Ivey (34), who has reportedly earned over $12 million in a glittering professional poker career so far, married Luciaetta back in 2002. Ironically, Ivey was often referred to as the Tiger Woods of poker, a celebrity who has also encountered marital troubles in recent times.

The question on everyone’s lips, ‘who is Isildur1′? remained unanswered however as the editor in chief of Poker News, Matthew Parvis, respected the player’s request that he remain anonymous.

Isildur1 exploded onto the online poker scene in September, lighting up the nosebleed tables on Full Tilt Poker with an aggressive style and a multi-million dollar bankroll that saw him hold his own against some of the biggest names in online poker, with millions crossing the virtual tables.

However, the audacious Swede appeared to hit a bad patch earlier this month which saw his bankroll devastated and his relegation to the smaller stakes tables. Among several beneficiaries of his misfortune were Cardrunner instructors Brian Townsend, Cole South, and the biggest winner of all, Brian Hastings.

Hastings created a publicity stir with his multi-million dollar hammering of Isildur1, leading to an interview with ESPN in which he disclosed that there had been some discussion and an exchange of information on Isildur1’s playing style. This was followed by Townsend admitting on his blog that he had assembled some 50 000 hands of play against Isildur1 and analysed it in order to take the high roller down.

That sort of conduct lead to Townsend’s suspension for a month by Full Tilt, because it is in conflict with site rules that read: “The use of shared hand histories provides detailed information on opponents a player has little or no personal experience playing against, and is deemed to be an unfair advantage. Violating this policy is subject to the maximum penalties for prohibited software use”

In his interview with Parvis, Isildur1 commented along the following lines:

* He does not plan to reveal his identity anytime soon

* He had absolutely no idea that information on his playing style had been exchanged and analysed.

* Prior to his over $4 million losing session against Hastings, he had played a little NLHE and PLO against the Cardrunners pro, but his experience against him had been limited.

* He had played more with Townsend and South, whom he said were “always waiting for me”.

* In the mammoth losing session with Hastings, the Swede said he had felt that “something was wrong,” with everything he did turning against him. “Every time I tried to pull off a bluff of some kind, it felt as if it was being picked off,” the Swede told Parvis.

“At the time, I just thought it was crazy luck, but now, knowing they shared a lot of their analysis of hand histories with each other, it makes a lot more sense. I feel like Hastings, and even South and Townsend when we played the last few times, had an advantage over me.”

* He has not complained to Full Tilt Poker yet, but given the recent revelations intends to do so.

* He was not aware of the Full Tilt ’shared hand histories’ rule, but this would be useful in submitting a complaint. “I think I am going to put through a formal complaint, as I think this is a case where the sharing of hand histories directly affected the match I played with Brian [Hastings]” he said.

* The disclosures by Townsend persuade Isildur1 that he deserves to get something back, as the reported actions had given Hastings a significant edge that he could not have known about or adjusted to.

* Isildur1 poses the question: “…how can I be sure that all three of them [Townsend, South and Hastings] did not have input on the hands while we were playing?”

* He has never studied hand histories, studied books, or watched videos. “I always have just played poker and played with every player who wanted to play me. To be honest, I never even studied my own hand histories,” he told Poker News.

* He plans to lay low for now, submitting a complaint to Full Tilt Poker and eschewing action on the site until he has received a response.

Parvis makes the point that Cardrunners was invited to give its perspective on the issue, but the offer was declined.

Harrah’s is one of the more prominent Las Vegas resort and casino brands in the world and officially the first major land gambling company to decide that entry into the online gambling industry wasn’t a conflict of interests. That’s a key part of all of this new publicity – so many US land gambling brands have blatantly refused to accept the internet gambling industry for fear of eventual extinction by the internet gambling industry. The American Gambling Association for land gambling companies has noted that the vast majority of Nevada casinos are against any expansion of a US online gambling industry.

Harrah’s has now firmly broken the mold by embracing technology and launching it’s innovative online casino gambling site, Caesars. The site is powered by Dragonfish’s software platform and operates with the knowledge and backing of some of the most trusted, respected, and prominent names in the industry. The fanfare for this internet gambling site is well deserved and not likely to let up anytime soon.

As the Act stayed in place the US officials supporting the UIGEA showed an alarming lack of concern over the fact that the act was entirely unclear and unfair to the foreign online casinos and payment processing companies that had long operated within the US market. The US Department of Justice insisted that it would enforce the UIGEA’s proclamation that “illegal internet gambling” transaction be prevented. And then on the other front, as the DoJ attempted to force online casino payment processing companies out of the market, the US Trade Representative began to push the US agenda in international arenas.

Instead of listening to the rest of the world’s opinion and ruling on the UIGEA, the USTR essentially snubbed their nose at the WTO ruling that the UIGEA unfairly blocked foreign online casinos from fair competition in the US market. In fact, the US continues to almost wholly ignore the foreign countries that have cried “foul” because of the US’ protectionist gambling policies.

