
While many former PokerStars and Full Tilt employees are on their way to avoid it, Rafi Ashkenazi is on his way in since the CEO that is new of Rational Group.
The Rational Group has named Rafi Ashkenazi its new chief executive officer to oversee the PokerStars and Full Tilt internet poker brands as parent company Amaya guides the systems into its next chapter operating in the usa.
New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) took months that are many investigate whether Amaya’s licensing application included the merit their state required for approval.
The DGE ultimately ratified the request but with a group of stipulations including first and foremost that Rational and PokerStars must sever ties and all employment with individuals identified by the DGE as having didn’t establish ‘good character, integrity and honesty.’
Ashkenazi served once the COO of Playtech before joining Rational in 2013 and being promoted to senior vice president of technique for Amaya in April of in 2010.
‘I anticipate re-joining the excellent team at Rational Group,’ Ashkenazi said in a press release. ‘We have great opportunities in the future that is near our upcoming launch in New Jersey, the expansion of our casino and sports-betting companies and our objective to cultivate the poker category.’
Climate Change
Although the Garden State’s DGE didn’t specifically name which former or present employees failed to meet their ethical minimums, it was mostly suspected that it included Director of Operations Israel Rosenthal, General Manager Serge Bourenkov, Chief tech Officer Charles Fabian, and Rational Group Interim CEO Michael Hazel.
Ashkenazi submitted to a sworn interview with DGE officials, while the agency found no wrongdoings or discrepancies that are ethical his time working with Rational or Amaya.
Amaya CEO praised their job performance, saying Rafi has been ‘working very closely this year with our executive management team’ and is an ‘ideal leader for the Rational Group.’
Hazel’s exit appears to confirm the DGE told Amaya to reduce the executive to their relationship, but Rational additionally confirmed that Rosenthal will stay on in their role and report to Ashkenazi.
Promoting Within
New Jersey’s thorough enquiry into PokerStars and Comprehensive Tilt’s corporate governance since being obtained for $4.9 billion by Amaya in June of 2014 predominantly came down to determining the ethical criteria for the group’s new leaders.
The poker systems were labeled ‘bad actors’ by the government that is federal continuing to run in the us following passage associated with the illegal Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.
After the seizing of their assets on 15, 2011, it was largely assumed PokerStars’ days in America had been forever folded april.
America loves good comeback, and a second chance is precisely what New Jersey has afforded the entire world’s most robust online poker network.
Amaya’s purchasing of the two platforms for almost $5 billion along side the corporation now publicly traded on Nasdaq, one might think Baazov would be wise to hire from outside simply to gain all of the favor he can with state and federal regulators.
Nevertheless the 2015 PokerStars is not any longer the PokerStars that the Scheinbergs founded back 2011.
It is now under Baazov’s leadership, a 35-year-young ceo that apparently has nothing to conceal.
It’s WSOP November Nine Fever Time as Final Table Kicks off (very nearly) Live on ESPN This Sunday
The 2015 November Nine form a cast of colorful characters with this 12 months’s final playdown. Play will resume on November 8th as six Americans, a Belgian, an Israeli, and an Italian vie for poker’s glory that is greatest. (Image: WSOP.com)
The WSOP nine are ready to rumble for one of the biggest prizes around if you like money november. Yup, the table that is final of 46th Annual World Series of Poker will play out on ESPN beginning this Sunday.
After almost four months’ hiatus, the final nine players are back to do battle for the $7,680,021 top prize and a invest the real history of poker history.
A total of 6,420 players put up the $10,000 buy-in last summer, each dreaming of winning the big one. And after seven days play there have been simply nine left, each now currently a millionaire, with a guaranteed minimum ninth-place payday of $1,001,020.
The Players
But ultimately there can be only one champion. Will it be chip leader Joe McKeehen, a 24-year-old professional poker player from North Wales, Pennsylvania? Having a whopping 158 blinds that are big play with, McKeehen will be the man to beat.
