On Friday the U.S. government shut down Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars effectively outlawing online poker in the U.S.
Several years ago Congress prevented banks and financial companies from doing business with offshore gambling sites. The poker sites found a way around that, using third-party payment processors to get the money from individuals' bank accounts.
Now the government says those workarounds were illegal.
11 people were arrested and now the sites are shut down.
I tried to logon to my account and was told I cannot play because of the government crackdown.
This is wrong on so many levels:
1) I am a grown person who should be able to do what I want with my money
2) the hypocrisy of banning an activity online, but making it legal in a casino
3) protecting us from the social ill of gambling which ruins so many lives. In this country we should not punish the responsible to protect the irresponsible, we should help the irresponsible or let them suffer the consequences of their actions
4) robbing honest, tax-paying citizens of their livelihood. Thousands of people make a living playing poker online and they should be allowed to do so and pay taxes on the proceeds
5) poker is not a game of chance. It is not gambling, for the people who do it well. Yes, there is luck involved, but over time luck evens out so those who succeed do so because of skill.
The only possible bright side of this would be if now that our backs are against the wall, right-thinking lawmakers heard our cries and legalized our hobby/profession. Otherwise April 15th will live in infamy as Black Friday for poker.
If that doesn't happen the worst part of this will be the almost total eradication of poker on TV. ESPN will broadcast the 2011 World Series of Poker, but they have already canceled one NAPT event because it was title sponsored by Poker Stars. Fox has already pulled "The Big Game" (the best poker show on TV) because of it's affiliation with Poker Stars. And every other poker show on TV relies heavily on advertising from poker sites. If those sites go away, those ad dollars go away, if those ad dollars go away the shows go away too. And that would hurt me the most.
Good post. I absolutely agree and think it should be legalized.
ReplyDeleteMy only dissent is with your point about hypocrisy. It's not exactly hypocritical because there is no federal law to my knowledge allowing poker playing in casinos. It is permitted on Native American lands which are largely exempt from federal regulation, and only in specific cities/counties like AC and Vegas that have laws affirmatively allowing for it.
If a federal law were passed specifically allowing for poker in casinos nation-wide, that'd be 100% hypocritical, but right now the federal government isn't affirmatively permitting in-person poker - it just doesn't have a law conclusively banning it.
Your refutation of my point about hypocrisy using legalese doesn't hold up. The reason why poker is not illegal in certain places is not important, the fact that it is not illegal is what matters.
ReplyDeleteIf internet poker is an activity that needs to be banned, it should be banned in all forms in all places. If it is a societal ill online, then how could it not be one in Las Vegas or Atlantic City?
It's an outrage, an infringement on our civil liberties and under no circumstances should the residents of a supposedly free country allow ourselves to be parented like this.