Awful WSOP news from PokerStars

[FatalError]

they are only out the juice

remember, at least european sites will still be allowed to register their fishy european players

[teddyFBI]

[ QUOTE ]
remember, at least european sites will still be allowed to register their fishy european players

[/ QUOTE ]

Where do you get that from? Stars' email says:
"Unfortunately, Harrah's policy refuses third-party registrations."

[FatalError]

the last half of that sentance is "from companies that service US customers"

[ddubois]

[ QUOTE ]
"Unfortunately, Harrah's policy refuses third-party registrations."

[/ QUOTE ]
There should be a "... form sites that serve US customers" clause on there, if what my recollection of what I heard on the PokerEdge podcast interview with Jeffery Pollack is accurate.

[peterchi]

This may be stupid, but it seems like a reasonable solution would be to make you come to Vegas, go to their hospitality suite at the Rio during the WSOP and get lammers from them there, instead of just giving you $10k into your account.

Does anyone know why this can't be done?

[teddyFBI]

[ QUOTE ]
the last half of that sentance is "from companies that service US customers"

[/ QUOTE ]

What do you mean?
Where's the other half of the sentence then?
Not in the email i got...

[JacJacAtk]

If I had to guess, Harrah's management is either insane (not entirely impossible based on past history) or they think they're at significant risk legally for dealing with the online sites directly (or semi-directly, even). The DOJ could certainly have threatened them, for instance.

That said, it will be interesting to see if this only applies to US players (or sites still catering to them). If Party and everyone else can't register people directly either, I can't see the ME field making it to even a quarter of last year's levels.

[sigurrostyp]

Is this just for American players who have qualified at Pokerstars or all players??

[teddyFBI]

[ QUOTE ]
This may be stupid, but it seems like a reasonable solution would be to make you come to Vegas, go to their hospitality suite at the Rio during the WSOP and get lammers from them there, instead of just giving you $10k into your account.

Does anyone know why this can't be done?

[/ QUOTE ]

u've got to assume Stars searched far and wide for a solution...we could speculate about options, but i'm sure we're not uncovering anything they didn't already think of.

[JacJacAtk]

I was told by a source I trust to have some knowledge of the situation that buying and distributing lammers was the original plan. I haven't heard anything from him about problems with that plan, though it wouldn't blow my mind if getting the money into the US to do it, or even being able to get an appropriate quantity of lammers (do they just sell these to people directly, I've only seen them as prizes in the live sats at the Rio) was difficult/impossible to arrange.