Minor Stumbling Block in the Poker Explosion
 

Reading the Gaming section of the online Las Vegas Sun, a story from the New York Times News Service related that the U.S. Marshals seized $3.5 million from Discovery Communications (the parent of Discovery Channel) that was paid to it by Tropical Paradise (parent of ParadisePoker) for advertising on the WPT and the Discovery Channel Website. The full story can be read at

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/st...516947109.html

Re: Minor Stumbling Block in the Poker Explosion
 

There are rumors here in Vegas that the Justice Department is going to go after Harrah's for accepting WSOP satellite money from the offshore poker rooms also.

Ashcroft must go.

Re: Minor Stumbling Block in the Poker Explosion
 

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There are rumors here in Vegas that the Justice Department is going to go after Harrah's for accepting WSOP satellite money from the offshore poker rooms also.
Ashcroft must go.

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What, Harrah's is accepting Costa Rican currency now? How does DOJ know where that money came from? It could have been dividend checks from an off-shore Halliburton subsidiary. Hell, Stars or Party might be a Halliburton subsidiary for all we know.

Party and Stars and the rest need to get their act together, pool some money, and hire a big-time American tort shyster like John Edwards. That might cost them like about a day's rake. Online gambling is an easy target for DOJ. It looks like they are doing something, it's an emotionally strong issue with the anti-vice crowd, and it's all being run by a bunch of dang furriners anyways, so who cares. I would think a good attorney could get an injunction against this kind of crap, and keep DOJ tied up in court until they decide they got better ways to spend our money.

Re: Minor Stumbling Block in the Poker Explosion
 

Besides, as much as I'd like to get rid of Ashcroft and the Bible-beaters, there isn't a shred of evidence that John Kerry has any intention of changing the DOJ's approach to offshore gaming sites. Didn't Barney Frank take his own party to task saying something like (and I paraphrase here) "gambling is to liberals what pornography is to conservatives."

Re: Minor Stumbling Block in the Poker Explosion
 

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there isn't a shred of evidence that John Kerry has any intention of changing the DOJ's approach to offshore gaming sites.

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You mean this an issue that Kerry hasn't come out on both sides of yet? If nothing else, a change of administration would take the heat off this relatively minor issue while they all concentrated on important stuff, like who gets what office, and his desk is bigger than mine, and let's investigate those crooks in the previous administration.

But ulitmately, Kerry is of the liberal school that believes us common folk are too stupid to make decisions for ourselves, and need to be protected by Big Brother. You are right that it is highly improbable that a Kerry administration would do anything to legalize it. The question is what would they do, if anything, to try to shut it down. The only bright spot is that internet gambling should be relatively low on the list of priorities. It just isn't a big enough issue with the special interest groups and the swing voters now.

I've got it, let's form the NPA, the National Poker Association. A big lobbying group, putting pressure on lawmakers to legalize online poker. "They can shut down my Party account when they pry my mouse from my cold, dead hand."

Re: Minor Stumbling Block in the Poker Explosion
 

"Kerry is of the liberal school that believes us common folk are too stupid to make decisions for ourselves, and need to be protected by Big Brother."

As far as I can see, we've never had an administration that was more like Big Brother than the current one. I find it hard to imagine that Kerry could be any worse.

Re: Minor Stumbling Block in the Poker Explosion
 

If nothing else, a change of administration would take the heat off this relatively minor issue while they all concentrated on important stuff, like who gets what office, and his desk is bigger than mine, and let's investigate those crooks in the previous administration.

Yes, indeed. When the incumbent loses the Presidency, there is a period of relative gridlock, and we libertarians love gridlock.

Re: Minor Stumbling Block in the Poker Explosion
 

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"Kerry is of the liberal school that believes us common folk are too stupid to make decisions for ourselves, and need to be protected by Big Brother."

As far as I can see, we've never had an administration that was more like Big Brother than the current one. I find it hard to imagine that Kerry could be any worse.

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The lines are starting to blur. But I still think that philosophically, liberals are much more concerned about micro-managing individual lives than are conservatives. I think that DOJ's action against internet gambling is more reflective of Ashcroft's puritanical soul than of administration policy. I don't think Bush minds people doing a little drinking and gambling. I think Ashcroft lays awake nights, worrying that someone might be having fun somewhere.

Re: Minor Stumbling Block in the Poker Explosion
 

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Yes, indeed. When the incumbent loses the Presidency, there is a period of relative gridlock, and we libertarians love gridlock.

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I think that history shows that the country does best in terms of jobs, growth, civil liberties, etc., when one party is in the White House and the other controls Congress. Doesn't matter which is which. Some say this is because they compromise to find the best parts of both sides. I am cynical and believe that it is because they are too busy fighting with each other to get anything done, which is to the benefit of the country.

Re: Minor Stumbling Block in the Poker Explosion
 

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...and we libertarians love gridlock.

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So did Madison, at least when he wrote The Federalist #10. But maybe that's what you were saying?