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So long, Party Poker

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Pilot, Oct 13, 2006.

  1. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    Party Poker is officially turned off for US customers. Poker Stars is staying open as is Full Tilt, I think, and probably a few smaller ones. Bodog, too. I cleared out my PP accounts last night. I called first, they said they'd mail checks for everyone with any money still in their account, but I figured with that many people getting a check, mine was bound to get screwed up, so I cashed out at the last minute.

    Neteller's still up too, and plans to stay that way, I think. I don't think I'll drop any more money in the other sites until we see what happens though.

    Damn ... how am I going to give other people my money now? Just send them checks?

    I think I saw someone else point it out, but man, how many people will be in the WSOP next year? Back to like 500. I read somewhere prize money was expected to go way up again -- $15, $20 million for the winner -- but obviously not now.

    Thank God the government saved me from myself.
     
  2. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Britain's Sportingbet has pulled out of the United States ahead of a ban on Internet gambling by selling its U.S. operations to private investors for $1.

    http://www.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/10/13/sportingbet.sale.reut/index.html
     
  3. MrWrite

    MrWrite Member

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15240569/

    this guy says the ban will be hard to enforce
     
  4. Pringle

    Pringle Active Member

    Are they going to ban sports gambling online, too? :mad:

    The morality police really piss me off sometimes.

    I understand that gambling can be a problem for people, but no more than smoking or drinking, both legal.

    I have $10 on each of three games this weekend - Purdue money line, Oregon money line, Michigan minus-six. It'll be $30 well spent as I enjoy the games on Saturday, hoping to cash in on like $16.

    But the moral police, apparently, are swarming into action to take that little bit of fun away from me. What b.s. I'm not hurting anybody, including myself.
     
  5. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    LONDON -- NETeller PLC, which transfers money for Web gambling companies, improved its NetDirect service to enable customers to block payments from specific countries including the United States, where laws have been passed to shut down on-line gambling.
     
  6. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Found this on another message board. Don't know if the guy wrote it or cut-and-pasted it from somewhere else. It was posted 10/2. Pretty interesting ...

    ----

    I wanted to share the results of the research that I have done on the Unlawful Internet Enforcement Act of 2006 since its passage in the US Congress this past weekend. The key to this legislation which most people fail to grasp, is that nowhere in this bill are penalties defined for gamblers or bookmakers nor has internet gambling been made a crime by the Act.

    To summarize what was passed, this bill is designed to prevent the use of payment instruments (credit cards, fund transfers, etc.) for certain forms of online gambling that are defined as “unlawful Internet gambling.” The bill requires financial institutions to identify and block payments related to so-called unlawful Internet gambling transactions. If there is a violation, the government may file a lawsuit (known as an injunction) to prevent or restrain the violation but gamblers and bookmakers are not going to be arrested because the Act does not make it a crime to place or receive wagers.

    The bill provides a special exemption for three types of Internet gambling: (1) horse racing under the Interstate Horseracing Act (IHA), so OTBs and account wagering systems can remain in business, (2) Indian gambling that takes place on a reservation or between two reservations; and (3) Internet gambling that occurs solely within a state’s own borders, referred to as Intra-state gambling.

    The Act directs the Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury to "develop regulations that would direct financial institutions to identify and block certain types of financial transactions connected with unlawful Internet gambling." This is to be done within a period of 270 days (nine months) from the time the Act is signed into law and will only happen after serious discussions with the powerful banking sector has voiced strong opposition to provisions that require banks to block electronic funds transfers or e-check payments to online gambling sites. These provisions are essentially broad and unenforceable, the banks claim; moreover, even if it were possible to surmount technical obstacles, prospective gamblers could easily use alternative means to finance such transactions. The Federal Reserve has been given a very difficult task by Congress and one that they are not too thrilled about as their relationship with the banking industry is a very close one. The banks feel that the burden being placed on them is unfair and unenforceable.

    How will banks possibly be able to monitor every account in the country to ensure that transfers are not being made to gambling sites? If you think this will be an easy task I suggest that you walk into your bank this afternoon and withdraw a substantial sum of money like say, $10,000.00. It will be nearly half an hour before the teller is able to check and double check your account, consults with a supervisor, check for pending transactions, get supervisor approval, go to the vault to get the cash and then finally count it out twice before counting it out again in front of you.

    Now, tell me again how the banks are going to monitor every account in America? Even if they were somehow able to accomplish this, the offshore books are smart enough to adjust and have deposits sent to a bank account rather than to a site that is identified as a gambling portal.

    Although we see that a few shortsighted offshore gaming sites are bailing out on their US customers, most of these are publicly traded companies and their board of directors has a duty to protect the stockholders investments. Shares of PartyGaming Plc, Sportingbet Plc and 888 Holdings Plc plummeted, wiping out $7 billion of market value, after this weekend’s developments. This is clearly an overreaction from investors based primarily on the public perception that this is the end of online gambling in America. That is simply not the reality of the situation, at least not in the near future. American gamblers will still find a way to pay their online bets. That's because despite the new law, the majority of the more than 2,000 offshore online gambling companies will continue to take bets from the United States. The smaller companies who are not publicly traded will continue to operate as they are outside of US Jurisdiction and have nothing to lose and a lot to gain if the larger, public companies refuse to do business with US residents.
     
