Bryan Micon, accused of operating a Bitcoin poker site out of his Las Vegas home earlier this year, returned to Nevada on Thursday to appear in Clark County Court. He has accepted a deal to plead guilty to lesser charges in hopes of avoiding jail time for committing a felony offense.

The 36 year old owner of Bitcoin poker site Seals with Clubs (SWC) would be sentenced to an as-yet undetermined length of probation. He also agreed to pay a fine of $25,000 and give up all of the properties seized by authorities back in the February raid of his home, including $900 in cash, 3.0996 in Bitcoins, and a collection of computer equipment.

In taking the deal, Bryan Micon’s attorney, Richard Schonfeld, said that the felony charges would be reduced to a gross misdemeanor. Micon declined to comment to the press after the hearing, but Schonfeld called his client’s plea bargain “an appropriate resolution”.

When police first entered Micon’s home with a search warrant in February, the Bitcoin poker site owner fled to Antigua. He’s been living there with his wife and young daughter for the last three months, refusing to return to the United States even after the Nevada Attorney General issued a warrant for his arrest in April.

According to court documents, Bryan Micon has been accused of illegally operating an unlicensed online poker operation from March 1, 2014 to February 9, 2015. Despite the date range in question, records also state that the Nevada Gaming Control Board first became aware of Seals with Clubs when an individual from Belgian complained about the Bitcoin poker site in August of 2013.

Operating an online gaming site that uses real money is illegal in Nevada, unless the proper licensing is acquired.

From his temporary residence in Antigua, Micon consistently claimed that he had done nothing wrong, based primarily on the fact that SWC was fueled by the crypto-currency, Bitcoin, rather than traditional money.

Last week, it was revealed that Bryan Micon had agreed to travel back to Clark County in order to face the charges against him. As part of the conditions of his return, a judge rescinded the arrest warrant so that Micon could turn himself in without incident. After a brief booking, he was released on his own cognizance until Thursday’s court hearing.

The plea agreement offered by prosecutors, and accepted by Bryan Micon and his defense lawyer, must still be reviewed and approved by a Clark County judge. Schonfeld explained that, if the judge fails to accept the deal and issue probation, his client will still have the option of withdrawing the guilty plea.

The original felony offense Micon faces carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison with a $50,000 fine. Which way the case will proceed is impossible to predict because, as Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt pointed out, this is the first time they have prosecuted a case involving an online poker site that utilizes digital currency like Bitcoin.

Bryan Micon is scheduled to return to the Clark County Courthouse next week.

If there’s one thing Nevada’s Real Gaming poker site has never been lacking in, it’s unique promotions. The same can be said of its Memorial Day Giveaway, where free prizes will be awarded all day for achieving special hand ranks and generating enough Tier Score. Additionally, all active and retired military personnel are privy to a free $40 sign-up bonus.

The Memorial Day Giveaway at Real Gaming takes place all day today, May 25, 2015 at South Point’s online poker room, RealGaming.com. All new and existing members are welcome to participate. The more you partake in real-money poker games, the better the rewards will be.

Free $40 for Active/Retired Military at Real Gaming

Calling all active and retired military personnel – in honor of your esteemed service, Real Gaming is giving away a free $40 poker bonus. Military members who sign up a new account with the online poker room today can take advantage of this valuable promotion.

In order to claim the free $40 poker bonus, simply email a copy of your DD214 or proof of active duty to secure@realgaming.com. Once verified, your account will be credited with a $40 bonus balance.

For those who are not part of the US military, Real Gaming is giving away $20 free to all new account signups for the entire month of May.

Real Gaming Giving Away up to 1,000x Big Blind for Special Hands

Play real money poker games on any of Real Gaming’s cash tables with blinds of $0.01/$0.02 to $1/$2 to win prizes worth 10x to 1,000x the Big Blind. To claim a cash prize, players will need to go to the showdown with a specific hand rank. The following hand ranks award the corresponding prizes:

 
Note that a player may only win each Big Blind multiplier one time, but additional prizes can be awarded for repeat hand ranks. For example, if a player were to go to showdown with a Heart Straight Flush, they would receive the 500x BB prize. If the same player received that hand again, they would be awarded the next highest prize of 100x BB. All subsequent qualifying hands would award to 10x BB prize.

