Poker after Black Friday
The US online poker community was large and lively before Black Friday, the day on which the US federal government seized the domain names of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker and charged 11 of their chief executive officers with illegal gambling, money laundering, and bank fraud. The Department of Justice (DoJ) also seized five domain names and 76 accounts at banks across 14 countries. Brian Balsbaugh, the poker agent, said: “It happened, it happened fast and it completely annihilated what was a flourishing industry in the United States.”
Online poker in the US just froze after the federal government crackdown. Several US players gave up playing online poker and began visiting land-based casinos to play live poker games. Some professional online poker players moved to poker friendly countries such as Malta and Costa Rica so that they could continue playing online poker for real money. Many players are yet to get back the money that was in their online poker accounts when the US government cracked down on the poker sites.
Even today, US residents are confused about the legality of online poker in their country. Some people feel that online poker is legal now that the DoJ has announced that the Wire Act of 1961 applies only to online sports betting, not to online casino and online poker. However, this new interpretation has not yet been tested in a court of law. According to California gambling advocate I. Nelson Rose, online poker is not technically illegal in the US.
The DoJ’s latest interpretation, however, has encouraged individual states to legalize and regulate online poker at the intrastate level. States such as Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey have already passed laws legalizing intrastate online poker and even some other forms of online gambling. States such as Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and California might soon introduce an online gambling bill. Joe Barton, a Congressman based in Texas, has also announced that he will support federal-level online poker legalization this year.
Poker Players Alliance Director John Pappas said: “April 15, 2011 was truly a dark day for Internet poker that reverberated throughout the entire poker world. But, over the succeeding two years, the poker community has been taking back what was snatched away … To use a poker phrase, there is a full house of activity on the legislative front.”
In spite of the disappointments of the past few years, many US online poker players are optimistic. They are sure that regulated online poker will soon become a reality in the US. Pappas said that poker should be legalized for three reasons: first, people are currently playing poker even though it is not a legalized and regulated activity; second, online poker can generate much-need tax revenue for the country, and third, people have the right to play online poker.
In the meantime, PokerStars has been making attempts to return to the regulated US online poker market by acquiring a financially struggling land casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Nevada has already granted online poker licenses to several gambling companies.
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