One of the newest entrants into the online poker news industry is the website Subject: Poker, which appears to be headed by 2+2 moderator Noah “NoahSD” Stephens-Davidowitz (it’s hard to really understand who is behind many of these online poker sites, whether they are news outlets, affiliates or even a gambling website). The site has broken a number of stories regarding Full Tilt Poker in the aftermath of Black Friday –some proven correct, others half-correct, and still others unverified at this time—but after a recent article regarding possible DOJ action against the Merge Gaming Network, the site has drawn a tremendous amount of criticism.
At the heart of many people’s complaints was the lack of facts the website used when detailing possible DOJ action against the Merge Gaming Network and their payment processors. While the site is represented as being a “Straight News” website, it’s going to be hard for Subject: Poker to keep this reputation when they post articles like this, along with articles like Phil Ivey taking loans to the tune of $11 million from Full Tilt Poker. One of the harshest critics was the poker news outlet, PoekrNewsBoy.com (which for full disclosure I am a contributor to) that blasted Subject: Poker’s reporting on the topic.
It’s hard to understand the thinking behind the site posting this article when the opening salvo is the following: “Subject: Poker has recently been told of planned US Department of Justice action against the Merge Gaming Network or some part of it” [Bold mine].
Personally, it seems the site is using what the PokerNewsBoy.com author called “fear-mongering”, but it also seems that the site’s detractors are reading too far into the article. A careful reading of the article reveals scant details that point to the Merge Gaming network being the target –the possibility of which is only hinted at. Here is an example of what the source said, and what the author at Subject: Poker took away from these comments and embellished [bold mine]:
“According to our sources, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland plans to seize the assets of payment processors who facilitated transactions between the Merge Network and its US customers. It is unclear exactly which payment processors are reportedly being targeted, whether indictments are planned in addition to seizures, or whether the DOJ intends to seize domain names as well.”
Now read the same sentence with the author’s conjecture highlighted:
“According to our sources, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland plans to seize the assets of payment processors who facilitated transactions between the Merge Network and its US customers. It is unclear exactly which payment processors are reportedly being targeted, whether indictments are planned in addition to seizures, or whether the DOJ intends to seize domain names as well.”
Basically, Subject: Poker is “reporting” that payment processors working with the Merge Gaming Network are being targeted by the DOJ. What the author is “implying” is that this will negatively affect the Merge Gaming Network, and could lead to a shut-down of the network –which is absolute conjecture by the author.
The rest of the article basically outlines the way the Merge Gaming Network has skirted US online gaming laws (like every other online poker site in existence) and with the possibility of any online poker room being shut-down in the US or forced to leave the US market, it seems the author (who chose to not take credit for the article) is pulling a fortune-teller trick by leaving the possible outcomes vague and able to go either way: If the Merge Gaming Network is targeted by the DOJ they look like excellent prognosticators with inside sources; if nothing comes of the supposed actions then they point out they never specifically said it would happen.
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