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Originally Posted by iPlayPLOhigh
And I was agreeing that their biggest money maker will be just fine. Which seems to be the reason they couldn't careless about killing the poker side of the network. We take money away from the sports betting fish. That's why PO/SB segregated to keep that from happening.
I think every state in the US will have the opportunity to participate in online poker, so long as they choose, by the end of 2015. Call me an optimist, I'd agree I am, but this is becoming closer to reality than ever before.
And no, I don't want any action on it because I'm not a degenerate who bets on things outside of my control. If I was, I'd be on Merge for the next 10 years betting sports.
I'm going to have to call you an optimist. If poker is legalized on a state by state basis not much more than half the states will ever make it legal, even in a best case scenerio, because some states' populations are morally opposed to gambling in general and will never allow it.
California, which is a very poker friendly state, has been debating legalizing online poker for years and still really hasn't gone much of anywhere with it. A lot of states are just going to get mired in dabate, like California, when legalization is proposed. California's proposals call for high taxes and fees which will probably make their legalized sites not very profitable for players.
Even when poker is legal in the US, I think that offshore sites will still be here to stay. Offshore sites don't need to pay the taxes and fees that US sites do, so the offshore sites are always going to be able to give better promotions and guarantees than US sites. Offshore sites though are essentially unregulated, so lack consumer protections. Developing trust amongst their player pool is critically important for their continued success; unfortunately trust is something that Merge has been failing miserably at.