Harrah’s Announces Online Qualifier Future

Not that it wasn’t obvious to anyone with any insight into poker, but the U.S. crackdown on online gambling is most definitely going to be felt by traditional casinos, and not in a good way. In an e-mail to the good people at PokerNews.com, World Series of Poker Director of Communications and Operations Gary Thompson, said that direct entries to the WSOP from online poker rooms are probably not in the cards for 2007. His exact quote:

"While we're still reviewing registration requirements, it's likely we will accept third-party registrations from entities such as charitable and civic organizations and offline tribal and commercial casinos in the U.S. and abroad with whom we have licensing agreements to conduct WSOP satellites, as well as entities for which we have sponsorship agreements that run contests for their customers. We most likely will not be accepting third-party registrations from other entities."

What does this mean for the WSOP? Only the future will tell for sure, but it is very reasonable to assume that the number of entrants will plummet in 2007. Full Tilt Poker has already said that it will pay customers’ entry fees directly into their poker accounts on its site and then it will be up to the player to actually use the money to play in the WSOP. Other poker rooms will most likely follow suit. It’s not a bad idea, but there will more than likely be many players who will decide to just take the money and run, rather than use it for the WSOP.

Originally published October 16, 2006