Poker Articles

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of a Poker Table?

I’m going to get right to the point. As many of you probably heard, about a month ago the U.S. House of Representatives successfully passed a bill entitled the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act (IGPEA) with a resounding 317 to 93 vote. The bill is part of a wider “American Values Agenda,” and is aimed at completely banishing online gambling through credit card, bank, and Internet Service Provider regulations. Much like the ongoing music and movie online piracy battles, the government has chosen to focus primarily on the companies and networks providing the service rather than the individuals who enjoy them. Though you can rest assured knowing that FBI agents won’t be knocking down your door anytime soon, this legislation has already sent ripples through the online gambling industry, even though it has yet to be passed by the Senate.

When I first heard about the bill being passed so easily by the House I had to shake my head and maybe even swallow hard for a second, but I still figured that the whole thing would die down at the bottom of the Senate’s to-do list, or that the minor ramifications of such a proposal were at least far off realities. And then it hit me at home.

About a week after the bill officially passed, I got three emails from one of the main online poker rooms that I frequent. They had all apparently been sent during the past three days, but the way my mail server works I sometimes get a chunk of emails like this all at once. The first email was fairly positive, a brief update informing me that new and exciting features were being implemented very soon. Oh boy, I bet email #2 is even better! Well, as it turns out, one of those new and exciting features was the permanent banning of U.S. citizens. Yes, the second announcement told me that I had approximately one day to withdraw all my funds, at which point my account would be closed and I would have to contact support to get my funds. You can probably guess what the third and final email said. Account… closed… $&%#!

After doing a little digging on the matter, I found that the primary reason for these “new and exciting” changes seemed to be because of the whole stir in Congress. The indirect pressure of a mere proposal was enough heat to force some of the smaller sharks away from the bait of U.S. players, for fear of facing the prosecution of an administration bent on smearing their values and beliefs across the world. Interestingly enough, it would seem that the U.S. public doesn’t exactly share all of these values and beliefs, as a variety of polls done by reputable news sources (CNBC, Wall Street Journal, etc.) show that 80 to 90% of American citizens oppose the IGPEA and other online gambling restrictions. Just another example of politicians overlooking their responsibilities as public servants in favor of pursuing their own interests.

Another interesting tidbit I should point out is that the IGPEA does not address state lottery systems and betting on horse races. Hmm, so I guess this legislation could more accurately be titled the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act Except for the Ones that Us Politicians Make Money From, Hehe. So these “American Values” are what now again, guys? Greed, selfishness, and either brute stubbornness or a complete lack of common sense (I can’t really tell which it is)? Yeah, sounds about right.

Now I’m not a big gambler, just a poker player, and there is a difference. I’m also not a big fan of Internet regulations, nor do I enjoy when the government of one of the most diverse and supposedly free nations in the history of mankind tries to preach down upon us from a narrow-minded moral high ground, and actually attempts to put such biased viewpoints into law. So it is unfortunate to see poker lumped into this assault on our fundamental liberties, especially when truly arbitrary games of luck go untouched. Honestly, how much skill is involved in picking lottery numbers? I’ve never read any +EV strategies for scratching off little random circles, and I’ve never watched professional lottery gurus play on TV. Obviously there’s more skill in poker. The very fact that there are plenty of people who make a living doing nothing but playing poker contradicts the claim that it is a game of pure luck. The trick is differentiating between actual poker players and gamblers sitting at poker tables.

Traditionally there has been a negative stigma attached to the game of poker, one that associates the game with seedy, addiction-prone personality types. It’s this conservative traditional viewpoint that is targeting poker as if it is a bane of society, even though the game has changed extensively in the past decade or so, now incorporating an even broader range of completely normal law-abiding citizens. Sure there are people that become addicted and lose a good deal of their wealth, and these are the stories that the news media loves to focus on. But what about people addicted to online shopping or spending too much time on the Internet in general? Are we going to save them from themselves too? And what about the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that all of us are entitled to, “gambling addict” (politician-speak for poker player) or not? Shouldn’t we be allowed to spend our hard-earned dollars as we see fit?

Obviously we’re just scratching the surface of a large and complex issue, and hopefully one that can and will be resolved in a more reasonable manner that just by outright prohibition. It didn’t work for alcohol and there’s no way it would work for poker or online gambling.

If there’s anything our government should know by now, it’s that you cannot suppress the recreational will of the people you serve. We will defend our fundamental freedoms from such self-righteous attacks time and time again, and that’s something you can bet on.

Best of luck at the tables.

Mad Terp

Editor's note: The Mad Terp has his own website where readers may rate
their favorite poker site, or join in the discussion forum @ imoPoker.com