Online Poker Ban Signed By President!

On Friday, October 13th, President Bush signed the new "Safe Port Act" that made it official: online poker is illegal. Wait, did I hear that right? Isn't the bill called the "Safe Port Act"? What on earth does that have to do with online gambling?

Nothing.

The "Internet Gambling Prohibition Act" was added to the "Safe Port Act" as a back door, get-it-out-the-door-before-elections-begin ploy that worked flawlessly. And since voting against increasing the safety in our ports is pretty much supporting Satan himself, the bill became law unanimously.

So instead of gaining approximately $3 billion in tax revenue from regulating and taxing (see the report here) the widely popular card game, they've outlawed it all together. Here are a few things Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) cited as reasons to ban online gambling:

-Internet gambling sites are unregulated.

Unfortunately, Senator Frist is wrong on this one. Many of the most popular sites are managed by the U.K. and Canada. They have some of the most complex algorithms to curb cheating on the planet and are fully licensed by the internationally recognized organizations. Funds are notoriously tracked and managed.

-Online gambling websites may fund terrorist organizations.

Please... I'm not even going to talk about this one.

-Poker addictions are running rampant! And there are underage gamblers all over!

Many online gambling websites use advanced software to detect the beginning signs of a gambling addiction and limit deposits by both amount and frequency. Not only that, they use strict procedures to ensure that there are no underage gamblers on the site. If there are, that means Mommy and Daddy know about it and are allowing Junior to illegally gamble.

Really, Congress just passed a bill that, in a survey, 74% of America didn't approve of. Gotta love the work they're doing.

And in a CNN poll, half of Americans think Congress is corrupt. I'm not getting into whether they are or not, but at the very least, nobody likes them. At least they have something to say about it in a few weeks.

Anyway, enough ranting. If you want to know more about the poker ban and how you can help, check out this website, the Poker Players Alliance.