PokerTek announced last week that it has enhanced its Heads-Up Challenge amusement game with multi-player tournament software.

The upgrade allows up to eight players to play heads-up poker in a bracketed tournament, just like the pros do in major tournaments such as the NBC National Heads-Up Championship or at the World Series of Poker heads-up events.

“Bracketed tournaments on Heads-Up Challenge are an exciting addition to our platform,” said James Crawford, President of PokerTek and General Manager of the company’s amusement division.

“Our customers and operators have been asking for this as an added feature and we’re pleased to bring it to them now.”

Heads-Up Challenge allows players to play heads-up Texas Hold’em for amusement purposes only. It’s a coin-operated game that has been installed at restaurants and bars in various locations.

“This new multi-player tournament software is just fantastic,” said Terry Farr, president of Cosmic Video, the European distributor for Heads-Up Challenge. “The implementation is fun and players are going to love this. These knockout tournaments will take Heads-Up Challenge to a whole new level.”

According to PokerTek, by offering tournaments for up to eight players, Heads-Up Challenge will give bar owners and route operators another new tool to draw players to an establishment without having to add staff or other people to direct the action.

“This is a great addition to an already fun game,” said Zack Luttrell, National Sales Manager for PokerTek. “After all, the only thing better than beating one friend in a heads-up match is beating several of them in a tournament.”

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Friday is the new deadline for the United States and the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda to come to terms with a World Trade Organization ruling that found the U.S. liable for compensation because of its anti-online-gambling stance.

A WTO panel ruled that Antigua and Barbuda is owed $21 million that will be collected through sanctions against the U.S., most likely by allowing the island nation to produce its own versions of copyrighted goods that are made in the U.S.

The panel found that the U.S. is violating portions of the GATS agreement it signed in 1995 by both trying to stop its citizens from accessing online gambling companies located in Antigua and Barbuda and by prosecuting employees of online gambling companies located there. Lawyers representing Antigua and Barbuda asked the panel to award it $3.4 billion in sanctions.

The two countries were supposed to come to an agreement on exactly what the sanctions would be by June 6, but that date came and went without an agreement. It wouldn’t be shocking if Friday’s deadline also is missed, since this case has been filled with missed and extended deadlines and stalling tactics by both sides.

The U.S. has faced challenges from several countries that headed Antigua and Barbuda’s call to seek sanctions from the U.S. because of its continual attempts at trying to stop its citizens from placing bets through the Internet. These countries, which included Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan, were allowed to seek damages from the U.S. because U.S. officials decided to amend the portion of the GATS Article XXI that protects online gambling as commerce instead of allowing online gambling within its borders.

By WTO rule, if a country amends articles of the GATS — something that has never been done before but that the U.S. did in this case — member countries not involved in the dispute are entitled to go after the money or services that would be lost as a result of the amendment.

To compensate for the loss, the U.S. came to agreement with every country except Antigua and Barbuda by the end of last year by agreeing to place segments of both the postal and the delivery and warehousing and storage services under the WTO rules umbrella.

Antigua and Barbuda filed this case with the WTO in 2003, three years before the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed. A WTO arbitrary panel sided with Antigua and Barbuda, the smallest member of the WTO, in 2006 after the U.S. exhausted all of its appeals.

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Poker cheats are using insider knowledge to gain competitive advantage.

When determining the risk to a system and the data stored on it, insider threats are generally regarded as lower risk. Despite the complete access (high risk) that insiders generally have, most of the time insiders are trusted agents (very low risk) on the network. When it breaks down, it can break down in a catastrophic manner, especially if there is money at stake.

One such incident took place in the middle of last year when one or more individuals with trusted access to the systems of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker used that access to create several fake usernames and used them to make an undisclosed amount of money off online poker players. While creating the fake player accounts may not necessarily be cheating, it was the use of software that allowed the insiders to view the competing players’ hole cards which was.

An investigation by a Canadian gaming commission found that the cheating continued for six weeks and that the management and admins of Absolute Poker had further exacerbated the situation through the deletion of critical gaming logs and failed to report the breach within 24 hours of discovery.

Absolute Poker was Absolute Poker fined US$500,000 in January for four breaches of the gaming commission’s rules, three of which were for inaction or attempt to cover up the incident by the site. In addition to the fine, Absolute Poker will be subject to random auditing over the next 24 months, at their expense.

On the positive side for the affected human players, it was found that Absolute Poker had acted to refund losses and taken steps to prevent similar action in the future.

