I have recently seen a spike in traffic from people looking for information regarding the "Poker Ban" in the US. To call it a poker ban is somewhat of a misnomer because it doesn't ban or even make illegal playing poker online in the US.
What does it do then?
What it does, is attempt to make it illegal for financial institutions to knowingly make transactions with companies outside the US involved with games of chance.
Who's in and Who's out?
Here is a link to a post over at 2+2 Forums outlining which poker sites are here to stay and which have headed for the hills. I think it is important to remember who was first out of the pool when things started to heat up. If those companies ever try to rebuild their userbase in the US they should be boycotted. Just my two cents.
How does this affect me?
Unless you are unlucky enough to have been playing at one of the sites jumping ship, this legislation doesn't effect you at all. In fact it will be 270 days before there is any chance it might even affect you. That is the length of time the bill gives the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve to figure out how they are going to enforce this. I suspect in that 270 day period there will be numerous lawsuits and rumblings from the World Trade Organization on these matters. The fireworks have only just begun.
How are they going to stop it?
This is something that is widely debated within the poker community. Most people agree on one point. That point is that it is nearly impossible to stop online poker in the US. The method by which they are attempting and the language of the bill itself presents many many loopholes. One such loophole is their wording "game of chance". As many of you know, it is a fact that poker is a game of skill. The proof of this is that there are people who consistently make money at it. If it was a game of luck or chance then the wins and losses would even out and it would be a zero sum game. This is not the case.
Upset Bankers
One other thing I do not see mentioned much in all of this is the burden this bill will place on banking
Labels: government, legislation, loopholes, offshore, online, poker ban
posted by JD52 @ 9:27 AM,
