Gaming Guru

WSOP advertising guidelines coming

Detailed guidelines for 2007 World Series of Poker advertising will become available sometime in the next two weeks, WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack told Casino City Monday.

Advertising guidelines became a key issue in the 2006 event when WSOP officials forced players to turn their shirts inside out or cover their .com advertisements with duct tape to comply with U.S. online gaming regulations.

This year, Harrah's will take it one step further, banning advertisements that come from any Web sites affiliated with online poker rooms that accept U.S. players, including the free-money dot net sites.

Players won't have to adhere to the same ban however. They will be allowed to advertise and promote sites on their person, but how much or how big the ads are allowed to be is yet to be determined.

"I would rather get into the specifics of this once the guidelines have been announced," Pollack said. "But I can tell you there will be some liberalized guidelines for what players will be allowed to wear."

Pollack said the ambiguous nature of the 2006 guidelines came about because he was hired too late in the season to create and enforce a strict policy.

Now that he has been at his post for a year, the confusion will be removed.

The coming guidelines are expected to remove all doubt about what can be advertised and what players will be allowed to display on their person.

Pollack also said the new guidelines will be strictly enforced.

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Ryan McLane

Ryan McLane was a poker reporter for Casino City. Although he has a strong background in reporting, the same can't be said for his poker skills. He has never won a major tournament nor is he a professional player. He applied for this job thinking it was a joke, only to find it out that it's true, people will pay you to write about poker. His favorite word is ridiculous.

After receiving his BA in History from Stonehill College in Easton, MA, he somehow ended up freelance reporting for a couple years before being deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom III with the Massachusetts National Guard. He's back now and is a strong advocate of the phrase "God Bless America."

Currently, Ryan lives in Boston and occasionally makes international treks to cover tournament poker and news. Feature writing is his passion and there is no need to ask for his opinion, he'll probably offer it first - free of charge.