On Friday, Frist succeeded in getting a ban on Internet gambling attached to the Port Security bill. Being close to mid-term elections, the bill passed in both houses.
It disgusts me that a ban on Internet gambling, which has nothing to do with port security, gets attached to the bill while other security measures get left off by the Republicans.
shrug Welcome to D.C.
Yeah, I know, but usually isn’t it things like bridges and the like that get added to these things?
Wasn’t this what the whole Jack Abramoff thing was about?
Online poker is imploding as we speak. Party (the industry giant), Pacific, the Cryptologic network, and others have all said US players are no longer welcome. Many other big names (like Stars) are “preparing statements”. My nicely profitable hobby is going down the drain.
If your in the US, you have no idea how thoroughly bizzare that whole “adding unconnected items to a bill” thing seems to everyone else. British politics is a total flipping disaster, but even here, trying to attach an unrelated item to a bill would just make the politician in question a laughing stock. I’m suprised voters in the US don’t kick up more of a fuss.
We’re stupid like that. See, if we actually tried to fight it, the people that are supposed to change the law are the people that are doing it in the first place, so we’re screwed up.
No big loss. Better leave my PrOn alone, though!
The bill is extremely more lax than the originally proposed legislation; while it effectively attempts to restrict banks from dealing directly with gambling sites through credit cards or direct EFTs, the problem is:
Most credits have been restricted from gambling sites for years now unless you filled out a special permission form. No biggie.
EFTs are usually done through a myriad of third parties that are almost impossible to track, hence movement of money through banking will probably not get affected to any degree once the panic settles
The bill did not include the wire/telecommunications statute requiring ISPs to block gambling sites
Lawmakers and banks still have 270 days to figure out how to do what’s stated anyway
So it’s going to take awhile, and it’s very watered down, seemingly only concentrated on banks. At the most, people will be forced to mail in checks to deposit to online books and deposit checks from a third party bank (many overseas books use Canadian banks for instance) to get their money back.
— Alan
I’m curious to see how the banks deal with this–it’s probably the best chance we have to get it repealed. Also, what’s interesting is they lead this up to the individual states to make a provision. If I read that right, a state like Nevada that allows these transactions, could set up an online poker site and even people from other states would be able to play on it.
The bill only blocks transactions TO the gambling sites, not from it. This means your money in those accounts is safe.
In the US they send swat teams to shoot and kill gamblers, unless they are gambling with one of the abramoff approved groups.
I think it’s less that than all the physical gambling establishments fighting a competitor.
From what I was reading, Vegas might help fight the bill. Because half of the WSOP entrants are from online, and the sheer size of the event now, it brings a lot of money to Vegas. It makes sense, PokerStars spends over a million in Vegas alone on booth space.
If these sites go away, the WSOP will be down to a few thousand at best.
Considering Bush appointed Gonzales and before him Ashcroft with a specific mandate to crush porn, you’re out of luck there. They’ve been doing a pretty good job so far actually.
Both Ashcroft and Gonzales stated when they took office something like “I’m here to get rid of porn”, etc… My google-fu is not strong enough to cite.
I ignored the buzz about this legislation, because I’ve been gaming online for 5 years, and every 18 months or so there’s some cry of “ONLINE POKER IS D0MED” which turns out to be inconsequential.
This one’s different; as Dave Markell said, the biggest site (Party) has clearly stated they won’t accept US customers once this is signed into law.
Thanks for the thread; I’ve transferred all my money out of Party just in case. Hopefully there’ll be some way to still play once the dust settles. I can deal with taking longer to clear deposits; it’ll probably reduce the number of impulsive buy-ins from folks with compulsive gambling habits.
The thing that pisses me off is how Frist got this attached literally at the last minute to this inrelated piece of legislation. The word didn’t get out until Friday night and the vote was right after it.
The fact that people vote on legislation they haven’t read should be a GIGANTIC BIG FUCKING WARNING FLAG!!! WTFOMGLOLAYBABTU!
Alas…
Fuck is not 5 letters long. But FUCK
If it’s good enough for the Patriot Act, it’s good enough for some podunk gambling legislation.
Go look up any given bill. They’re earmarked to shit and back for the most part; even if our representatives weren’t busy raising money and seducing children they probably wouldn’t have the time to become educated on every bill they vote on.