World Poker Tour Responds to Lawsuit

During the 37th annual World Series of Poker, seven high profile pro poker players let it be known that they had filed legal proceedings against the World Poker Tour, citing antitrust violations, among other things. The crux of the lawsuit was that the WPT was infringing on the pro players and their right to seek other relationships in order to make money on their image, something that the WPT does by using their images and likenesses. In their response, which runs 22 pages, to the lawsuit, the WPT picked an interesting avenue of counter attack. They explain that many of the pros are affiliated with online poker rooms, and those poker rooms take money from the US players, which is technically illegal. Their playing at WPT events thus endangers the WPT if the US government were to pursue legal action against the pros.