Also note that the pot size must reach 5x the BB in order for a player to become eligible to win a BB multiplier. All prizes will be paid in the form of a poker bonus, to be awarded within 72 hours of making the hand.

South Point Giveaways for Generating 50+ Tier Score

If ever there was a day to play your heart out at Real Gaming, Memorial Day is it. All players who generate at least 50 Tier Score (TS) on May 25 will receive a prize that can be redeemed at South Point. The more Tier Score a player earns, the more prizes they will receive.

Prizes are stackable, meaning a player who reaches the highest 250 Tier Score will receive one of each of the prizes listed. See the following prize chart for more information.

Online poker has been a legally regulated activity in the state of Nevada for two years now. Just recently, an interstate compact to share liquidity between players in Nevada and Delaware was implemented. Now, via AB 414, the state is taking steps to ensure that online poker is the only form of internet gaming shared between players across state lines.

On Friday, members of the Nevada Assembly met to discuss AB 414, a legislative measure scripted to prohibit shared liquidity compacts with other states for the purpose of any online gambling activity outside of poker.

AB 414, backed by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, was only introduced a month ago on March 19, and has moved rapidly through state legislature. It was passed by a slim margin of 23 to 17, with 2 excused from the vote.

The fate of the interstate compact measure is now in the hands of the Senate. It received its first reading in the Senate Committee on April 20 and was referred to the Committee on Judiciary. The deadline to pass the bill is May 15, 2015.

AB 414 and Online Poker in Nevada

Nevada chose to only legalize interactive peer-to-peer games (i.e. poker) when pressing for internet gaming regulation. Delaware and New Jersey took a different route, having authorized both online poker and house-banked casino games like blackjack, roulette, video poker and slots.

In early 2013, Nevada and Delaware came together in agreement on a shared liquidity deal that would see their online poker players merged into a single, networked player pool across all 888-powered operators, which include all three of Delaware’s authorized gaming sites (DelawarePark.com, DoverDowns.com and HarringtonRaceway.com) and Nevada’s WSOP.com. New Jersey has chosen to go it alone, at least for the time being, declining to share liquidity with any other states.

Of worthy note, the interstate compact signed by the governors of Nevada and Delaware took more than a year to go into effect. During all that time, no bill to prevent shared liquidity across internet house-banked games was introduced. It wasn’t until mere days before player pooling became a reality on March 24 that the measure surfaced.

Adelson’s Crusade to Stop Online Gambling

As for why Sheldon Adelson is has been so adamant about in his support of AB 414 and the need to hold interstate compacts to online poker only remains a bit of a mystery. As one reporter for CardPlayer put it, he may be “hedging his bets”.

Though not for lack of effort, the billionaire CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) has thus far been unable to reach his ultimate goal of prohibiting all forms of online gambling in the US. He’s signed countless checks of untold value, all thrown at politicians and organizations willing to support his cause. Currently, his primary focus is lobbying for the passage of a federal bill known as the Restoration of America’s Wire Act. If passed, RAWA would effectively criminalize any and all forms of internet gambling, shutting down iGaming markets in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey, as well as the online lottery sales in four other states.

It’s also worth mentioning that Nevada permits mobile betting within authorized casinos; something Mr. Adelson has taken full advantage of, despite his outward aversion to online gambling. For example, a guest of the LVS-owned Venetian Hotel can log into the casino’s mobile betting site and place wagers on sporting events, so long as the individual is physically located within the confines of the property at the time the bet is placed.

AB 414 will not affect property-restricted mobile betting, and Adelson doesn’t seem to mind profiting from that internet gambling niche one bit.

Like a thunder storm in the height of summer, fads can come and go very quickly. Such was the initial boost in traffic that occurred when Nevada and Delaware pooled their online poker players late last month. In the first days of shared liquidity, the merged ring games drew impressive numbers, but after stabilizing, the sustained increase is all but negligible.

