Quote:
Originally Posted by TheTyman9
You're a lawyer right? Is it not super illegal to be taking rake from running these online clubs?
I think the idea is that all chips on these apps are play chips, and this is the essence of no laws having been broken because all of the financial transactions are player to player, as if they are just random transactions that happened to take place.
Likely, it is one massive legal grey/gray area and that might be what is stopping any legal action being taken.
It does seem like a huge loophole that the people that organise games on these apps and are running them 100% as a business are running online poker and circumventing the normal laws.
It reminds me of window tax, which was around in European countries 2 to 3 centuries ago, a tax on property owners calculated on the number of windows that the property had. Many property owners would brick up their windows and so pay less tax.
Why didn't the government just change the law and say that a bricked up window still counts? Similarly, if the US or whoever wants to ban/restrict/regulate online poker then why don't they make what agents and game organisers are doing illegal?
A previous poster made a great point that Rampage, Mariano et al, may well have "legitimately" made a small fortune in rake as agents, while at the same time not doing anything outright shady such as withholding player funds without a very good reason to do so.
However, I typed legitimately in quotes, because IMO, what they are doing by promoting app play and by being agents in it, is the equivalent of your butcher selling you beef burgers that are actually made of horse meat, or selling you designer watches or sunglasses that are fake. In other words, they are acting unethically.
Because of this, they should not be treated with reverence as these fun loving vloggers who are always wiling to engage with their fans and who make happy, feel good content.
The reality is that they are ruthless business people with as it turns out, a paper thin facade masking their true character.