Today the Iowa House rejected a measure that would have given incentives for casinos to ban smoking. It was seen by some as a backdoor way of removing smoking from casinos, but the industry opposed the idea, thinking it would hurt business. A second measure, which was also defeated, would have completed banned smoking from the casinos.

Representative Janet Peterson (D) said that her proposals would give casino employees “an opportunity to work in a smoke-free environment.” Casino owners, however, said that it would hurt business. Every other time that casinos have banned smoking, they have seen a decline in customers and therefore, a decline in revenue.

The first proposal, which was defeated in a voice vote, would have ended the current process where casinos must get approval from voters every nine years to have their license renewed. In a catch, though, only casinos that prohibit smoking would get that exemption. All other casinos would have to continue getting voter approval every nine years. The second proposal, which was defeated in a procedural vote, would have banned smoking in all casinos. That proposal was largely defeated by the Republican majority, losing by a 55-37 margin.

The proposals, if passed, would have become amendments to Senate File 526. The bill originally was intended to legalize and regulate online poker, but has since been revised to instead call for a study on the possibility of regulating the market. In 2008, the state of Iowa passed a far-reaching smoking ban that prohibited lighting up in public places, including restaurants and bars. Casinos, however, were exempted. Thanks to the failure of Peterson’s proposals, they still are.

In the casino, sometimes you seem to have nothing but bad luck. Other times, you seem blessed and everything you touch turns to gold. Whatever is going on, at the casino your luck can change in an instant, for better or worse. No one knows that better than a Massachusetts man who recently had his life saved by a poker dealer.

It all happened in the poker room at Raynham Park, located in Raynham, Massachusetts. A local man, whose name hasn’t been released, was playing poker when suddenly he suffered a heart attack. He collapsed to the floor, lost consciousness and was losing color. Clearly this was not his lucky day, right?

Wrong. It just so happens that it occurred during Steve Parigian’s first day on the job as a card dealer. Parigian is training to be an EMT and when the emergency happened, he quickly reacted and, along with two patrons, began performing CPR. When fire and rescue arrived on the scene, they were able to revive the man, but they said that he was clinically dead when they arrived. According to them, the quick response by Parigian and the two patrons made all the difference, saving his life.

“By them initiating CPR before we got there, it kept his blood circulating, so pretty much kept him alive,” said firefighter Matt Ryan. It was a wild start to Parigian’s job as a dealer, but a great start to his career as an EMT. It’s also lucky for the heart attack victim that he happened to have the attack in front of a man training to deal with that kind of a situation. I don’t know if he won any money playing poker that day, but certainly there was something good in the cards for him. The man was taken to the hospital, where he is said to be alert and conscious.

There are two competing online gambling bills in the California legislature and now one of them has the formal support of a powerful tribal group. The California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) voted to endorse Senate Bill 40, which was proposed by Senator Lou Correa.

CNIGA was founded in 1988 and is a non-profit organization made up of more than two dozen federally recognized tribal governments. They hold considerable sway in California when it comes to gambling issues. Though their endorsement was not unanimous, CNIGA found that Senate Bill 40 is the better of the two bills.

The bill would legalize intrastate online poker, which proponents say is already being played in the state, with the revenue going to offshore operators. Only licensed poker rooms would be able to offer the services and only tribal casinos and pari-mutuel facilities in the state would be eligible for licenses. That certainly would help the California tribes, which is why they support Correa’s bill.

Senate Bill 45, introduced by Senator Rod Wright, does not have those protections. The bill would allow not only online poker, but also other casino games. In addition, businesses outside of California would be eligible for licenses, though it would still only be California residents who are able to gamble online, and only while physically present in the state. For those reasons, CNIGA decided to oppose Senate Bill 45. If Senate Bill 40 is rejected and Senate Bill 45 is still around, though, it will be interesting to see if they change their mind.

A recent charity poker event saw its celebrity offering shrink shortly before the tournament play began. Phil Hellmuth hosted the “Raise Your Hand for Africa” charity poker event at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas on February 19. Among the professional poker players and celebrities in attendance, several NFL players were slated to appear. The league wouldn’t allow it, though.

When the charity poker tournament was announced, more than 30 NFL players showed interest. Several planned to attend the event, including some stars, such as Larry Fitzgerald and Adrian Peterson. The commissioner’s office, however, sent notice to the players that they were not allowed to play.

The NFL has long opposed gambling of any form, including poker. It currently has a ban against its players competing in poker tournaments and the commissioner’s office let it be known that this rule would not be waived for the event, even though it was for a good cause. If the players were to violate the gambling ban and appear in the tournament, they could be punished for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

It’s a shame that the NFL wouldn’t let the players participate, but they like to take hard line stances with no exceptions for things or extenuating circumstances altering the rules. It’s also a shame that the NFL is against poker at all. Being opposed to sports betting makes sense, but why poker?

