Online poker has definitely not helped the economy. Does anybody here have any idea how many dollars it has sucked out these past few years? Me personally, probably 20k. Now imagine that times 10 million. Does anybody have any idea how much is raked out before people withdraw? No, nobody does, because they don't want you to know. I'd bet you it is 60% at least. So while I love to play the game, I have to admit it has probably done alot of harm in the big scheme of things. Kind of like food chain economics, the smallest fish are broke, eventually everyone is broke. Kind of hard for me to put that one into words, but hopefully you get the picture. I know some here have gotten rich, but seriously, think about all the money that is zapped away to nowhere, I think it has played a part in our economic collapse. Your Thoughts?

Mason was good enough to allow Mat to put up a forum-wide announcement about this at some mods' request. It links to a Legislation thread about this, and can be seen at the top of all the forums.

Announcement: US Moves To Implement Rules Banning Most Internet Gambling?

I left a message on the website.

And to "thesuitor". . . part of living in what is supposed to be a free country is giving people choice over their personal life. Yes people have gambling problems, but is it really the place of the government to stop those people? My dad has an eating problem and for the most part its destroyed his life, does that mean we should ban restraunts (thats where his problem started). When does it stop? for every person that has a problem are we as a country supposed to remove that freedom for everyone else? How about the internet in general? There are many documented cases of peoples life being ruined by world wide web, do we then need to get rid of it to save a few people?

Zero possibility, the combined sum of all online poker money lost/raked isn't even a 1/1000th of a drop in the bucket in relation to our economic woes.

More importantly though, even if it was the case...it is still not our governments role to decide what we should be able to do with the money that we earn.

Signed up and 'dugg' the story. Painless

No, I don't think they should ban it. However, I do think as part of regulatino they should require people to submit earnings info to the poker sites. They should cap the amount you are able to deposit based on this. I know it wouldn't stop all people from being degens, but It would stop alot from spending too much. But my original point is that as the economy gets worse and worse, I dont see how a hundred thousand people trashing their bank accounts with the click of a mouse can help our situation.

Dugg, called and sent the Fed. form.

This was good to see...Glad to hear the Mods were active...Wish he would've linked to the "action thread" to make the calls and e-mail...

Would that be this one?

Let's all call the Fed to tell them to hold off on the UIGEA regs

I've made the suggestion.

$1k says calling and emailing wont stop them, anyone want to take the bet?

It's been added.

Your contribution to this thread is greatly appreciated.

US isn't banning poker as played in various corporate casinos across the nation, they are banning online poker as played over the internet through non US corporations, ducy?

Thank you

I call this a troll post.

Dug and done. We just want to be heard people.

How is that a troll post ? It's a legit point.

I dug and emailed. Will messaging these people do anything? Arent these the people trying to push this regardless of what we say? Shouldnt we message whoever votes on this? Who votes on this?

don't be ignorant!!

w is a pole smoking asswipe. this is possible end of the world s*it

pointing out that the government typically doesn't give a **** about its citizens and does whatever it wants, is not some great point. Yes the government is bull****, and cares very little what we think, but this doesn't mean we should give up and never fight. At the very least calling/writing and other protesting is about principal, if you do and say nothing as the government bulldozes more and more rights, then you are just a sheep.

UIGEA is already a LAW...

The FED is our last chance to stop or effect the Regs from being implemented...The Fed and the Treasury both must sign off on the Reg before they can be implemented...The Fed represents the banks...Fed officials are not elected....

Sent an email... Everyone should do the same.

sent.

also maybe we should message people who work for Obama or anyone we can to make sure they know about this? So if it does pass barack can handle it asap?

Im really confused. Haven't the banks already cut off all funding to gambling sites? I haven't been able to use my cards for years. What exactly is going to change if this gets implemented?

Read the legislation threads for more info. The final regulations haven't been released yet so it is difficult to speculate.

I created an email template you can send to friends or family that might not be familiar with the legislation or online gambling: