Come one, come all, there's a tasty catch in this edition of the Weekly Poker Net.  Soon the World Series Of Poker will be upon us, and we have news from that venue in this haul, with more WSOP news certain to come in the following weeks.  There's also -- surprise! -- news from the NETeller front, but beyond that it was an eclectic mix of business and legal news and weird poker happenings.  Wanna buy a house?

Editor's Note: NETeller has just announced that it will cease doing transfers to or from online gambling websites for accountholders residing in Canada and Turkey. It has not closed their accounts, but will still allow transactions with non-gambling sites, and peer-to-peer transfers.

NETeller Announces USAO Agreement, Plan for Repayment Plan --  Odds are good we won't have a NETeller story for you next week, but this week’s offering is a good'un. NETeller has announced an accord with the United States Attorney's Office of Southern New York, the authority that brought the money-laundering charges against NETeller's founders and caused the freezing of $55 million of NETeller funds being moved to and from U.S. accounts.  NETeller's agreement with the USAO is a plan to make a plan: NETeller will create a mechanism for repayment of the hundreds of dollars it currently holds in suspended U.S. accounts, and is supposed to have that repayment plan in place within 75 days.  After that, it's on to the implementation of the plan, which will take some longer period.

BLUFF Snags World Series Of Poker Media Deal --  It's still not officially official, in terms of crossed Ts and dotted Is, but the rumors have been more or less confirmed: BLUFF Magazine will replace Card Player as the primary media provider for the WSOP.  The four-year deal runs through 2010... whenever the parties get around to signing it.  Sounds like BLUFF paid a hefty price for the rights, but no specific number has been publicized as yet.  Stay tuned.

Greg Raymer's Poker Stars Account Suffers Password Cracking --  For such an affable, popular guy, 2004 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Raymer seems to have a knack for making the news in odd ways.  First there was the foiled holdup attempt at the Bellagio some time back, and last Sunday Raymer suffered the indignity of having his Stars account password cracked by an interloper.

The partly successful thief was long on energy and short on brains.  Instead of quietly dumping a few thousand from Raymer's bankroll into his own account through a private player-to-player transfer, he instead opened up handfuls of high-dollar, heads-up sit 'n' go tournaments and began chip-dumping away Raymer's starting stacks.  Dozens of people track Raymer's every play on the Stars site, and the odd dumping was quickly reported to Stars security, which in turn froze the thieving player's account and returned the money to Raymer.  Raymer was a bit apologetic in postings on a popular poker discussion forum, admitting to the "soft" nature of the password he used.  The incident may prompt Stars to fast-track its plans for heightened password security measures, already in the planning stages.

Annie Duke's LA House for Sale --  You can't say we don’t bring you the important stuff.  Yes, you too can own the home of a famous poker player and Ultimate Bet celebrity spokesperson, assuming you've got the $3 million to buy the place and a hankering to live in L.A.  It's a four-bedroom, four-bath, single-family home located in the Sunset Strip area of Hollywood.  There was an open house on Sunday, too, but we couldn't make it.

EU Wags Finger at Three Countries Restricting Online Gambling Options --  Technically, it's called a "reasoned option."  It's the middle of three steps in the formal process wherein the European Union exercises a complaint against a member country; last week Finland, Hungary and Denmark received this notice from the EU.  All three countries are accused of restricting privately-owned online gambling companies as they seek to compete against state-run gambling monopolies.  Such protectionist policies run afoul of EU trade accords.  Later in the week several German states received a separate EU communique on a related matter, suggesting that they bring their policies into line with EU trade expectations.  Most of these cases deal with privately-run sportsbetting operations, but their relevancy to the online poker world cannot be overstated.

Louisiana Case against Sportingbet PLC Dismissed --  But only for a fee.  The case against Sportingbet PLC and non-executive officer Peter Birks was dismissed on Wednesday after Sportingbet (the parent company of the Paradise Poker) sent off a $400,000 payment to the Louisiana parish where the charges were originally filed.  This smelled a bit like a shakedown, but at least it ended the stalemate wherein the Louisiana authorities had the charges on the books but had no way to prosecute their case.  Birks had already returned to the UK after New York officials declined extradition in the matter.

Planet Poker Calls It a Decade --  The oldest continuously-running online poker room, Planet Poker, announced that it will cease real-money operations on March 31st.  Planet Poker is generally recognized as the first real-money online poker operation (though a few award Delta Poker that honor), but Planet fell on hard times as its software was surpassed by competitors' efforts.  Planet soldiered on, but the UIGEA was the final nail in the site's coffin.  The remaining Planet Poker customers are being encouraged to transfer their balances over to Bodog.