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I have to say to you guys in America how really stupid I find your goverment, I dont lke to get involved in politics but your guys in power (not all am sure) are really fucking stupid.
Ok its ok for them to ask you to Fight, pay your tax and be patriotic and compared to us brits your young guys cant smoke,drink and gamble. Yet you guys are more patriotic and caring about your country than us Brits.
Lets hope on the next round of elections you can all make some good changes and get someone who is in touch with the people in power.
Jimmy. This isn't a patriotic rant. The US has 300 million people. A small fraction of those play poker online. Millions of people, sure, but a minority of the country.
This screwed up govt that you mention. These numbskulls get elected (by other numbskulls in many cases) for many reasons other than this issue. In fact, if you go to the websites of most US reps and senators, you won't find a position on this issue listed anywhere, because to most of the electorate, its just not a big deal.
One of the problems with the democratic process is that often the herd mentality takes over. Sure there's a core of social conservative Puritans out there (aren't you Brits happy you drove them out of your country 400 or so years ago
), and they don't want anybody gambling anywhere, anytime, but the reality is most Americans don't give a hoot about online gambling and the pols that represent them know that and tag along with the typical "protect the children" logic that permeates both authoritarian side of the aisle even if they don't agree with Frist, Kyl, Goodlatte, et. al. on the "bigger" issues.
If the social conservatives were the only problem here, we'd be in pretty good shape right now. The reality is that the majority of US voters who *don't* vote in lockstep with the conservative wing of the GOP also think restricting internet gambling is a good idea.
That's why when we say "maybe internet poker should be regulated and taxed" we don't really do the cause any good at all, because by saying that, we tacitly agree that it is indeed the province of the government to get involved.
And back to Jimmy (and other non-US posters), if you think this is bad, you should see how gambling income is taxed here.
Its conceivable that, under the right circumstances, a person in the US could have a winning year at online poker, and owe *more* than his winnings in taxes.
<rant off>