Quote:
Originally Posted by Confluence84
This forum, and this thread (and predecessor) have been over the "gov't waiting to legalize pokers first, then give us our manies" theory many times already. In some ways, it seemed to make sense, although far fetched.
Then again, people thought it far fetched that FTP wouldn't be able to pay out just like Pstars did after black friday.
People thought it far fetched that PStars would jump in and buy a sinking ship.
All I know is, if it happens to go down that online pokers become legalized on a fed level, and suddenly the feds are like "here, have some manies to deposit!", I will lololololololololololol @ the government, the world, business, and just the way things seemed so far fetched... and still managed to be the case in reality. It would really warp my perspective on events and "coincidences" for the rest of my life. Then again, this whole tragedy since April 15th 2011 has changed the way I view the world already.
I don't think that's far-fetched, at all. I think that was part of the point of the UIEGA in the first place.
Situation: American casinos want to get into the online poker market, but two enormous poker sites that operate offshore and provide essentially pseudo-untaxable competition (of course, many poker players pay their taxes lawfully, but it's very easy for people to evade their taxes because of the dynamic).
1) Pass oppressive anti-poker restrictions on financial institutions
2) Poker sites circumvent law and commit fraud
3) Wait and build evidence while they hang themselves
FIVE YEARS LATER
4) Seize funds and shut down the two major sites from US operations
POSSIBLY IN THE FUTURE
5) Legalize poker, allowing casinos to corner the market with no PokerStars or Full Tilt to compete with in the US
I don't think these things are a coincidence.
I also don't think Full Tilt's extra malfeasance and mismanagement was foreseen by anybody, and so they probably aren't very happy about poker being given that extra black eye and would like to get the money back to the poker playing public, not because they love the American people so much and are so honorable, but because they want people flush with cash when these sites open (whenever that is).