The games have def gotten tougher over the last few years but there is no way online poker goes away without legislation. The cat and mouse game would go on indefinately.

You people sound like athletes. Thinking that if the game stops with them, suddenly everything just dies. Everyday, new people are born. Everyday, new people turn 18 or 21 (whichever the age will be to play). Even if it shuts down for 5 years, its not like the game of poker will not be learned or played anymore. It will start up again just fine.

BTW, i'm still putting my money on this won't happen. It won't get slid in to some bill and there won't be US online poker in 15 months.

If this bill doesn't pass, I'm going to blame the jews.

How do you think poker was slid into the uigea bill?

Well, this sounds like a good thing for american lhe players. Sounds like the united states sites will be americans only. All the fags that crush the high stakes lhe games seem to be from other countries. Most of the fish are americans too. Those gay countries don't have any fish, too poor. Even the low/mid stakes are filled with grinders from third world countries where the ability to make $100/day is a godsend.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business ... z17PxBQzP5

PhillyDeals: Analyst: '1-to-3 shot' to legalize online poker

A late attempt in the lame-duck Democratic Congress to legalize online poker betting has only "a one-in-three shot" of passing, analyst Brian McGill, of Philadelphia-based Janney Capital Markets, told clients Monday, after checking his Washington contacts.

I agree with the analysis that it's not likely to happen.

The UIGEA was really snuck in at the 11th hour onto a bill that nobody would otherwise vote against.

This one already has a lot more fanfare and debate than the UIGEA.

Note that there were many anti-online-poker bills prior to the UIGEA, and all failed, despite many looking promising (to anti-gambling folks) to pass.

Remember all of the fanfare a number of months ago when "online poker was legalized"? What happened to that? It ended up going nowhere.

The 15 month downtime period is retarded. I see why they're doing it, though. They want to give a chance to American companies like Harrah's to get their own online poker rooms started up, marketed, and situated. They don't want these rooms to have to come in cold and compete with existing juggernauts like Full Tilt and Stars.

Honestly, this is a bullshit middle ground solution. They should either license Full Tilt and Pokerstars right now, and allow any other new licensed company with immediate access to the market, or they should simply state that existing sites (running afoul of US law) won't be eligible for licenses.

But apparently neither of the two are going to happen if this thing becomes law.

I really, really, really, REALLY hope that UB never gets a license.

I heard throught the grapevine that California and New Jersey are getting on the Washington state bandwagon ...So i guess it will sucks to live in California/NewJersey even more now than it did before ...

Godspeed

Here is a copy of the draft bill.

To improve the odds I will give up my 'one time' for this to pass.

I will laugh so hard if this turns out to be some kind of level by some douche bag just wanting attention. Reading through the bill, it just seems that way.. Rumors fly in the interwebs very quickly.

It's certainly not a rumor. Whether it gets added is still up in the air, and may be 70/30 against as Republicans are just much better at politics than Dems. I'll have to see it to believe it. The 15 months while bad, gives American companies time to set up shop, and more importantly, lobby states to opt-in that may not otherwise.

i have acopy give me an email to it to...

do they speak english in what?

So whens the special edition +EV show with druff regarding this topic?

It seems way more EV for the Government to implement some retroactive system to collect money at a slightly higher premium from the established sites still serving US customers until it goes into effect and as long as they remain in good standing they will be able to get their license at a premium rate going back to the date this passes if it even does. Pokerstars and Full Tilt have tons of different screening software that can tell what US citizens are paying in rake so technology shouldn't be an issue.

Their is so many complications with this policy as while the UIEGA was vague it was stuck on a bill at the last hour but this one is being looked at much more and with all the complexity of it all I'm not sure if it will pass and assuming it does if it will run as smoothly as the government hopes.

99% of my cash game play is on Euro sites, although I dabble on the 'cheat sites' such as Bodog etc. Euro sites mid-high stakes is alot softer than Stars/Tilt, so I dont really care. Obviously I like to lose a certain amount of $ each week in Sunday Majors so this would suck if I couldnt do that, might have to light the actual cash on fire each week instead.

Does this mean that IF the law gets passed new super sites such as Harrahs will have the time to set up shop and ONLY lets US players on the site when they launch, therefore locking out Euros etc? And if Stars/FTP get licenses for US again non USA players will be locked out? Sounds like the nut worst business concept I've ever heard.

In its present state, I think it keeps Euros/non-americans off for an additional 2 years over the 15 months. At that point, they are allowed on assuming there isn't an issue with that country not allowing it. I think this has to do with WTO issues. I imagine there may be work arounds durng that time frame, likely not workarounds that allow you to play tax-free as a Brit. In other words, you could play under an American's name likely through a VPN or something, but that person would be on the hook for the tax burden. So our sites would have to be incredibly fishy to make it worth the effort for a tax free citizen.

Ok cheers but I assume this is all hypothetical anyway as nobody really knows whats gonna happen. Time will tell. Fuck your govt tho really. They set the ball rolling for France/Italy etc to pull out and make their own sites which was pretty devastating for euro cash games, luckily there are enough idiots elsewhere in the world.

Yea dappa, real hypothetical at this point. This fucker could take 12 different routes before it becomes done. I am with you on how this all got fucked up. One dude who wanted to be president aligned with the bible thumpers have created a mess that is amazing to untangle. No one would prefer this crap over 2005, this just is likely as good as it may get for us over here.