The website MyPokerBasics expects that the Full Tilt Poker shutdown are the first steps leading up to full US legalization.
The website MyPokerBasics announced on Friday that the Full Tilt Poker shut down could be a pre-emptive move by land-based casino owners in order to gain a monopoly on the online poker industry before it is even legalized or the first US-based website is even available. This news comes from an executive source from inside one of the larger US casino chains that claimed a fully regulated, legalized form of online poker may be coming sooner than consumers would expect.
“I wish that I could provide some details here,” said Kevin Smith, a project director at MyPokerBasics.com, “but I’m pretty much sworn to secrecy on this matter. I can say, however, that there are several large casinos in the United States that have been practically drooling over the profits available in the world of online gaming. It appears that they may have the right connections to have Congress take another look at the online poker bill that’s currently on the floor.”
Smith went on to explain that repealing the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 or even replacing it with new legislation would allow land based casinos to launch their own online poker sites inside the United States as long as it was approved on the state level as well. While bypassing these hurdles in areas like Nevada and New Jersey could be considered almost a given, it may be a hard sell on states opposed to gambling such as Indiana or South Dakota. According to MyPokerBasics, however, it would not really matter if every state did not decide to opt in.
“What you’d basically have is a national online poker network that would have an “on” and an “off” switch for the various zip codes,” Smith explained in an interview on Friday. “If some states did not want online poker within their jurisdiction, then they would opt out and their IP addresses would be blocked so that users could not access the software client. The states that did participate, however, would receive tax revenue from both the players and the casinos based on the actual amounts gambled within their area.”
While Smith claimed that the website domain seizures that were carried out by the Department of Justice were clear violations of the UIGEA, he had trouble understanding the reasoning behind the sudden move since these infractions appeared to have been taking place over an extended period of time. Although the annual profits from US citizens that played at PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are unknown, the two billion dollars that the US government seeks in penalties suggests that US laws must have been violated many, many times to accumulate that much of a fine.
“The only difference between US residents playing at Sportsbook Poker or at a traditional US casino is who collects the profits off of the rakes,” Smith added. “I think it is clear from the statistics that players in the US prefer playing poker online, so passing this into law would provide plenty of tax relief. The problem with it, however, is how the whole thing is going down…it’s like watching a 1970’s gangster movie with one family clearing out al of the competition.”
For more information visit: http://www.mypokerbasics.com
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