May 20, 2012

In a letter to petitioners, the Obama administration affirms the right of States to govern online gambling but also admits its “open to solutions” to protect consumers.

After almost eight months, petitioners calling on the Obama administration to license and regulate online poker have finally received a response.

An email was sent out late Friday to the nearly 10,000 people that signed the online petition back in September of last year. The White House is committed to responding to all petitions that receive more than 5000 signatures. [more]

May 19, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO — (Market Watch – Shares of Zynga Inc. were halted in morning trades Friday after the stock fell by more than 13 percent.

Trading was halted after Facebook Inc. began trading in its much-awaited initial public offering.

Other social networking shares were also down in morning trades. LinkedIn was trading down more than five percent, while Groupon was off 7.5 percent and Yelp Inc. tumbled more than six percent.

Also in the red were shares of Renren Inc., the China-based social networking company, which were down more than 12 percent.

Shares of Facebook were trading mostly flat at $38.

May 18, 2012

Bookmaker has released odds on the Facebook closing price at the end of opening day May 18, 2012 (find odds here).

Facebook has priced its IPO at $38 million ahead of Friday’s opening bell.

Fronted by 20-something CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook could raise $16 billion in funding as well as an overallotment option. [more]

May 17, 2012
It was an interesting week in the world of tournament poker. Even though there were no WPT or EPT events on the schedule there was still plenty of action taking place at a variety of stops around the globe, and poker pros continued to dominate with names like Deeb, Serock, and Glazier all picking up big wins. Here is a look at some of the tournament results you may have missed over the past week: [more]

May 16, 2012
Toby Maguire, who is best known for his role of Spiderman in that comic strip film franchise, has fully settled with victims in a highly publicized ponzi scheme involving Hollywood underground high stakes poker games.

A hedge fund manager named Bradley Ruderman is currently in prison for operating the ponzi scheme, defrauding a number of clients. He has admitted to losing $5.2 million at the poker tables in the past. Maguire and other celebrities were known to have taken part in the games. [more]