Poker Players Fighting for Online Gambling
August 6, 2009
National Poker Week is usually good for some great games, some exciting spectator sportage, and generally a really good time. However, this week the poker professionals say that they have had enough of the online gambling ban and they are not taking it anymore. They are taking on Washington in an effort to have their voices heard – that they want online gambling legal again.
Online gambling has been illegal since 2006, but the poker world has always maintained that they were exempt from the UIGEA because poker is not gambling. They say that the online gambling laws do not apply and therefore they can continue with their online poker playing. However, the government says that this is not the case.
The government’s seizure of the poker players’ money has a lot to do with the anger that they are presently feeling in regards to the online gambling laws these days. The Poker Players’ Alliance, headed up by former US Senator Alfonse D’Amato is behind Rep. Barney Frank in his attempts to legalize online gambling. They support all online gambling legislation that he has put forth so far.
They are asking for the federal government to release the online gambling winnings as they say that they are from poker accounts and that they had no right to take that money from them. With the majority of online gamblers and poker players hailing from the United States, the US should be wary in getting in their way of their gambling, after all Election Day is not that far away.
