This is a something I wrote because I get irritated by the online poker isn’t illegal argument. It’s mostly a rant, but when 60 Minutes ran the UltimateBet Scandal story people all over the forums were going crazy because online poker was called illegal. With Greg Raymer recently appearing on Fox Business News the argument has surfaced again. It seems that it’s the majority in the poker community that think online poker is legal, and feel the need to correct you if you don’t.

60 Minutes Ultimate Bet Scandal story

Greg Raymer on Fox Business News

Online poker is illegal. As far as anyone actually getting in trouble for playing, it hasn’t happened, yet. A minute fraction of a percentage of people involved will ever be prosecuted for anything, but online poker is illegal. I wish it wasn’t and am all for it becoming legal ( I’m also not as affected in Canada), but until it happens, even though it is in a grey area, it is not legal. Listen to any UIGEA discussion and someone has to bring up the point that online poker isn’t illegal. You can make a strong argument for the legality, but if you are speaking to a regular person, who cares. The online poker isn’t illegal argument is one of the most ridiculous arguments you can use if you consider that as a whole, the entire UIGEA fight is all about making online poker not illegal.

If you really want to know how legal online poker is, go ask Howard Lederer or Chris Ferguson how much of full tilt poker they own or where the full tilt office’s are located. Anurag Dikshit paid $300 million to the US Justice Department, as a plea for illegal internet gaming. This upset some people in the PPA, believing admission of guilt is most likely hurting their cause. If rumors are true then Calvin Ayre, former BODOG owner, is not allowed to enter the States, and there’s some discussion he may not be allowed in Canada either. Its true the average player really has nothing to worry about. The government wants the big boys, they want who is taking the rake. They can’t get the people who have companies that work around the laws, but I guarantee one plan the companies don’t have is moving the offices to downtown vegas, legally. Why do they advertise the .net sites and not .com?

This is in the PPA’s letter to congress they are asking people to copy and send. “Explicit legalization with sensible regulation will allow the Congress to mandate rigorous safeguards” Explicit legalization? It doesn’t matter what adjective you put in front of legal, it’s still asking for legalization. Greg Raymer, who I felt did a great job on Fox Business news, corrected the interviewers when they brought up poker being illegal. When someone brings up this point, the automatic response is “online poker isn’t illegal.” Next is the technical explanation of why it isn’t illegal, which boils down to nothing more than no one has been prosecuted yet, so it can’t be illegal. Taking the stand that something you are fighting for legalization of, isn’t technically illegal is a very confusing stand to take.

John