Online poker – Legalize it!
March 7, 2007
It is a serious, serious thing that’s happening in America nowadays. The American Congress is determined to make online gambling illegal. Unless we all do something now, playing online poker for real money will no longer be an option. What can we do, you ask? Well, the answer is a strong grass roots effort by the general public, emphasizing specific points. The consequence is a spur in the debate that will compel the politicians to think twice about this.
The truth of the matter is that online poker is not a local or regional thing. It is a global thing and we all know that it is extremely difficult to control what goes on online, especially in the case of online poker. Poker players know that, let’s just hope that the American politicians also do.
Financial service providers are targeted by the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. According to it they must block all transactions with all online gambling websites. Rules are meant to be broken, as they say, and there are now other payment methods available that get around the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The legislators did their best, but this did not stop people from depositing money into their online casino account and play poker online for real money.
Why do politicians refuse to accept the simple truth of the matter? People want to play poker online for real money and they will find ways to do so despite the legislators’ best efforts to prevent it. The only logical course of action is to simply legalize online poker.
How different things would be if online poker were legalized. Just think about it. The online gambling market would open up great opportunities for American companies that are currently prevented to enter it.
We can do with blocking all transactions with all online gambling websites. We even do with banning online Blackjack, slots and roulette. Not so much with taxing online gambling. Even with the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act people do with all these things. Still, the only way for all these things to occur is to legalize online gambling and online poker in particular.
To tell you the truth, people are fed up with stupid laws that go against common sense. Bill Frist is going too far by pushing last minute legislation literally in the dead of the night literally. It is an insult to all of us.
A fresh beginning in Washington after the last 6 years of cronyism is the best thing that could happen to online poker, keeping in mind the recent turn in the direction of the country in the recent elections. Poker is a fun ame to play as a hobby and politicians should just stay out of it.