On March 25, 2015, thirteen months after Governors Brian Sandoval (NV) and Jack Markell (DE) signed the interstate poker compact to share liquidity between online poker markets, player pooling finally went into effect. WSOP.com in Nevada and Delaware’s three online poker rooms—all of which are powered by 888 software—began sharing player bases. As expected, the initial impact was inspiring.

Daily traffic averages were up 10% on the first day of the interstate network launch, rising to 20% on day two. However, the novelty wore off very quickly. Numbers began to drop back down, and by the sixth day, average cash game traffic was actually 3% below the previous counts, prior to player pooling.

One week later, Nevada and Delaware saw the shared online poker markets leveling out at an average of 170 active players at any given time, up from a previous average of 150 in Nevada and just 7 in Delaware.

All in all, the market stabilized well below the expectations of regulators and analysts who predicted at least a 190-200 average. According to Poker Scout, the 170 player count is still holding steady today, with a peak hour surge of about 385.

Probable Causes of Underwhelming Online Poker Traffic

There are plenty of reasons why the interstate online poker network has performed below expectations; some more obvious than others. One glaring motive is that Delaware has done very little to advertise its online poker market, or the nascent player pooling with Nevada. As OPR’s Robert DellaFave put it, a simple mailer stating “Play online poker with 20 times the amount of players,” could have made a huge impact.

Online poker players in Nevada had little incentive to jump onto their computers either. Merging the traffic from one small state with another even smaller state wasn’t going to influence their experience that much anyway.

Back on the Delaware side, chances are that serious players aren’t logging on from home to play legal online poker. It’s more likely that they are hopping the border to New Jersey to partake in much larger cash games pools and guaranteed tournaments. Even with Nevada’s numbers thrown into the mix, the interstate poker network’s promotions fall well short of what New Jersey can offer.

It’s also worth noting that early spring marks an annual decrease in online poker traffic. The seasonal downfall is to be expected, and could easily have some effect on interest from players.

Player Pooling Technically Flawless

On a brighter note, the technical side of the merge was a shining success. While many were disappointed that it took more than a year after the interstate player pooling compact was signed to get to the soft-launch phase, the whole point was to ensure no technical or geographical errors at the time of initiation, and in that regard, the launch has been flawless.

The World Series of Poker has been a staple of the industry for 45 years, paving the way for evolution in the game of poker around the globe. This year’s announcement of a revolutionary WOSP Online Bracelet Event is a huge leap into the modern technological age, but not one that everyone agrees with. And according to some sources, the original structure for the event announced last month may be changed before the 2015 WSOP gets underway.

Never before has the WSOP awarded a gold bracelet in any forum except live poker tables at the designated venue in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 2015 WSOP will change all that as organizers announced the summer schedule in February, including a historical milestone – an online bracelet event set to take place on WSOP.com.

The online tournament is slated for July 2^nd as Event #64 on the 2015 WSOP schedule. With a buy-in of $1,000 to the NLHE tournament, the original structure was devised to bring the final two players out of the online realm and onto a live table at the Rio on July 3^rd.  Due to concerns about timing and a potentially short televised end to the highly anticipated online bracelet event, organizers are hoping to change the final table format.

According to PokerFuse, WSOP organizers have sought the permission of the Nevada Gaming Control Board to alter the final table arrangement. Instead of televising a heads-up finish on July 3^rd, they want push it to July 4^th, making the 3^rd a “travel day” so that final tablists who aren’t already in easy traveling distance to Las Vegas have time to make it to the Rio. They would also prefer to have the final six players enter the live stage, rather than just two.

“We had concerns initially of getting the players to the Rio the next day to play out the event live,” said Caesars Interactive VP of Corporate Communications, Seth Palansky. He explained that they’ve “decided that July 3 will be a ‘travel day’ in essence for any players not in proximity to Las Vegas. As such, we will play the final table on July 4 now. This allows us to increase the live portion to six players and know we can get them all to the Rio in time.”