The Aussies are still able to access the online casinos despite the government bans – and that means that a lot of gambling revenue is leaving the country and the government also has no control over which gambling companies are accessing Australian gamblers. The current regulatory void means that gambling sites are not held to any specific standards. With proper regulation the Aussie government could license the safe online casino gambling sites and take a portion of the revenue in taxes to build problem gambling support programs. Betfair is the unlikely champion of this new initiative in the Aussie government.

To further Betfair’s current claims, the Australian Productivity Commission concluded that the Aussie blocks on offshore online casinos are not effective and are not doing their job. This news coupled with Betfair’s analysis on the situation should be enough to at least generate some new discussion on the topic.

One of the key problems with the new Belgian gambling regulations centers on the limits that the government has placed on gambling licenses for the country. The government will allow some foreign companies to operate in the Belgian market, but they have to jump through too many hoops to do so according to the Commission. Not only are there severe and unjust restrictions on the number of licenses issued, but online casinos and betting companies will have to host their servers within Belgium. The new laws came into effect at the beginning of December and the Belgian government hasn’t even formally addressed the Commission’s concerns.

The Commission has been watching the developments of Belgium’s new online casino gambling regulations for some time now, and has actively suggested areas of concern. Unfortunately, the Belgium government was never very receptive to the suggestions and has now passed new regulations that the Commission will have to follow up on with negotiations and a possible recommendation to the European Court of Justice.

The Minority Business Leadership Council of New York urging the governor to select Aqueduct Entertainment Group for the license. Navegante, which is operated by online gambling veteran Larry Woolf, is the casino-operation component in the partnership.

Navegante is one if six online casino operators seeking the license for a casino that will house 4,500 video lottery terminal slot machines at historic Aqueduct. Wynn Resorts, MGM Mirage, Harrah’s Entertainment, Penn National Gaming and the Seminole Indian Tribe-operated Hard Rock are seeing the license.

“The partners in Aqueduct Entertainment Group have the best track record among all the bidders of delivering business opportunities for the local communities in which they’ve built,” James Heyliger, the co-chairman of the council said in a statement. “(The) bid represents an historic opportunity to advance minority and women owned business in New York State.”

The council, comprised of 15 local and minority business associations throughout New York, reviewed the bids for the Aqueduct casino. The council said Aqueduct Entertainment “would deliver the most by way of revenue for New York, community benefits for Queens and opportunity for minority and women owned businesses.”

New York Gov. David Paterson will select the license holder.

“On behalf of the PPA and its members, I am very pleased with the arguments presented today supporting the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling prohibiting the Commonwealth’s seizure of these domain names and I strongly believe we will prevail. This case is about more than playing poker online – it’s about protecting Internet freedom and the individual rights of Kentucky residents.

“If the Commonwealth is truly interested in protecting consumers, it should put its energy in licensing and regulating online poker – which would also bring in millions in revenue – versus attempting to banish online poker through such a bold, broad and unlawful seizure.

“The PPA looks forward to a positive ruling from the Kentucky Supreme Court and hopes to work with lawmakers in the Commonwealth on the common sense solution of licensing and regulation.”

Despite the depressed economic conditions, the internet casinos company managed to make good progress in overseas markets and claims it is currently negotiating an unidentified major acquisition that has considerable long-term potential.

The integration of the Vernons pools business was almost complete, the statement informed, with that company’s traditional direct-to-home customer market, now accounting for more than 70 percent of the weekly Classic Pools customer base. Gross win for the year on its core Classic Pools products is at similar levels to last year while customer attrition levels in the collector channel are running at their lowest levels since 1994.

Management notes that the firm has registered its best ever performance in terms of new online customer acquisitions, with current active numbers since the start of the football season more than 40 percent ahead of the same period in 2008, thanks largely to its FootballPools.com platform, which it believes is an important element of its turnaround strategy.

“While general economic conditions remain challenging for Sportech and the gambling sector as a whole, improvements continue to be made in all of the key long-term areas of operations and business development,” Management reported.

“The group has continued to enhance its range of products, secured additional distribution and significantly enhanced its technological capabilities. The customer offering continues to improve and represents a strong base on which to build.”

The 29 year old winning gambler, Radoslaw Maculewicz, is a frequent at the online casinos and this was a shocking first major win for him. A lot of the shock of winning such a large jackpot likely comes from the fact that the player placed only small $0.25 bet on the game and that was enough to trigger the Mega Moolah jackpot. The player was gambling at the Betway internet gambling site, a Mircogaming site that is certainly also loving all of the attention that this Microgaming when has placed on the casino. Because all of the gambling sites are networked together by software provider there is never any way to tell which Microgaming powered online gambling site will boast the next Mega Moolah winner.

Betway is flying Maculewicz and his fiancé to London to accept the winning check; this is just one more experience that Maculewicz never thought would be possible in his life. He commented that when he saw the win process through that he was “so shocked…[he] was afraid to touch [his] computer.” It didn’t take long though for the online casino to confirm the win and forever alter Maculewicz’s life.