By Neal Farran | October 10, 2008

Some of the well known people that will be speaking at the third annual World Poker Congress include Asian Poker Tour CEO Chris Parker, World Poker Tour CEO Steve Lipscomb, and the Head of Poker at bwin.com Hendrik Knopp. There were also be professional poker players speaking at the conference – Marcel “The Flying Dutchman” Luske, Michelle Lau, and John Kalmar are the most notable ones.

Included among the topics to be discussed at the convention are:

• The problems that face poker expansion in the continent of Asia.
• The debate about whether online poker is on the rise or in decline.
• Whether or not the state of California’s potential legal intrastate poker is viewed as competition.
• If poker can be deemed a game of skill based on poker odds or if it is merely just gambling.

The first World Poker Congress took place back in 2006 and was held in Stockholm, Sweden; it was the first mass meeting of its kind since many of the biggest names in both the live and online poker industry were brought together for the first time. The purpose of the original World Poker Congress was to discuss how both sides of the poker world could help each other to grow in terms of business. There were also plenty of marketing seminars presented for people in both the online and live sectors of poker. Steve Lipscomb, Party Poker founder Vikrant Bhargava, and WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack headlined the event.

The Republic of Malta was the site of last year’s World Poker Congress and the agenda for the event remained largely unchanged: to take a look at the synergy between online and land-based poker as well as to examine advanced marketing strategies for the two groups. Some of the big topics discussed included whether or not rakeback programs work, the state of the online poker industry, giving players better service, and how to best implement Collaborative Fraud Management. Pollack and Lipscomb once again made appearances as key speakers.

This year’s World Poker Congress has been highly recommended by the European Casino Association and the Chairman of the organization, Ron Goudsmit, said, “The ECA is very excited about our involvement in the third annual World Poker Congress. We support it as a great event that looks at all the different sides of the poker business.

The website for the 2008 World Poker Congress encourages people to attend, promising that those who do make the trip will:

• Learn from the experts in both sectors as they discuss critical issues and ideas.
• Network with high-level executives from the most prominent companies; service the fast-growing poker industry.
• Expand your product range, improve efficiency and understand your customers better with services specific to poker.

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