Poker Players Suing World Poker Tour

Seven top poker professionals filed a lawsuit in federal district court today against World Poker Tour Enterprises, Inc. (WPTE), seeking treble and punitive damages. The claim states that WPTE is in violation of state and federal antitrust laws.

In a press conference attended by Poker Source Online, the seven players, Chris Ferguson, Joe Hachem, Phil Gordon, Greg Raymer, Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, and Howard Lederer, along with the law firm Dewey Ballantine LLP, said that while they were seeking damages, this is not their primary intent. What they really want is to change the current World Poker Tour system, which they believe is severely damaged. While prepared to go to a jury trial, the players will be happy if their issues with WPTE can be settled out of court.

There are three main complaints at hand:

1. WPTE forbids its participating casinos from hosting any non-WPT televised events, essentially squelching competition.
2. WPTE and the casinos engage in price fixing, getting together to set all the terms, both in terms of entry fees and tournament structures, by which the players must abide.
3. WPTE requires all players to sign a release form which allows the WPTE to use their likenesses in any way it pleases, forcing the players to give up all intellectual property rights without any compensation.

The seven players, and others, have refused to play in any WPT events until the problems are fixed.

The two biggest concerns, based on the players’ comments in the press conference, seem to be the lack of casino freedom to set their own structures and the release form.

When it comes to the tournament structures, Annie Duke laid out the following example:

“The blind structures have become very quick. They have a six hour shooting schedule for the final table with four hours of tape time. A final table that used to take ten hours now takes four. There is a lot of doubling of blinds. When it gets to heads-up, they change to thirty minute levels from sixty. It’s ninety minute levels before the final table. They’re going backwards. Normally it’s the case that you would increase the length of the levels as you go further in the tournament. And it’s gotten worse over last four years.”

Phil Gordon added that people should look at last year’s WPT Championship event. The average chip stack at the final table was only nine big blinds. In his words, “There was no play.” It was all-in or nothing on every hand.

According to the players, it is unfair to them, the ones who put up the money for these tournaments, to have to work so hard to get to the final table, only to have the structure changed so most of the skill is removed from the competition. With hundreds of thousands of dollars being the difference between first and second place in most events, to reduce the competition to almost one hundred percent luck is inexcusable. All in the name of television production.

The players believe that if the casinos were allowed to determine their own terms, from fees to structures, that the open competition would result in better events across the board. Just as competition improves quality and innovation in other industries, so should it do the same in poker. Additionally, the players believe that by forcing the participating casinos to not hold other competing tournaments, WPTE is in violation of antitrust laws. For the casinos, while some have left the WPT because of these strict contracts, others feel that they need to agree to the “no-compete” clause because it’s better to be a part of the WPT than not. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

The WPT release form is what really sticks in the craw of the players, however. In what has been an ongoing issue for all of 2006, the players feel that they are essentially signing away their lives in order to play on the Tour. The release says, in a nutshell, that WPTE has the right to use the players’ likenesses in whatever way it sees fit. Players will not be compensated for this. In addition to the lack of ownership of their own name and person, the players are also concerned about previous contracts they may have with other companies. Chris Ferguson explained:

“I’ve been trying very hard to get a fair release. A little background: before you play, you are forced to sign a release allowing them to use your likeness in ways you might not like and for no compensation. This could be in conflict with other agreements you have (for example, I would break an agreement I have with Activision for a video game [for which he has licensed his name and likeness]).”

He continued, “We have tried very hard to come to an agreement with WPT over these releases and they have been very hard line. I am proud to be part of this group, but I am also very, very sad that it had to come to this. I do think it will be resolved.”

When asked if there were parallels between the concerns surrounding the WPT release form and other sports, Jeffrey Kessler, legal counsel for the players, made the obvious comparison to leagues like the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL. In those leagues, the players are members of a players association, which licenses their names and likenesses for things like memorabilia, clothing, and video games. The difference is that the players associations get paid for this, payments that eventually find their way to the players themselves. On top of that, the athletes are paid a salary to play, as opposed to in poker, where the talent forks over their own money to compete.

Howard Lederer commented that he recently sat next to an NBA player in a celebrity poker event and the two discussed these issues. He added, “WPT has told me that if they use my likeness without paying me, that’s good for me, because that gets my name out there.”

Throughout the press conference, the players reiterated that they did not want to file this lawsuit. They have tried to discuss these issues with WPTE, but have made no progress. The lawsuit was a last resort. “Fair shake” and “fair deal” were frequently used phrases.

Phil Gordon let his feelings be known:

“Let’s just be clear. We all want to play. And we can’t play right now because of the onerous nature of the release. This, I believe is a real watershed moment for poker. For the first time, a group of players have gotten together, put up a lot of money, and said, enough is enough….we’re not here for the 7 of us, we’re here for all the poker players.

“The WPT had better come to their senses because we’re not going away.”

Originally published July 19, 2006