It's a ways off, and Congress will have their say...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj

If the link doesn't work, go to Google News and type in online poker washington dc

"The city council approved a budget last year allowing the district's lottery to operate a poker website accessible only inside district boundaries. City officials say the window for Congress to raise objections to the law was due to expire Thursday, allowing it to take effect."

This would be too ironical.

obg

I am unable to tell whether the PPA has been fighting against this or not!

LMFAO, this is too rich.

Interesting question, since D.C. isn't part of any state and is, in fact a FEDERAL district, what are the implications re: intrastate vs interstate (I'm assuming that it wouldn't affect the rest of the country legislatively) vis a vis the courts? Also, regardless of whether it becomes a viable business in D.C., this would be a HUGE PR victory for ipoker legalization in that Congress pretty much controls what D.C. does and wouldn't it be delicious to say,
"It's good enough for D.C. and Congress didn't object to THEM getting ipoker, so why should they object to the rest of the U.S. having it."
I'm almost giddy at the prospect of the political hay to be made.

If anyone out there can make the case that it is possible to create and run an online poker site in an area limited to 600,000 total residents and make a profit, I may change my opinion.

Otherwise it has to be recognized that a law allowing for an "inter-city" online poker site is only, at best, a symbolic victory.

The PPA supports symbolic victories. It is a good thing that the DC council approves of regulating online poker. But until and unless the DC government tweaks this law to allow for DC skins of a network that includes other justisdictions, this law will not have a much of a practical effect.

Skallagrim

With greatest respect, I disagree to the part I bolded.

Once out, the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. It may be the catalyst to embolden others to go forward with much better plans, perhaps even a linking of states with international skins.

Someone has to go first, and D.C., as I posted earlier, how ironical!

obg

It is now Friday, anything from Congress Kev?

obg

nm. same article

Congress does not object to lawful intrastate IP, sorry, try again.

Who said anything about intrastate IP? Obviously I was talking about NATIONAL legislation... FAIL, try again.

PPA might want to ask the WSJ for a correction since it was identified as "A group representing the interest of offshore poker sites"

I agree. The hypocrisy of congressional lawmakers, allowing themselves an activity while in DC, they have attempted to deny to the tax payer who pay them to have that opportunity, would be a rhetorical club the PPA could make good use of.

I agree too. And, by my way of usage of the English language, that amounts to a significant symbolic victory. Every vote in favor of online poker is something of a victory for us politically.

The interesting thing about this DC bill is that it leaves almost all the details to be worked out later...so its hard to predict what actually will happen if this passes.

But what is pretty safe to predict is pretty much what Pappas said: there is really no economic way to run an online poker site exclusively for a total population of 600,000. At least not without some overt linking to an existing network that provides the software and the access to a larger player pool - and how likely is that to be approved?

So DC players should not expect to have a realistic, playable alternative to the status quo as a result of this bill passing. Although there is some hope, the odds seem bad. That is why I said I do not expect this to have any real practical effect.

But the mere fact that any legislative body recognizes the value of creating an openly legal and regulated online poker market is always good for our cause.

I overall agree this is a positive development for us.

Hope that explains my thoughts better.

Skallagrim

Could DC do a deal w NV?