The sale of Harrah's to a pair of private equity partners has left the future the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in question.
Harrah's, which took control of the WSOP in 2004, was acquired Tuesday by Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Apollo for $27.8 billion in cash.
In a recent interview with online poker news source PocketFives.com, WSOP communications director Gary Thompson discussed the WSOP in relation to the Harrah's sale as well as to the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act (UIGEA) in the United States.
Regarding the WSOP and the sale to TPG and Apollo, Thompson said he did not anticipate any impact whatsoever, adding that the deal would not close for another 12 to 14 months.
Thompson was less certain, however, regarding the WSOP in relation to the UIGEA. About the legislation, Thompson said the company was "very disappointed," saying moreover that UIGEA discourages global competition and does little, if nothing, to protect consumers.
"We have tried to figure out the landscape of the WSOP in 2007," he said. "We have a players' advisory committee consisting of several poker professionals who are close to that side of the industry. They've come back to us with estimates ranging from 2,000 players in the Main Event to 12,000. These are players who are more familiar with it than we are and even they can't come to a consensus. We just don't know what the impact on the Main Event will be."
Thompson said that, like 2005 and 2006, Harrah's will not accept third-party registrations from online poker sites--dot-coms--that offer real-money services U.S.-based players.
"PokerStars.com and PartyPoker.com could not register players directly last year because they did business with American customers," he said. "Ladbrokes could because it wasn't doing business with U.S. residents."
Still, of the online casinos, PokerStars' 1,623 qualifiers represented 18 percent of the total player pool at this year's WSOP Main Event--comprising the largest volume of players for the third consecutive year (in 2005, 1,116/19 percent; in 2004, 312/12 percent).