Monday, October 02, 2006

the beginning of the end

Party Poker plans to cease operations in the U.S. after the newly passed legislation.

PartyPoker is one of, if not the largest, poker site on the web. That they are ceasing U.S. operations is a very bad sign-- other sites will probably follow suit.
Word is that their stock price has already dropped 33% on the UK exchange today.

It's unbelievable, with the popularity of poker, that a moralizer like Frist can do this based on what he thinks he knows is best for the American people. You'd think he wants everyone to be miserable. You'd think he wants everyone to be forced to get a corporate job. You'd think he wants all the people who pay their college tuition through poker to have to go in massive student loan debt for a long time.

Or maybe he just wants to be able to go on the campaign tour in 2008 and praise himself for being the great moral crusader who put an end to the evils of online gambling.

If you ever play poker and you enjoy being able to, I encourage you to voice your dissatisfaction. I don't know what we can do now. But we need to take a stand-- even those of you who don't play for a living recognize that your desire to play casually is impeded, and that there is utterly no reason to make online poker illegal, aside from governmental greed and a sense of faux morality trumped up to pimp for the electorate.

It's prohibition all over again. It didn't work with alcohol, it didn't work with drugs, and it won't work with gambling.

If something isn't resolved where Americans can play online poker I will have to seriously consider moving to another country.