If you like online poker...

[MannyIsGod]

Then I suggest you shoot your senator an email today.



WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a Republican-written bill to limit Internet gambling by making it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gaming sites.

Internet gambling generates some $12 billion annually worldwide, with half coming from American gamblers.

It remained unclear whether the U.S. Senate would approve similar legislation in the dwindling number of work days left before the November election.



© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

John Cornyn (http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/index.asp?f=contact&lid=1#contact)

Kay Baily Hutchinson (http://hutchison.senate.gov/e-mail.htm)

[Spurminator]

I wouldn't think this affects third party sites like Neteller, etc., correct?

[Jimcs50]

Who do you think is behind this????

Las Vegas and Atlantic City and mob money.

Just another example of our corrupt system.

[MannyIsGod]

I wouldn't think this affects third party sites like Neteller, etc., correct?To be honest with you, I'm not exactly sure what the bill would require. I use Neteller for the vast majority of my poker transactions but I have used IGM pay a few times. I believe that a large number of people do use services like IGM pay but I'm not sure if thats what would be regulated by this.

I think a good portion of people also use credit cards, although credit card companies have already self regulated that aspect so it isn't as large a number as it could have been.

I never thought it would even get this far, so I havne't been paying attention but the people at a poker forum I visit (www.twoplustwo.com) are starting to really get nervous about things which makes me think I should have been paying attention to this before now.

It now goes to the Senate but theres not much time left in the current session, so I'm not sure how likely it is to pass but I know that once its gotten this far its not a pipe dream by any means.

[MannyIsGod]

http://capwiz.com/pokerplayersalliance/dbq/officials/

Thats a link to the Poker Players alliance page where you can lookup your elected officials and send them a form letter via email.

It is too late to do any good in the House, but I would definetly send one off to your Senator.

[SequNets]

I just wonder how they will regulate it or tax it which is basically what they want to do.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

I already tried the email route with both our senators and our HOR folks.

Kay Bailey and Cornyn are both convinced it's some sort of illness that robs all of us of our money. :td

I feel like it's a lost cause at this point, I just hope they don't CB sites like Neteller.

[Das Texan]

wtf?


that shit cornyn doesnt have an email address?

[Clandestino]

it won't matter what pay site you use if they block the internet gambling sites....

[ObiwanGinobili]

goddamn it.
this is AMERICA. and whta any Joe Schmo does with his hard earned cash in his free time (that doesn't involve hurting others.. duh) is his own god damned buisness!!

and they are hoping this legislation will allow them to work with ISP's to block poker sites??? WTF?
This is not China!!

thast it. I give up. this place sucks. I'm going to build a rocket ship and go find a new planet.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

it won't matter what pay site you use if they block the internet gambling sites....

I really don't see that holding up in court.

[Jimcs50]

I really don't see that holding up in court.


goddamn it.
this is AMERICA. and whta any Joe Schmo does with his hard earned cash in his free time (that doesn't involve hurting others.. duh) is his own god damned buisness!!



The govt. could care less about if people are going broke. People have been going broke playing the Lottery for years, but the govt makes money on lottery revenue, so they turn a blind eye to that gambling. Internet gambling does not give them any money, so they play the moral card now.....this is a crock of crap. When will people realize that the govt does not have your best interests at heart, and are only motivated by their own self interests.

[boutons_]

"are only motivated by their own self interests."

The "govt" specifically is Congressmen purchased by lobbyist/corps who aren't getting any or enough of th on-line gambling $$$ volume.

Always, always, Follow The Money.

Chris Rock's routine applies where the punch-line is "It's all white, so it's allright" :

If gun shows sell 1000s of guns to people who can't meet requirements, yawn, wink and a nudge.

If a rapper's song mentions "gun", and rhymes it with "fun", "Congressional hearings".

[kris]

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[Jimcs50]

The government does care about people going broke. The social services end up footing the minimum bill when families go broke. The government would like to encourage saving and economic spending rather than online gambling.


Then explain the Lottery.

:rolleyes

Get the wool out of your eyes and wake the fuck up.

