Quote:
Originally Posted by z4reio
Ah, an American chimed in.
Weed being federally legislated within 6 years is second to online poker being federally legislated within 3 years on the comedic scale. Let the 20-year-old non-Americans on a little secret here. Weed has grey hairs in power brainwashed by myths decades old. Then you have the Christian coalition in everyone's pocket.
Of course, if someone can come up with more bank (campaign contributions), then they'll be persuaded into listening to a different point of view. Highest bidder wins, and the Christian right has the biggest bankroll (Reed/Pokerstars vs Christian right; look at that flip-flop).
Finally, there's a ton of money in keeping it illegal. From textile manufacturers lobbying against marijuana due to hemp being a far superior fiber to government jobs being lost due to nothing to enforce, it's a long way away. First, most all states will need to have medical dispensaries in place and quite a few more states with state legalization before any federal bill circulates.
Y'all non-yanks can Google Schoolhouse Rock How a Bill Becomes a Law to view the process. If it were something simple, it could be attached as a rider on an important, must-pass piece of legislation during an election year. Example: UIGEA, when proposed on its own, did not pass. When it was attached to a port security bill during an election year, no one wanted to be the face that voted no against securing our harbors against terrorism, and so it passed.
There is no bill that online poker could be snuck into on a rider, so don't entertain that idea. Gambling in general has always had the connotation of being tied to organized crime; make the gaming offshore, and watch all the xenophobes say online poker is organized crime funded by terrorism, so it was very easy, albeit clever, to attach it to a security bill to meet one's Christian agendas.
/politard
End of lesson, Mrspew. If you want action on escrowing for the 2017 bet, PM me. Win or lose, I'll pay double the market interest rates on the escrowed money.
First, let's be clear about one thing. In most of the United States, playing poker, online or live, is not illegal, as there is no law against it. However, banking regulations and other means to make it more difficult are certainly out there.
That said, since online poker is not addressed by any federal law, it is a state-by-decision, and at least two states (New Jersey and Nevada) have explicity legalized and regulated online poker, sites are up, and players are grinding. The District of Columbia has also explicity legalized online poker, but I'm not aware of any sites going up.
So, things are happening, some states will come on board, and others won't. There are three ways that this could work out reasonably well for US players.
1. Good--It could come to your state. In a state like mine with a decent population (about ten million) it would be a semidecent player pool, or at the very least, another option.
2. Better--There is talk of forming interstate compacts, where several states get together and enlarge the player pool. Since there are already multistate lotteries, this shouldn't be too hard ro figure out.
3. Best--As either of the first two options become more widely available, the US government will want a piece of that pie. People with cash income (including poker players in the US who play home games or in casinos or charity rooms) greatly underreport their winnings to the government, if they report them at all.*
But if I play on starsandstripespoker.com, there is an electronic trail of every hand that I play, and ever dollar that I win. The Internal Revenue Service would really enjoy that situation.
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*Advocating tax evasion in these forums is not allowed, and I am not doing so. As a musician I have always reported all of my cash income long before I was a poker player.
Last edited by Poker Clif; 05-06-2014 at 10:15 PM.
Reason: spelling