WSOP officials are declining all requests for comment for the time being. A spokesperson said that no comments will be issued regarding the proposed changed to the 2015 WSOP online bracelet event until the Nevada Gaming Control Board makes its decision.

Positive/Negative Responses to a 2015 WSOP Online Bracelet Event

The reaction from professional poker players regarding the first ever online bracelet event at the 2015 WSOP have been mixed.

One prominent supporter of the interactive transition has been Greg Merson, winner of the 2012 WSOP Championship. Merson called the online bracelet event his “favorite part of the schedule” this year. “Online has been a big boost for the game and rewarding the industry with a bracelet is amazing,” explained the former WSOP champ.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are players like 2013 WSOP bracelet winner Trevor Pope. “I think the WSOP online event is going to be quite overrated,” criticized Pope. His largest gripe seemed to be that serious online poker players prefer to multi-table, stating that “I personally won’t be playing the online event because I will just get too bored playing one table myself…”

Pope went on to condemn the requirements for participating in an online bracelet event compared to a live structure. Throughout history, the WSOP has been “a poker series played at the casino where all you need is a ‘chip and a chair’ as they say, but this is putting a whole new spin on that because now you need a good computer, reliable Internet, a place to play, and probably some good tracking software.”

In the end, though, Pope admitted that he could be wrong, and that the 2015 WSOP online bracelet event could have “a huge turnout” and help to “push online poker in the right direction.”

Nevada was the first state to launch a regulated internet gaming market in the United States, but the last of three (including Delaware and New Jersey) to issue public online poke revenue reports for the industry. Now, after nearly one year of unrestricted revenue data logs, the Silver State is once again not required to make its online poker earnings public knowledge.

According to the guidelines set forth by the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) when drafting iGaming regulations, the state is only required to issue reports detailing online poker revenue generation if there are three or more active operators. When Ultimate Poker closed its virtual doors late last year, it left only two operators, thus no obligation to publish the information.

Ultimate Poker made history when the operator launched the very first US regulated online poker site on April 30, 2013. For months, UP remained the only active operator in the state, or the nation for that matter. Then on September 19 of that same year, WSOP.com joined the limited ranks of Nevada’s online poker market. But still, the number of operators was below the required amount to issue public revenue reports.

It wasn’t until South Point became the third operator in Nevada with the launch of Real Gaming in February of 2014 that the state finally released its first online poker revenue report. Due to the nature of those reports, which include 1-month, 3-month and 12-month summaries, the complete yield for 2013 was also revealed, amounting to $8.524 million since the initial launch of UP.

Some had hoped that the NGCB would retract the former reporting rule requirement when the number of operators fell back to two, but obviously that’s not the case. Therefore, until a third operator joins the ranks, concerned market analysts and media outlets will be forced to estimate the monthly yield for December 2014, January 2015 and however many months transpire before publications resume.

Estimated Timeline for launch of 3^rd Online Poker Operator in Nevada

There are three possible candidates to shoulder the responsibility of becoming Nevada’s next 3^rd online poker operator, thus becoming the catalyst for the state’s resumption of online poker revenue reports. Which of those three will hit the market first is hard to say, but it is expected to happen in 2015.

The All American Poker Network (AAPN), on which WSOP.com is currently hosted, is projected to integrate two new sites in the coming year. One is expected to be launched by Treasure Island, and the other 888Poker, proprietor of AAPN. The significance of either of these sites launching would be the resulting shared player pool with WSOP.com, which already leads the Nevada online poker market by leaps and bounds.

The other possibility is HDPoker.com, powered by a new, Nevada-based software company known as Z4Poker. The developer has already been licensed by the NGCB, but has yet to partner with any land-based operator, as is required by regulatory guidelines to offer real money poker games over the internet.

Rumor has it that Z4Poker has a relationship with the Siena Hotel & Casino in Reno, NV, but no partnership deal has been confirmed. In 2014, it was reported that HDPoker anticipated its launch before end of year, with a mobile poker app to be added in Q1 2015, but the website indicates the software remains in Beta Testing mode.

