Saying that the World Series of Poker is having a record start is to seriously downplay the numbers. A record number of entries, 28,371 of them, was received for the “Big 50” no-limit hold’em tournament held earlier this month on the opening weekend. The entries, which represented 17,970 unique participants, was the most ever for a live poker tournament. The $500 buy-in event was spread over four days of starting flights and was “rake-free”. It gave participants a 50,000 starting chip stack and 50-minute playing levels. The overwhelming response generated a $13,509,435 total prize pool, far surpassing the $5-million guarantee….

This weeks gambling news includes stories from the World Series of Poker and the actual World Series! Plus, online gambling news from Massachusetts, fantasy sports merger rumors and more! We’re also taking a look at the Yahtzee Online Slot from Scientific Games, and we have two special offers this week: One from Slots Capital Casino, and the other from Desert Nights Casino!

Poker News – Binion’s Horseshoe was a total ****house. Sure, it was a great place to work when I was there. And I wouldn’t trade those memories for the world. But not everyone saw it that way. By the time the doors were nailed shut and boarded over with plywood in January of 2004, more than 800 former employees were flushed out into the streets looking for work. That might not seem like a big deal. People lose jobs all the time. But the vast majority of former Horseshoe workers had been around for years, like barnacles attached to a…

Las Vegas Review-Journal – A long-anticipated pay-to-play poker website based on the World Series of Poker will launch Thursday morning for customers located in the Nevada. Officials from Caesars Interactive Entertainment, a subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment Corp., said Monday they received final approval from Nevada gaming regulators to begin accepting wagers on WSOP.com. Gibraltar-based 888 Holdings is providing the technology platform for the website. WSOP.com will join Ultimate Poker, which is majority-owned by Station Casinos, as the only two regulated, real money gaming websites currently operating in the U.S. Several other poker websites are also expected to launch in Nevada…

From Poker News The World Series of Poker may run annually in the United States’ gambling capital, Las Vegas, but that doesn’t stop worldwide residents from traveling to participate in the biggest tournament of the year. In 2012, 101 different countries participated in the WSOP, and this year 107 different countries flew in for the chance at turning their dream of winning a coveted WSOP gold bracelet a reality. It’s no surprise that the U.S. led in the WSOP World Ranking Standings. All together Americans accumulated 40 bracelets and made 6,035 cashes for a total of $109,966,358 in WSOP earnings….

From Las Vegas Sun Chris Moneymaker peered out into a sea of poker players and briefly reflected on the past decade. The World Series of Poker undraped a tribute bust to Moneymaker on Monday, 10 years after the former accountant from Memphis defeated 838 players to win $2.5 million in the world championship Main Event. “Back then, I knew three poker players,” Moneymaker said at the ceremony. “Over the last 10 years, I’ve met thousands and thousands of wonderful people in this game. It’s really evolved into something magical, and what you see here today.” What was on display at…