Illinois Looking at Online Poker Through Lottery

[DonkeyQuixote]

Originally Posted by Sol Eisenberg

im from illinois and im starting to hope it does not go through. if no federal regulation is passed,i hope nevada is the one to set the standard for rake ectect. not the illinois lottery, omfg what a disaster waiting to happen.

In each instance the private companies who would be the operators would either directly set rake or heavily influence network-wide rake. The market will eventuallly correct any mistakes in intial pricing.

There is nothing in either instance to prevent price competition in the ofrm of loyalty points or de fecto rakeback.

It is incredible to me that posters who want regulated, expressly legalized online poker would not support the effort in Illinois ...... even those misguided folks who think anything lottery = socialism should take a look at a sturcture where the government supplies the infrstructure and private licensees comoete.

[Sol Eisenberg]

im dying for regulation, i just don't trust illinois. i think i would prefer nevada, or nj ,be the first states.

[GatorXP]

Originally Posted by Citizenwid

I guess you don't understand the people that play the lotto and what kind of people they make their money off of. Its generally the less educated that is trying to make it big fast. They have no idea that they rake 42% nor do they really care they just see the big number. I would have to think that poker players are a little smarter than the everyday lotto player. And lets say that they aren't, all it takes is a few months of high rake and they will figure it out when they can't beat the games and the games die. I would have to think the lotto is going hire someone that has been in the gaming business that has had some experience with online gaming. To just sit here and say they are going to have rake the hell out of games is BS, with nothing to back it up besides the lotto and the lotto is nothing like online poker, so that's not even something you can compare it to.

Maybe you are challenged and have some sort of reading comprehension problem im not sure.
"Illinois would not run the Internet games itself, but it would be in charge of determining which games are permissible and the price of players fees and rake percentages"

The same people playin the lotto are going to play igaming...They are going to be playing slots, BJ, roulette...etc...and i guess we will just confide that our Il gov will Somehow innately know where to set the rake to make a thriving poker environment that is not free market...


They have been playin lotto for decades and have not figured it out, why would this be any dif? All the sheeple go to the casinos and play EV- games endlessly.....if you build it they will play.

Your idiocy offends me.

[Citizenwid]

Originally Posted by GatorXP

Maybe you are challenged and have some sort of reading comprehension problem im not sure.
"Illinois would not run the Internet games itself, but it would be in charge of determining which games are permissible and the price of players fees and rake percentages"

The same people playin the lotto are going to play igaming...They are going to be playing slots, BJ, roulette...etc...and i guess we will just confide that our Il gov will Somehow innately know where to set the rake to make a thriving poker environment that is not free market...


They have been playin lotto for decades and have not figured it out, why would this be any dif? All the sheeple go to the casinos and play EV- games endlessly.....if you build it they will play.

Your idiocy offends me.

Your right they will be playing all the -ev games so why would the lotto set the rake super high at poker and kill games and drive all the regulars away? Everyone knows every card room need regulars to make it or games would never get started. I'm sure their not trying to make a killing from poker they will use poker to get people to the site and they understand that a lot of the people will also play all the -ev games and thats where they will make their money. Also just think about all the people that jump on to play poker that would have never even thought about buying a lotto ticket online and now its one click away on the top right of your poker table.

And lets say your right it won't matter how high the rake is if we're playing against the same people that play the lotto daily.

[LeeElia]

One of the things that hasn't been mentioned is that the Govenor has consistently been against gambling expansion. A few years ago the legislature passed legalization of video poker outside of casinos, Quinn killed it by dismantling the gaming board. Just last year the legislature passed a gaming expansion bill which had something in it for every special interest / power broker politician in the state, Quinn killed that bill too. If Quinn has shown that he is willing to spend significant political capital to prevent expamsion of existing forms of gambling why would he support creation of new forms of gambling?

[tamiller866]

If Illinois' goal with poker was the same as it is with lottery tickets it sells online - maximize the amount of revenue it can rake from it's own citizens, since they are the only people they can legally sell to under federal lottery law - then the high rake concerns would be justified, but Illinois' goal with poker is to become an international hub for online poker.

In order to succeed they need to not just show other States that poker can generate revenue, but that they have a thriving economy of satisfied players in other to convince other States, and even international players where the law allows, to buy into it.

The concern I have, and anyone familiar with Illinois should have, is that regardless of how well meaning the elected politicians may or may not be on this issue, I don't trust the bureaucrats to award the service contracts to the company with the best product.

When D.C. passed their lottery i-poker bill it was later found out that the contract was awarded to a company operating out of a living room calling themselves something like American Veterans Services based on the guy having done a stint in the military, and was actually a front for a foreign business that must have greased the right palms.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see a similar scandal occur in Illinois, everyone gets their hopes up that i-poker is coming, then losing bidders start filing lawsuits and the next thing we'll hear is that they are voting to repeal the entire bill.

Given how lucrative being the first I-poker hub in the U.S. has the potential to be, combined with the history of corruption in Illinois, I don't see this ending well - but excessive rake is the least of my concerns.

