UIGEA Regulations Released --  The official 270-day window for creation of the UIGEA’s regulatory guidelines had long since passed, though it was widely rumored recently that the guidelines were just about to be released.  Monday’s publication of the Federal Reserve guidelines brought the expected hue and cry from online poker (and other forms of online gambling) enthusiasts, though it’s not clear yet that the UIGEA will do much more than serve as an evil reminder of bad government...  If the banks have their way, the regulations may turn out to be all but unenforceable.
The UIGEA’s regulatory oversight people have themselves declined to attempt to create an industry-wide blacklist of gambling sites.

The full rules published by the Federal Reserve may be found here: www.treas.gov/press/releases/reports/noticeofproposedrule.pdf

Oral Arguments Heard in iMEGA Case --  The single ongoing attempt to derail the UIGEA on the domestic front had its first day in court on Wednesday, when Judge Mary L. Cooper heard arguments in the lawsuit brought by the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association against the U.S.  The initial motion attempted to obtain a temporary restraining order against implementation of the UIGEA, and is expected to be ruled on within 30 days.  The introduction of the UIGEA guidelines themselves is a complication that may affect the initial ruling.

"TheV0id" Takes Down $1.228 Million for Stars WCOOP Main Event Win --  It wasn’t long ago that the first million-dollar online tourney was huge news in poker.  On Sunday -- or rather, late morning Monday, U.S. time, when the event finally wrapped -- "TheV0id" made history by winning $1,228,330.50 in PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Event #23, the online series’ Main Event.  The million-dollar payday was assured when TheV0id and eventual runner-up "ka$ino" made an agreement to chop most of the money left for the final two spots.  The $160,000 left for the winner assured that the event would create online poker’s first million-dollar winner.  Third place, which went to Vanessa "LadyMaverick" Rousso, was a paltry $463,940.50.

Mouawad Wins at European Poker Tour London --  Lebanese Joseph Mouawad triumphed over former EPT winner Florian Langmann and a table of tough, mostly-Euro players in the final of the European Poker Tour’s London event.  Mouawad’s triumph was worth £611,520 (over a million dollars, U.S.) and was the first part of a Middle Eastern daily double in the world of poker.  Because on the opposite side of the globe, a few hours later...

Israeli Ziv Bachar Claims APPT Seoul Crown --  Ziv Bachar of Israel took down the second-ever Asia-Pacific Poker Tour title with a win at the new stop in Seoul, South Korea.  This event drew all the big PokerStars pros who weren’t at EPT London, including 2006 WSOP champ Joe Hachem.  Hachem, however, went nowhere here, with Bachar outlasting a final table that also included Dan Schreiber.  Bachar’s win was worth $139,872.

$100 Billion in the Air in WTO Dispute? --  Days after the U.S. pooh-poohed Antigua’s claim for $3.4 billion in compensation for winning its case over access to online gambling (the U.S. managed, by all accounts, to keep a straight face while suggesting that $500,000 was a more reasonable settlement figure), news comes that the European Union rejected the first offer of compensatory trade allowances offered by the U.S. over the same restrictions and their negative impact on EU-member companies’ fortunes.  The UIGEA destroyed billions in market equity immediately after its passage, and the EU may seek as much as $100 billion in compensatory damages or trade allowances in different categories, a figure which seems well supported by historical events.

What Happened to the Million-Dollar Guarantee? --  The inaugural World Poker Tour Turks & Caicos event was presumably designed to steal some of the "beach and sun" thunder from UltimateBet’s long-running Aruba Classic, slated for later this month.  The WPT event carried a first-place guarantee of $1,000,000, doubly impressive concerning the event’s relatively modest $7,500+juice buy-in.  Except... only 137 players showed up, meaning that the total purse was $996,675.  The solution?  Force the players to vote as to whether the tourney would be winner-take-all.  This, after the expenses incurred by the players in travelling to Turks & Caicos -- or accept a less-rich payout structure.  While a few players did vote for winner-take-all, the final decision was to pay nine spots and settle for a $436,675 first prize, with the rest of the money distributed to the next eight spots.  Oh, yeah, Rhynie Campbell won, outlasting Eric Cajelais.  But do you think Campbell might feel that he was jobbed out of half a million by the WPT?