Imagine: you are a kitchen appliance maker, you sell innovative machines for cooking, people use them at home.

And you can sit in their kitchen and listen to talking about your products.

Imagine: you sell running shoes, there is a marathon group that uses them.

And you can listen to the entire group before, during, and after the marathon as they wear your shoes.

Imagine: you make cookies, groups buy them and meet to discuss your new flavors.

And you can be a silent “eye in the sky” listening it to them discuss your cookies.

Online poker rooms can do everything listed above, but how?

For years online poker chat boxes have been key attractions to recreational players. The chat box is often the sole reasons for some players to keep returning to playing poker. Not convinced? People have met and married through online poker chat rooms. Just think of how many conversations have happened over online poker chat rooms, returning day after day, so much where couples are saying “I do”!

From the play-money tables to the highest stakes, the chat-box has been the source of socializing during online poker. During these conversations the online poker room and it’s products are being discussed. Players are talking about everything from how the cards are being dealt, to security, to competitors products, to what they feel and think about your brand.

This is GOLD. This is an online marketers dream. Companies pay big money for such feedback. And it’s all right there for online poker rooms, sitting in their text files of the chat rooms.

How do sites find and use the data?

First, I highly recommend listening to: Freakonomics Radio Podcast: How Biased Is Your Media? and reading the ensuing blog post for an actual example on how words become data.

I could write series of blog posts about what online poker rooms should be looking for and how they can use and analyze the data but here is short list of keywords online poker rooms can search for:

Deposit
Security
Algorithm
Rigged
Credit Card
Real Money
Gamble
Software

Online poker rooms can find conversations about these issues above, it’s all right in the chat logs! The list could go on and on to include phrases and combinations of keywords, the discussion around them, and the ideas of the customers involved in these conversations, etc, etc.

The gold is in the chat box conversations. Just got get it!

If you have any topics you would like to discuss or hear more about free free to email me and don’t forget to follow me on twitter: Follow @joetall

Thanks for reading,
Joe

Make sure you check out my previous post: Three things operators need to improve games, for more on topics like these.

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Now that I have found a home for my Fantasy Sport fix on DailyFantasyStrategy, I’m going to take this blog back to what is should be, a poker and life blog. Onto my re-opening topic:
____________________________________
Do NOT expect a new online poker boom!

The powers that be are aligning themselves after the DOJ cleared its view on the Wire Act (but pertaining to lotteries) to finally embrace online poker and the railbirds are chirping, wondering, speculating, arguing and discussing what the future of online poker will and should look like. Well I can tell you one thing, there will be no new poker boom.

Why?

This change is going to happen slowly, very slowly, OK not pre-internet slow, but slow for the rapid pace we are on now. We have seen the seeds of change planted in Nevada (Nevada Gaming Commission Proposed Regulations for Interactive Gaming) and the District of Columbia. Some rumblings that states like Iowa and New Jersey are not far behind.

Bills will we written, rejected, debated, rewritten, rinse-repeat until everyone agrees a form of online poker will be passed in THEIR STATE. And then once the rules, licences, and platforms are up and running, such gambling will only happen within the respective state(s) (through state IP addresses.) As it’s been speculated, and seems quite logical, there is another well established industry of gambling that states may align themselves when it comes to this new online poker market, the state lottery systems.

The first state-run lotteries were established in the 60s, factually 1964 by the State of New Hampshire and then followed by New York in 1967. The first US joint lottery formed in 1985 and the bigger lotteries, ie MegaMillions and Powerball, weren’t formed till the late 1990s. Many, like U.S. Digital Gaming‘s Chairman, Richard D. Bronson agree that online poker will take this route:

Richard Bronson Discusses DOJ Wire Act Ruling on CNBC from Mark Rivers on Vimeo.

You can read a recent interview with Richard Bronson here on PokerNews: Click Here and I suggest reading “The Bronson Bulletin” as well.

So what does all this mean?

There will not be a “Boom”, it will be more like a snowball, a slow moving snowball, to get any resemblance to what online once was. Let’s hope you live in a state that will jump on board once the forces of online poker convince the lottery forces that online poker will be good, not bad for them. Hopefully online poker promoters can convince governors like Martin O’Malley of Maryland (Maryland Governor Opposes Online Poker to Protect Lottery) that future lotter sales could be great when teamed with online poker. Just think, MegaMillions reaches 240million and you can buy a $1 ticket in a click:

It will take some time but It’s going to be a fun ride!

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Since April 15th, known as Black Friday in the online poker world, it has been common place to slam the Department of Justice’s indictments that cause Poker Stars, Full Tilt, and Absolute/UB to leave the US online poker market.

Comments regarding the DOJ and Black Friday often evolve around, “they took our jobs!” and “fck the DOJ” etc.

Well, on Black Friday, if anyone said to me that Full Tilt Poker would not be able to pay back US players and then it would be shut down completely, taking all players bank rolls with it, I would have laughed. FWIW, if anyone said, “Absolute/UB will just disappear w/everyone’s money.” I would have said, “yeah that’s sounds likely.”

