Could Be An Outlaw Any Day Now

I'm really getting nervous about the bill to regulate online poker in the US. Anytime the government sticks their nose into anything they usually make it worse.

First, is the fifteen month blackout where no sites (specifically Stars and Full Tilt, who will voluntarily pull out hoping to get licensed here) will be allowed to operate in the US. (Of course there will be other sites that don't care about getting a US license that will continue to serve US players. It'll be a pain in the ass moving my roll.)

Also awful, is that if this passes, it's up to each individual state if residents can play online "legally". Except for a handful of states being automatically opted-in, all the the rest of the states are automatically set as opt-out for online poker. So then it has to pass in that state whether you can play or not. I've already read that MA is likely to be an opt-out state with the Treasurer against online poker. Couple that with the politicians that want casinos in the state likely to be against it since it's competition, it's likely that I'll have to play "illegally". Also a lot of states don't like the competition to their own gambling cash cow, the lottery.

Then there's the segregation of the player pool to only people in the US. I suppose that makes it easier for them to tax things, since they can't charge US taxes on people from other countries. Also they're forcing any room serving US customers "legally" to have a main office in the US. The loss of foreign fish is terrible.

What we're going to get is what's best for the Vegas casinos, who are huge donators to the senator sponsoring the bill. The players, who seem to be divided on being for or against this bill, are getting the shaft.

Hilarious that they want to try to fine the offshore sites that won't bend over $1M USD per day. Like they'd really ever get that money.

I hope this doesn't pass, but I'm researching my alternatives.