Washingtonpost story supporting online poker check it out......

[scottieb668]

Please read washingtonpost artilce and like it.....

Make online poker legal? It already is. - The Washington Post



Make online poker legal? It already is.
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By Alfonse D’Amato and Al D’Amato, Friday, April 22, 10:23 AM
Throughout my life, one of the few constants as well as one of the great joys has been playing poker. It’s also something I’m quite good at. Like the time I was playing Texas hold ’em against an aggressive player who had been throwing down big bets all night. I remember matching him, bet for bet. The dealer laid down the final card — “the river” — and, since the straight I was working for never appeared, I had only a pair of jacks. I almost folded before I saw my opponent grab a $50 chip and rub it with his thumb in a clear “tell” that his hand was weak. I knew I had him, and raised. He folded. He’ll never know that I was bluffing, but he sure knew that I won the pot.

That’s the beauty of poker. My ability means that I can beat my opponent in spite of what hand I am dealt. Like any game, poker also brings heartbreaking losses. When I was in college, I once held four of a kind, a great hand with about a one in 4,000 chance of turning up. Still, I got beat by a straight flush — dealt once every 72,000 hands. But as any poker player knows, your skill at the game determines whether you win, not necessarily the cards.

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I think that’s why Americans, including politicians, are so enamored with poker: At the table, we control our own destiny. When I served in the U.S. Senate, some of my colleagues had a regular game, which was not unusual among members of Congress. Poker has long occupied legislators during the congressional calendar’s many late nights. In fact, it is said that when then-Vice President Harry Truman first heard that President Franklin Roosevelt had died, he was playing poker with House Speaker Sam Rayburn.

With so many poker players, you would never think that Congress would pass such ambiguous laws to regulate card-playing. Congress knows that poker is a game of skill. Congress knows that playing games of skill in American homes needn’t be outlawed. And Congress knows that, since poker is a game of skill that is legal in the home, it should be legal to play it online. Safe assumptions, right?

Wrong, according to the President Obama’s Justice Department as run by Attorney General Eric Holder. On April 15, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York indicted 11 people involved with the three largest Internet poker sites that welcome U.S. players, alleging money laundering and fraud. The domain names of the sites have been seized, and they have ceased domestic operations. Ten million Americans who play poker on the Internet are not able to do so — and they are angry about it. Only after players protested did the Department of Justice agree to allow access to money deposited in personal accounts on these Web sites.

This is an attack on Internet poker and American poker players like me. Through these strong-arm tactics, prosecutors think they can ban Internet poker. Instead, they are making millions of Americans victims in an attempt to make online poker illegal without the support of legislators or the public.

Internet poker does not violate any federal law or the laws of most states. The highest court that has ruled on the issue — the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in the 2002 In Re: MasterCard decision — stated that the 1961 Wire Act, anti-gambling legislation routinely cited by the Justice Department to malign online poker, applied only to online sports betting. Most federal and state laws define gambling as games of chance. But poker is a game where a player’s success is predominantly determined by that player’s skill. Although the Department of Justice continues to insist that Internet poker is a game of chance, the law — and any poker player’s experience — just doesn’t support that contention.

No one, including Holder, suggests that it is illegal for an individual to play poker on the Internet. And that is as it should be. It is unfathomable that policymakers would tell adults that they cannot enjoy a game of Texas hold ’em — in which the player’s ability has direct impact on the outcome — in the privacy of their homes on computers and Internet connections they pay for. Yet these same lawmakers think it’s perfectly fine for folks to bet on horses or play the lottery, two forms of gambling not remotely in players’ control. Why the Justice Department feels it can roll the dice and pick one form of gaming to ban over another is beyond me, and it is beyond the millions of Americans who are being denied their hobby and, for professional players, their livelihood.

If I were still in the Senate, I would recognize that it is time to clarify federal law: Online poker is legal. Congress should license and regulate Internet poker and allow Americans to play the game they love on trusted, safe online Web sites without fear that the FBI will come knocking.

