AUTHOR: Jerry "Jet" Whittaker
TITLE: Former `City Slicker' Hipwell Starts Web Site for Poker Players
DATE: 11:28 AM
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BODY:
<p class="mobile-post">James Hipwell, a former financial journalist who served a prison term for
manipulating the stock market, joined forces with two partners to set up an
Internet site that helps poker players find online tournaments. Hipwell, who
co-wrote the ``City Slickers'' column in the U.K.'s Daily Mirror newspaper
from 1998 until early 2000, teamed up with David Gross, the founder of
sports-betting Warren Wooldridge, that company's chief executive officer,
according to a PR Newswire statement today. The new site, aimed at players
in the U.K. and Europe, shows poker news, online diaries of famous players
and a tournament search engine, the statement said. Internet gaming
companies are seeking to expand in Europe after Congress last week passed
laws to shut down U.S. Internet gambling. ``The U.K. is already a fairly
well-developed market,'' Hipwell said in an interview, adding that there is
``huge potential'' since the U.S. decision. ``The idea is to have a
community site for poker players to tell them about the best companies to
play poker on.'' Hipwell was given a six-month jail sentence in February
after being convicted of one count of conspiring to create a misleading
impression about share values for his role in encouraging readers to invest
in companies he held personal stakes in.</p>
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