Online
Poker Legal Issues by BestCasinos4fun.com
Over the years, poker became
extremely popular at the casinos all over the world. With the advent of
computers and internet, many more people have started playing various forms of
online poker at the best
casinos. The
Worlds Series of Poker’s uncomfortable relationship with online gambling
emerged in 2003; when an accountant who qualified through an online tournament
went on to win the main event, making online poker more popular than ever
before. At that point in time, advertising of online poker sites on television
exploded and the Justice Department stepped in. In June of 2003 the Justice
Department warned the National Association of Broadcasters that any person or
entity that aids or abets online betting is punishable as a principal violator.
About half of the 9000 players in
the Worlds Series of Poker’s main event qualified through an online satellite
tournament. However the tournament commissioner said that the online tournaments
didn’t put a player into the World Series, it was the $10,000 cash for a seat
at the table.
The televised Worlds Series of
Poker tournament was delayed for several minutes the first day because anyone
wearing a dot-com poker logo would not be allowed to play. There were about a
thousand players that flipped shirts inside out and workers that covered the
dot-com symbols with black tape.
The house bill in congress would
ban Internet gambling except fore horse race betting and state lotteries. It is
an attempt to close a loophole in the 1961 Wire Act, meant to crack down on
racketeering. The Wire Act forbids business from using a wire communication
facility to assist in placing bets on any sporting event or contest. However,
according to a federal appeals court in New Orleans, the law does not cover
other types of casino betting which leaves some doubt on whether prosecutors can
shut down Internet poker and other casino games. With or without a new law from
Congress, the Justice Department interprets all online gambling to be illegal.
Other countries allow it, so online companies set up operations outside the
United States with easy access to U.S. players on their computers.
The online poker advocates say that
the Justice Department’s enforcement practices have focused on operators of
online sports gambling
sites, not sites that offer only poker. It would be hard to arrest the poker
site operators in Costa Rica, Aruba, and other offshore operations, but many
argue that poker tournaments online technically are not gambling. The argument
is you get a prize for the competition. Also, prosecuting a business for
promoting a dot-net site that does not have direct web links to its dot-com
cousin makes for difficult legal work in court.
Online poker players have joined a
group called the Poker Players Alliance to lobby Congress to stop the Internet
gambling bill from passing in the Senate. Since the House passed bill in July,
alliance membership has more than doubled to 75,000. If the bill passes, it
would drive the business of poker underground, but for now it remains in the
open.
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