Online poker playing has always been surrounded by the whispers of cheating when it comes to the actions of other players at the table and ongoing investigations with Absolute Poker turned up a more serious cheating scheme that had been operational for 21 months, completely encompassing the above incident, but unrelated.

When big money is on the virtual table for playing a card game across the Internet, people are going to be motivated to do what they can to weight the odds in their favour. At the US$1.2 million 2007 World Championship of Online Poker, managed by PokerStars, the first place finisher was disqualified for cheating (believed to have been multiple accounts active at the same time to improve chances of winning, though at $2,500 per buy-in the cheating is believed to be somewhat more substantial).

Questions should now be asked about the sale of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker, given that the cheating was shown to have been ongoing from before the sale (October 2006) and that the individuals involved were shown to be linked to the company prior to the sale. With potentially multi-million dollar losses, fines, and refunds liable to be paid out there may be a case to be made against the previous owners.

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PokerRoom is set to award those who dare with instant celebrity status and a massive $100,000 sponsorship deal when you take part in their Poker Island TV promo!

Imagine spending your time on a luxurious, secluded island in beautiful Ibiza, Spain in a fully serviced and catered for ‘Poker Villa’. Here, you will be housed with other poker players like yourself indulging in such activities as wakeboarding, jet skiing, paragliding, mountain biking, traditional massages, boxing lessons, boat cruises as well as an array of daily poker challenges that reward you with even more bonuses. Players will have scrumptious first class cuisine prepared daily for them with full chauffeur service throughout their stay – consider it a fully paid for, five-star poker camp in paradise!

The Poker Island promo will begin on Monday, July 7th and will run for a maximum of four months. Players will record daily TV diaries sharing their highs and lows which will be broadcast to millions across bwin.com and TV.PokerNews.com. Apart from having the time of their lives indulging in the indoor and outdoor activities, each week players will also take part in weekly challenges resulting in two participants leaving the Villa and two others taking their place. The winners of each weekly challenge (14 in total) will go into the ‘Big Final’ to battle it out for a massive $100,000 sponsorship deal.

The $100,000 sponsorship deal will cover:

WPT 5 Diamond Classic (package worth $20,000)
WPT Championships (package worth $30,000)
WSOP* (package worth $20,000)
WSOPE* (package worth $30,000)

Want in? There are two ways to go about this:

Option A
Take part in one of our five PokerNews Leagues running on June 17 – July 17 at:

UK.PokerNews
PT.PokerNews
DE.PokerNews
FR.PokerNews

And on June 19 - July 20 at:
HU.PokerNews

These leagues will feature 10 events – two events per week running every Tuesday and Thursday at 20:00 (GMT+1). Prize distribution as follows:

League Winner - $5,000 plus a seat in the PokerNews One Way Ticket to Ibiza Freeroll
2nd runner up - $3,000
3rd runner up - $2,000

To join, download PokerRoom via PokerNews, register a new account, make a minimum deposit, enter password (provided on participating League sites), buy in and click away.

OR

Option B
Take part in our exclusive $1,750 PokerNews Poker Island Freeroll at 14:00 EST/15:00 EDT on Sunday, July 20. The top four finishers of this freeroll will receive automatic registration into the PokerNews One Way Ticket to Ibiza Freeroll. Prize distribution as follows:

1st place - $1,000 plus entry to One Way Ticket to Ibiza Freeroll
2nd place - $500 plus entry to One Way Ticket to Ibiza Freeroll
3rd place - $250 plus entry to One Way Ticket to Ibiza Freeroll
4th place - Entry to One Way Ticket to Ibiza Freeroll

To enter, download PokerRoom through the links on PokerNews, open a new account, make a minimum deposit and start playing! Existing Poker Room account holders are welcome so long as you originally signed up through PokerNews and have fulfilled all other entry requirements.

All nine qualifiers from Option A and B will automatically go into the private PokerNews One Way Ticket to Ibiza Freeroll scheduled for 14:00 EST/15:00 EDT on Tuesday, July 22. There will only be nine of you so be ready to play your heart out as the top two winners from this freeroll will be packing their bags and heading to sunny Ibiza for the poker ride of their lives!

Ed Note: PokerRoom also offers PokerNews players a fantastic first deposit bonus of 50% up to $250.

*World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah’s License Company, LLC (”Harrah’s”). Harrah’s does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with PokerNews Ltd or its products, services, promotions or tournaments.

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