Poker Only Bill May be Acted on This Summer

Rep. Barton (R-Texas) plans on introducing a Poker only bill. He is the chairman emeritus of the United States Energy and Commerce Committee, which is where he plans to introduce it.

Here is a list of the members of the committee. If your rep is on it make sure you let them know you expect their support. http://energycommerce.house.gov/about/members.shtml

News articles:
http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/1670692/campbell-and-frank-pledge-support-for-barton-bill.thtml
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/162983-barton-goes-all-in-for-online-poker-bill

when do you think we will be able to read the contents of the bill? not just the Media Pr Stuff.

I think this is a great idea, steering the bill towards the committee on Energy and Commerce and pitching it as a way to increase tax revenue should help get more support this time around.

I would love to see the bill myself. What else are they trying to cram in there...

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If a poker bill does try to get passed,I hope it is a good one.Really, we are very tired of not having a poker bill,but we sure dont want a bad bill passed.

I agree, a bad bill is not better than a no bill . Hope they discuss some of their decisions with the PPA before they act.

I'm sick of government interference in the lives of adults.
The idiots we have elected are too busy tweeting pics of their dicks to bother with solving any real problems.

Considering that the state governments all or nearly all run gambling operations, it seems ridiculous that there is any reason to limit private gambling any longer.

If that is the only bill accomplished this summer I would be happy, that would be more then they did all of last year. I wish they would figure out how to get money into their pocket so I can play poker again online. Although I have been playing live poker more since the main sites have shut down so it hasn't all been bad.

Atticus22 said:

I'm sick of government interference in the lives of adults.
The idiots we have elected are too busy tweeting pics of their dicks to bother with solving any real problems.

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Agreed but, again, if our choices are regulated poker or no poker at all. I'll take regulation. I'm tired of our government jumping into everything we do but in this case, I am behind them making money on a guilty pleasure. I support high taxes on cigarettes, booze, and gambling. Even with taxes, I still drink and gamble. I would rather have that than another increase in property or income tax any day of the week.

If times get hard I can stop drinking, I can't stop working. I can stop playing poker, I can't move out of my place and go homeless.

Just my 2 cents

Bill was introduced on Friday.
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-v...tion-would-legalize-and-regulate-online-poker

RIP pokerstars for US players. The bill would expressly prohibit accepting any form of betting over the Internet without a license, exempting operations outside the U.S. It would require the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to create a list of illegal offshore Internet gambling operators that would be blocked from receiving transfers from U.S. financial institutions.

Charade You Are said:

Bill was introduced on Friday.
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-v...tion-would-legalize-and-regulate-online-poker

RIP pokerstars for US players. The bill would expressly prohibit accepting any form of betting over the Internet without a license, exempting operations outside the U.S. It would require the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to create a list of illegal offshore Internet gambling operators that would be blocked from receiving transfers from U.S. financial institutions.

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I'll take legalized, regulated online poker pretty much however I can get it. That said, the companies running the sites had better be as committed to fair poker as Stars and Tilt. So much depends on a good interface, a solid program, a clever RNG and a rigorously honest operator. (Yeah, I know, the jury is out on Tilt until they get our money back. But I am relatively certain that will happen. I doubt I will ever see a dime from UB/AP.) As we who have been playing for some time know, the potential for crookedness and incompetence is great. There have been a lot of crooked sites over the years. Some started out crooked, some had programs that let people cheat from the inside. There have also been a fair number of sites whose interface makes play difficult and frustrating.
Fingers are crossed here. I already wrote my congresswoman, but she's on a different committee.

gefishy said:

Agreed but, again, if our choices are regulated poker or no poker at all. I'll take regulation. I'm tired of our government jumping into everything we do but in this case, I am behind them making money on a guilty pleasure. I support high taxes on cigarettes, booze, and gambling. Even with taxes, I still drink and gamble. I would rather have that than another increase in property or income tax any day of the week.

If times get hard I can stop drinking, I can't stop working. I can stop playing poker, I can't move out of my place and go homeless.

Just my 2 cents

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Tax it I dont care.. however, not to hijack this thread I am sick and damn tired of government doing whatever they want , not really cutting spending and so on an so forth while the rest of us keep putting in and putting in...

you would prob get a 1099 from the poker sites at the end of the year..

I don't know whether a bill will improve our lot or make it worse? Please, just take your tax cut and limit your involvement. Has government oversight really ever improved things?

The governtment should be making some money out of this, and I know most of you agree with that. I really cannot believe all of this took this long, really.
The government will see a larger ratio of taxes being payed from gambling income from online gambling than from live gambling income. Just think, if I went to my local casino(if I had one) and won $5,000 over an entire year, but won it in small incriments then I could easily get away with not claiming any of it, because there is no proof. With online gambling it will be easy to pull up the record of amount cashed out vs. deposits. So if the same scenario were to happen while playing poker online, winning $5,000 over the course of the year, the record will be there and it will have to be claimed as income. The government will therefore see a greater ratio of taxes paid from online gamblers rather than live gamblers. And it works out for the gambler as well. If you were to win a large sum at one time you would have the ability to easily bring up a record of deposits you have made so that you can claim your expenses(deposits/loses) for writeoff.

LarryT503 said:

I don't know whether a bill will improve our lot or make it worse? Please, just take your tax cut and limit your involvement. Has government oversight really ever improved things?

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Not a thing I can think of. But there is just no way they will let us play without regulation now.

doops said:

I'll take legalized, regulated online poker pretty much however I can get it. That said, the companies running the sites had better be as committed to fair poker as Stars and Tilt. So much depends on a good interface, a solid program, a clever RNG and a rigorously honest operator.

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If the government has any of its tentacles in online poker, the chances it will be fair are very slim.