poker legislation

www.dudeopia.com

There are several things in progress regarding the legality of online poker. I'm perfectly fine with the situation US players are in. We certainly want it made legal to attract a lot of new fish and lower costs for the companies so they can lower the rake and give more bonuses although they already make a boatload. The government has 2 lines of thought, votes and taxes. Online poker is in its current state because of votes and has bills to legalize because of taxes.

The Menendez bill has several problems. First it states one has to be 21 in order to play, ignoring the adult 18 year old who can vote, smoke, join the army, and gamble at casinos in states that don't restrict it to 21. The major problem is that this bill will tax 10% of deposits. Many on the 2p2 legislation forum have accepted the government getting theirs, but I have not. Arguments have been made that the site can cover this cost because of lower operating costs. This makes sense until you consider the high stakes games where a fish will lose thousands while the table has raked hundreds.

Barney Frank also has a bill going through the rounds and I'm unsure about the specifics of it. I have heard talk about a 3% on all wagers.

30 million was seized from several bank accounts in California owned by a payment processing company used by every poker site that allows US players. This company is being charged with bank fraud, money laundering, and other stuff related to illegal internet gambling. This scared US players because paper checks were unavailable for a bout 1.5 weeks. In the end $30 million is nothing for these companies and they have a solid shot of winning the court battles.

As soon as the government gets a tax taste of online poker the taxes will only go up. They will squeeze the life out of this untapped cash cow until the high stakes superstars and 3rd world shortstackers are the only ones left winning off the fish. Because banning or prohibiting online poker is impossible we need to wait and get legislation made with the poker player in mind.