Online Poker Article For U.S. players

Article printed in New York Post yesterday 10/29/07


Poker players who descended on Capitol Hill last week face long odds in trying to convince Congress to legalize playing the card game on the internet.

But one wild card could force Washington’s hand: an international trade dispute with Antigua over online gambling that could end up leaving the U.S. on the hook for billions of dollars.

The World Trade Organization recently ruled that the U.S. violated its international treaty commitments by going after offshore online gambling outfits without cracking down on American operators offering remote betting on horse and dog racing.

After the ruling, Washington said it would remove Internet gambling from its WYO treaty obligations. That raised the ire of such allies as Europe and Japan, which filed separate compensation claims against the U.S.

“In a matter of months, you’re going to see billions of dollars in trade sanctions coming down against the United States,” former New York Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the lobbying group Poker Players Alliance, told The Post.

“Then, I believe we will start to have a profoundly new and different group lobbying, saying you’ve got to stop this prohibition [on Internet gambling],” he said. “we look like the ugly American.”

Playing poker online for money isn’t explicitly illegal in the U.S. And Congress stopped short of passing an outright ban on Internet gambling sites last October.

Instead, lawmakers cracked down by banning credit card companies from making payments to online gambling sites through legislation snuck on to a late-night bill on port security.

The Poker Players Alliance, which fronts Chris Moneymaker, Annie Duke and many other poker champions, met with about 50 members of Congress to try to build support for two pro-online gambling bills.

One bill from Rep. Barney Frank {D-Mass.} would broadly legalize and regulate Internet gambling. Another more narrow proposal from Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) would allow Internet poker bets by grouping poker with other skill games, such as backgammon and chess.

hopefully the climate is changing and online poker will be legalized in some form or other in the coming months. Allowing Neteller back into the US market would make me happy.

Interestingly, the same news item gets a much more positive report here:

Barry Greenstein: Fully Available Online Poker to Return | Poker News

The problem in a nutshell is that the current Washington leadership answers to NOBODY. Laws, the Constitution, and international treaties mean nothing to them.

There will be no change before 2009.

I loved netteller , they were great. but then the dirty cowards dumped u.s players before the law even took effect. never again for me .

Barry Greenstein: Fully Available Online Poker to Return

October 30, 2007
Stephen Noh

Online poker is finally seeing some encouraging trends. The reopening of Doyle's Room is one positive step in the direction of reversing the UIGEA and, according to a notable pro, could be a foreshadowing of things to come.

Recently, Barry Greenstein and other professional players, in conjunction with the Poker Players Alliance, made the trip down to Congress to lobby for our right to play online poker and returned with great news. Greenstein, who should have increased visibility within the poker world in the future with his presence on the new "The Poker Road" webcasts, had plenty to share.

On a popular internet forum, Greenstein posted the following:

"I'm sure

it will be less than 6 months before Congress realizes that they need to pass legislation contrary to the UIEGA. If it hasn't already happened, it will happen in a few weeks. I don't know how slow the process is and how much debate there will be as to whether there is a different approach that should be taken than the Frank and Wexler bills."

Greenstein expanded on this incredible news on a recent "The Poker Road" show, where he explained what he witnessed during his trip.

"We met with politicians and I can tell people that I am very confident that online poker is going to be back strong, legal; use credit cards, bank accounts, it would really shock me if it wasn't within the next six months."

Greenstein said of the impression they made on Congressmen, "It made them realize that poker players aren't gangsters, that they're pretty well-educated people.

"I would say that we almost had a perfect score. We met with 30-40 Congressmen, and I can only think of one person who didn't say to me afterwards that I am going to vote for the bills that you guys want me to vote for."

One of the main points that Greenstein brought up was the effect that the group had on Congressmen's staffers. He said, "They write things up and advise them on how they should vote. These staffers are all under 30 years old and male, and that population invariably plays online poker… they were on our side, that's strong."

While their impact on staffers was important, Greenstein cited the largest factor for his predicted rapid progress of legalization of online poker as something completely independent of their lobbying. He noted, "The biggest thing that turned the corner for us is the European Union has a case against the United States for up to 100 billion dollars in sanctions because we're denying trade through the WTO agreement. That meant that they knew that we had to do something. Really, all they're looking for is a way to ease it over to their constituency and say, 'We have to do something, it's fiscally responsible to do something.'"

Congressman Barney Frank, who had previously publicly stated his desire to overturn the bill, also met with Greenstein and gave him positive news. "What Barney Frank said is as soon as he knows there are enough votes in the Senate to push this thing through, then he'll put it up for the vote. He just has to count heads and it's on our plate. We talk to enough politicians, get them to agree to vote our way, soon as he sees it's right, it will be put through."

This is a huge step in the battle against the UIGEA and, with the continuing operation of Full Tilt and PokerStars along with the reopening of Doyle's room, could be an indicator that the other sites that left the U.S. market could be coming back soon.

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The second article is alot better, more detailed, and positive