Harrah’s Restricts Online Poker Ads at WSOP

Everyone knew that the massive changes in the online poker world post-UIGEA were going to have an effect on brick-and-mortar casinos at some point, and now it looks like that time has come. Harrah’s Entertainment has made the decision to disallow any advertising for online poker sites that accept U.S. customers. This includes both dot com AND dot net sites.

Gary Thompson, director of communications for the WSOP, said players will be allowed to wear dot net logos. Official rules and procedures will be published soon on the WSOP website. It is unclear as to exactly why this is allowed and other advertising is not, but one might assume that Harrah’s is wary of actually receiving advertising dollars from “illegal” offshore gambling companies, whereas if a player chooses to wear a shirt with a dot net logo on it, that is up to him.

Expect the WSOP to look a lot different this year than it has the past couple years. No more Full Tilt lounge, no more Bodog pillow fights. It’s sad.

Originally published 6:10 PM Tuesday, February 27, 2007