ESPN will play the Poker World Series again this year, company spokesperson Chris LaPlaca told Bloomberg News in an emailed statement Tuesday.
But after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York prosecuted gambling sites sponsoring the televised contest and froze bank accounts, a new report said Walt Disney-owned sports and entertainment cable network would remove some poker ads and programs.
A Poker World Series spokesperson on Tuesday declined to comment on the impact of federal prosecutions of the world’s three largest Internet poker sites on participation in this year’s tournament.
The 42nd World Poker Series will be held from May 31 to July 19 at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino. 500 people are participating in the circuit poker competition, which starts Friday at Caesars Palace and runs until the end of the month.
ESPN, headquartered in Bristol, Connecticut, said it will not air PokerStars’ 10-hour program.
PokerStars, Full Tilt PokerStars, and Absolut PokerStars were indicted Friday on charges of bank fraud, money laundering, and running an illegal gambling business. Eleven people, including Chad Ely, a resident of Las Vegas, were named in the indictment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has also filed a $3 billion lawsuit against the companies.
According to Pokercout’s weekly traffic report, all three affected sites saw significant drops in traffic. A 48% drop in Full Tilt was the most dramatic, followed by an Absolute Poker drop of 39% and a PokerStars drop of 25%.
Ellie’s lawyer challenged the bank fraud conspiracy charges on Tuesday, saying his client had never lied to the bank. 안전놀이터
Attorney William Corden made the remarks outside court after Ellie pleaded not guilty and was released on $250,000 bail. He said Ellie “intends to aggressively defend” charges that he and 10 other people conspired to persuade banks to process billions of dollars in illegal internet income. Ellie appeared in federal court in Las Vegas last week and was the first in Manhattan where the case will be prosecuted.
The 31-year-old Ellie and others are accused of cheating banks to handle Internet poker transactions. Authorities say Ellie convinced a Utah bank operator to handle the transaction in exchange for a $10 million investment in the bank.
A law enacted in the United States in 2006 makes it a crime for gambling operators to accept, even though they know most forms of payment, in relation to the participation of others in illegal internet gambling.
Corden said his client “never lied to the bank.”
Thank you for your sharing. I am worried that I lack creative ideas. It is your article that makes me full of hope. Thank you. But, I have a question, can you help me?