Hollywood producers looking for locations for a new film based on the life of poker brat Phil Hellmuth have caused a stir in the player’s home town, it has been revealed.
 

Hellmuth hails from Madison, Wisconsin and attended the state’s university for three years, but filmmakers looking round his youthful haunts have managed to spark a debate among regional officials, the Los Angeles Times has reported.
 

A proposed tax credit for filmmakers in the region, passed into law last year, will not come into effect until 2008, potentially driving away the chance of filming in Madison and hence the revenue that could be made alongside such a production.
 

With filmmakers wanting to begin shooting this summer, a campaign to move the law forward has begun.
 

However, the LA Times notes that there is a similarly forceful opposition campaign already in action.
Why the rush? […] One film is not going to make or break this state,” said senator Russ Decker, according to the paper.

Hellmuth’s most famous poker win was at the World Series in 1989, when at 24 years old he became the event’s youngest ever winner.

The final leg of the European Poker Tour (EPT) will feature a number of Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) Poker stars and associates including recent £100,000 Grosvenor tour winner Michael Greco, it has been revealed.

The event, to be held from March 28^th to April 2^nd in Monte Carlo, will once again offer a lucrative prize pool, thought to be around last year’s amount of almost $3 million euros.

The DTD team will include Rob Young, Dave Colclough, Carlo Citrone, Kevin O’Connell and Greco.

“We’re really looking forward to Monte Carlo. With a strong team competing and our famous DTD dancers performing at our party, DTD Poker are about to reveal their hand at Europe’s most prestigious poker event!” said Paul Zimbler of the site. 

Earlier this month DTD Poker’s online network signed up with software provider CryptoLogic. The firm are also thought to be planning a new land venue based in Nottingham. 

The construction of a new super casino in southwest Kansas is one more step towards becoming a reality following approval from the House of Representatives.

Dodge City is hoping to become the home of a new $50 million casino that could help to ensure the region develops as a major tourist destination, reports the Parson Sun.

The next step for the bill is to be considered by the Senate; however, last year a similar proposal was rejected because of doubts of actual economic benefits due the existence of a number of casinos already in the area.

However, Jeff Thorpe, president of Boot Hill Gaming, believes that Dodge City’s plans are unique and would have little impact on competing casinos across state lines. He added that the gaming facility could create 300 more jobs and further enhance Dodge City’s tourism industry.

Yet, Senator Tim Huelskamp has dismissed Mr Thorpe’s predictions and claims that the casino could undermine local economies as most tourists opt to spend money solely at the gaming tables.

“People come to gamble but they don’t go anywhere else,” added Mr Huelskamp, who represents Dodge City.

The final of William Hill’s Grand Prix tournament will air on Sky Sports this evening as poker continues its drive into the mainstream. 

The eight man final has already been held, but the results of William Hill’s second annual tournament are being kept under wraps, PokerNews reports. 

Players such as Jeff Lisandro from Australia as well as Antonio Esfandiari are among the competitors set to battle it out at the final table. 

William Hill recently announced the extension of a licensing deal with CryptoLogic, and it is through the two firms’ collaborative online poker effort that two skilled online players made it through to the opening rounds of the Grand Prix and now the final. 

Bo Sehlstedt already has a formidable record at various poker tournaments, but Wayne Hutchins has come from nowhere to be in with a chance of winning the Grand Prix, PokerNews advises. 

The state senate in Denver has approved a bill that would ban smoking from the state’s casinos, it has been revealed.

However, while lawmakers passed the bill, they did so with the proviso that all Denver casinos would have a year to prepare for and implement the changes, according to the Associated Press.

But the American news agency also reveals that governor Bill Ritter’s plans to use casino revenue to fund environmentally friendly initiatives could be jeopardised by the regulations, which could result in a drop in casino takings.

The news comes as anti-smoking measures in public places come into force across American casinos and beyond.

From April casinos in Atlantic City will ban smoking on 75 per cent of its casino floors, in line with a trend that has seen smoking banned in workplaces or public areas in 21 separate states, USA Today reports.

A new poker aid has been launched, aiming to help online players hit the big money heights at their favourite online casinos. 

The FTR Tournament Trimmer has been developed by poker website FlopTurnRiver, and provides details of tournament history to all those who download it.

The free product differs from usual offerings in that players are able to review not just hand histories but the way in which entire tournaments have panned out in a digestible format.

Other online offerings launched recently include blackjack and video poker assistants, with firms looking to capitalise on the surge in popularity that such games have experienced following new game launches from the likes of CryptoLogic.

Hand histories have long been a part of online casinos, and offer players another reason to avoid leaving the comfort of their own homes when gambling. 

A contestant on the new series of the UK version of the Apprentice is an online poker buff in his spare time, it has been revealed.

Andy Jackson, a 36-year-old from Scotland, also uses the internet for another of his favourite pursuits, trading on eBay, but retains a love of gambling online, the Herald newspaper has reported.

“My passions are winning, winning and winning,” the car salesman said.

Mr Jackson will pit his wits against a variety of other contestants including a quantum physicist and a former army lieutenant.

The Apprentice sees 16 hopefuls compete for the chance of securing a six-figure job at one of Sir Alan Sugar’s companies. The success of the programme has meant that the new series will screen on BBC1. Previous editions of the show had aired on BBC2.

A potential rivalry between two casinos on opposite sides of the globe, both claiming to be the world’s biggest, has been defused by Foxwoods officials.

The Connecticut casino proclaims itself to be the world’s largest, a title also taken by the Sands casino in Macau, China, but officials have moved to rule out any possible dispute.

A spokesman for the casino preferred to concentrate on the US casino’s attractions rather than compare it to its East Asian rival.

“We concentrate on quality, not quantity. We focus on what we do, and at what we do we are the best,” the spokesman said to the Norwich Bulletin. 

The paper reports that, in any case, the Sands Macau occupies 227,000 square feet and is such is smaller than both the 340,000 square feet of Foxwoods and fellow Connecticut casino Mohegan Sun, which occupies 300,000 square feet. 

But the Sands Macau does hold 740 tables, making it the world’s biggest casino by that criterion. 

Blackjack seminars hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are to make a comeback ahead of a new feature film about the famous team, it has been revealed.

The MIT group hit the headlines in the 1980s and 1990s when their policy of counting cards enabled them to take millions from some of the world’s leading casinos, a tale that is now being made into a feature film, 21, starring Kevin Spacey.

Now two highly respected blackjack players are offering students the chance to learn from their tactics. Mike Aponte, a World Series of Blackjack champion, and David Irvine, also a member of the MIT team, have announced that they are bringing the seminars to New York for the first time.

April 28^th will see the W Hotel Times Square host the New York event, with June 23^rd the date for a Las Vegas version.

Macau’s race to become the world’s biggest gambling venue means it will require over 50,000 casinos within the next two years, it has been reported.

And in a sign of the advantages that the region’s booming casino industry has provided to the surrounding community, many residents are keen to apply for such opportunities.

Croupier jobs do not require significant educational or vocational skills yet offer considerable benefits, making it attractive to local residents, the Macau Post Daily has reported.

According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, there are currently 20,000 croupiers in the region’s 25 casinos, representing seven per cent of Macau’s total labour force.

The addition of a further 30,000 croupiers would see the profession represent as much as 17 per cent of the labour force, making Macau one of the world’s most casino-reliant regions.

This week Macau won an award for the most promising destination in Asia, highlighting its potential for future growth.