Game, Set, Match

As you all know, Friday April 15th at approximately 1pm poker in the United States was banned indefinitely. Pokerstars, Fulltilt, UB, and many other sites have been indicted on charges that range from money laundering to fraud. It's extremely frustrating and disheartening to have your livelihood taken from you in the blink of an eye. It's even more frustrating to have ignorant people tell you many times over that this is what people more or less "deserve" for relying on poker for a living. I can't explain the anger I feel every time I have to hear this for many reasons. 1. I'd bet my life that more people in the last 3 years have lost their day jobs than poker players have lost their jobs. 2. The economy is in shambles and yet I continuously hear "Just go get a job." If it were so easy to "Just get a job" then how come the unemployment rate is 9.2%? 3. At least when those 9.2% got laid off they were eligible for unemployement. I feel really bad for those poker players who have been playing for years and paying their taxes and giving the government "their piece" even though they weren't obligated to. Now, those same people are getting their only source of income snatched away from them with no prior notice or warning. Furthermore, the government has frozen and seized online poker bank accounts and therefore the sites cannot pay people out. It's basically the equivalent of a normal person being laid off on a random friday when they show up for work and also having their bank account frozen for an undetermined amount of time (probably anywhere from 2 months to 3 years) simultaneously. These people can't get unemployeement, and they also have to go out in the worst economy in 80 years and find a job. Awesome! It's so sad on so many levels. The US Government isn't concerned with the well-being of their citizens, or the morality of poker. They are simply worried about getting their piece of the poker pie. I guess they won't be truly happy until they tax every dollar down to nothing. This whole process has opened my eyes up to just how many things the government is probably doing every single day to millions of people that are unjust, unconstitutional, and ignorant. I wish, at the very least, people who had knowledge of the subject were the ones shutting poker sites down. I wonder how many hands of poker U.S. Attorney for Manhattan Preet Bharara has played in his life. I'd bet not many. He said poker sites were "tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others" to get illegal gambling money to people. It's hilarious to me that he thinks these people were "tricked." Nobody can be naive enough to believe that these people did anything they did except for the fact that they were being paid quite handsomely. My question is, why are the banks not being prosecuted? Why are the CEO and CFOs of these corporations not being charged with crimes? Why? Because the government is getting their tax dollars, and as soon as they get their hands on poker money they will leave us alone too. Oh well, I suppose I'll just got find a low paying, unfullfilling job that I'm probably over qualified for until I can go back to doing something I love. Funny to me that people can't do what they love because others are too greedy and ignorant. And please, please don't try and make the argument that the Government is "helping" people or that this is a morality issue. Let us not forget about prohibition. If alcohol, which kills countless people and ruins countless lives per year, is legal in the US then poker definitely should be also. And don't get me wrong, it will be legal again....as soon as the Government regulates it in a way that benefits them and nobody else. The only solace I take in this is knowing that everything happens for a reason and that things always tend for work out for the best so I'm just putting my faith in God and letting him guide me through this. Good luck to the rest of you and I hope this maddness can be figure out in a timely fashion. God Bless