We have seen two things happen in the US during 2010 which will likely have a huge impact on playing online poker for US fans. The weird thing about these events is that they are completely contradictory – totally at odds with one another. It is also a typical indication of what happens when politics get involved with something which should have never been made illegal in the first place, because political and legal interference and repercussions tend to have a domino effect which haunts protagonists and opposers both, for many years to come.
Poker and in particular online poker has become a huge political and legal battle in the US. Can you believe the mentality of this – the game of poker online?! It runs fine in the UK, no-one gives it a second thought, the government is happy, poker players are happy, operators are happy and these adults worry about bigger issues than a game of online poker!
The US promulgated UIGEA virtually overnight with no warning in 2006, which came into effect in 2010. This effectively made playing online poker illegal, but not in as much as playing the game, in as much as transacting finances online for playing poker. In September this year the Washington State Supreme Court upheld UIGEA – overturned appeals and other court rulings to officially make Washington State the first to specifically criminalize the playing of online poker. This also officially made the major online poker sites such as Full Tilt and Poker Stars, officially withdraw from this state.
What makes this such a comedy of errors is the fact that New Jersey, just got online poker legalized, and Nevada is trying to do the same. This is a situation that big gambling industry has only them-selves to thank for. They lobbied for the promulgation of UIGEA without thinking this through. It was piggy-backed on to the tail end of an obscure Wire Act of 1961, regarding financial transacting.
Now, the big gambling brands are suffering because of a global recession, so people no longer have the money to spend big bucks in casinos – but they are spending money in budget gaming at online casinos. Massive US casinos have no areas for expansion into new markets to earn more revenue, because they cannot operate online. Meanwhile operators in the UK, Europe and other countries are earning billions of dollars and employing a ton of people in hugely specialized jobs – thereby stimulating the economy by offering online poker and more specifically online gambling!
Harry Reid who was all for UIGEA when gambling houses wanted this in 2006, has now turned tables. While Las Vegas casinos were worried that online poker would cannibalize their existing business, he lobbied for UIGEA. Now he is lobbying to get this act changed! But in the meantime, who knows how many states in the US will get the ball rolling like Washington and officially criminalize the playing of online poker? A situation such as this will take decades to unravel and I don’t envy them one tiny little bit! Now I am off to play some poker, on my favourite UK site!