I'm more than a little upset that President Bush signed a bill Friday that has had a tremendously negative impact on the online poker world. Hidden deep in the stinky bowels of the Safe Ports Act (a homeland defense initiative to make our ports safer) by a sneaky Senator from Tennessee was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act. It's really a BS law because most poker sites are based offshore and are not under the jurisdiction of US law anyway, but a few of the bigger sites have buckled already and are no longer accepting action from US-based players. The bill really tries to make it illegal for US financial institutions to allow their gambling customers to send funds to offshore gambling sites. The largest site, Party Poker, based in the UK was bringing in almost $3 million a day in profit with 60% of their business coming from the US. They have now banned US players from their site and their stock has already lost billions in market value. Of course my favorite site, PokerStars, has benefited greatly with a huge influx of players since they have decided the new law is meaningless to them. Their weekly Sunday tournament attracted a record 6,517 players this weekend and paid out over$1.3 million with $176,000 for first place!
Senator Frist (R-TN), the author of the bill, feels that gambling is "destrying the moral fiber of America" and warned Congress that terrorists could be using these sites to launder money. First of all, I find it hard to believe that I've ever sat at an online poker table with Osama bin Laden or any other muslim extremist, but second, even if what he says is true, then why did he make exceptions for online horse betting and state lotteries in the bill? (By the way, Tennesee is a huge horse racing state, hmmm nothing suspicious about that, right?).
Just another reason why we need to allow the President to have Line-Item Veto powers so deceptive and sneaky legislators can stop hiding needless legislation in "must pass" bills!
Just thought I'd vent a bit!
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3 comments:
can't get anything poker-related by you, PP!
the horse racing/lottery exceptions are especially lousy...ALL or nothing!
I agree with the legislation which aims to ban credit cards as a payment method for online gambling of any sort... and i think it should be enforced worldwide – not just in America. In fact, gambling with a credit card should be banned full stop. Not just on the internet. It’s a no brainer when you consider you are placing backing the outcome of an uncertain event with somebody else’s money. Chance and credit do not mix well in my opinion, and continuing to allow it would only contribute further in negatively affecting the high levels of personal debt many citizens today find themselves in. I do however, think that the prohibition won't work; or at least it won’t be received well amongst gamblers - I mean what’s the point in banning a credit card payments made on an online poker game, for example, but not online sports betting? Slightly hypocritical no? I mean how can you allow someone to participate [with or without a credit card] in online horse racing betting, but not put any money on a hand of texas hold’em poker? both activities involve a large degree of chance, and neither are guaranteed to yield financial return.
What really infuriates me is that the minority of irresponsible gamblers [those paying with someone elses money!] have now ruined the fun of online betting for everyone else - those like me who pay with money they actually have in their bank!!
well at least there is always the free poker sites, right?
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