FBI Shuts down Online Poker

[piasabird]

Why shut down online poker when we have so many legal casinos? I think the real issue here is the government is not getting their cut!

This issue has nothing to do with morality it has to dow with taxes. Why go to a casino to be ripped off, when you can sit at your desk at home????

How is this different from playing the lottery?

Maybe it is the government that is corrupt, not the people.

 

[crownjules]

Why shut down online poker when we have so many legal casinos? I think the real issue here is the government is not getting their cut!

This issue has nothing to do with morality it has to dow with taxes. Why go to a casino to be ripped off, when you can sit at your desk at home????

How is this different from playing the lottery?

Maybe it is the government that is corrupt, not the people.

The government was easy to convince along those lines - that they were losing out on tax money. They could combine that with the "we're protecting our citizens" to sway enough people to agree with it.

But ultimately, who had the most to gain from it? It's not a huge amount of tax money that the government stood to gain after all. No, it was the Vegas and Indian casinos who were seeing their clientele being drawn away from their venues. What better way to get them back than to shut down the competition?

 

[Wreckem]

Prior to the law updates in 2006, their activity was no different than any other company. Then, when the law changed to make online poker illegal, the same activity that was previously OK was all of a sudden made "money laundering". At least that's my understanding. If that's not correct, someone provide a clearer view.

Umm online gambling/online poker was never technically legal in the US. It was illegal with no real methods of enforcement until the banking & gambling law passed.

 

[Wreckem]

Why shut down online poker when we have so many legal casinos? I think the real issue here is the government is not getting their cut!

This issue has nothing to do with morality it has to dow with taxes. Why go to a casino to be ripped off, when you can sit at your desk at home????

How is this different from playing the lottery?

Maybe it is the government that is corrupt, not the people.

The overwhelming majority of states do not allow casinos or gambling of this type. Those that do allow gambling are highly regulated. The federal government regulates interstate and foreign commerce in the interest of the many states. The states and the feds feel there is no real way to regulate online gambling, and more than just for tax purposes. Online gambling has always had a lot of fraudulent activity.

 

[spidey07]

Umm online gambling/online poker was never technically legal in the US. It was illegal with no real methods of enforcement until the banking & gambling law passed.

Sure it was. But only for horse racing. See the problem here?

Full disclosure - I'm a gambler. I play the ponies, I gamble. I LOVE that I can bet on horse racing with the click of a mouse and a direct ACH link to my account. The tracks get more of their take because I can do so, I cannot and will not go to off track betting (OTB) just to play the ponies. It's still fun to go to Churchill and do OTB, but I'm not going to go there just to place some bets.

And it's ALL reported for tax purposes. Hell, if it was all about government wanting their take they should LOVE online gaming. Until the fed wants to put up agents at every single table game, every single horse track, every single LEGAL gaming then it's a losing proposition for them. That's why the FED should absolutely LOVE online gaming, it's all tracked, recorded and on record.

A table game? Not so much. This is NOT about government wanting their take. As I've said you can easily set up online gaming that records each and every transaction with a win/loss statement at the end of the year. Use any of the horse racing online gaming out there and you get it at the click of a mouse for tax purposes. Any serious gamer documents his win/loss rigorously.

This is about government picking winners and losers. And you know what? If I couldn't bet online with the ponies they wouldn't be getting near the action I give them.

Common fucking sense - not required.

 

[spidey07]

The overwhelming majority of states do not allow casinos or gambling of this type. Those that do allow gambling are highly regulated. The federal government regulates interstate and foreign commerce in the interest of the many states. The states and the feds feel there is no real way to regulate online gambling, and more than just for tax purposes. Online gambling has always had a lot of fraudulent activity.

Answer my point about thoroughbred racing. It's already here and legal in a ton of states. There are very real ways to regulate online gaming, we've been doing it for the last 15+ years.

 

[Wreckem]

Answer my point about thoroughbred racing. It's already here and legal in a ton of states. There are very real ways to regulate online gaming, we've been doing it for the last 15+ years.

Again, its the about the type of gambling thats legalized in the many states. Poker has never been legalized in the majority of states. Right or wrong, thats the fact of the matter.

Horse racing is more or less legalized in every state. Gambling such as poker is not. Also, another distinction is, to my knowledge, online horse gambling sites are US based. These poker sites are not. Until states legalize poker, not just online poker, the feds will continue to ban it at the federal level.

And yes there are ways to regulate US based sites, but these are foreign, and it still gets back to the issue that poker type gambling is illegal in the majority of states.

A common argument people have is to claim poker is a game of skill so it is not a game of chance. Thats just incorrect, there is a bit of skill but it still comes down to chance. Just because there are ways to better your odds, doesn't mean it isn't still a game of chance. There, are ways to better your odds at any game of chance, sans slots, not just poker.

I don't agree with poker being illegal, but the matter of fact it is in the majority of states.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Amen! There a youtube video, of this young guy, that has made over 2Mil dollars playing online poker. He does it for a job, literally. He's buying his own house. Now he's going to be out of a job. Great work federal gov't, putting people out of work. It's almost like that's what they want, everyone to be on welfare, rather than using their own unique talents to make money how they can (and want).

>thinks gambling creates wealth.

 

[BoberFett]

>thinks gambling creates wealth.

So you agree Wall Street and all insurance companies should be shut down?

 

[DominionSeraph]

So you agree Wall Street and all insurance companies should be shut down?

Much of Wall Street could be done without.

Insurance is managed (real) risk. It spreads the unavoidable cost of losses that reality presents across the risk pool. There should be no "winning" in insurance. (The last time I had a claim, they gave me $2000 more than it cost to fix my car. So I returned it.)
Gambling is purposefully engaging in risk for the possibility of reward. It's addictive, destroying lives. This is not efficient. Two people with middle-class incomes is better for growth than one person with 2x middle-class and one person with none.

 

[Glitchny]

Answer my point about thoroughbred racing. It's already here and legal in a ton of states. There are very real ways to regulate online gaming, we've been doing it for the last 15+ years.

Oh it is possible to regulate online gambling, and legal online poker etc is coming eventually, they need to figure out the structure and set up proper regulatory protocols but it is possible.

What you have to remember as well is that many Casino's are against legalizing online gambling/table games. It has the potential to pull people out of Casino's and cause them major issues. The funny thing is that many of the slot/table suppliers are developing mobile gaming currently, just waiting for it to be legal because it lets them cut out the middle man (Casino's) and get direct access to the player.

It will be interesting to see how it all ends up.

 

[piasabird]

So you can buy and sell stocks online, but you can not regulate online poker? Can you really eat all that bull puckey? This is all about the gevernment not getting their cut. How can they shut down online poker and somehow let all the online porn out there fourish? Let me know how that works out.

 

[matt0611]

Much of Wall Street could be done without.

Insurance is managed (real) risk. It spreads the unavoidable cost of losses that reality presents across the risk pool. There should be no "winning" in insurance. (The last time I had a claim, they gave me $2000 more than it cost to fix my car. So I returned it.)
Gambling is purposefully engaging in risk for the possibility of reward. It's addictive, destroying lives. This is not efficient. Two people with middle-class incomes is better for growth than one person with 2x middle-class and one person with none.

Lots of things in this world are inefficient and possibly destructive.

Fast food, smoking, drinking, gambling. etc

Your life should be lived how you want it to be, as long as your not hurting someone else. Fuck efficiency, people should be able to play a game of poker online for money if they so choose to do so in a free society.

This is just a power grab by government, nothing more.