[GatorXP]

Originally Posted by LeeElia

One of the things that hasn't been mentioned is that the Govenor has consistently been against gambling expansion. A few years ago the legislature passed legalization of video poker outside of casinos, Quinn killed it by dismantling the gaming board. Just last year the legislature passed a gaming expansion bill which had something in it for every special interest / power broker politician in the state, Quinn killed that bill too. If Quinn has shown that he is willing to spend significant political capital to prevent expamsion of existing forms of gambling why would he support creation of new forms of gambling?

I agree Quinn is a major obstacle

[PokerXanadu]

The IL Lottery is run by Northstar Lottery Group, a consortium of GTECH Corporation (a subsidiary of Lottomatica) and Scientific Games. This probably means that the online poker offered through the IL Lottery will be supplied by Sci-Play, a subsidiary of Scientific Games, who in turn has a partnership agreement with Playtech, provider of the online poker network iPoker.

Bottom line, IL players will probably be playing on the iPoker Network , the third largest online poker platform in the world (after PokerStars and PartyPoker).

Note: California Online Poker Association (COPA), the coalition of CA tribes and cardrooms that is pushing hard for online poker legislation in CA, has an agreement with Sciplay/Playtech for the iPoker network software as well.

Note: IL & CA will start off intra-state only. Interstate and international networking will likely come after a few years.

(Editorial: Anyone think that PokerStars isn't chomping at the bit to settle with the DOJ for almost any price? The US online poker market is the golden goose. The big players are all vying to get in first and fastest through any door. This IL Amendment is just the latest salvo coming from the off-shore companies.)

[tamiller866]

Thanks PX, while not familiar with iPoker's software, that would be great news IMO if the existing lottery contract covers expansion to i-poker.

As for Stars, it's definitely now or never, a DOJ settlement that includes repayment of FTP players ASAP(!) would buy a lot of political goodwill while these bills are still in play, once these states (NJ/CA) pass laws that include post UIGEA asset exclusion it would likely be too late.

[lilprog]

Originally Posted by LeeElia

One of the things that hasn't been mentioned is that the Govenor has consistently been against gambling expansion. A few years ago the legislature passed legalization of video poker outside of casinos, Quinn killed it by dismantling the gaming board. Just last year the legislature passed a gaming expansion bill which had something in it for every special interest / power broker politician in the state, Quinn killed that bill too. If Quinn has shown that he is willing to spend significant political capital to prevent expamsion of existing forms of gambling why would he support creation of new forms of gambling?

Quinn is an obstacle but its not going to matter in the physical expansion bill, because at 71 votes he can`t veto. They are at 69 now and will get 2 more during lame duck. Likely a similar scenario for iGaming.

[GatorXP]

Originally Posted by PokerXanadu

The IL Lottery is run by Northstar Lottery Group, a consortium of GTECH Corporation (a subsidiary of Lottomatica) and Scientific Games. This probably means that the online poker offered through the IL Lottery will be supplied by Sci-Play, a subsidiary of Scientific Games, who in turn has a partnership agreement with Playtech, provider of the online poker network iPoker.

Bottom line, IL players will probably be playing on the iPoker Network , the third largest online poker platform in the world (after PokerStars and PartyPoker).

Note: California Online Poker Association (COPA), the coalition of CA tribes and cardrooms that is pushing hard for online poker legislation in CA, has an agreement with Sciplay/Playtech for the iPoker network software as well.

Note: IL & CA will start off intra-state only. Interstate and international networking will likely come after a few years.

(Editorial: Anyone think that PokerStars isn't chomping at the bit to settle with the DOJ for almost any price? The US online poker market is the golden goose. The big players are all vying to get in first and fastest through any door. This IL Amendment is just the latest salvo coming from the off-shore companies.)

Nice work Sir.

[knircky]

Originally Posted by DonkeyQuixote

In each instance the private companies who would be the operators would either directly set rake or heavily influence network-wide rake. The market will eventuallly correct any mistakes in intial pricing.

There is nothing in either instance to prevent price competition in the ofrm of loyalty points or de fecto rakeback.

It is incredible to me that posters who want regulated, expressly legalized online poker would not support the effort in Illinois ...... even those misguided folks who think anything lottery = socialism should take a look at a sturcture where the government supplies the infrstructure and private licensees comoete.

So u think this law is good? I really think it cannot work when the government creates the platform and then let's casinos use as skins.

I cannot see anything positive about this law except that it legalizes online poker. Everything they are actually doing is bad for economy and game itself.

Ideally the states would simply regulate the market and give out licenses to operators that are already operating globally. What Illinois is doing is the exact opposite of this.

[knircky]

Originally Posted by lilprog

not a disaster at all. Either the rake will be low enough to be profitable or they wont make any money..... Do you really think the rake would be higher then casinos?

Look at France. They don't care about the convoy at all, just want to rake as much as possible.

Obviously there is very corrupt government at work here, so why all of a sudden should they create good system for us all.

This is something whee we need the market to created the economy not some corrupt politicians!

[Sol Eisenberg]

i tend to agree

[lilprog]

I guess I am with PX, anything is better than the status quo