it isn't outlawed now because nobody in congress really cares about it.

if it becomes a bigger issue then maybe they will...

standard myopia. this is good news for online poker.

people are skeptical of online poker being fair.

if one site is proven to be cheating players, why can't others?

I agree, but I think the issue is that shows like 60 Minutes tend to give stories like this the shock value treatment, i.e. "online poker is rigged! Your money is not safe anywhere!," instead of objectively treating the subject and showing that there are many safe and legitimate sites.

but everyone knows this already

the people who already thought online poker is rigged will still think the same thing afterwards, and the rest of the world will take it with a grain of salt

If this story shins a bright shining light on the AP/UB scandals and forces those companies to either clean up (and prove it) or shut down, it will be a great thing for online poker.

If 60 Minutes paints the entire online poker industry with the same brush as AP/UB, then it will probably convince a lot of people that don't play poker that online poker is rigged.

Not really. I think 60 Minutes is known more for its faux-objectivity than its "shock value." Dateline would be a lot worse. I recognize that it's generally not a good thing to be profiled on 60 Minutes, but I think it will be worse for Absolute Poker specifically than online poker as a whole.

I'm also kind of surprised that 60 Minutes is tackling this story, because I don't see how it relates to a large audience. I can't picture Morley Safer's voice over, saying, "did you ever wonder if the players on the other side of the computer could see your cards? Tonight you will find out the shocking truth about one player who could!" I would imagine this tag line would register a big "Who cares?" with 60 Minutes' audience.

And it can only be positive...cause the players that play already will continue and the sites will have to promote a clean playing enviroment to attract and keep the new players....face it the industry has no watch dogs but us in the forums and a quasi group of degen rich Indians with big rubber stamps....time to shine the spot light.

What did you know, and when did you know it?

This is great.
Might make'em sweat.
Would definatelly make other sites sweat and make them stay honest.

this is most likely one of those things that no one should get upset or happy about until it actually happens (if it does). there's no way to tell how this ball will bounce and it could go either way

Maybe they'll uncover some memos "proving" that Bush is actually potripper and played online poker 35 years ago when he was supposed to be serving in the National Guard.

put me in the 'cant possibly see how this will be good for us' camp.

With an industry this big and this profitable the media spotlight was bound to make a more in depth story about it at some point and Im surprised that all Ive seen up till now was just a few 30 sec to 2 min clips about it. Whether or not 60 minutes picks it up more media outlets will surely follow.

Neither is "so freakin easy", but the path of least resistance here would be to expand existing legislation and outlaw it completely rather than actually create new regulations, etc. Hence the word "easier".

I believe that the short term effect of something like this could potentially be pretty bad. A whole new audience would be exposed to online poker in a very negative context. Many of whom have the time, the age-onset-indignation, and sense of entitlement it takes to call and write letters to Congress to complain about something that doesn't affect them in any way.

It really all depends on the angle they use (if they do the story at all), but something tells me that 5 minutes talking about the safeguards that reputable sites put in place would be trumped by the 5 second teaser talking about "the multi-billion dollar industry ... are your mobnies safe?".

I also believe that 60 Minutes, as part of their fauxbjectivity, would address the gray area around online poker's legality. The fundamendalist Tennessee housewife who got Bill Frist all spun up probably thinks it already is illegal. Once she realizes it's not, the crusade can begin again.

Yes, I just wanted to use the word 'fauxbjectivity'. The sky's not falling, but I think we'd all be better off without this story on prime time network tv.

the people that play now will continue to play, those that think its rigged and there is cheating going can unfortunately be justified in their assumption as of recent events.these people were not going to play anyway. i can only see it making AP sweat, which is nice and prob wont have much of an effect on the general pop.

Russell Crowe is going to play the role of Absolute Poker, and Al Pacino will play the role of 2+2

Feh, too many pols playing online to worry. TV rattles the kettle - tempest in a teacup, I am thinking.

Nolan Dalla wrote a good story on this today at PokerListings.com.

Hahaha, THANK GOD I quit playing live poker!!!

I cannot tell you how many times over the years while I've been playing live, surrounded by old grumpy people, that the "online poker is rigged/I never win" debate comes up. No matter WAT I tell these people, they always come back with "set over set never happens live/Setup hands galore online". I absolutely SHUDDER to think what is going to happen when all these old people see this story (hey, it's 60 minutes, you KNOW they watch it) and come armed with this knowledge to the B&M casino.

I'm on my knees right now thanking God I gave up live poker.

It's a great story. Why not let the show tell it to a wider audience? 60 minutes is not that bad. The journalism is good for the most part imo.

I'm sure your bottom lines wont be affected all that much and I'm pretty sure congress won't outlaw poker based on a 60 minutes report.

truth comes out = good in the long run = helps tax/license/regulate argument.

i am not sure how good or bad its for online poker but it increases the likelihood that some of those AP scumbags suffer some consequences since i hope 60 minutes doesnt buy the stupid explanations AP gave (one external advisor did it all)

Hopefully it shuts down AP/UB.

also it would be a good time for 60 minutes to do this fast since the UB thing is still going on and maybe with more resources they can put more light on the true ownership structure of UB/AP/Kahnawake...