Top Gambling News: Jason Somerville, Two Others Sign on With Ultimate Poker

Submitted by C Costigan on

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C Costigan

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These are the top gambling news stories here at Gambling911.com heading into the 1st of June. Follow us on Twitter here.

*Jason Somerville, Jonathan Little and William Reynolds Sign With UltimatePoker – The first legal real money online poker site Ultimate Poker has signed on three new pros to join Antonio Esfandiari.

Little tweeted Friday afternoon:  “I am thrilled to announce I have signed with UltimatePoker and will now be representing them + playing a ton on the site.”

Reynolds tweeted: “Toured UltimatePoker’s office today.. Professional environment with an expert team.. Looking forward to repping UP this WSOP.”

Somerville tweeted later in the day: “Part of a whole new family :)” adding the hashtags for Danawhite and UltimatePoker.  Somerville is a huge UFC fan.  UltimatePoker is owned by the same brothers who run the UFC and Stations Casinos.

More Headlines….

*Online Gambling on Hiatus in Illinois and No Chicago Casino Either for Now - The House sponsor of a major gambling expansion plan that includes a Chicago casino declared the proposal dead for the spring session, Bill Ruthhart of the Chicago Tribune was reporting Friday evening.  This measure also includes a provision for legalization of online gambling.

“We have heard time and time again about all that is wrong with putting out an 11th-hour big gambling bill at the end of session. We want to take more time to get this right and go through it line-by-line to make sure we do it right,” said Rita, D-Blue Island, in a statement. “I’m announcing hearings for this summer to take the framework of this bill out around Illinois, get the feedback we need on what should be in there and push a responsible, comprehensive bill for the fall veto session.”

*Buffalo Men Arrested in Gambling Extortion Case - U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced Friday that 71-year-old Eric Battistoni of Cheektowaga, and 38-year-old Thi Nguyen of West Seneca were arrested and charged by criminal complaint with using extortion to collect gambling debts. 

The defendants allegedly recently demanded payment of an outstanding gambling debt from a Buffalo man who owed $24,000 stemming from losses on 2012 professional sporting events. (Source:  WKBW)

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