Full Tilt to offer $25K buy-in heads-up tournament

Full Tilt Poker will be putting on the Full Tilt $25K Heads-Up World Championship on May 24-25 in what will be the most expensive tournament buy-in in the history of online poker.

The event takes place a week after the end of FTOPS VIII.
[Full Article]

U.K. blasts France for protectionist stance on gambling

Britain’s House of Lords called the French government’s actions to protect the state monopoly on gambling and poker “atrocious,” according to a story at pokerpages.com.
The European Union has been putting pressure on France and other member countries with state-run gambling ventures to fall in line   …full article

Massachusetts governor: Casino bill may make comeback

A bill that would license three casinos in Massachusetts may not be dead yet, Governor Deval Patrick said.
A story in the Boston Globe quoted Patrick as saying the bill may find life in the legislature for a variety of reasons:

WPT reports more losses

World Poker Tour Enterprises, Inc. released its 2008 first quarter financial results, which showed a net loss of $2.8 million.
The good news: Revenues were up 10 percent from the same time period last year.
According to pokerpages.com:
Business highlights for the quarter included the delivery of seven   …full article

Nevada PPA director blasts senator on UIGEA

The Nevada state director for the Poker Players Alliance responded to Senator Jon Kyl’s comments regarding the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in a letter to the editor in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Ken Illgen blasted the senator — who has said he is frustrated with   …full article

UB player wins second Bad Beat Jackpot in two months

An Ultimatebet player hit the poker site’s ‘Bad beat Jackpot’ for the second time in less than two month, according to a story at poker-king.com.
‘dhc2lovr’ won the bad beat jackpot on Tuesday for $448,920.71 — the same player, according to other posts on poker forums,   …full article

‘Real World’ cast members to play tourney at Doyle’s Room

Doyle’s Room will be hosting a special tournament on Wednesday that will feature members of recent casts of “The Real World,” the MTV reality show:
Recent “Real World” stars Dave Sky and Will Gill (Season 20) and Parisa Montazaran (Season 19, “Real World: Sydney”), will appear   …full article

Barry Greenstein to join PPA rally in Washington state

Poker pro Barry Greenstein will be joining a Poker Players Alliance rally in Washington state on May 15 to protest the law that makes playing online poker a felony in the state.
PPA state director Lee Rousso is challenging the law, signed into law in 2006,   …full article

Dutchman wins first PokerStars LAPT event

The first-ever PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour event, held in Rio de Janeiro, lacked star power at the final table, but it did feature a very young winner.
Nineteen-year-old Julien Nuijten beat a field of 314 players to win the tournament
The event was the largest poker   …full article

Online gaming giants on list of Britain’s richest people

Some of the leaders of online gambling and poker in the United Kingdom are some of Britain’s richest people, according to a recent report at igamingbusiness.com.
The Sunday Times’ 20th annual survey of Britain’s richest individuals has revealed that the leading figures in the UK’s gaming   …full article