As expected, the passing of the 'Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act' in America has been the hot topic of the week, and the blondeites haven't been hesitant in expressing their views.
Here is a selection of the comments made on the forum over the last few days:
Sheriff Fatman:
"This is likely to have a potential knock on effect to the big live events too, as the online satellites are going to have a much smaller player pool if this becomes law and wipes out the US players. Assuming this, it's hard to see how the WSOP Main Event is going to attract 8,000+ runners again.
Hopefully, one benefit we'll see is that sites will make their big events more Euro-friendly in terms of start times as we are surely now the main market for them to focus on."
AndyG:
"At the end of the day this is just a case of big traditional businesses throwing their weight around in the States and lobbying (perhaps bunging lol ) certain government officials to get what is obviously a massive threat to their casino empires and it's appalling that they are seemingly going to pull it off."
Longy:
"My main concern is the traffic of players, this legislation is going to stop new and bad American players depositing and they will no longer be there. We maybe left with the more motivated ones who will find loopholes. The problem with these players is if they are motivated to do this, they will be motivated to be good poker players. As a multi tabling relative small stakes online pro', my main donators will no longer be there is such numbers."
MrMoves:
"There are so many casual players all over the world, not just America. Player numbers will drop but there will always be a beatable game.
Italy have just relaxed their laws on gambling, this will mean higher numbers of Italian poker players logging on. This won't make up for the loss of America of course. However, if the big sites start marketing in Asia, things will improve."
TightEnd:
"There isn't much coherent opposition and what little corporate opposition there is offshore and not US taxpayers, the vested interests in pushing the bill through (financial institutions, the moral republican right wing, the land based casino interests, the money laundering authorities) are huge."
matt674:
"The US Government trying its best to put a stop to Americans playing online poker while at the same time a man bursts into a school and shoots several girls dead with several firearms freely available without restrictions...
Glad to see they still have their priorities in order."
the winner:
"I dont understand the problem. I play on mainly English based sites such as Ladbrokes and Betfair and actually prefer them. I still make money without playing against Americans. Every country has its share of donks and I personally find a lot of them are English."
AlrightJack:
"Even for companies with no US customers (Hills, Lads, Betfair, Coral, Blue Square, etc) it cannot be seen as good news. For sites on networks, drops in liquidity will hinder European companies. For Ladbrokes, which is not on a network, this wont affect them, but more competition from the big firms will."
Wardonkey:
"I think that a lot of existing US players will find a way to play. Certainly the better players will try thier hardest to find a way to play. The concern I have is that we will have a great reduction in the numbers of new players. Essentially the games will have a higher proportion of skilled players and will be harder to beat."
And finally, a few pearls of wisdom from tikay:
"In the entire history of history, every economic cycle since economic cycles were discovered has boomed and peaked and then crashed. It's like forest fires, it looks disastrous the next morning, but greater forces soon bring about recovery, the imbalances equal out, and as sure as water cannot flow uphill and God made little apples, all will soon be well."
If you wish to add to the debate, then please visit our forum and share your thoughts with the blondeites by clicking the link below.
