Trouble in U.S. Online Poker: Spelled M-A-S-S-A-C-H-U-S-E-T-T-S
Trouble is in the works for U.S. online poker, with the ugly beast rearing its head in Massachusetts. A new bill is whizzing its way through state congress that would legalize live casino gambling, presumably including live poker, within the state. That’s all fine and good, until you read the fine print. Because further down in the bill is language making it a criminal offense to engage in online gambling. Worse, that nefarious language goes as far as to include “online poker” specifically.
The number one advocate for the American online poker playing community, the Poker Players Alliance, is obviously heavily embroiled in derailing that aspect of the bill (presumably without derailing the rest of the otherwise grand idea).
Sadder still is that the PPA was apparently lied to, according to of their spokesmen, Bryan Spadaro, who said they were assured that such language criminalizing online poker was removed from the bill.
That language said that penalties for such crimes – applicable to those who bet or take bets using internet, LAN, phone, or any other type of telecommunication device – included up to $25,000 and the possibility of jail time. And it was not removed from the bill.
Unfortunately, all signs are pointing to the bill’s passage as it is written, because people are so eager to see its other, more nobler, edicts going into effect – among those: two casino licences sold for a cost of $100 million a piece, as well as four slots licenses sold for $15million a piece.
Massachusetts expects to garner around $500 million per year in gambling taxes through these efforts. It’s just such a shame that it cut itself off of all the untold other income it could have made allowing online poker and other online casino gambling too.
