Poker News – As the Greek Organization of Football Prognostics (OPAP) announced its decision to focus on the creation of a new online sports betting platform in cooperation with GTECH, the risk of Greece running the next online poker monopoly in Europe is now considerably thinner. Although many thought Greece’s government could opt to close its market to international operators in 2014 and put a brand new monopoly in OPAP’s hands, the decision to focus on sports betting and not on poker is a game changer that is going to keep the country’s market open for a while longer. Even…

Las Vegas Review Journal – Nearly a year after the launch of real money online poker in Nevada, there’s a new wave of players who must pay taxes on Web poker winnings from 2013. In the years before regulated online gambling, offshore sites that skirted the law to attract U.S. players may not have cooperated with the Internal Revenue Service. But the legislation passed in Nevada and two other states means that the IRS has the means to easily trace online winnings. Nevada’s first regulated real money site, UltimatePoker.com, launched in April 2013, and WSOP.com followed later in the year….

Poker News – If there will hardly be a pan-European online poker market before 2015, it’s about time Spain’s brick-and-mortar casinos start investing more in developing their online offer. A few months away from the new opening of the country’s regulated market, DLA Piper Spain partner and gambling specialist Albert Agustinoy Guilayn spoke to PokerNews about the future of the national gambling industry, highlighting some interesting opportunities for the future. Right when eGaming Review published a report that shows how over 40% of Spain’s online poker players are still active on non-licensed operators, Agustinoy Guilayn explained how the nearest future…

Card Player – The state of New York is again taking a hard look at online poker within its borders. A proposed law was introduced into the Senate on Friday, which calls for the authorization of online poker, a game referenced as one in which requires skill, and for the awarding of 10 licenses. Each license would be good for a decade, costing $10 million apiece. Revenues would also be subjected to taxes, which, if the bill passed right now, would be 15 percent. The proposal comes after New York voters last year said OK to a handful of commercial…

Russian authorities have updated the country’s Internet blacklist nearly 600 different websites, including online poker sites, in an operation that some consider to be the first step of a major crackdown on online gambling. With a standard procedure that is usually adopted for censoring websites promoting child pornography and illegal drugs, on March 21, Russia’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) blocked access to a large number of online gambling sites including international giants like PokerStars, partypoker, Unibet and Titan Poker. “The request came straight from the prosecutor office,” said Maxim Ksenzov, the deputy head of Russia’s federal telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor, when…

Poker News – Belgium’s Gambling Commission has doubled the number of inspectors on its staff, which could lead to a hunt for players on non-licensed gambling sites. “The Belgian Gambling Commission (BGC) reportedly announced that it would extend its actions to online players,” said Patrick Van Eecke and Antoon Dierick from international law firm DLA Piper. “It will be interesting to see how far the BGC wishes to go in fining individual players and whether the Public Prosecution office is also willing to make infringements in this area a matter of prosecution priority.” DLA Piper’s words were triggered by some…