Still, even without the NFL players, the tournament was a success. Stars like Steve Martin, Don Cheadle and Lou Ferrigno (yup, the Hulk) were able to raise money for Pros for Africa and the Starkey Hearing Foundation. I was not able to find the exact amount raised, though.

An Australian parliamentary inquiry is being held to investigate the effects of imposing a pre-commitment scheme for poker machines. The Australian government wants enact a regulation that requires all who play poker machines to first set a limit for their play. The limit can be a maximum amount wagered or a maximum amount of time spent on the machine. Players could set the limit for the day or month.

Proponents of the pre-commitment scheme say that it would be an effective way to combat problem gambling. Opponents disagree. Last month, the Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH) criticized the proposal. ALH, which owns a large number of the poker machines in the country, said that the scheme would hurt business in the pubs, which would result in higher costs for the pub owners and the customers. ALH also said that it would negatively affect high rollers and drive people to online gambling.

In the parliamentary inquiry, Clubs Australia echoed those sentiments. Anthony Ball, executive director of Clubs Australia, said that more research is needed. He said that current state regulations are doing a good job. He also said that when the pre-commitment system was tried in Norway, it failed, sending many of the gamblers to the internet, where most online casinos don’t have those limits.

There is also the aspect of not wanting the government to regulate your spending. “As a recreational gambler myself, I am disturbed that there are people who think I need assistance in determining how I spend my money,” Ball said. He reiterated that the focus should be on treatment, not on a limit for wagering.

Under the proposed system, setting pre-determined limits would be mandatory for all poker machine players. However, it is the player who would determine the limits, not the government. The Australian government ran a trial of the system in South Australia and Queensland. In both cases, a pre-commitment was optional and in both cases, it was unpopular. In Queensland, only 13% of the gamblers opted to set their limits before playing. In South Australia, it was only 1%.

Today, Federated Sports and Gaming (FS+G) announced the forming of a revolutionary new poker league, which will have an annual championship event in Las Vegas. FS+G has joined forces with the Palms Casino Resort, who will host and sponsor the poker league. Poker pro Annie Duke is the new Commissioner of the league.

The new poker league, which currently seems to be unnamed, has a goal of bringing all of the top poker players in the business to one place. Just as the best baseball players are part of the Major Leagues and the best golfers are in the PGA, their aim is to showcase the best that poker has to offer in their player-centered league.

The new poker league will be composed of the top 200 professional poker players. The rankings would be chosen a lot like the rankings in tennis and golf, with a mathematical formula taking into account historic achievements, records and more. The players should take to the ranking system, driven by an ego that is pleased to say that they outrank whoever they consider a rival.

The top 200 players are invited to join the new poker league and one has done so already. Erik Seidel, who was inducted to the Poker Hall of Fame last year, has signed on. Seidel said that he thought the new league brought poker “on par with other professional sports.”

Duke recently left Ultimate Bet and said that a unified poker league is something players in the industry have been discussing for years. “I’m really looking forward to bringing this vision to life.” Federated Sports and Gaming, who joined with Palms to create the league, formed in 2010 and is the brainchild of Jeffrey Pollack, former president and commissioner of the World Series of Poker.

The initial FS+G league schedule will include three poker tournaments between August and December of 2011 and then a championship event in January 2012 at the Palms Casino Resort.

The Macau Poker Cup, one of the biggest poker tournaments in the world, has announced the dates for its 2011 tournament. The tournament, which will be played in the Grand Lisboa Hotel, will occur from February 21 through February 28.

That is not the only poker tournament to take place at the Grand Lisboa Hotel, though. Shortly after that, the Macau Millions tournament will run from April 2 through April 10. The Macau Poker Cup Championship will be from October 7 to October 16. The year will be ended with the Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Macau in November, though the specific dates have not yet been released.

The poker tournaments will be sponsored by PokerStars. The Grand Lisboa Hotel first hosted the Macau Poker Cup in 2006. Macau has become not only the home of Asia’s largest poker tournaments, but is also now the largest casino industry in the world, surpassing even Las Vegas in the United States. Though gambling is illegal in China’s mainland, it has thrived in Macau, which has become a popular tourist and entertainment destination.

Those who are familiar with the Macau Poker Cup might notice something different about the dates. The tournament now lasts seven days. Prior to this year, it had always been a five-day tournament. The poker tournament was expanded this year due to its popularity. The seven-day tournament will feature six regular events plus a charity event.