  7. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    There exists a strong possibility that some countries such as Gibraltar and Antigua may be considering legal action against the United States for the tremendously damaging effect that this Act will have on their economies. Major online payment processors such as NeTeller have already indicated that they plan on joining in on any pending litigation that might materialize as a result of this bill. A third party risk meeting is slated this coming Thursday in London.

    On another note anyone who believes that this is in some way the beginning of legalized online gambling in America has been listening to a snake oil salesman and probably sampling their product as well. Strong support for the online gambling industry has come from a one-time foe, Las Vegas.The Vegas casino industry has developed a unique synergy with what was once considered their nemesis, thanks in part to the World Series of Poker. The WSOP attracts hundreds of thousands of people to Las Vegas during the months of July and August, fueled almost exclusively by internet poker rooms that sponsor the event.

    Gambling on the Internet has become a $12 billion a year business and this new legislation lacks the teeth to even put a dent in that kind of revenue. NeTeller has already come out this morning with a statement addressing the situation:

    "It is currently unclear how NETELLER, a European company, with no assets, presence or employees in the US, would be affected by this bill. Once the regulations have been written, NETELLER will have a clearer view of which companies are affected, how those companies will be expected to comply, and any possible resulting impact on NETELLER and its US facing business. NETELLER continues to operate its business as normal.”

    What does that tell you?
     
  8. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    National Football League Involved in Anti-Gambling Bill
    Published: Wednesday, October 11, 2006
    Author: Dan Katz

    The New York Post reported yesterday that the National Football League had a hand in getting the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act attached to the Safe Port Act, which passed through Congress late on the night of September 29.

    The NFL hired a high-powered lobbyist to get the anti-online gambling legislation through, while, of course, still keeping fantasy football legal. NFL.com hosts one of the most popular fantasy football leagues, and that, combined with royalties from other fantasy sites, brings the NFL a lot of money each year. All told, according to an industry association, $200 million are spent on online fantasy football every year. The NFL holds fantasy football in such high regard that a link for its fantasy section is highlighted in red (the rest of the menu items are blue) directly underneath the NFL logo on the league's website.

    The lobbyist hired was lawyer Marty Gold of the firm Covington and Burling. They billed the NFL $700,000 during 2005 for a variety of lobbying efforts, including the internet gambling issue.

    But here's the kicker (no pun intended). Gold used to be legal counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the man who made it his crusade to sneak the anti-online gambling legislation into anything he could. He was finally able to worm it into the Safe Port Act at the eleventh hour. Sound shady to anyone?

    In September, the NFL tried to get the gambling measures added to defense legislation. Gold claims it was not he who tried that, but rather new NFL Chairman Roger Goodell, along with former NFL head Paul Tagliabue. The two wrote to Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), who is the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, urging him to add the gambling wording to the defense bill, but were rebuked by Warner.

    Warner, in turn, told Frist that it should not be added to the defense bill. After all, it is almost insulting to add something like that to a bill that is designed to help U.S. troops.

    In the end, Frist was able to get House Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) to tack it on to the Safe Port Act without a vote and without allowing debate in the Senate.

    George Bush may sign the bill into law as early as this Friday.

    What is mind boggling here is how hypocritical the NFL is in this. The league makes millions of dollars directly from fantasy football, which is much more of a gambling endeavor than poker. Sure, some people just play for pride, but others spend tens, hundreds, and even thousands of dollars to play in leagues, hoping to win a big prize pool. While we can't control the cards in poker, we can control how we play, and with some practice and skill, even control how our opponents play. There is luck in poker, of course, but there is a lot of skill involved, as well. As fun as fantasy football is, there really is no skill involved. You pick players who you think are going to be good (yes, there is strategy when it comes to when to pick whom, but it's still all a guessing game) and then hope they play well.

    Fantasy football participants have no control over injuries (the reigning league MVP broke his foot a couple weeks ago - think that sent fantasy owners into a tizzy?), they have no control over how the teams play, they have no control over the weather. The list goes on. This isn't gambling? Come on.

    On top of that, football is the most popular game for sports bettors. Millions of dollars are wagered every week on both college and professional football. You don't think the NFL's popularity is helped by gamblers hanging on every snap? If sports betting did not exist, football would still be popular, but I guarantee it would not garner the interest it does now.

    So, it remains unclear what the exact motivations of the NFL were in lobbying to get anti-online gambling legislation passed. But whatever they are, they probably involved hypocrisy, short-sightedness, greed, and misplaced priorities.
     
  9. Boomer7

    Boomer7 Active Member

    Isn't that what Bush just signed into law? U.S. banks and credit-card companies are no longer allowed to make payments to any foreign gambling sites, whether the gaming is poker, sports betting or a death pool.

    Call me crazy, but I'd think that having people bet online, using credit cards, with relatively legitimate companies is a better idea than having them deal solely with neighborhood bookies. But hey, nothing sketchy ever happens on the black market, right?
     
  10. Oz

    Oz Well-Known Member

    I have a friend who refers to PartyPoker.com as his second income. He's even been sending some of us online petitions to sign, to prevent this from being put into law.

    I'm sure there might be an e-mail or three waiting for me today about this.
     
  11. Lester Bangs

    Lester Bangs Active Member

    This is going to be a huge advertising hit for a lot of magazines and TV outlets.
     
  12. Beef03

    Beef03 Active Member

    what a crock for my American brethren. Oh well, I suppose it won't effect me too mcuh, I will still be able to play. Besides Poker Stars was much better than party poker anyways. If only they showed this kind of dedication to the elimination of child porn sites ... shit don't they have anything bigger to worry about?
     
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