LVRJ: Federal Government Is Stupid On Web PokerFederal Policy Needs To Change, Says Las Vegas Newspaper |
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Though it’s not 100-percent clear what the editorial is exactly calling for, the Las Vegas Review-Journal published a strong piece Wednesday in the wake of Ultimate Poker closing its Nevada operations to say that federal policy on online poker is flawed.
Currently, federal policy only explicitly permits intrastate online gambling. Though, the states where the industry is legal and up and running—Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey—have expressed interest and some level of confidence that they could, theoretically, join together in compacts to share player pools. That has not been done yet.
Doing so would probably require a new opinion on the issue from the Department of Justice. In December 2011, the DOJ re-interpreted the Wire Act to say intrastate Internet gaming is OK.
The reason why Ultimate Poker failed in Nevada (as well as New Jersey)? A lack of revenue due to not having enough liquidity. Not enough people were playing online.
There has remained some level of hope that Congress could authorize online poker nationwide with some piece of legislation, but that appears unlikely. Also unlikely is Sheldon Adelson’s efforts to influence politicians to ban it nationwide, but it seems near impossible a pro-poker bill could pass while he is spending vast sums to fight games going to the web.
Basically, it’s a state-by-state approach to online poker, but if states can’t partner up to create a more robust player pool, industries in individual states will suffer—or not even launch in the first place. There are exceptions. For example, California might be able to sustain an intrastate industry thanks to its huge population. The Golden State could legalize web poker next year.
Despite a lack of players, some sites have proved to be capable of continuing operations. One is the WSOP-branded site from Caesars, which just this week hired a new general manager for its online gambling division. Thanks to its popular live events, WSOP.com likely won’t go anywhere.
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