A few months ago we flagged reports from Harrah's announcing that "third party" WSOP registrations would no longer be accepted if they came from "online pay-to-play poker sites that do business with U.S. residents." WSOP Communications Director Garry Thompson went on to claim, "We didn't do that in 2005 or 2006 either."

No doubt Thompson's statement came as a surprise to the hundreds of WSOP participants that had won their WSOP seats through the countless "third party site” sponsored freeroll tournaments arranged for exactly that purpose. Whatever this was supposed to mean, it didn't sound good and a lot of WSOP watchers and hopefuls started to hold their breath.

Then in late February, Harrah's announced rules for this year's event and stated that third-party registrations are only allowed when submitted by WSOP sponsors or by "land-based entities officially licensed to conduct satellite tournaments."

What exactly that meant no one seems to know or care. The bottom line according to WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack is this: "If a player shows up with $10,000 and wants to register for the tournament, we will allow them to play," Pollack said, "It's nearly impossible for us to tell where the money came from."

Indeed there now seem to be several new ways for the WSOP not to know "where the money came from." The new rules clearly permit registrations to be made in person and paid for with cash, cashier's checks, or with Rio gaming chips. There's even a convenient new $10,000 WSOP branded Rio casino chip that might prove handy for just such a transaction.

Judging from the innumerable freerolls and "pay-to-play" tournaments for WSOP seats currently being announced and/or in progress, one would be tempted to conclude that the effective changes for 2007 are pretty subtle, to say the least. In spite of anti-gaming legislation—the UIGEA—enacted last fall and the bold announcements made by Harrah's at big press conferences, there seems to be as many, if not more, opportunities to win a WSOP seat this year as there was last year, or the year before.

So, if your "Win A Seat At The WSOP" tournament prize comes in the form of a $10,000 poker chip and a taxi ride from your complimentary hotel room to the registration desk don't be surprised if the folks behind the desk look a little distracted: they're busy not noticing the dot-com sticker stuck on your forehead.