What the sites plan to do about the S.627

[Hootie McBoob]

this skillpoker thing could only get off the ground if the state itself (nevada) okayed online gaming.

the catch is the federal wire tap act, which prohibits sending transmissions across state lines for gambling purposes. in short, internet technology of recognizing and restricting access to only instate computers would be required to avoid Congress swooping down and invalidating the grant of online gaming. that technology is apparently not viable as we blog.

as for whether the game is skill or non-skill, is this an attempt to end around the gaming license? or are skill gaming licenses easier to get? could someone fill me in on this? i know that blackjack is defined as a game of chance in nevada (thus it is actually illegal to count cards in the silver state). at any rate, i don't see being able to outwit the 9 million pound gorilla on this one, but it also shouldn't be so quickly dismissed as other posters have said.

[HUSKER'66]

Hootie, It is not illegal in the state of Nevada to "count cards". However, the casinos have the right to refuse "action" to whomever they choose. Just like the signs you see in restaurants etc... "we reserve the right to refuse service.....". This is a myth made up by ???? and it continues to fester, but ask anyone from the gaming commision in Nevada or any other states that have casinos and you will find that the act of card counting is not against the law.

[jek187]

This is a response from Lee Jones that came in this morning via PM.



Hi -
You may be aware that I'm working for PokerStars right now. We are working on a reply to you. I want to make sure that we tell you everything we know, but without saying anything that could be construed as legal advice.

I think you've done everybody a wonderful service by contacting all the sites with your question; I want PokerStars to give you the best response yet. Give us a day or two to come up with the most intelligent answer we can.

Thanks, Lee


While I'm certainly getting very excited to see this response, I can be patient on this. I *know* Stars will give us a response, and the periodic updates that they haven't forgotten us are nice.

[Hung]

This is a response from Lee Jones that came in this morning via PM.

You see that the sites are waiting for each other. Everyone wants to say something, but they wait and see what happens to the other responses. Stars has done well. They sit back and watch and now they're gonne steal the show.
Yesterday I thought about this. What am I going to do if there's no online poker anymore? I could still play, but there're no fish anymore.
It's gonna be so weird.

[jek187]

Dear JEK187:

Thank you so much for contacting PokerStars regarding the Unlawful
Internet Gambling/Funding Prohibition Act (S.627). We are concerned about
this too, and are reviewing the potential implications of the Act should
it pass.

Before I go further, I should note that I'm not an attorney and this is
definitely not legal advice. Our legal counsel is reviewing S.627 as
well, and that, of course, will influence how we respond.

First, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. This kind of legislation
has come up many times before, and has never been agreed to and signed.
Needless to say, we hope that that trend will continue. We encourage you
(and all of your online poker playing friends) to contact your Congressmen
and Senators. Tell them that you don't think it's any business of theirs
how you spend your recreational time (or pursue your living). You're not
laundering funds for terrorists; you're playing poker. You would be
astonished at the power of a well-written and polite letter to an elected
official, and I hope you will write such letters. When you write your
letter, you might remind your representative that PokerStars donated
$25,000 to St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis in celebration of
Chris Moneymaker's World Series of Poker win. We are part of the community
and give back to it.

There is also a small, but finite, possibility that with proper lobbying,
we can get poker excluded from this bill. Other states (such as
California) have excluded poker from gambling bills because poker contains
a strong element of skill (as you well know). We would love to see such
an exemption in whatever passes the U.S. Senate.

That said, should S.627 pass, I believe there will still be ways to
legally transfer funds between you and PokerStars. You will just have to
wait and see what they turn out to be.

Be assured that we are taking this matter seriously. As we learn more
about S.627 and its implications, we will pass that information on to our
customers.

Also be assured that we are financially prepared for any contingencies
should S.627 pass. Your player funds are safe. We keep enough funds in a
liquid and a completely segregated account (that is not used for
operating expenses) to cover all players deposits at any time.

Finally, we are also working with other online poker sites to see what
we can do as an industry to keep online poker legal everywhere.

I want to thank you again for contacting us, and hope you'll continue to
do so any time you wish. And, of course, thank you for playing at
PokerStars.

Best regards,
Lee Jones


I think this is an excellent response and worth the wait. I'll leave it to others to comment further.

[jek187]

The following sites have not responded to me:
Party: no surprise
ICP: even less of a surprise
Golden Palace: very surprised, their customer support is normally very good. However, it is run by Victor Chandler, and VC doesn't accept American customers. So, they could be clueless on this subject. We shall see.

I have resent emails to the aforementioned sites, containing this:
I sent your site an email at approximately 4 AM EDT on 8/2/03. I still have not received a response. The original email now follows:


Hopefully we'll get some more responses.

[jek187]

That is hilarious. I'm glad all my info is confidential there. lol, what a bunch of crack smoking morons.

[jek187]

I have replied to The Gaming Club's wonderful email. Here is the reply:

Hello Tanya,

I'm afraid your email was not of assistance. I was not asking if it was legal to play in the US, but what plans your site, or the industry in general, had to avoid losing American business if S.627 passes. Please reread my previous email for more details. Thank you.


We'll see if we get the same form letter back or not.

[yct]

lmao, did they also move their customer support team to india? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[yct]

very professional response. you can see at least they put a lot of thoughts before answering your question.

i guess i'll do their 20% bonus now after reading their excellent response. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]