Home / Poker News September 2011 / The Poker Grapevine – South Point Casino to Offer Online Poker
The Poker Grapevine – South Point Casino to Offer Online Poker
Posted by: Randy Williams - Thu, 2011-09-15 05:22
Real money online poker may be illegal in the US right now, but that doesn’t stop land-based casinos from starting up all sorts of play-money sites, as they’re jostling for position for when real money poker is legalized too.
The latest such initiative belongs to the South Point Casino, the owner of which, Michael Gaughan, is set to launch an online operation within the next couple of weeks.
This site – much like some of free-play sites already announced by other operators – will be hosted by the Zen poker network.
Gaughan said that the online poker venture was only an experiment for him, but he did envision applying for an intra-state license if things turned out well.
Jamie Gold launched a similar, ZEN Poker-hosted site a while ago, which turned out to be the UFC’s online poker site. The UFC’s owners also own Station Casinos, so the land-based casino/online poker link is once again obvious there.
Whether or not these free-play poker rooms will take off, remains to be seen, one thing is certain though: the main motivation for online poker players is the money. More precisely: the theoretical possibility of becoming rich and making a living playing a game. Needless to say, free-play poker rooms do not offer players such incentives.
In other news: given all the hardship bestowed upon them by the Black Friday events, it is no surprise that
PokerStars have been busy lightening their Team PokerStars pro lately. That is the reason why it kind of came against the trend when the site announced the hiring of Mickey Petersen.
Petersen, like Justin Bonomo and David Williams, started out by playing Magic the Gathering. He said that becoming an in-house pro for the world’s biggest online poker operation was a natural step in his evolution as a poker player.
The new PokerStars pro has already managed to reach the final table of event #24 of the 2011 WCOOP.
