Poker News: Greg Raymer VS WPT

7 players got together and filed a lawsuit against the WPT for violating anti-trust laws. They claim the WPT is anti-competitive because they make casino's sign exclusive deals where they may not host any other poker sponsered poker tournaments if they wish to host WPT events. Apparently these 7 players seem to think the only casinos in the world are the ones the WPT has exclusive deals with. In reality there are hundreds of casino's world wide that are not affiliated with the WPT and are free to host poker tournaments sponsered by other COMPETING poker companies.

These players are also upset because they must sign a release granting the WPT permission to use their likeness in WPT programing and promotion. It is a pretty standard thing and ANY time you see a non SAG member on television they have signed a similar release. The greedy players that filed the suit are upset because they believe their likeness is worth something and they should be paid by the WPT for them appearing on television.

Somehow these 7 players fogot that prior to the WPT they only had the chance to play for million dollar jackpots in the main event of the WSOP ONCE A YEAR. Their greed has deluded them into thinking they are entitled to play the MULTITUDE OF MILLION DOLLAR EVENTS hosted by the WPT each year.

The WPT is largly responsible for the explosion of poker in america. Prior to the WPT televised poker was an obscure thing. In the wake of the WPT's sucess televised poker has become a MAINSTREAM STAPLE. But these 7 players apparently think the WPT should not be allowed to profit and they should just donate all the expensive equipment and the hundreds of man hours that go into producing a single hour of televised poker so they can PAY THE PLAYERS TO USE THEIR IMAGE.

It is a thouroughly rediculous lawsuit that they have little to no chance to win. Image release forms are a STANDARD AND REQUIRED part of the television industry. Asking players to sign release forms for their image is not anti competitive as it is REQUIRED of all television shows that use non SAG members. Exclusive business relationships are a standard practice in america that generally benefits BOTH parties involved. The WPT does NOT have a lock on all casino's so any COMPETING company has a wide range of casino's that they may broadcast from. The exclusive casino deals are standard business arangements that do not impeed anybody ability to deal with the NUMEROUS casino's NOT affiliated with the WPT. The fact that the WPT does not solicit the casinos and the casino's solicit the WPT is a very damaging nail in the coffin as well.

If you want to read about it there is a website at... http://www.wptlawsuit.com/

BTW

the players are making a big deal about the fact that they are paying for the lawyers themselves. What they are NOT making a big deal out of is the fact that they are paying the lawyers with the big money they have earned in the last few years THANKS TO the WPT's promotion of poker in general. 3 years ago none of thes players made enough money to finance this lawsuit and the ONLY reason they have the money today is because televised poker like the WPT has made the game profitable enough for them to make small fortunes.

Assumably they were happier before the flood of money came into poker. They were happer when poker rooms were closing down for lack of interest and lack of profit. The fact that the WPT turned that around and the fact that the WPT's promotion of poker has resulted in a poker room in virtually every casino has escaped these clueless greedmongers notice.

The first Five Diamond World Poker Classic was held in december of 2002 at the Bellagio and it was filmed and used as the very first episode of the WPT's televised programming. Erick Lindgren won and took down $228,192 and a $15,000 seat for the Five Star World Poker Classic as well as entry to a WPT invitational.

All one has to do is look at the bellagios website to figure this one out. http://www.bellagio.com/pages/gaming_poker_fivediamond_06.asp

the 5th annual event is being held in december of 06'

dec 05' = 4th

dec 04' = 3rd

dec 03' = 2nd

dec 02 = the first five diamond world poker classic - the same one that was filmed and used as the first episode of WPT that aired in march of 2003.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The world poker finals does predate the WPT but take a look at the purse since the WPT has become involved. when the WPF started in 1992 there was less than $900,000 in the prize pool for all 42 the events put together.

The biggest games drew less than 150 players and the buy in for the main event was a paltry $25.

