Barney Frank guided HR 6870-Payments System Protection Act of 2008 through its first step on the way to eventually (hopefully) becoming law with a 30-19 victory in the House Financial Services Committee.
Short summary - if this amendment is enacted into law, it will mean that the UIGEA only covers sports betting. Online poker and casino games will NOT be covered unless an Administrative Law Judge rules otherwise.
This is great news for the online poker community. Why? For those of you who don't know anything about the UIGEA, it is the piece of legislation that ran Party Poker, iPoker, Pacific Poker and host of other online poker rooms from the USA market. If this gets through to become law, I could see two very quick benefits:
1. Sites that moved out of the USA market in 2006 can come back. Welcome back Party, Titan, Pacific and a host of other fishy rooms. Welcome back the Party Poker jingle as one of the most popular ads on GSN and WSOP t.v. spots.
2. A poker/casino ewallet would be able to open and run without fear of prosecution. Tired of waiting 3 weeks on your Full Tilt Poker check? Epassporte could come back? Neteller maybe?
If you want to read it, here is a cut/paste of the legal jargon. My analysis is not expert analysis, but gleaned from some very knowledgeable posters on 2 plus 2 forums.
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Payments System Pro-
tection Act of 2008’’.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION.
The Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Gov-
ernors of the Federal Reserve System, whether acting
jointly or separately, may not propose, prescribe, or imple-
ment any regulation under subchapter IV of chapter 53
of title 31, United States Code, or otherwise give effect
to such subchapter or any such regulation, including the
proposed regulations published in the Federal Register on
October 4, 2007, except to the extent as any such regula-
tion pertains to wagering of the type that is prohibited
(as of the date of the enactment of this Act) under chapter
178 of title 28, United States Code (relating to profes-
sional and amateur sports protection) or except as pro-
vided in section 3.
SEC. 3. RULEMAKING TO IMPLEMENT SUBCHAPTER ON
PROHIBITION ON FUNDING OF UNLAWFUL
INTERNET GAMBLING AND DEFINE UNLAW-
FUL INTERNET GAMBLING.
(a) INGENERAL.—Notwithstanding section 2, the
Secretary of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of
the Federal Reserve System, in consultation with the At-
torney General, shall jointly develop and implement regu-
lations (which the Secretary and the Board jointly deter-
mine to be appropriate), on the record after opportunity
for agency hearing involving an administrative law judge
or similar official, under subchapter IV of chapter 53 of
title 31, United States Code, that shall include a definition
of the term ‘‘unlawful Internet gambling’’ for purposes of
such subchapter and such regulations, after conducting a
full economic impact study of the proposed regulations
under chapter 6 of title 5, United States Code (commonly
referred to as the ‘‘Regulatory Flexibility Act’’).
(b) COORDINATIONWITHPROHIBITION.—Upon the
effective date of final regulations under subsection (a),
section 2 shall cease to apply.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Politics and Poker
If you don't want to read my opinions on politics, this video sums my feelings up quite nicely.
It's Time for Campaign'in
Despite the title, this post has very little to do with poker. My livelihood has been under heavy attack by my party of choice since at least 2006 (longer, in truth, since it took years for anti gambling legislation to pass). So as a poker player, I am a bit stuck when it comes to my feelings on the political races in 2008.
My political leanings come across as odd to some. My guess is that I'd be hated by both sides. In a nutshell, I'm a pro-life, pro-gambling, pro-capital punishment, anti-nanny state, fiscal conservative. I'm also a devout Baptist.
I just typed and then deleted about 4 paragraphs explaining why my belief system is not contradictory. Then I realized that I have nothing to defend, so what's the point? Everyone has their right to their own opinions and beliefs. Some people's are just wrong, that's all. :)
I think the candidate who would have most fit my beliefs would have been Ron Paul. I can't bring myself to vote for Obama, but I feel like going out and pushing all the Republican buttons in the poll booth will just be rubber stamping the nanny state decisions and stinking pile of crap that was the Republican controlled congress until 2006.
I think I'll vote for Ron if he's on the ballot. Both the Dems and Reps have got to come to the realization that they are losing the middle as they get more and more extreme. Maybe then we'll see some real change in government.
Voting for someone who has no real shot is not wasting your vote. The reason we have such crappy choices these days is because the sheep keep falling for that 'lesser of two evils' line. If enough votes start being cast for 3rd party candidates, the two main parties will realize they need to field candidates that appeal to these 3rd party voters. Think about it. Elections are decided by tiny percentages. If all of a sudden 5% of votes were being cast for a 3rd party, the two main parties would be falling all over themselves to try to pick up that 5%.
That's my .02 political thoughts.
It's Time for Campaign'in
Despite the title, this post has very little to do with poker. My livelihood has been under heavy attack by my party of choice since at least 2006 (longer, in truth, since it took years for anti gambling legislation to pass). So as a poker player, I am a bit stuck when it comes to my feelings on the political races in 2008.
My political leanings come across as odd to some. My guess is that I'd be hated by both sides. In a nutshell, I'm a pro-life, pro-gambling, pro-capital punishment, anti-nanny state, fiscal conservative. I'm also a devout Baptist.
I just typed and then deleted about 4 paragraphs explaining why my belief system is not contradictory. Then I realized that I have nothing to defend, so what's the point? Everyone has their right to their own opinions and beliefs. Some people's are just wrong, that's all. :)
I think the candidate who would have most fit my beliefs would have been Ron Paul. I can't bring myself to vote for Obama, but I feel like going out and pushing all the Republican buttons in the poll booth will just be rubber stamping the nanny state decisions and stinking pile of crap that was the Republican controlled congress until 2006.
I think I'll vote for Ron if he's on the ballot. Both the Dems and Reps have got to come to the realization that they are losing the middle as they get more and more extreme. Maybe then we'll see some real change in government.
Voting for someone who has no real shot is not wasting your vote. The reason we have such crappy choices these days is because the sheep keep falling for that 'lesser of two evils' line. If enough votes start being cast for 3rd party candidates, the two main parties will realize they need to field candidates that appeal to these 3rd party voters. Think about it. Elections are decided by tiny percentages. If all of a sudden 5% of votes were being cast for a 3rd party, the two main parties would be falling all over themselves to try to pick up that 5%.
That's my .02 political thoughts.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
1-outters don't tilt me!
Losing back to back with AA dealt vs 2 small pair will tilt me. But losing to a 1 outter? One almost feels privileged to have witnessed the rare event. I received this blessing both on Saturday and Sunday (and yes, I went to church two services that day!)...
Two 1 outters in one weekend. I need to grab some lottery tickets while I'm out tonight.
A one outter is like catching a glimpse of a shooting star. Even in 7cs where you see more cards, it's still going to be something like 2.5% chance to hit. For you geeks out there, it's rolling a 1 on a 40 sided die, cleaving the ogre standing in front of you from head to crotch with a well crafted, but non-magical short sword, killing him instantly.
+150 XP.
Yeah. It's that rare.
Bankroll Update: After blowing $200 at the Fair and a crappy week at everything but NLHE cash games, ~1200. Blah.
Two 1 outters in one weekend. I need to grab some lottery tickets while I'm out tonight.
A one outter is like catching a glimpse of a shooting star. Even in 7cs where you see more cards, it's still going to be something like 2.5% chance to hit. For you geeks out there, it's rolling a 1 on a 40 sided die, cleaving the ogre standing in front of you from head to crotch with a well crafted, but non-magical short sword, killing him instantly.
+150 XP.
Yeah. It's that rare.
Bankroll Update: After blowing $200 at the Fair and a crappy week at everything but NLHE cash games, ~1200. Blah.
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