Online Poker legal for USA players within 6 months?

There’s a buzz reverberating around the online poker community at the moment that soon the problems faced by US players may be over. First, let’s get this straight - online poker IS legal in the USA, it’s just the transactions between poker rooms and financial institutions that are causing problems. Most American players have already realised they are still welcome at a few of the bigger poker rooms like Full Tilt, PokerStars, Bodog and Doyle’s Room (who have just re-opened their doors to US players again), but there are some notable exceptions like Party Poker, Mansion and Titan which still have a US ban. Even those rooms that do accept American players have had considerable problems enabling their players to deposit and withdraw funds - problems which could soon a thing of the past.

On a recent trip to Congress on behalf of the PPA (Poker Players Alliance) Barry Greenstein met with Congressman and lobbyists and stated…

“We met with politicians and I can tell people that I am very confident that online poker is going to be back strong, legal; use credit cards, bank accounts, it would really shock me if it wasn’t within the next six months.”

Greenstein also met with Congressman Barney Frank, who has been in the forefront of the efforts to overturn the US ban, and said that…

“(when) he knows there are enough votes in the Senate to push this thing through, then he’ll put it up for the vote. He just has to count heads and it’s on our plate. We talk to enough politicians, get them to agree to vote our way, soon as he sees it’s right, it will be put through.”

There are other mounting pressures on the government to overturn the UIGEA - the WTO has filed a case against the US government for up to $100 million in trade sanctions, citing that the US is denying trade as agreed under the WTO agreement (the US have until 14th December 2007 to come up with a compensation plan). Many believe that fiscally it makes sense for the government to fully regulate and tax online poker even without any outside pressure from the WTO.

It seems everyone is in agreement that it is very likely things will be changing soon in the poker world. We will, of course, keep a close eye on the situation and report back with any news through this blog.

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