I am a serial optimist and have been through this entire fiasco.

Until now.

Before I continue I will say it is sad I cannot give my business to Poker Stars, as they are obviously the ones who shine in this story. PokerStars was returning US players funds to by the end of April and came through with flying colors.

But now, its pretty clear that the number you had in your Absolute/UB and Full Tilt bankroll balance was completely fictitious. Just a clicked number, video game points, a smoke show, a mirror game, complete and utter bull shit. There is really no other way to describe it.

Why did this happen?

There is no regulation. First and foremost. There are no rules, no universal governing body, nothing in place to protect the US players. None. In fact it seems like no one is likely even going to be held accountable, sadly.

So now, more than ever a case for reglating online poker can be made. (for a great read on this, check out DeucesCracked coach, Vanessa Selbst, who is finishing up at Yale Law, post here: Case for Regulation of Online Poker (2009 law school paper.)

And for this reason I would like to thank the DOJ.

Sooner or later there will be online poker, in fact, there will be online everything once the old guard dies off. (see my rant “Death first, then freedom.“)

After this black market period, I say black market as there are still some sites that are US facing. (view them, Click HERE.) We will eventually have a regulated form of online poker. Will this be optimal for the former US online poker players? Probably not. But it’s quite obvious it is 10 fold from where we were, especially in the light of how Full Tilt has fallen on the face of the Earth. And hopefully the natural order of business competition will make things more and more optimal.

So the next time you think, ‘the DOJ took our money….they took our jobs.’

STOP.

The money was never there and the job had no security system backing it.

Thank you DOJ.

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I will be blogging soon about my personal take on this whole thing. I just haven’t had the time to really sit down and write something up as I’m busy regrouping and planning.

Don’t worry. I’m not leaving poker. I love it too much.

That being said, for those of you who are looking for information.

Q. So WTF just happened?
A. The US Attorney for the Souther District of New York and the New York field office of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have indicted PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absoute Poker with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses.

Q. WAT? WTF?
A. No lie. See the Department of Justice news release summary CLICK HERE.

Q. Wait WAT did you say?
A. Seriously, read the entire indictment: CLICK HERE and there is a Civil suit: CLICK HERE.

tl;dr? Check out the Poker News Timeline.

Q. OK there are a lot of smart people in poker, some are lawyers, what are they saying?
A. Yes, this is true. There are a lot of smart people in poker, and for most’s people job security, you want to keep them in poker. That being said, there are some things you should read:

My Thoughts on the Online Poker Indictments – Black Widow of Poker (lawyer, poker player)

Here’s a Cliff’s of the full DOJ indictment – 2p2er teddyFBI (lawyer, poker player)

Federal Poker Indictments: Revisiting Prohibition – Gambling and the Law blog.

A Former Lawyer’s take (consolidation)- Mash up on 2p2.

The Intersection of Law & Online Poker – Craakker blog, Poker playing lawyers I believe.

Q. OK wtf, this is insane, who do I complain to?
A. There are a couple of easy channels for you to voice your opinion. NOW is the time to do so. Online poker is all over the news, eyes are on this industry, speak now, speak loud, speak smart, speak again and again. Here are some easy links for you to speak out:

President Obama’s facebook townhall – April 20 @ 1:45pm PDT / 4:45pm EDT

Department of Justice Facebook page. – You will have to “like” the page so you can comment, might be a nice time for Facebook to implement an “unlike” button.

Poker Players Alliance take action page – while I’m not 100% on the PPA (more on that when I get my personal thoughts up), they do make it easy for you to email your representatives, follow through, it’s just a few clicks.

The PPA Wants to Know How This Impacts You. – Tell them how it impacts you, it cannot hurt, imo.

BOOM documentary: Make your voices heard! – My partner, Krantz, is getting personal takes documented for this troublesome time.

Q. Wait Joe, you are an affiliate, I’m an affilate too. What does this mean for me?
A. While I will make another post with my personal thoughts there are two good posts by some friends of mine you should read.

My Thoughts On Today – by Jeremy, owner of Pokeraffiliatelistings

The Fallout From The Full Tilt / PokerStars Pullout – Bill Rini’s blog.

Q. What are the other politicians saying?
A. Good question, I’m sure more will be said but Rep. Barney Frank as spoken out.

Rep. Frank: Administration ‘wasting time’ with online poker crackdown. - The Hill blog.

Q. OK Joe, I read all that stuff already, anything I missed?
A. There are a few lighter takes on this situation.

Hey Smile! podcast – a take off of Hey Ball – a positive look on the poker world.

The New Poker World Order – Wicked Chops Poker blog.

U.S. Is Cracking Down on Online Poker – Tosh.O blog.

daily gssp – quite a smilar mash up to this one by PKRGSSP!

Q. Now that I have all day, no poker, what can I watch that has instant updates?
A. All of us in this business are wondering what to do with our time, here you go:

Follow KevMath on twitter.

Listen to the QuadJacks Podcast.

and as long as you can stand some Boston sports rants, follow me on twitter as well:

Twitter.com/joetall

Thanks for reading,
Joe

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