They Can Have My Mouse when They Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands
Gandalf at DFW writes in with a question about the enforcement of the new Internet Gambling Prohibition, and shares an idea toward legalization. Would be curious to hear what others have to say:
—–Original Message—–
From: Jay Wagoner
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 1:53 PM
To: Dan Michalski
Subject: Internet pokerDan, It has occurred to me that the enforcement of the internet ban is going to be very difficult to enforce. Imagine if foreign banks decide to issue internet banking cards. What would prevent us from using bank cards from foreign banks on the internet to play poker. I think that the government has cut off its nose to spite it’s face in this matter and someone will find a way around this stupid law. If hackers can get into government computers then it only stands to reason that a way around the law will be discovered. What I see is a lot of American banks losing a lot of money that was caused by this law. I don’t think the banks will stand for that either.
Also as far as Texas poker goes. Imagine if they realized that for every hand that was played in Texas they could get a ten cent rake. That would provide this state with a huge amount of money. We could reduce the property taxes by a huge amount and I think the people of Texas would vote for anything that would do that. I can not even envision how many hands would be played in Texas in a year but maybe a computer could figure it out. I don’t know how many Texas holdem players we have in this state or how long the average player plays but I know roughly how long it takes to play one hand of poker. From a minute to a minute and a half. Lets just say it takes 2 minute to play one hand at 10 cents. That’s $3.00 and hour per game. Now imagine a 100 table casino and that’s $300.00 an hour. That might be a way to sell legalizing it. I figured it on a yearly basis for 100 tables and it comes to
$262,800,000.00 in a year. Now how many tables would you guess would be open in Texas during the year. Well got to go….Give me a call.
Rick says:
October 7th, 2006 at 5:33pm
I’m very disappointed that Congress lumped online poker together with sports betting and casino games. There’s over 70 million people playing online poker, most of them in the U.S. It’s a shame that Congress used a terrorism bill to sneak a prohibition against online poker through.
Poker is a social sport and game of skill, unlike online other forms of online gambling.
I’m very disappointed at this turn of events. They missed a tremendous opportunity to regulate and tax online poker – money our government could put to better use in lots of ways – like fighting terrorism, for example.
I just think something this important to so many people should’ve been given more detailed and thorough analysis, rather than making it a pork item on an important piece of legislation that’s mainly about protecting our country and our ports. Very disappointing, indeed.
DanM says:
October 7th, 2006 at 5:39pm
Actually, some of the online sites agree with you … Full Tilt just said they are gonna keep doing what they’re doing because the bill doesn’t prohibit online POKER sites … just online GAMBLING sites. if poker is a game of skill, it’s not gambling, so …