Carbon Poker, Casino, Sports Update October 2014

This month's poker news contains reload bonus information, freerolls, new country restrictions, and more.

Carbon Poker Sports Casino News October 2014

Professional Rakeback has a lot of Carbon related news to share with you this October.  Normally we only report on the poker aspects of our partner sites, but today we thought we would share with you some of the goodies available in the Sportsbook since it is NFL season, as well as some of the freebies available in the Carbon Casino.  We also have some news about new country restrictions.

The big news this month that is shaking the online gaming industry is coming out of the United Kingdom.  Great Britain, well known for having a high population of online gamblers and punters, this country is also a regulator of many things in the gaming industry.  The Isle of Man, a British Crown Dependency, for example holds the license of many an online poker site including Pokerstars.  The UK itself regulates the most popular of the online ewallets, namely Skrill, Neteller and Ecopayz.  So when the news came out that the UK was instituting a tax on online gambling, the shit hit the fan!

The United Kingdom's tax on online gambling is what is known as a "point of consumption" tax.  This means that any gambling done by UK citizens whilst located within the United Kingdom needs to be accounted for, reported to the government, and have appropriate taxes paid upon it.  This point of consumption tax is the UK's way of getting revenue from many offshore sportsbooks, casinos, and poker rooms who were offering their services to the gambling happy citizens of the UK.  This tax, levied at 15% of gross income, while not insurmountable, does pose its own problems.  Many sites margins will be hurt, and Professional Rakeback expects to see players be the ones paying for this tax, mostly through increased rake, reduced VIP programs & rakeback rewards, or both if history holds true.  So far, companies like PokerStars have decided to simply reduce player rewards to offset the costs.  Unibet however has stated that it is not going to adjust player rewards in anyway. We aren't too surprised by this, as Unibet does not have huge VIP programs like PokerStars and thus has naturally higher margins in its poker room, sportsbook, and online casino. Bbut most companies are still silent on the matter as the tax has not yet been implemented.  It was originally scheduled to go live this October, but a legal challenge (which failed) has delayed implementation until November 2014.  Professional Rakeback expects to see more slashes in VIP rewards from the companies who remain.

This new taxation scheme also requires companies to apply for licensing by the UK goverment.  And this is where Carbon Poker has declined to continue operations there.  UK players were only a small, single digit percentage of the player base on the US friendly poker site CarbonPoker and it appears that when management crunched the numbers, they decided that it wasn't worth the increased complexity to pursue.  As such, all UK players have had their abilty to sit at the poker tables, gamble in the casino, or place bets in the sportsbook removed this October.  Players from the UK should withdraw their full balance according to an email sent to UK players by Carbon Poker support.  Any UK poker players looking for a new home are encouraged to contact Professional Rakeback by Skype, AIM, email, Facebook, or Twitter to discuss other fishy US friendly sites that will continue to accept their business.

Carbon Poker Reload Bonus & Promotions

Professional Rakeback Carbon Poker players can take advantage of a number of promotions this month.  The promotion that will appeal most to our rakeback pros is the poker reload bonus this month.  Here are the details of the October reload bonus code.

• Reload Bonus Code: OCTPK
• Reload Bonus: 100% up to $500
• Validity: Now to October 31st 11:59 PM server time
• Minimum Deposit: $35.00

There are other promotions this month at Carbon Poker as well.  Keep in mind though, as Carbon Poker has transitioned into becoming a "recreational poker room" they have been gearing their promotions towards the fishy recreational players.  While many of our clients scoff at the lack of player rewards and promotions geared towards grinders, many fail to see the big picture... happy fish equals great games.  And that is what the games at Carbon Poker and Merge Gaming Network have become lately, super fishy!  This month the promotions are similarly geared.  The "Freeroll Fury" is October's main promo and it is a daily series of $500 freerolls with very easy requirements to get a seat.  Players must earn 15 Player Points in a given day in order to be eligible for that night's Freeroll Fury no limit holdem tournament.  These points can be earned in any real money cash game including Texas Holdem, Omaha, HORSE and others, any Sit & Go, HUSNG, or multi-table tournament MTTs.  Fifteen player points is a measly one dollar and fifty cents in rake, so there should be lots of recreational players qualifying, winning freeroll money, and redistributing it throughout the cash games and tournaments this month.  The full details of Freeroll Fury are below:

Freeroll Fury Details

• Tournament Name: Look for the "$500 Freeroll Fury" in the tournament lobby
• Date & Time: Daily at 20:00 EST
• How to Earn Your Tournament Coupon: Earn 15 Player Points, i.e. pay one dollar and fifty cents in rake on the same day as the freeroll and your tournament ticket will be automatically generated
• Tournament Tab Location: Tournaments > Regular or Special
• Note:  Tournament dollars can not be withdrawn until ten calendar days have passed.
  
  

Carbon Sports Bonuses

We will briefly highlight some of the CarbonSports promotions this month, if you are interested in placing bets on Carbon Sports you already have access to it as a Carbon Poker client.  If you do not have an account at Carbon yet, check out our Carbon Sports Review and signup page for more information.  The October promotions include:

• "Freeroll Your Way to Super Bowl XLIX" - A promotion whereby picking the correct team can earn you a free $10 casino bet as well as an entry into the Super Bowl freeroll where by you could win your way to a pair of Super Bowl seats this NFL season.
• #moneyforall - Follow Carbon Sports on twitter and by retweeting various tweets, you can win a slice of some large parlay bets being made on behalf of all player participants.  It is basically a freeroll bet in exchange for a simple retweet!
• Carbon Twitter Predictor - Another Twitter related promotion where one lucky player who submits the correct final score for a sporting event will win a $250 prize!
• Earn a free $25 bet when you make your first sports bet at Carbon Sports via the new mobile Carbon sports betting client!

Carbon Casino Bonuses

The Carbon Casino (review here), is offering a series of casino reload bonuses this month.  Throughout the month the code will change each week, and a new bonus will be made available.  These Casino bonuses will be 20% match bonuses up to $100.  Thus, a $500 deposit will maximize your casino cash bonus.  Professional Rakeback has done the hard work and gotten all the casino bonus codes in advance for you.  Here they are:

Oct 8-14:  CAS20V
Oct 15-21: CAS20X
Oct 22-31: CAS20Y

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