Anurag Dikshit, the man behind PartyGaming and it’s existing software platform, is paying a hefty price this week in order to avoid prison time for violating the 1961 Wire Act.

How hefty you might ask yourself?

Try $300,000,000 healthy - and no, the added zeros in that figure are not typos.

Dikshit, who is actually worth a little over a billion dollars, will be paying forward three separate payments of $100 million to the U.S. Department of Justice over the next several years. Unfortunately for him, he is the ONLY person at PartyGaming that will be penalized, even though other shareholders could be considered just as responsible for what had transpired.

He will stay remain the largest shareholder of the very company he started, with a 27% majority; however, his company’s stock will most likely dwindle for the next few months with news of the verdict. The publicly-traded U.K. gaming company is one of the biggest in the industry - and before the 2006 UIGEA, was the largest poker room in the world.

The 2008 World Poker Tour Five-Diamond Championship Main Event television final table is finally set after 5 grueling days of play. Nearly 500 players poined up the $15,000 buyin for this tournament, and the winner ill play for $1.5 million+

My good buddy over at our partner site at Poker Strategy Forums has released an EXCLUSIVE video of Russ Hamilton talking about the scandal surrounding him and his involvement with the AP/UB cheating that went down early last year and spilled over into the latter part of 2008.

In a buzz that has been hitting the internet poker forums pretty hard, it looks as if online poker legend Cliff Josephy - aka JohnnyBax - was released by his former employers over at Ultimate Bet this week.

This past Sunday, the AP/UB scandal that rocked the online poker community just over a year ago was finally being exposed thanks to a controversial piece that was being aired by CBS producers on the popular television show “60 Minutes.”

The interviews conducted included sit-downs with former WSOP bracelet winner Todd Witteles, a Kahnawake Gaming Commission representative, as well as several other online poker players.

The producers did an excellent job of naming the people involved in cracking open the initial investigation (the players themselves), as well as really putting on the heat towards the main conspirator of the scandal, Russ Hamilton.

The full video can be seen by clicking on the story itself, courtesy of the Guru.

As some of my readers have already seen, I posted a story on a pending lawsuit that was filed by Clonie Gowen’s attorneys in a Las Vegas court yesterday. At the time of the posting, it was unknown why she was bringing her former employers to court in the first place.

Well, after a few more hours from the initial breaking of the story - and some extra digging by the media staff over at PokerNews.com, it looks as if we finally have an answer:

She’s suing Full Tilt Poker for $40,000,000 over a breach of contract!

Gowen alleges that when she signed on as a Full Tilt pro back in 2004, she was promised a 1% ownership of the company. She went on to sport FTP gear around the tournament circuit, appeared in television commercials and promotional ads, and essentially did her part in promoting the Online Poker mega-brand as best she could - for no added compensation beyond her supposed 1% stake in the company.

It looks as if Full Tilt ‘Red Pro’ Clonie Gowen has filed a lawsuit in a Las Vegas court against her own employers over at FTP!

22-year old Peter Eastgate enjoyed the spoils of his tremendous victory this past weekend, as he triumphed over Russian counterpart Ivan Demidov in the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

Eastgate not only won the $9M+ 1st place prize, but in the process also became the youngest Main Event champion in World Series of Poker history, beating out Phil Hellmuth’s long-standing record!

Click on the story title for more.

The Microgaming Network, one of the biggest and most popular gambling networks in the world, has announced this week its ceasing its operations in the United States!

PKR.com announced this week they will be partnering up with the popular UK dating site Lovestruck.com in an effort to boost both their brands through love and poker.