Unless you've been under a rock the last few days, or you're just not an online poker player, you are well aware of the Harry Reid bill being tossed around the senate.
Nick "2plus2" Hatley did a good job summarizing the bill and the pros/cons in his earlier post so check that out two down for cliffs (or the ones on 2p2 here).
The short version is the bill will give a big edge to the land-based Vegas casinos and "blackout" online poker in the US for 15 months + additional time for stars/ftp + additional time till we are able to play with the international player pool again. Basically, in the short term, scary, scary stuff.
But what's more scary really? The fact that the game we all have held on to as our only source of income for a few years seems to be dying? Or the fear of losing online poker as we know it permanently with a chance for softer games on different sites later on? That question has to be answered for each person individually.
Personally, I've been torn over the last few days figuring out which side I really support. In a selfish way, I care a lot more about poker in the next few years than I care about the state of the game ten years down the road. However for the game I'm really passionate about, I fear what the DOJ is capable of doing in the next few years as far as prosecuting and closing down payment processors to a point where we can't withdraw from sites. It's all pretty horrifying in general that our government is trying to control this industry purely for monetary purposes. Anyone who thinks the government is trying to chase after gambling morality with the UIGEA is clueless. It's a billion dollar industry and one that Vegas casinos want a big piece of.
So where do we go from here? That's the real purpose of my post and I guess the answer is unknown at this time. We have no real timeline on when a final decision will be made about this bill (though people speculate it will be in the next 48 hours) and until then, we don't really know our future. It's pretty scary that thousands of hard working (well, sort of) Americans could lose their job at the flick of a switch by Harrah & MGM lobbyists and the senator they support. The best we can do right now is wait and hope, although I'm not even sure what we're hoping for at this point. Both outcomes have big downsides and the only real solution is to leave the country. This has become a really confusing ramble but the stress of all of this has me flustered.
In other life news I am heading to Vegas for New Years to meet up with the Finnster himself for a night of ecstasy at the Playboy Club. I suppose we will always have Vegas and hell, thats not so bad.
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I, too, was torn because if the bill passes, I will likely never get to compete online again. I'm disabled; it would be difficult to relocate; and, who knows which states will end up optting in? After learning tonight, however, the truly precarious situation our status quo is in, I'm now in favor of the bill and will just go quietly from the poker scene. With the Department of Justice determination, all hope is lost with the status quo. Get the bill passed.
ReplyDeleteLet the young people be able to look forward to a future, even with as many questions as there are, a big step would be to make online poker INDISPUTABLY legal (though in a truly limited sense).