By
Dan
PocketFives.com has become one of the first sites that online poker players turn to when breaking news from around the industry occurs. Last weekend, a thread was posted by one of our members about poker-related advertisements possibly being a thing of the past at the 2007 WSOP. It stated, “Harrah's board decided yesterday that no poker sites accepting U.S. players would be allowed to advertise at the WSOP, meaning no .net [or anything] from PokerStars, Full Tilt, etc. Foreign sites not allowing U.S. players will be allowed to advertise.
Full Tilt had bought the rights to the felt; guess that won't be happening.” Rather than rely on speculation, PocketFives.com went to the source – the WSOP itself – for the answer.
When asked to respond to this post on PocketFives.com, which was derived from information found on another poker forum as well (the original thread can be found by clicking here), WSOP Director of Operations Gary Thompson gave the following analysis about advertising from dot.com and dot.net sites at the 2007 WSOP. Notice that his response draws a distinction between online poker sites that do and do not accept U.S. players as well as sites that are associated in some capacity with media outlets:
"As a gaming company licensed in more than a dozen jurisdictions in the United States and abroad, Harrah's must follow the guidance of federal law and statement gaming regulators in conducting its business. In this regard, the 2007 World Series of Poker venue will not contain advertising from dot.com sites that allow access to U.S. residents, nor ads from dot.net sites affiliated with those entities. Harrahs' position does not affect advertising that may or may not be carried by media companies that cover the event, as they aren't subject to the same gaming-regulatory requirements as Harrah's is."
"Our position does not impact players. In fact, we expect to post the 2007 WSOP rules and registration procedures on www.worldseriesofpoker.com [soon] that will contain a new logo policy allowing players to wear apparel with dot.net logos, as well as multiple and larger logos. As I indicated, the details should be on our web site [soon.]”
With regards to the poker table felts, Thompson offered the following to quell speculation about whether Full Tilt will have rights to this prime advertising location:
"As for the felts, I have seen blogs and forum threads speculating about who may or may not have sought advertising rights to the WSOP. Harrah's has a long-standing policy of not commenting on rumors or speculation. If we do enter into any business agreement with another company, we'll make a public announcement at the appropriate time."
That is the official word from the WSOP regarding the post made on PocketFives.com, which will hopefully help to clear up some speculation. We thank Gary Thompson and the Media Relations Department at the WSOP for making this story possible.