I bet those foreigners are also slowly dying from second hand smoke and transfat and violent video games and medical marijuana. It's all about the kids, you see.
I play poker online and am so pissed with the Republicans right now.I have been a life long Republican.I even voted for Dave Treen in my first election in 1984 when he lost to the crookmeister Edwin Edwards.I have voted almost down the line Republican.That will change because of this crap.All of my poker playing buddies and I ,all 30 -55 ,conservative,middle to upper middle class,doctors ,pharmacists, business owners are outraged by this nonsense . We have decided that since the Republicans control the House ,the Senate,and the Presidency and with Bill Frist leading the way on this issue that we are going to vote down the line democratic just for this reason. Will our 40 votes make a difference ...probably not....but I wont vote Republican again until this crap has a poker exemption.As of this moment I would vote for Ted Kennedy over Ronald Reagan even if Teddy ties one on and runs off the bridge in Chappaquidick with a couple of more women.The Republican party just thinks that the Foley deal is an issue.They just pissed off 20 million poker players in this country and I bet that is what will cost them at least the House come November.
Well here is a link to a petition to legalize online poker/gambling. http://www.petitiononline.com/LOGNOW/petition.html Had like 4000 when I signed it the other day, now over 10,000 have signed it. No idea how many signatures needed before it gets noticed.... Ya I didnt want to start mention Bill Frist cause if I started discussing assinine moves by politicians, I would be posting forever. Just like the senator from Iowa who claimed that "Poker is the Devil". Gimmie a freaken break!
There are certain poker sites still operating and you can play if you're American (Full Tilt Poker, Doyle's Room and a couple of others). They are using the excuse that poker is a game of skill and should be exempt from the current law. I'd agree with that. I'm just pissed about Party Poker being shut down to me. That place was full of fish and I've suplemented my income since starting grad school with PP winnings. Oh well.
I use to play on PP back about 4 years ago, caught some people cheating at a 2/4 table and then I switched to Jetsetpoker. I had withdrawn most of my cash because they screwed me on a bonus, but I still had some tourney tokens in my accounts and a crap load of points. They closed there doors friday. People heard they would be mailing money via check, but the site hasn't responded to anyones email. I sent and email inquiring about purchasing the software/script for a project I am working on. Still no word back about that. Every site had/has fish the key was knowing who was the fish. Currently I am playing on FTP but I really don't like the tourneys. I hardly ever play ring games online. I prefer tourneys.
Yo Kedo, welcome to the Forum. Great first or early post. Great points, all around. Keep in mind, the same folks own the Republicans and Democrats. It's disgusting, and a bastardization of Democracy.
I realize that the same people control both parties .Also in our state every member of congress and the senate voted for a ban on online gambling.My response is simply that since Frist backdoored us with the piggybacking the bill on to the port securities act,that the Republicans will pay the price.You know,in recent years,I have decided if the government wants to listen to all my phone calls...go ahead...if they want to strip search me at the airport...ok...but i do like to compete in things and my body takes to long to recover from softball or flag football or basketball.The last time I played softball,it was at a company picnic and i tried to show my son his old man still had it.I looked impressive on Sunday,talked a lot of smack...then couldnt hardly move till Thursday.I also like golf,but golf is more about competing with yourself.Poker, however, and specifically multi table tournament poker is a chance for a 45 year old like me to compete using your brain.The thrill of entering a 20 ,30,or 50 dollar tourney with more than 1000 people in it and winning is unbelievable.It is hard to believe that we seem to have become more oppressed here in this country than Great Britain whose ass we kicked a long time ago to be....free.Sometimes I wonder if the right side won the war.Tea and crumpets anyone...lol.
I was with you until the Great Britain comment. Great Britain is currently on a spiral into overt PC facism. A teenage girl was arrested there for racism last week for asking her teacher to not make her study with a group of Islamic students who didn't speak english well. Yes, acts that can be precieved by a minority as racism are punishable by prison. There is an entire division of government whose job it is to seek out and punish antisocial (not illegal) behavior. If you go against the conventional Euro-PC attitude you can go to jail for it. But if the Democrats are smart, they will use the fact that 15 million Americans looged into their online poker sites and were told that Congress decided that they shouldn't play anymore. It's all about the children, didn't you know...
I have always been against adding amendments to bills that have nothing to do with the primary issue that the bill is concerned with. That is how bad laws are made. I am more open to the possible need for government regulation of online gambling. I really have not yet decided how I feel about it. Vitter's concern for online gambling being used for illegal purposes such a money laundering, as well as other concerns he has, may be legitimate. The issue certainly needs more thought out debate than it seems to have gotten so far. By tacking it on as a rider to an unrelated bill does not seem to be the way to do that.
True but I can tell you that online poker rooms aren't used for money laundering. Possibly the processors like neteller/firepay etc. But I doubt that any poker room let's people launder money from account to account. I know I have seen people banned from online poker sites for "chip dumping", even when it's real money involved. Most sites only allow poeple to transfer like $100 per month or other players real money accounts. Now that being said. A site called e-gold.com is used for money laundering and many other illegal ventures, this company is based out of Florida and has been around since 1996. However, many in the "know" about egold think that it is either run by politicians or they get a cut so they turn a blind eye. Online gambling isn't any "worse" then going to your local casino or truckstop poker machine. Except, online gambling, isn't taxed/regulated by our government. Those of us who have been playing poker online have been wanting regulation for YEARS! Not Prohibition.