[DarkReign]

The government does care about people going broke. The social services end up footing the minimum bill when families go broke. The government would like to encourage saving and economic spending rather than online gambling.

http://kids.christianpost.com/activities/bible1/images/Boy%20Praying.gif

[kris]

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[gay abc]

goddamn it.
this is AMERICA. and whta any Joe Schmo does with his hard earned cash in his free time (that doesn't involve hurting others.. duh) is his own god damned buisness!!

and they are hoping this legislation will allow them to work with ISP's to block poker sites??? WTF?
This is not China!!

thast it. I give up. this place sucks. I'm going to build a rocket ship and go find a new planet.


:lol

take me with you girl!!!!!

i can't even legally marry my partner and ya'll are worried about your online gambling :rolleyes

[MannyIsGod]

I'm really hoping the Senate doesn't make this a priority. The bill could simply just die out by the end of session seeing as there is not even a companion bill in the Senate at this time.

The government has no place telling people what to do with their money. The argument if social serverices costing more due to online gambling is quite fucking laughable. Anti gambling groups admit that this law will have little to no effect on problem gamblers, so to use that an a reason to pass this law would be pretty illogical.

Prohibition of any form doesn't work. Anyone have a joint?

[MannyIsGod]

:lol

take me with you girl!!!!!

i can't even legally marry my partner and ya'll are worried about your online gambling :rolleyesHey, I get far more upset when it comes to the gay marrige bans and I'm not even gay. I've threatend to move overseas if they pass an amendment to the consitution for that reason (and I'd do it in a heartbeat).

But when the government goes after my job, I gotta worry. :)

[gay abc]

you can come with obiwanginobili and me on that rocket ship she is building..... there will be plenty of joints, trust me :smokin

[Phil Hellmuth]

There are some highlights from C-SPAN yesterday, and re-runs of the video of the debate. Check your local listings.

I am a big time sports handicapper, so this worries me too.

I have a lot of money locked up in some off shore books.

Here is a link to see how your representatives voted:

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll363.xml

Many of these people who argued against it are pure idiots, as much most politicians are on some issues.

Here are a few reasons why one politican (leach) voted against it:

- destroying families
- national security issue
- crack cocaine of gambling
- ideal for money laundering
- mafia owned offshore books?
- offshore books are owned by russians?
- offshore gambling hooks people more than US brick and mortar casinos.
- we give financial info offshore. we DO FOR CASINO GAMBLING HERE TOO!
- odds rigged offshore. much better odds here? WTF?!
- you never get paid from offshore because you are TEMPTED to gamble any winnings back?

god forbid we take away the rippoff gambling in his state.

****ing idiot!

once again, Republicans telling people how to run their lives. What they can and can't do. Of course if your addicted to state run KENO, LOTTERY, POWER BALL, DAILY NUMBER, OR ONE OF 50 DIFFERENT SCRATCH TICKETS, that puts money in THEIR POCKETS, well that's a horse of a different color.

[kris]

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[MannyIsGod]

Actually, it does. The Constitution gives an enumeration of powers to the government expressly granted by the people. In this enumeration of powers reads, "Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes."

Your basically looking at the interstate commerce clause. Basically, whenever something affects commerce in more than one state, the government can step in and regulate.I'm aware of the governments ability to regulate interstate commerce and how it gives the federal government power to regulate transactions, but I'm not aware of any clause of the consitution giving the government an obligation to legisilate morality - in this case financial morality.

The goverment has no business in my bank account telling me what is a good use for money and what isn't.

[kris]

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[MannyIsGod]

I think the space between the government being a baby sitter to my money and the federal government having no power is quite large, Kris. Everytime the governments tries to legislate moral behavior it falls flat on its face.

Want the biggest example? See the so called drug war. Want the 2nd biggest example? See Prohibition.

[Spurminator]

So the only argument in favor of this legislation is "because they can"?

Great.

[kris]

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[kris]

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[MannyIsGod]

I agree. The space between the government being a baby sitter to your money and having no power is quite large.

The issue is built of several components, not just morality. The government has several scars and embarrassing points in history, not only on morality based issues, but other areas as well. So? The government evolves as everything else does. Pound for pound, they are still the best.Having the worlds biggest economy and largest military doesn't nessecarily mean we have the worlds best government. Not by a longshot.

The point in bringing up those issues is pointing out how poorly our govenrment is performing without regard to previous attempts at the same type of regulation. It doesn't work, creates black market venues, and is uneforceable yet none of that matters to congressmen trying to gain a few extra votes by showing they are "doing something"

The governments reasoning for this bill makes no sense whether it is along moral lines or any other.

[kris]

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