Wednesday, July 19, 2006

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Poker pros to sue WPTE

By Sarah Polson

Seven of the world's top pros are expected to file a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against World Poker Tour Enterprises, Inc. (WPTE). They're filing an antitrust suit over the use of their likenesses and access to play in the televised tournaments.

The suit will accuse WPTE of colluding with member casinos to prevent players from entering tournaments unless they forfeit their rights, which amounts to price fixing and group boycotts.

According to Jeffrey Kessler, lead lawyer for the players, the suit seeks damages as well as to void contracts the players had signed in the past for tournaments.

Some of the players named in the suit are Howard Lederer, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Joseph Hachem, and Greg Raymer. They're arguing that before they could enter WPT poker tournaments, the WPTE required them to waive rights to use their images and names to promote products and video games.

In Lederer's situation, video clips of him playing in a WPT tournament were used in a WPT video game that directly competed with another video game, "World Championship Poker," that he and his sister Annie Duke appear in.

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