
While many former PokerStars and Comprehensive Tilt employees are on the way to avoid it, Rafi Ashkenazi is on his way in as the new CEO of the Rational Group.
The Rational Group has known as Rafi Ashkenazi its new ceo to oversee the PokerStars and Full Tilt online poker brands as parent company Amaya guides the systems into its next chapter operating in the United States.
New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) took many months to investigate whether Amaya’s licensing application came with the merit the state required for approval.
The DGE ultimately ratified the request but with a group of stipulations including first of all that Rational and PokerStars must sever ties and all employment royal vegas casino bonus code with individuals identified by the DGE as having failed to establish ‘good character, honesty and integrity.’
Ashkenazi served once the COO of Playtech before joining Rational in 2013 and being promoted to vice that is senior of strategy for Amaya in April of this year.
‘I enjoy re-joining the team that is excellent Rational Group,’ Ashkenazi said in a press release. ‘We have actually great opportunities in the future that is near our upcoming launch in New Jersey, the expansion of our casino and sports-betting organizations and our objective to grow the poker category.’
Climate Change
Even though Garden State’s DGE didn’t specifically name which former or employees that are current to meet their ethical minimums, it was largely 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, plus the agency found no wrongdoings or ethical discrepancies during his time working with Rational or Amaya.
Amaya CEO praised his job performance, saying Rafi is ‘working very closely this present year with our executive management team’ and is an ‘ideal leader for the Rational Group.’
Hazel’s exit seems to verify the DGE told Amaya to reduce the executive to their relationship, but Rational also confirmed that Rosenthal will stay on in their role and are accountable 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 of 2014 predominantly came down to determining the moral standards of the group’s new leaders june.
The poker networks were labeled ‘bad actors’ by the government that is federal continuing to operate in the usa following the passage for the Unlawful 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, an additional chance is precisely what New Jersey has afforded the entire world’s most robust on-line poker network.
Amaya’s purchasing of the two platforms for nearly $5 billion along side the corporation now publicly traded on Nasdaq, one might think Baazov would be smart to hire from outside just to gain all the favor he can with state and regulators that are federal.
But the 2015 PokerStars is not the PokerStars that the Scheinbergs founded back 2011.
It’s now under Baazov’s leadership, a 35-year-young ceo that apparently has nothing to hide.
It’s WSOP November Nine Fever Time as Final Table Kicks off (very nearly) Live on ESPN This Sunday
The 2015 nine form a cast of colorful characters for this year’s final playdown november. Play will resume on November 8th as six Americans, a Belgian, an Israeli, and an Italian vie for poker’s best glory. (Image: WSOP.com)
The WSOP November Nine are set to rumble for one of the biggest awards around if you prefer money. Yup, the table that is final of 46th Annual World Series of Poker will play down on ESPN beginning this Sunday.
After nearly 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 times play there have been simply nine left, each now already a millionaire, with a guaranteed minimum ninth-place payday of $1,001,020.
The Players
But ultimately there can be only one champion. Might it be chip leader Joe McKeehen, a 24-year-old pro poker player from North Wales, Pennsylvania? By having a whopping 158 blinds that are big play with, McKeehen could be the guy to beat.
At 72 years old, could Belgium’s Pierre Neuville, already the oldest-ever November Niner, become probably the most senior poker world champion of all time in a top-tier event? The toy that is former renounced poker for many of his adult life before a near-death experience convinced him to follow his dreams once more. Sitting in fourth spot, Neuville has 53 blinds that are big a shot at the title.
Therefore too does well-known pro Max Steinberg, who parlayed a $27 DraftKings deposit right into a seat at the final table and a chance to win the top one. Steinberg is the only November Niner this year by having a WSOP bracelet, which he found in 2012.
The staying six players comprise four People in the us, an Israeli, and an Italian in Federico Butteroni, who, as the short stack coming in on Sunday with only 15 big blinds, are going to be clinging on by your skin of his teeth.
Where you should View the nine november
Cards go in the atmosphere 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 30-minute time delay, for a 5.30 pm PST kick down. This means that, as is the case for the final few years, players will be able to review previous action during beaks, opening cards and all.
The players are back minus three on . Finally, the final two players standing will hook up again on at 5.30pm on for the heads-up finale and the crowning of the champion tuesday.
On Sunday, though, the function 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 December that is hearing 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 very own odds of success after it was announced that the lingering legislation would get 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 such prohibition applicable to all or any types of gambling tasks, including Web gambling).’
The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) was to confirm the scheduled 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. ‘Will need everyone to make their vocals heard #nopokerban’
Wire Fraud
The debate between those in favor and those against online gambling is a discussion that essentially involves the precise interpretation associated with the Wire Act, a federal bill that was passed straight back in 1961 well before the Internet was commonplace.
In 2011, the Department of Justice released an opinion that is controversial the Wire Act stating that the legislation only specifies recreations betting but maybe not other kinds of wagering like popular casino games.
That opened the floodgates for states to legalize online casinos, although the flooding was more of a leak as only three states have since decriminalized Internet gambling.
So what does the Wire Act actually say?
‘Whoever being engaged in the company of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign business of bets or bets or information assisting into the placing of wagers or bets on any event that is sporting contest, or even for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit due to 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? Think about poker, a casino game that is partially predicated on skill?
Various Viewpoints
The time that is last held a hearing on RAWA it don’t go so well. Last March, a home Judiciary subcommittee listened to testimony from five witnesses, but only one or two had been even remotely against passing anti-gambling legislation.
For several hours, the witnesses had been grilled on the hazards and effects of legalizing such a market and were enticed to advocate advantages of restoring the Wire Act.
Political observers noted the imbalance among the panelists, and momentum that is little garnered from the hearing for Chaffetz. ‘My feeling is we walked as a possibly really bad hearing and walked away with lots 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 returning to his anti-gambling crusade.