In related news, at the end of December, Caesars Entertainment announced that the World Series of Poker tournament will take place in Las Vegas from May 31 to July 19. Whether you live in North America, Asia, or Europe, there are plenty of big poker tournaments in which to play.

Poker fans, get out your calendars, blackberries, iCals or whatever you mark important dates on. Caesars Entertainment Corporation has announced the dates for the 2011 edition of the World Series of Poker tournament.

Next year’s popular poker tournament, which is being held for the 42^nd time, will begin on May 31 and end on July 19. The Main Event of the WSOP will begin on July 10, ending on July 19. As always, the final table of the Main Event will feature nine players, who have played their way to that table, and the winner of that table will not only win a huge cash prize, but also a WSOP bracelet as well.

The biggest change that people will find at the 2011 World Series of Poker is that the tournament will enforce hard stop times. Prior to next year’s tournament, the tournament directors could use their discretion on when to stop play. They would consider factors such as the number of players remaining, the amount of money in play and more.

With the hard stop times in effect in 2011, players will be able to participate in a maximum of 10 levels per day. “Once ten levels have been completed, remaining players will have their chips bagged and tagged and return the next day to continue the tournament,” read a statement released by Caesars Entertainment.

The hard stop times will be enforced regardless of the number of players remaining. The tournament directors will not be able to extend play in order to eliminate more players. As a result, it’s possible that some of the events will take longer to complete than what is currently scheduled.

The World Series of Poker is the premier poker tournament in the world, held every year in Las Vegas. It began in 1970 and since 2005, it has been sponsored by Caesars Entertainment (then called Harrah’s Entertainment).

The United States Congress may have failed to regulate online poker at a federal level, but that doesn’t mean that online poker is illegal in the U.S. It is only illegal where banned by law and since there is no federal law banning the game, it is only banned when individual states – such as Washington – ban it. In the wake of Congress’s failure to regulate the game, several states are trying to do what the federal government could not.

New Jersey and California are at the forefront of regulating online gambling and both expect to have bills passed early next year. Florida is following closely behind them. On December 16, State Representative Joe Abruzzo introduced a new bill, which would be called the Internet Poker Consumer Protection & Revenue Generation Act of 2011.”

According to the bill’s summary, the bill, if passed, “provides for intrastate Internet poker to be provided to public by cardroom operators through state Internet poker network operated by Internet poker hub operators.” The bill would also provide for the licensing, administration and regulation of the online poker industry, with the regulation being carried out by the Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

In the bill, which is currently 50 pages, would create a contractual relationship with existing Internet poker operators “with the technical expertise” to ensure that the games are fair and only allow individuals at least 18 years of age and physically present within the borders of Florida to play. That last part is interesting. The bill wouldn’t apply only to Florida residents, but anyone who is in Florida at the time. Therefore, just as someone who visits Las Vegas can legally visit a land casino, someone who visits Florida could legally play online poker.

The bill would also ensure that regulators had easy access to the poker rooms’ records to ensure compliance with regulations. It also requires licensed poker operators to provide “accessible customer service” and information related to problem gambling, including a telephone number for those with a gambling problem to call.

By introducing the online poker bill, Abruzzo hopes for the state of Florida to capture the millions of dollars residents of the Sunshine State spend at offshore gambling operators.

There are rumors circulating throughout the Internet that Full Tilt Poker is going to refuse to allow any of their poker pros to appear in the new season of High Stakes Poker. It is all the result of disputes with a competitor, PokerStars.

The televised Texas hold’em game show began broadcast in 2006. This year, PokerStars purchased the show and became its top sponsor. As such, you can expect to see the PokerStars logo on the poker table and elsewhere. In addition to buying the rights for the current show, PokerStars also bought rights to the archive, which allows them to show old episodes of the previous six seasons on their website, PokerStars.tv.

As a result, Full Tilt Poker doesn’t want any of their poker pros to appear on the show. That would mean losing big names like Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey. Barry Greenstein, a Full Tilt poker pro who has appeared in each of the first six seasons of High Stakes Poker, refutes the rumor that he and other Full Tilt players won’t be allowed to appear in the season. He did, however, acknowledge that they are unhappy with the situation.

The obvious problem is that Full Tilt doesn’t want their players appearing on a show sponsored by PokerStars. The other reason they are unhappy with PokerStars is due to their purchase of the archives. “In the early seasons of HSP, the players didn’t wear logos,” he said, “so FTP is concerned that viewers will be able to go to PokerStars.tv and see the FTP players without logos and be confused about their affiliation.”

All of that is understandable, but it doesn’t answer the question: Will there be any Full Tilt poker pros on the seventh season of High Stakes Poker? The seventh and final season of the show is due to begin filming this week, with the show airing early next year on the Game Show Network in the U.S.