In 1992, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) went into effecting, prohibiting sports betting on a federal level in all but 4 US states. Like several high-ranking politicians before him, Senator John McCain is speaking out against PASPA, saying states should have the right to regulate sports betting. His argument is geared mostly towards the lack of taxation on a multi-billion dollar industry.

As McCain was eager to point out in an interview with ESPN’s Andy Katz and ABC’s Rick Klein, the hosts of ESPNRadio’s ‘Capital Games’, there are untold billions being spent on sports betting every year, and only an estimated 3% of those wagers are the legal variety. That means the other 97% are occurring underground, therefore failing to generate tax dollars for the government.

Contending that the regulation of sports betting should be up to individual states is a relevant argument. Other forms of gambling, such as casino games and poker, are regulated on a state by state basis. Why shouldn’t the same go for sports betting? But that argument has led to a dead end time and again. Pointing out all those zeroes at the end of a multi-billion dollar industry that the government is not generating taxation from, on the other hand, could have a lot more sway in the eyes of US administrators.

“We need a debate in Congress,” McCain told Katz and Klein. “We need to have a talk with the American people, and we need to probably have hearings in Congress on the whole issue so we can build consensus.”

At present, only four states are capable of offering sports betting, but only one of them—Nevada—provides a full-scale sports betting market. McCain was asked why Nevada should be the only state with a regulated sports betting industry, to which he responded, “I think you’ve got an excellent point, and that’s why it’s an excellent issue.”

Last week, the Nevada Gaming Control Board released its latest revenue report, indicating that the sports betting industry took in $3.9 billion in sports wagers in 2014. According to industry analysts, the actual amount wagered – legally and otherwise – is somewhere between $138.9 billion (per AGA’s 2013 estimate) and $400 billion annually.

“I think that there [are] places for sports gambling in states, where gambling is legal,” said McCain. By that, McCain asserts that states like New Jersey should have the opportunity to allow sports betting in casinos across Atlantic City, where gambling is a vast, legitimate business.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spent two years lobbying for the right to legalize sports betting in Atlantic City casinos, to no avail. More recently, New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo introduced a bill to modify PASPA, called the Sports Gaming Opportunity Act of 2015, but after initially harvesting 4 cosponsors, three of them have withdrawn, leaving no realistic hope of gaining traction.

The largest problem supporters of state’s rights to regulate sports betting have to face is overcoming the opposition of PASPA’s original backers—the  amateur and professional sporting leagues that pushed for federal criminalization in the first place—the NCAA, MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL. It was these organizations that filed the lawsuit that halted New Jersey’s attempt to legalize sports betting last year.

On the plus side, one such organization could join Gov. Christie and Sen. McCain in their advocacy of sports betting. Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times last November saying essentially the same thing McCain told ESPNRadio yesterday, addressing the need to “legalize and regulate sports betting”.

Silver determined that, “sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated.”

WSOP is dominating the regulated online poker industry in Nevada, but has held the respectable position of #2 in New Jersey since the market went live in November 2013. Competition has driven WSOP to increase its Action Club VIP loyalty rewards program, and it’s giving most online poker players in both states something to rejoice about. As has become the norm in today’s internet poker industry, recreational players are the real target.

The overhauled Action Club includes a series of additional tiers, including a new Copper level that requires just 2 Action Player Points (APP) to reach. The online poker site previously required 10 APP in a month to reach the first tier of the VIP program, termed Bronze status. With 2 APP earned for every $1 contributed to the rake at cash games, or $1 in tournament fees paid, even the most recreational of players should have no trouble reaching the required monthly minimum to earn loyalty rewards at WSOP.com.

To achieve Bronze status, a player will now need to earn 40 APP in a month, but a Copper+ level was thrown in between with a 20 APP requirement to achieve. A Bronze+ was also supplemented, requiring 100 APP in a month’s time. Silver status still necessitates 200 APP, Gold 400 APP, Platinum 1,200 APP and Diamond 3,500 APP. The former Silver+, Gold+ and Platinum+ levels were removed.

