Internet poker soon to be legal in the United States?

[BBill]

This represents considerable progess for the US and Internet Poker.

This was posted earlier with an inappropriate title. You can skip the story and read the links to the actual bill.

link to the original post

[pokerrookie]

If internet poker is made legal in North Dakota, and is therefore more strictly regulated within the US, I think it hurts the game. Not only are they already considering "taxing" the game with a license fee, but they will be much more strict in not accepting bets from states which prohibit gambling, especially if the sites are located in the US. So, I think that puts about 47 or so of the states out of the equation. I am not so sure we should be rooting for this bill, but it is a good start toward making it legal everywhere.

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
Not only are they already considering "taxing" the game with a license fee, but they will be much more strict in not accepting bets from states which prohibit gambling, especially if the sites are located in the US.

[/ QUOTE ]

If the fees are excessive, the companies will not set up shop in the US.

The clarification of legal status alone must be worth a lot to IG firms. Didn't Jay Cohen of WSEX risk (and receive) jail time to prove that point?

I would not be surprised to see a few of them team up to prop up a "Deadwood-On-Net" kind of operation. If it attracted clients, fine, if not, they win anyway with new players who see the activity as legitimate and sign up at the no fee sites.

Don't worry about paying the $10 fee, either. A smart marketing team would waive this on sign up as a promotion, and then allow frequent play to count against it for the next year.

In fact, I doubt ND would even lie down to restrictions on other state's residents without a fight. They could make a case that this is unfair restriction on interstate commerce. Not saying they would win, but they should fight. That's their whole point here - make money off this phenomenon before anyone else.

[Recliner]

What I really want is for the Vegas and Atlantic City casinos to get in on this because hopefully one of them would do it right and they would be in position to offer trips as promotions which would rock. Plus I'll be legal by the time this happens. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[BBill]

I believe that if an established poker site became regulated and backed by a US bank the site would see a monumental increase in players.

Why? Well a lot of people I know will think long and hard about sending the equivalent of a paycheck or two of their hard earned cash to an offshore account / poker site that could theoretically disappear overnight with their money. When I started playing online poker it took me a while to feel comfortable even depositing $100.00 into any of these sites.
Also, regulation would take some of the trepidation people feel about Internet poker being legal.

If they know its legal, and they know their money is safe and they want to play poker they will deposit their money in a site that offers this security.

I think regulation and US government sanction of an Internet poker site would result in an exponential growth of US players for that site.

[DVO]

This is exactly right. Also, if legal, ther online poker sites could finally advertise, which would boost play as well.

[MicroBob]

To be more technical about it....they wouldn't have so many hoops regarding their advertising.

I see partypoker.net and pokerstars.net (their play-money sites) on TV all the time.
They even had the stars ads during the super-bowl day PSI on NBCleading me to believe they could have some ads on the heads-up tourneys on NBC in May.


But obviously the WPT is going out of their way to try to keep the ads out now....and sites like Yahoo and Google stopped displaying ads for online-sites in April, 2004 (partly at the request of the DOJ).


So while they are kinda/sorta able to advertise now...legalization (preferrably in more than one state) to clear the way for less hoop-jumping with the advertising would be very helpful indeed.



And obviously allowing companies like Harrah's or Caesar's or whoever to get involved in the online-poker game via some server in North Dakota would be REALLY terrific.

Who cares if Partypoker decides to move to North Dakota or not?

How many more people would be willing to try online-poker via Harrahs.com.


Also - think about the play-money tables at ESPN.com right now (you earn points....and someone gets a seat to the WSOP...I'm told it's the same software as Bodog).

They have a big banner at the top of ESPN.com to play poker there. They are going to run all those WSOP-qualifier tourney-circuit things from AC and New Orleans and elsewhere (kind of their own WPT) as well as the WSOP coverage (including a championship event that might be up to 7000 freaking players).



I know a few people who say they have played on the play-money tables at Yahoo.com.

I don't know what kind of traffic these play-money tables get...have never even looked at them...but think of the possibilities of:
REAL MONEY POKER at ESPN.com and Yahoo.com


The traffic would be phenomenal.
In the very least...they would be willing to accept banner-ads from online-poker at harrahs.com (they currently don't have partypoker ads at ESPN.com for example....almost certainly due to the grey-area legal-status).



I don't think this North Dakota thing will answer all our prayers to online-poker...and may, in fact, create more problems than it solves....but there ARE possibilities for unbelieveable growth that are worth considering.

[BBill]

I know a few people who say they have played on the play-money tables at Yahoo.com.

There are people here who would actually admit this??
I've got a few skeletons in my closet but playing Hold'em on Yahoo games takes the cake!

[MicroBob]

No.
They are not on here (by 'here' I assume you mean '2+2').

Contrary to popular belief....I do know actually know people OUTSIDE the 2+2 universe.

[MarkGritter]

[ QUOTE ]
This is exactly right. Also, if legal, ther online poker sites could finally advertise, which would boost play as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is some advertising now--- on my last flight on Northwest, there was a Pacific Poker ad in the inflight magazine.