Until that happens, poker players will hold accountable those ultimately responsible for this outrage: Obama, Holder and those in Congress who resist poker-licensing legislation. As a well-known poker player himself, the president should know that the Southern District of New York has overreached in spectacular fashion and should be reined in. Congress should hold the administration accountable for this outrageous affront to individual freedom and quickly pass legislation that would codify once and for all the right of Americans to play the greatest American game.

True to form, American poker players like me are not settling for the hand we have been dealt by the actions of the Justice Department or the inaction of Congress. We are fighting to protect our freedom to play online poker. We are fighting for Internet freedom writ large. We are fighting for our winning hand. And, this time, we’re not bluffing.

Alfonse D’Amato is a former three-term U.S. senator from New York and chairman of the Poker Players Alliance.

[scottieb668]

click and go to washington post and like it...... check it out

[dogface]

great post thanks for this as i have missed it somewhere and it was great reading

[jimmyd1953]

golf is the greatest usa game to play if u play decent and football is the best game to watch, poker is not that much fun to me. if my health was better i wouldnt play at all. i quit from 1978 until 2009, i probably only played a total of 24 hrs of poker in those 29 years. it still should be legal just as pot should be and i quit a long time ago. stupid laws from stupid people

[ProBlackbird]

For a moment ago I thought Washington wasn't legal to play Poker, but they support Poker

[trev050377]

ill believe it when im allowed to play poker on ftp again which wont be for a long time

[scottieb668]

yes trev i think it will be a long time befor fulltilt is back to us.... i miss it to....

[abwil2]

Sad part scottie is that online poker is not a game of skill(at least not at the micro or lower limits, why odds should change cause of buy in i have no clue). The rng just isnt random WAY TOO MANY SUKOUTS from players you really want in that pot but yet they are constantly winning. I used to play live 5 nights a week (til wifey put a stop to it) yet in those 5 nights of turny play and some were bar games, i wouldnt see in 5 nights what i see in 1 sng, let alone a turny.
i think tho that if we want to as adults we should be able to play any online game whether it be casinos or poker. yet they(gov) act like its the sites fault or ours for wanting to play in a relaxed atmosphere(home) with our PJ's on. Unless we are out robbing a bank or commiting a real crime who should be able to tell us what we can play online? Why they have had there heads stuck up there own azz to realize how much money in taxes are to be made allowing us to play online is beyond me. I understand them wanting there cut as Brick and mortar have to pay taxes but they should have had this fixed years ago and have it regulated here so that we didnt have to play on off shore sites(where it isnt regulated). They will in time that im sure of, but how long is the question

[synergybros]

abwil2, you have to put into consideration how many hands you're playing online compared to playing at the bar. HUGE difference, hence why you see so many suckouts. the fulltilt algorithms are 100% legit, (as hard as it is to believe), that's the case. the problem with the government is not 'you sitting around in your PJ's'... it's you not paying taxes! it's simple, in Canada, we pay taxes on our poker winnings, or! we spend some time in jail. simple, case closed -

[abwil2]

Yes synergybros i understand you play many more hands per hour online vrs live but when u play 5 nights in turnys and there not just 100 hands vrs sng rarely goes beyond that , you will see 3 to 4x as many bad beats vrs live. 100 hands is 100 hands no matter how quick you get there right?

Now as far as paying taxes at casinos here you dont pay taxes if you dont win til 1200 or more, 600 at the horse betting tracks/casinos(yet they still pay taxes on the vig or rake). So therefore most would never pay taxes anyways if your only withdrawing 500 at one time. Its the poker sites not paying taxes and what they make be it vig(like the 10+1) or rake at cash games. They pay no taxes period not to just here and they arent regulated by any trust worthy group(KGA or whatever it is isnt a regulating entity as they dont really care about integrity, just the money they get for hosting sites).

Believe me im dumb enough to keep playing even tho i dont really believe the rng is random online. Its more action orientated. But i keep hoping my best hand will be "lucky enough" to hold someday, which hasnt happened yet LOL Sure it happens but no where near what odds say it should. if i am a 70 30 fav most of the time im only winning 40% of the time which isnt close to the odds holding true. I dont really want to get started on this subject as i can go on and on, im just hoping it will get regulated and have someone over seeing the algorithms or rng's, where as right now there is no group that pays taxes over seeing that happens.