Minnesota planning on blocking access to online gambling

[Wes]

[JDMcNugent7]

that's horrible. other states are gonna jump on that.

[jillaj]

Damn I thought Kentucky was bad.

[Talking Poker]

Yeah, I've been following this for a couple of says... it's pretty laughable, to be honest.

I mean, they are asking the ISPs to block 200ish gambling sites, including Full Tilt, PARTY (and many others that don't even take US customers), but not Stars, for example. Obviously they just threw some darts at names of "gambling sites" and are being stupid.

They also say they are trying to protect their citizens (from themselves, apparently), but at the same time are warning them that they aren't going to be able to get their money back if they don't hurry and cash out now. It's absurd.

I don't expect this to amount to anything, but we shall see...

[thadeas1]

I read an article on this, you american players are having a bad time of it at the moment but in this case i really wouldn't worry, its gotta be laughable as included in the 200 domains is PokerRoom which didn't accept us players and has now closed and is now bwin which isn't listed in that 200.

[Robbie Robb]

I didn't read the entire articles but my first thought was "Okay, so the folks can't get to fulltiltpoker.com but if they've got the software already installed then they should still be able to connect as I'm pretty sure that the servers the client connects to don't resolve to fulltiltpoker.com."

Maybe they do, I don't know - I've never bothered to check. But even if they did, that's an easy enough change. Not to mention that Andy Bloch just bought up a few other domains such as fulltwitpoker that could be used as a redirect.

[jillaj]

The problem is getting the Joe Schmoe's of Minnesota to put their money online and play.

[Talking Poker]

The PPA is responding (this is a few days old):


Also, pretty interesting about Party Poker signing Mike Sexton again. Hmmmmmmm.... it seems they may be positioning themselves to reenter the US Market?

[thadeas1]

PartyPoker wont re-enter the US market until it is legal for them to do so but i guess what they have done with the deals and stuff they have reached is to put themselves in first position when and if internet gambling is regulated in the US which in my opinion will happen within the next 12 months.

[Kurn]

Care to wager on that?

[Talking Poker]

12 month may be pushing it, but IMO, we are finally making progress and I do think Party is positioning themselves for when this happens. First, they made a 9 figure settlement with the DOJ so they could never be prosecuted for their past actions, and now they are resigning Mike Sexton, who was let go when the pulled out of the US Market.

It may not happen for a while, but it seems pretty clear to me that Party thinks they have a good chance of being back in the US Market at some point.

I wonder what their stock price looks like lately...

[Kurn]

I think there's a good chance of progress being made, but 12 months? Legalizing internet poker is way down on any legislators priority list right now, until someone does a feasibility study and shows them how much $$$ in taxes they can make.

No way in a year. begin studying the idea maybe in 6 months, but by next year with congressional elections coming up it may not be the right issue to push simply because to 70% or so of the electorate, it is a non-issue.

Maybe by late 2011, and I think thats pushing it.

[Talking Poker]

Price Waterhouse Coopers did that exact study last year:


The "Final Answer": $52 billion could be generated for the US over the next 10 years.

I'm sure Barney Frank will be mentioning that study when he introduces his bill (to overturn the UIGEA) next week.

Meanwhile, I was reading through PartyGaming's Annual Report just now, and there is some pretty interesting stuff in there. Specifically regarding this issue, they believe the US will look to license and regulate online gambling in "the next few years."


Of course, licensing and regulating is still a ways away, but IMO, the UIGEA could be overturned (or a carve out for poker, etc) significantly before then.