For the next decade the WPF grew slowly. It took the entire decade for the prize pool to double to 1.9 million dollars. Then in 2002 the WPT got involved and in one years time the prize pool grew the equivilant of a decade of growth. The first year the WPT got involved in the event the prize pool soared a cool million dollars higher than just one year before. By 2004 the prize pool grew to over 10 million dollars. In 2005 the main event winner alone won over 2 million dollars. That is more than the ENTIRE EVENTS prize pool in 2001, the year before the WPT got involved.

The game was nothing before the WPT got involved. Sure it existed but the callibre of games offered was equivilant to the daily tournament offered in just about every casino in america now. I have played sunday afternoon tournaments at the tropicanana in atlantic city that were bigger than the 2001 WPF main event.

I don't hear them complaining the prize pools are to big. I just hear them complaining they want more. Its disgusting in my opinion and if the WPT had not come along none of them would be the MILLIONAIRS or the CELEBRITIES they are today. Do they share the money from their books that fly off the shelves because the WPT popularized poker enough to make them celebrities to the point people would buy their books? This lawsuit is plain and simple biting the hand that feeds them because they want more food.

peace,

dumwaldo

So why does the complaint state they have to give up intellectual property rights without compensation?

And why are the seeking an award for damages?

this is a direct quote from the CURRENT standard WPT television release form and not the one from 2005 that the players chose to include with their complaint....

Notwithstanding the foregoing, WPT will not have the right to create avatars of Player in a video game without Player's written consent.

This language has been part of the release since at least January of 2006.

I think you are misunderstanding something. The WPT can NOT create a character in a game using the players likeness and name. What they can use is whatever was collected during that specific WPT event. So they can't create a game with chris furgeson as a character but they could create a game that includes some of their video footage with chris in it. All they are stating is that they own the content they create during the event and they hold sole control over its use without limitation. For instance if a WPT photographer takes a picture of Annie Duke then it is the WPT's property not Annie Dukes property. That seems very reasonable to me.

The WPT can not feign a players support when the do not have it. The release form does not grant them that permission and it never did.

There are dozens of pro's that are as well respected or more respected than these 5. What does this have to do with the merit of their allegations? Respected people can be wrong too.

peace,

dumwaldo

BTW

Here is an enlightening point. The plaintif's in the case are seeking 9 different things. Of those 9 things that they are asking the court for FIVE OF THEM are money for themselves.

Waldo, most every tournament on the WPT existed before the WPT came to television. As I said in a previous post, Mike Sexton won the first World Poker Finals at Foxwoods. How could he have done that if he isnt allowed to play on WPT events? Needless to say, they werent as big as they are now, but they still existed.

The only ones I am fairly certain did not exist pre-WPT is the Aruba event, the Caribbean event, and the LHE on a cruise ship tournament because they are sponsored by poker websites.

Just finished reading Howard's blog. Kind of vague but it doesn't seem unreasonable considering the conflicts the WPT agreement may have with other vendors that the pros have business relationships with but who knows? Two sides to each story.

It would be extremly cool to have 5 players name and faces showing on the tv and one blurred and the name all ??? then when your watchin, who da **** is that man or woman?

dam Waldo, you are on top of your game bro. Excellent work on this thread...very informative.

I have a problem with a non-elected minority of 7 claiming to speak for the entire poker community when they clearly do not.

Well, one of their main beefs is that they used to play in these tournaments in anyway[Five Diamond World Poker Classic, World Poker Finals(Mike Sexton won the first one)], but now they have to sign away their image to play in these top-shelf tournaments.

There is where you are wrong. Before the WPT, these were not television tournaments, so they didn't have to sign release forms.

and by that, you mean, you share my opinion and i value my opinion to be more correct than anybody else who disagrees with me.

oky, seems like strange that the could force a player cause he plays in that tourney

WSOP, i have seen the most of them sence 1973=) just awfall the first 20 years

Why did you quote my post? It has almost nothign to do with yours

Topic was discussed six weeks ago...

See, don thinks its a good idea. I think that pretty much proves to everybody else on the forum that it is just plain stupid.