In a development that could signal a shift in the murky and unregulated world of online gambling, the parent company of one of the most popular Internet poker sites said today it has agreed to pay the U.S. government $105 million to settle charges that it illegally offered gambling to players in the United States.

PartyGaming Plc, the publicly traded parent of the Web site PartyGaming, said it would pay the money over three years as part of a "Non-Prosecution Agreement" it recently reached with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Poker professional Scotty Nguyen won nearly $2 million at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas on Monday, topping a field of 148 players and emerging from a marathon final table with his fifth gold bracelet.

Nguyen beat out 23-year-old Michael DeMichele in H.O.R.S.E., a rotating-game tournament that cost $50,000 to enter.

Charles Barkley is going back to Las Vegas to hit the tables again, but this time it’s all in the name of charity. The TV personality and former NBA superstar will be testing his poker skills in a celebrity poker tournament, “Ante Up for Africa,” 2 July at the 2008 World Series of Poker.

Although the event is for charity, this news comes as quite a shock after Barkley’s comments about a month ago, after settling a $400,000 gambling debt in a Las Vegas casino.

World Series of Poker begins in Las Vegas; 55 events scheduled
1 day ago

LAS VEGAS — The world's highest profile poker tournament is under way at the Rio Hotel & Casino, with 55 championship events and a twist to its main event that will keep players in suspense until November.

The World Series of Poker started just after noon Friday with the start of a $10,000 pot-limit Texas Hold 'em tournament.

The most expensive buy-in will be US$50,000 for a tournament called H.O.R.S.E, where players rotate between five poker games according to a time schedule.

Proving that anything is possible in heads-up play, Full Tilt Poker Pro David Chiu overcame a more than 5-1 chip deficit to defeat Team Full Tilt's Gus Hansen and capture the World Poker Tour Championship. The performance earned Chiu, a four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, his first WPT title and nearly $3.4 million in prize money.

Hansen, who narrowly missed claiming his fourth WPT title, earned more than $1.7 million for second place.

This story is still breaking, and we are still waiting for responses from the various poker rooms that we have emailed on this matter. We will update this page as we hear more about Epassporte.

Earlier today, a rumor was posted on 2+2 that Epassporte had pulled the plug on US poker players.

Epassporte was disabled (at least temporarily) as a funding option from a number of the major online sites, including Pokerstars. If you try to process a transaction using Epassporte on Pokerstars right now, you will receive a message stating that the option has been temporarily disabled.

Neil Channing overcame a field of 667 players to take down the 2008 Irish Poker Open and the first place prize of just over 800k euros. Channing was the dominant chipleader heading into the final day of play on Monday and was never in any real danger during the final table.

The 2008 Irish Poker Open was loaded with talent, including the likes of Doyle Brunson and Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi. All of the well-known players were knocked out earlier in the tournament, allowing names such as Donal Norton, Thomas Dunwoodie and Kai Paulsen to shine at the final table.

TitanPoker.com has announced that it will be sending a four-man team to compete in this week’s South African Poker Open.

Three of the players are travelling from Canada to attend the event being staged at the Italianesque MonteCasino in Johannesburg this week while the fourth is scheduled to fly from The Netherlands.

The four players won their seats through a series of weekly super satellites at TitanPoker.com, the first time the online casino has sent players to the South African event.

Betfair sponsored player becomes the youngest yet to win "Tournament Performance of the Year"

Betfair sponsored player Annette Obrestad has become the youngest player ever to win the “Tournament Performance of the Year” award at the prestigious European Poker Awards in Paris this week.

Chip Reese, March 28, 1951 – December 4, 2007.David Edward "Chip" Reese, an American professional poker player, died on December 4, 2007, at the age of 56. Reese passed away in his sleep at his Las Vegas, Nevada home from the effects of pneumonia.

Reese is generally considered a legend in the world of poker. In 1991, he became the youngest living player to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. His last major win came at the 2006 World Series of Poker, where he won US$1,784,640 in the HORSE event.