 Reply

The rebirth of online poker in the U.S.

The worldwide phenomenon of online poker is about to enter a new stage as gaming industry titans quietly prepare for its legalization in the United States. The largest and most lucrative market for online poker players is poised to set the framework for the future of the industry. A lot is happening behind the scenes.

Casino companies know how big the industry had become at its peak and how quickly it grew. The largest online poker site, Pokerstars, celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2011 with a huge schedule of tournaments capped off by a $10,000,000 guaranteed prize pool Main Event. The overall prize pool for the series was down significantly from the year before mostly due to the lack of U.S. based players.

April 15th 2011, or “Black Friday” as it became known amongst online poker players, saw the shutdown of the largest poker sites: Pokerstars, Full Tilt, and Absolute Poker. Overnight, millions of players in the U.S. were cut off.

Online poker in the U.S. basically went dark. Players were unwilling to sign up to smaller, even riskier, sites that were still “open” to U.S. players. Player accounts at Full Tilt were supposed to safely house deposits estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars when the site was shut down – money that will never be seen again. Players will be eager to play, however security will be the number one concern.

There is momentum building behind the legalization of online poker in the United States. The Justice Department released a 13 page legal opinion in September 2011 which clarified a decades old federal law which prohibited interstate gambling. Some in the gaming industry view this as an early move to legalize interstate online poker.

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), an advocacy group in favor of legalizing online poker, is pushing for federal controls over licensing and regulation of poker websites to better protect players and avoid conflicting and potentially confusing state laws.

In response to the Justice Department ruling the PPA had this to say:

“This will provide policy makers at both the state and federal level with the legal confidence to move forward with licensing and regulation of online poker and other non-sporting activity within their respective jurisdictions. However, it is our hope that our federal policy makers see this as an incentive to move quickly to enact federal licensing and regulation before various states produce a mix of individual state schemes that may not be the best model to serve consumers.”

Read the rest of the PPA press release here:

PPA Applauds DoJ Ruling: Online Poker Does Not Violate the Wire Act Calls on Congress to Act Quickly to Pass Federal Legislation

2012 is shaping up to be an extremely active year for the industry. Beyond just reading the latest headlines, poker players—from hobbyists and those seeking entertainment to professionals—need to get involved. The time is right for players to band together and become a force in shaping the future of the industry. Poker sites are nothing without members—they should have to work hard to attract and keep those members.

ameripoker.com is dedicated to finding ways to ensure that the voice of poker players is heard by the new poker sites that are currently under development. The competition for loyal customers who: 1) generate income for the site; and 2) keep valuable funds on deposit; will be fierce. Players should not underestimate the leverage that they have in dealing with these new sites once the gold rush is on…probably starting in 2013.