Ante Up: Congress Wagers That Legal Online Poker Could Be a Jackpot
Online poker has been offline in the U.S. since a Justice Department crackdown two months ago. Now people are betting a House bill will change that because it gives the cash-strapped government a cut of the pot.
On April 18th (now known as Black Friday among poker players), the DOJ shut down online poker operations in the U.S. when it filed fraud charges against the founders of online poker websites Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, Absolute Poker and others. Gambling is illegal in the U.S. -- with a few state-specific exceptions -- because the law views it as a game of chance. (Actually, gambling that admits it is gambling is illegal. Call it a stock market and you're good to go.) The poker sites had been able to stay in business by claiming poker is a game of skill and not of chance. In truth, both sides have a point: Poker is a game of chance -- if you don't know how to play.
Now the usually unmatched pair of Texas Rep. Joe Barton (R-As Far Right As He Can Possibly Get) and Mass. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Do I Really Have To Say More?) are hoping to pass a law that makes it once again legal to find out if your three jacks are as good as you think they are. Barton has said he will soon introduce a bill that would legalize poker and create a new federal regulatory body to oversee the sites. (Federal oversight? I thought he said he was a Republican?).
His bill is similar to one introduced in the last congress by Frank. That proposal didn't make it past Spencer Bachus (R-Maybe Even To The Right Of Joe Barton), the very anti-gambling chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Barton's bill is expected to get a much warmer reception when it goes through the House Committee on Energy & Commerce which is chaired by ... Joe Barton.
The Texas representative, who admits to playing poker off-line, has long said he does not view poker as a game of chance. He says it is different from other types of gambling because players bet against each other and not the house. (Left unsaid is the fact that Barton is from Texas, where poker would be the state religion had someone not invented football.)
Last week Frank and some of his colleagues upped the ante by introducing a bill requiring online gambling sites to withhold individual income taxes on winnings. It would also impose a 2 percent federal tax on these sites, and give states the option doing likewise at a rate of 6 percent. The word gambling is expected to make these new taxes palatable to the GOP where other new taxes aren't.
Major corporations have also started betting that the government's desperate need for cash will make poker just the first step towards legalizing online gambling in general. So in addition to paying money to find out if the cards are any good, people soon be able likewise find out if the Card(inal)s are any good.
Photo: WikiCommons
Related: