India’s Adda52 Gets Tough Over Fairplay and Partners with WPT

Adda52 has turned up the heat on fraudulent accounts with more than 9,000 getting shut down during August.

All accounts were guilty of breaking the site’s fairplay policy which includes matters such as “chip dumping, collusion, multi-accounting, ghosting, bonus misuse and the use of scripts”.

An Adda52 representative wrote in a private Adda52 Facebook group,

“Adda52 is committed to providing a fair gaming experience for our users. 9148 accounts have been permanently deactivated for violating our terms of use. Our fairplay policy … will be strictly enforced and we urge all users to go through it,”

The rest of the world will be happy to see India’s major sites taking such a firm attitude to keeping the games fair and enjoyable. As the country slowly sorts out its archaic gambling laws they may become a part of the rest of the world play pool.

Stepping Up to the Big League

Adda52 is no doubt tightening up due to the coming public scrutiny when the World Poker Tour partner up with them for the WPT Online India Series.

Taking place in November 2020, 154 tournaments will run over 18 days. The main event has a guarantee of$340,000 with the winner also receiving a US$5,000 WPT Passport to be used at any live WPT event around the world. A Hublot watch valued at US$10,400 will be the cherry on the cake for the final victor.

After a relatively successful World Series of Poker Online this year GGPoker is to have a go at the Battle of Malta Online. From November 1st there will be three weeks of action ending with the $550 main event guaranteeing $3 million.

Scheinberg Ends the Black Friday Saga

PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg has ended the long-running Black Friday saga after paying only a $30,000 fine.

The Israeli-Canadian billionaire was long-rumoured to have made a deal with the US authorities that would see him avoid any jail time.

As the final person sought by the US justice machine Scheinberg’s “surrender” marks the end of a decade of man hunts and legal action following the events of Black Friday.

Sports Betting Helping to Keep Nevada Casinos Afloat

The sports betting industry is helping to keep Nevada’s casinos afloat during this torrid time. The Nevada Gaming Board announced state profits of $743 million in August, which is a 22% drop year-on-year.

That sounds bad but it’s crawling back from the 26.1% fall in July.

Casinos that are not normally reliant on tourism seem to be faring better but it’s still tough all around.

With the major four sports - Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL) - all being up and running again it’s maybe no surprise that sports betting is getting a little busy, and luckily so.

US sportsbooks even offered odds on the recent presidential debate, which to be honest looked anything but presidential. Although betting indicated Biden came out ahead that may have been little more than timing at work.
Kip Levin, interim CEO of FOX Bet, told the AP

“As we’ve learned from states in which we operate legal sports betting, interest in wagering stretches beyond sports. We also know that a lot of customers love the fun aspect of bragging rights with their friends and family, and that applies here too.”

The situation in Macau isn’t improving much. Casino employees were told that they must wear masks until at least March 2021.

The region’s casinos have seen revenue fall for 11 straight months, with the last 5 months an eye-watering 90%+ decrease.

Chinese officials have also implemented new travel restrictions into Macau, both from mainland China and international arrivals. This is just another issue that is certain to cause a lot of pain for the Asian gambling industry.

In the UK the situation took a turn for the worse. The government ordered the leisure industry to shut up shop at 10pm which is putting a lot of jobs on the line in a rapidly worsening situation.

With pubs and restaurants in central Scotland being ordered shut it is increasingly likely that England could follow suit.

Andre Marques Wins WCOOP Main Event

Andre ‘PTFisherman23’ Marques, from Portugal, has won the $5,200 buy-in WCOOP Main Event for $1.1 million. He topped a field of 1,977 players with an endless list of world-class elite talent.

PokerStars flagship series concluded after paying out almost $100 million in prize money, with $10 million of in the main event alone.

The gruelling 225 event schedule ends an amazing summer of tournament poker that has seen the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour turn the online MTT scene into something never seen before.

1 Andre ‘PTFisherman23’ Marques $1,147,271*
2 Tonio ‘prrrak4783’ Roder $1,082,523*
3 Teun ‘tinnoemulder’ Mulder $1,101,528*
4 Robin ‘robinho’ Ylitalo $543,301
5 Andriy ‘Andre_Hansen’ Lyubovetskiy $387,284
6 Denys ‘SantaZzz’ Chufarin $276,069
7 Michael ‘munchenHB’ Telker $196,792
8 ‘77atlant77’ $140,280
9 Cecilia ‘princes chu’ Cafaro $99,997