At 72 years old, could Belgium’s Pierre Neuville, already the oldest-ever November Niner, become the most senior poker globe champion of them all in a top-tier event? The former toy administrator renounced poker for many of his adult life before a near-death experience convinced him to follow his dreams once more. Sitting in 4th destination, Neuville has 53 blinds that are big a shot at the title.
So too does well-known pro Max Steinberg, who parlayed a $27 DraftKings deposit in to a seat at the table that is final a chance to win the big one. Steinberg is the only November Niner this year having a WSOP bracelet, which he picked up in 2012.
The staying six players comprise four Us citizens, an Israeli, and an Italian in Federico Butteroni, who, since the stack that is short in on Sunday with just 15 big blinds, would be clinging on by your skin of his teeth.
Where you should View the November Nine
Cards get in the air at 5 pm PST on November 8th at the Penn & Teller Theater in the Rio Casino in Las Vegas sunday. The ESPN broadcast are operating on a time that is 30-minute, for a 5.30 pm PST kick off. What this means is that, as is the way it is for the final few years, players will be able to review action that is previous beaks, opening cards and all.
The players are back minus three on . Finally, the last two players standing will hook up once more on at 5.30pm on for the heads-up finale and the crowning of the champion tuesday.
On Sunday, though, the big event will resume with 57 minutes, 36 seconds left on the clock in Level 35, with antes at 50,000 and blinds at 200,000 and 400,000. Thomas Cannuli, in Seat 5 has the button.
RAWA Scheduled for Second House Hearing December 9
Rep. Jason Chaffetz is turning his focus back from campaigning for House Speaker to pushing RAWA, the measure that is anti-gambling by casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson. (Image: Bill Clark/rollcall.com)
RAWA, the Restoration of America’s Wire Act, is restoring its own likelihood of success after it was established that the legislation that is lingering receive its second hearing in the House of Representatives on December 9.
Authored and introduced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), RAWA (HR 707) would restore the Wire Act to prohibit contrary to the online transmitting of ‘any bet or wager, or information assisting in the placing of any bet or wager (thus making prohibition that is such to all kinds of gambling tasks, including Internet gambling).’
The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) was initially to confirm the planned hearing, saying the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will host the discussion.
‘Anti-Internet #poker congressman to hold RAWA hearing in his Committee on 12/09,’ the PPA tweeted is royal vegas casino safe. ‘Will need everyone to make their vocals heard #nopokerban’
Wire Fraud
The debate between those in favor and the ones against online gambling is a discussion that essentially concerns the precise interpretation regarding the Wire Act, a bill that is federal was passed back in 1961 a long time before the net was commonplace.
In 2011, the Department of Justice released an opinion that is controversial the Wire Act saying that the legislation only specifies activities betting but maybe not other types of wagering like popular casino games.
That opened the floodgates for states to legalize online casinos, though the flooding ended up being more of a leak as only three states have since decriminalized online gambling.
What exactly does the Wire Act actually say?
‘Whoever being engaged in the business enterprise of betting or wagering knowingly uses a cable communication center for the transmission in interstate or foreign business of wagers or wagers or information assisting within the placing of wagers or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or even for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.’
The question becomes, does the word ‘contest’ in the Wire Act constitute gambling games? How about poker, a game that is partially predicated on skill?
Different Viewpoints
The last time Chaffetz held a hearing on RAWA it did not go so well. Last March, a House Judiciary subcommittee paid attention to testimony from five witnesses, but just one or two were also remotely against passing anti-gambling legislation.
The witnesses were grilled on the dangers and consequences of legalizing such an industry and were enticed to advocate the advantages of restoring the Wire Act for several hours.
Political observers noted the imbalance among the panelists, and little momentum was garnered from the hearing for Chaffetz. ‘My feeling is we walked right into a possibly hearing that is really bad walked away with a lot of skepticism about the bill,’ PPA Executive Director John Pappas said at the time.
Chaffetz recently campaigned to replace House that is outgoing Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio) but conceded once Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) expressed interest. Now Chaffetz is going back to his anti-gambling crusade.