Online poker players will still need to reach the Silver level or above to receive WSOP Points, which can be converted to cash at a rate of $1 for every 100 points (1,000 point minimum to redeem), but other rewards are available to those who play just enough to reach to lowest tiers. And with the minimum 2 AP requirement now available, that should include a lot more members of the Nevada and New Jersey online poker rooms.

All players who earn at least 2 – but less than 200 – APP in a month will receive exclusive invites to monthly Action Club freerolls. Not to leave anyone out, even players who don’t reach a status of any level can participate in the weekly $250 freeroll tournaments.

WSOP Annual Rewards

The yearly rewards levels received a slight augmentation as well. A new Super Elite level was snuggly fitted between the original Elite and Super Seven statuses. Previously, Super Seven members were entitled to a competitive rakeback of 35%. That figure has dropped to 30%, but realistically speaking, it shouldn’t affect too many people since it requires 400,000 APP in a year’s time.

On a brighter note, the new Super Elite status (250,000 APP) will give standard Elite members (50,000 AP) a much more reasonable goal to shoot for, and increase their rakeback rewards from 20% to 25% in doing so.

On the whole, WSOP’s loyalty rewards aren’t all that impressive, but it’s definitely an improvement. Plus, the Action Club correlates with the land-based casino rewards of Caesars Entertainment properties, known as Total Rewards. All Action Club points earned at the online poker room are added to a player’s Total Rewards membership (if they have one), and for land-based players who reach Platinum, diamond of Seven Star status in the Total Rewards program, they can request their status be transferred to the online Action Club.

Real Gaming went live in Nevada in February of 2014, giving the state’s other two online poker sites, Ultimate Poker and WSOP.com, a new rival to contend with. Month after month, Real Gaming attracted only a few players to tables due to its requirement by the Nevada Gaming Control Board to remain in beta testing mode. That changed last month with the regulator’s approval for a full-scale launch of Real Gaming, and the marketing team has been throwing out one promotion after another to drive traffic into the online poker site.

One of the latest additions to the Real Gaming promotional line-up is a Sit & Go Awards campaign. Best of all, it’s not a leaderboard style competition where only a select few win a prize. Every member of the online poker room can reap the rewards, in cold hard cash, just for winning 10, 9-player SNGs in a calendar month. The size of the prize will be based on the buy-in level of the tournaments.

For example, winning 10 of the cheapest SNG’s on the menu, with a buy-in of $1.07, will award $5 in cash at the end of the month. The highest prize of $150 is awarded to all players who win 10 SNG’s with the largest buy-in of $32.10. The following chart depicts all SNG levels and their respective awards.

The rules of the online poker promotion state that all qualifying SNG’s must have a full, single table of 9 players, and must occur between the hours of 2:00pm and 10:00pm daily.

Real Gaming also introduced a High Score of the Hour promotion in which ring game players can earn cash prizes for generating the highest Loyalty Score during specified hours throughout the day. Every single active table can award its own prize, based on the stakes level being played. As such, if there are 30 active cash games, then 30 players could be eligible to win a prize.

To become eligible for a prize, players must earn a minimum Loyalty Score during the qualifying hour of play. Minimum scores are decided by the stakes of the online poker table, with cash prizes scaling from $2 at micro-limit stakes of $0.01/$0.02, up to $30 at $2/$4 stakes. The following chart shows the stakes, minimum Loyalty Score and respective prizes.

The High Score of the Hour promotion takes place four times daily, at 2:00p, 5:00pm, 8:00pm and 11:00pm. Only Loyalty Score (LS) earnings for hands that are dealt and completed during the promotional period will count towards the accumulation of LS (i.e. 2:00:00pm to 2:59:59pm).

In addition, to help spread the word and generate even more online poker traffic, Real Gaming is offering Power Up rewards for players who boast their High Score of the Hour win over social media outlets. If a player wins a High Score of the Hour prize, then visits the Power Up link at the online poker room, they can use the links provided to Tweet their winnings, or ‘Like’ and Comment their win on Real Gaming’s Facebook page. Doing so awards an additional $1 Power Up prize, and there is no limit to the amount of times a player can receive Power Ups.