As hysteria over the recent passing of the recent gaming legislations heightens, many legal experts have been re-analysing the bill and are concluding that the online sites are over-reacting.According to various sources in the legal world, the bill has been grossly misconstrued as altering the current gaming laws regarding online poker. This, however, is not the case.
What has been passed is the ‘Unlawful Gaming Enforcement Act’ with the ‘Enforcement’ part of the title referring to the ‘enforcement’ of laws that are already in place. It is not a strict alteration of the law and can only act as such if misinterpreted by judges.
What also has been overlooked is that the bill states that the banks will be responsible for denying transactions intended for the purpose of illegal online gambling, yet poker is not illegal. True, the 1961 Wire Act made sports betting illegal, but not poker, and so it is incorrect to pool the two in the same bracket.
And whilst many online sites have already taken action by excluding American players, critics believe these companies are losing money unnecessarily and displaying unjustified paranoia to new laws that aren’t actually new.
If the bill is confirmed, the worst case scenario is that banks make it more difficult to deposit money, but with the 270 day preparation time allocated for policies and procedures to be put in place, the online sites are being given ample time to find ways around the restrictions, loopholes which they will surely not only find, but easily exploit.So, the message is clear, the bill has been misconstrued by many who have relied too heavily on various unreliable sources that have failed to fully analyse the ins-and-outs of the actual bill. If they were to undertake this process then they would subsequently reveal that poker is not illegal and therefore not open to being treated on a par with sports betting and other illegal online gambling activities.
[Ed Note: These are not necessarily the views of blondepoker.com]