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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Game over

U.S. clampdown a massive blow to online poker

By: Marco Carreira

Posted: 04/17/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Friday, April 15, 2011 might go down as one of the most shocking days in the history of poker -- and I don't think I'm exaggerating.

I wanted to discuss the Manitoba Poker Championship in this column, but due to the magnitude of Friday's events, that will have to wait at least one more week.

Online poker has been dealt a brutal blow.

About five years ago, the United States government tried to ban online gaming, mainly online poker, because so much money was leaving the country to overseas banks. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed. The fact the U.S. was not getting a cut of the online gaming market wasn't sitting well with our neighbours to the south, so they decided to try to ban online gaming.

At the time, Party Poker was the largest site. In what was a definite shock to the poker community, the company instantly shut down its software to American players. They went from being the largest site to being almost non-existent overnight and since then, its site has never been the same.

So what happened to the U.S market at the time? Well, other sites didn't seem to care about the U.S. government and the UIGEA and went ahead and kept allowing Americans to play on their sites. With good advertising and the continued growth in popularity of the game, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker became the online poker giants.

On Friday, however, all of that changed. The FBI and and the U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release stating that 11 executives of PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute/Ultimate Bet have warrants out for their arrest on fraud charges and a couple of them are already in custody.

So, on Friday, all of the major sites did what Party Poker did five years ago, and have banned American players from their sites. This is clearly a massive blow to online poker, seeing as how about 30-40 per cent of the player pool was made up of American players.

The U.S. is making it seem as if playing poker is a crime, and clearly everyone knows it isn't. Why didn't they make their own poker site that was legal for Americans to play on? Maybe they will, but seeing as how the government has to have its nose in everything, who knows what it is planning?

I now face some hard decisions myself. Can I trust having money online? There are so many unknowns for many of us that play this crazy game of online poker. I got a text from one of my friends today saying, "good game online poker, thx for the memories! Lol."

Honestly, I don't think this is the end for online poker, but the industry was dealt a massive blow this week. Only time will tell what will happen to the game, but for myself and many others like me, I really hope this isn't the end.

The only thing I know for sure is that by losing the majority of the player pool, the game of online poker as we know it may never be the same again, and if that is so... thanks for the memories!

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 17, 2011 B13

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