The death knell tolls. :(

[Talking Poker]

For the panicers around here, instead of freaking out, educate yourself and help fight the fight. You can start by reading this:


This is also an analysis of the act in laymans' terms:


If for some reason you aren't a member of the PPA yet, go join. Today.

And for God's sake people, VOTE on November 7th!!!

[Boobie Lover]

Perhaps Stars has plans of going public ala Party and 888, which would make sense in abiding by these laws.

[Talking Poker]

I will say, this is the part of the post above that concerns me the most. Am I going to prematurely overreact (I've used those words a lot today)? No. But I'm not happy about this at all.

If anyone surfing other forums finds anything more about this, I'd be interested to read it. ie, how will 2+2 react (in 270 days, I assume) and so on?

[johnp158]

That's one of the things that immediately struck me too in thinking about things around here. It'll definitely be interesting to see if other people interpret this similarly.

[Talking Poker]

Like I said, I'm in "Wait and See" mode, but if it comes down to it, I've already got a contingency plan that sounds reasonable to me. I expect TalkingPoker.com to be around for many years to come.... unless of course everyone goes away because poker dies. But I think that's definitely jumping the gun.

[juiCe[3x]]

Lee Jones is behind all this just to get more players at his site and more money!!!

[kkirk1329]

sweet right when im actually getting close to being able to leagally play cards online, theyre all shutting down to US players, thats just sweet. does this mean things like neteller and firepay cant be used anymore to fund poker accounts online?

wow... stolen from recpoker....



correlationg between drug dealers and online gamblers?

[Talking Poker]

Have you even been reading any of these posts in these threads? Like, even ONE of them? Or did you just see the title, skip the first post, and post your immediate reaction?

As for the clip you linked to, it's the same hypocritical BS we've been hearing for years. Online gambling is bad, apparently, unless it's gambling on horses, the lottery, etc. That's not addictive at all - or bad for kids - apparently.

[New Guy]

I'll stay here as long as it's here.Ive been playing poker (sneaking in the commerce club when i was 18) for ever and I really like what this site has to offer.There are some really good people here and good players with lots to teach.

[JDMcNugent7]

Italy tried the same thing - banning online gambling. After 2 months they realized it was just too hard to control, and ended up regulating it.
I honestly think our government will do the same, maybe not in 2 months, but I think there will be ways around it, and soon enough it might even get back to normal and just become regulated.

[Talking Poker]

That would be nice, but I'm not going to hold my breath for a quick turnaround on that. How long did Prohibition last back in the day? 4 years or something? Not exactly apples to apples, but it's still a good example of a very bad decision made by our government that was later corrected.

What I am hoping for in the more immediate future, and I have no idea what it would take for this to happen, is that poker gets included in the exemptions, along with the likes or horse racing, state lotteries, etc.

[PShabi]

No point in voting out here. No Republican, Democrat, or any other politician from Nevada is going to support online poker.

[Quint]

This is precisely what's wrong. If the gaming industry based in Nevada would take the lead on getting online gaming legalized and regulated, then opened sites that were based in the US and regulated by the internet equivilent of a gaming commission they could easily become the leaders in online gaming instead of fighting the online sites. How much has the poker boom made them over the last 5 years?

Perhaps they just don't give a crap about the poker players. Poker likely costs them more $/sq. ft. of space and skilled employees to spread. The table games and slots are where the 'safe' money is since they know that they are going to make $X amount of money per hour. I'm sure they'd be more than happy just providing slots if their clientelle would tolerate it. Why can't they see that online gaming is as lucrative, if not more so, than slots - some reliable hardware, decent software, a good support staff and ba-da-bing, start counting the money!

[Talking Poker]

Agreed.... but on the flip side:

Do you really think every single casino in Vegas wouldn't LOVE to have an online site? Can you imagine playing poker at Bellagio.com??? Legalizing and regulating online poker would be HUGE for Vegas. These politicians you have out there are clearly stupid. Elect someone with a brain, please.

[Quint]

No one meeting this qualification has run for office in my lifetime.

[Kurn]

Not true. Google Harry Browne. he had a brain, and ran for president twice.

[Talking Poker]

Don't be so sure. If online poker goes away, how much will that hurt the local economy come WSOP time (year round, really, but let's just look at the WSOP)? With a fraction of the number of players playing in the Main Event, less people in town for those 6 weeks, a far less successful trade show, etc, etc... Online poker is good for Vegas.

It's your attitude (not you specifically, but everyone who has the "no point in voting" attitude) that got us in this mess in the first place. I'm semi-confident that if every American was FORCED to vote on this topic, online gambling would be legal... The problem is, many of the people for it are too lazy to voice their opinion, while so many of the people against it are not.

[Kurn]

Well, there were, what, 9,000 players this year's ME? Add 3 non-players for every player, that's 36,000 total.

That's a smallish convention by Vegas standards. On one hand, its during the worst time of the year to visit, so convention businessmay be hard to lure for those dates, but the reality is that while the WSOP is a huge event for poker, its really not a big event for Vegas.

[Talking Poker]

You're way off. The WSOP is a lot more than the Main Event. It's a 6 week "convention." I heard that poker sites were paying $1 million plus for a booth at the trade show and were happy to do it.

[Kurn]

Yeah, I posted that, then thought about it and realized I was a bit off the wall.