Legalize Online Poker in the United States
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The following editorial comes from Jay Lakin, Co-Owner and Vice President of PokerSourceOnline.com
Online poker used to be a global sport. The entire world had a love affair with the game following Chris Moneymaker’s unlikely win in the 2003 World Series of Poker. With a very appropriate last name and by virtue of winning a satellite on a (then) tiny online poker site called PokerStars, Moneymaker single-handedly launched the poker boom worldwide. Very quickly, PartyPoker established itself as the top brand catering to U.S. customers. Other sites like Pacific Poker, Full Tilt Poker, and UltimateBet became household names among online poker players everywhere. Each player was searching for the Chris Moneymaker who existed in all of them, trying to turn a few dollars into a few swimming pools full of cash.
In 2006, the entire landscape of the online poker world changed. And when I say changed, I mean the online poker world was completely turned upside down. The U.S. market, which had been the primary source of revenue for sites like PokerRoom, Titan Poker, and Gnuf, was suddenly not accessible. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Republican from Tennessee, ushered through the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the final moments of the 2006 Congressional session. The bill wasn’t even discussed on the Senate floor. Instead, it was passed by “Unanimous Consent” and attached to an unrelated port security measure.
PartyPoker had even planned the Monster to come out right around the same time as the UIGEA was passed. Very quickly, the site completely abandoned the U.S. market, its revenues and stock price slashed in the process. After all, PartyPoker is owned by PartyGaming, a publicly-traded company found on the London Stock Exchange. Party has since grown considerably, becoming one of the largest sites that do not cater to American customers. In fact, right now, only a handful of sites will even approach the U.S. market. Though they include several big names like PokerStars, Bodog, Full Tilt Poker, DoylesRoom, Absolute Poker, and UltimateBet, sites that accept U.S. consumers are in the minority in the industry today.
That brings us to the 2006 World Series of Poker. Jamie Gold bested a field of nearly 9,000 poker hopefuls. The field consisted of Average Joes like Chris Moneymaker who had won their seats online through satellites and guys like Doyle Brunson, who could afford to cough up $10,000 to enter the Main Event. The 2006 WSOP was the last one prior to the passage of the UIGEA. The numbers in 2007 proved nauseating to even think about. There were 6,358 entrants in the 2007 Main Event, a steep 27% drop-off from 2006. In 2008, that number increased to 6,844, but it’s still way below 2006’s turnout.
Moreover, the number of amateurs who have experienced success on poker’s biggest stage absolutely tumbled in 2008. Here’s a list of how amateurs and pros fared when it came to winning WSOP events during the new millennium:
2000 – Pros 14 to Amateurs 8
2001 – Pros 18 to Amateurs 7
2002 – Pros 18 to Amateurs 16
2003 – Pros 24 to Amateurs 12
2004 – Pros 21 to Amateurs 11
2005 – Amateurs 26 to Pros 18
2006 – Amateurs 27 to Pros 17
2007 – Amateurs 34 to Pros 20
2008 – Pros 38, Amateurs 12
If that doesn’t alert you as to the lack of amateurs in the 2008 World Series of Poker, I don’t know what will. What you’re seeing in 2008 is what happens when one of the largest, wealthiest nations on the face of the Earth is completely inaccessible to online poker companies. The solution is simple: bring back legalized online poker in the United States.
It took a decade for the Republican leadership in Congress to outlaw internet gambling successfully. After years of toil and trouble, they finally succeeded in 2006. Now, it’s a matter of time before that trend is reversed. Congressman Spencer Bachus, a Republican from Alabama who leads that party’s contingent on the Financial Services Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, summed up his arguments in a June hearing: “Since the enactment of UIGEA, the large operators in the internet gambling industry have pulled out of the U.S. market. According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center, weekly use of the Internet for gambling among college-age youth declined precipitously in 2007, dropping to only a quarter of what it was in previous years. ‘The strong drop in use of Internet sites suggests that federal legislation restricting the transfer of funds to Internet gambling sites has had its intended effect,’ the director of the Annenberg survey said.”
In that hearing, HR 5767, which would have cut the UIGEA’s effectiveness completely, was struck down. It never even saw the light of day on the House floor. Now, a new bill has been introduced that you should start rallying behind. It’s HR 6501 and was introduced by Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington State, in recent days. Using an estimated $40 billion in tax receipts from internet gambling, HR 6501 will help those in need have access to job training and educational programs. There are very few industries that can provide billions of dollars in tax revenues nearly instantaneously, but the internet gambling industry is certainly one of them.
Moreover, it’s an industry that is begging to be taxed and regulated. Barney Frank’s HR 2046 calls for a regulatory framework in the United States. Robert Wexler’s HR 2610 exempts games of skill, such as poker, from the UIGEA. There are a number of pieces of legislation out there. All you have to do is let your Congressman know that you want him or her to support them. You have two Senators and one Representative. Call each of them and tell them you’re a registered voter. And don’t call them once; call them multiple times. For every person that calls, there are many more whose opinions will be taken into account.
