Speakeasy Regulation Part One

Originally posted on April 16, 2011 at OnTiltRadio.com

It occurred to me that we have been so busy providing all of you such wonderful events to attend; I haven’t had a single moment to blog. Well that moment is now and how lucky for all of you. I’ve heard yesterday’s events described as the “Online Poker’s Black Friday!” I suppose for those involved it is a little dark, not their greatest afternoon. It sounds like from the indictment that they have had many a pleasant afternoon more than me. Perhaps though it is not as dark as black, more a shade of grey that just needs a touch of color. For those that had accounts at Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker, and are out any sum of money then we all feel for you. In a time when America specifically needs people on the streets filling cash registers, they continually find ways to strain how they give you the means to do so. There still lie options for the US player to play online. I bet you whatever you lost that they may receive some of the best deals and bonuses ever because of it. So if you were good enough to amass a worthy stack of dough at on the site affected, you can probably do it again and now quicker with the enhanced offers. For our foreign friends, your options are tenfold that of the ones left for our people by the short-sided government they continually put in place. That is by far one of the tastiest paradoxes of living in a great republic like ours. Ask the Romans how it worked out? It seems trifle to be arguing over gambling like this because it is online and not on the ground where the US can watch over it like the Cosa Nostra. Yet before I go off on our dying empire, let me address the one that may have actually spawned today, and was conceived five years ago. 

    You know when a company decides to build something new; how they get a bunch of people in suits to stand in freshly browned dirt in their penny loafers and look excited? Then they cut ribbons and dig useless dents with military color guard shovels. Everyone cheers, the newspaper takes pictures, and life is good! Before that pretty shovel was stuck in the ground, those suits spent weeks, more likely months, arguing about where that shovel would strike, how much it would cost, when it would… Authorizing the enforcement of yesterday’s unsealed indictment (See it here) makes the United States Justice Department the big shiny scissors so the U.S. Government can pave the area behind the ribbon for profitable and manageable regulation. Further, they ensure that the regulation benefits new and existing American companies. “Speakeasy Regulation”, means they cleaned the rats out the nest before they will allow it hatch big buds! They’re doing the same with weed in a broader sense and cigarettes will one day fall too. As a smoker, one who wants to quit every day, I think the tax on cigarettes should be a gazillion percent! Let’s be honest these sites were clearly snubbing the U.S. law, like it or not and were doing essential matchstick man business out in the open. Setting up mob-style fronts is the only guarantee in the gambling world; the house will make sure you don’t win. The more you try to prove to them you can, the farther out they push you when they make the climate ripe for seed. Al Capone is a good example, they find a way if they have to. Hoover’s operation of the FBI fostered it and somewhere they decided if they can’t get you, they will create a law they know you cannot help but break. So yesterday the Justice Department decided it was time to get the brooms and do some sweeping. By clearing out the big three off-shore they pave the way for American online poker rooms to once again take root. Way more important than that is they produce the right regulations that keep the government in the loop, the companies reputable and honest, and most of all competitive at home and abroad. That entire sentence is open for interpretation.

    Who can say if this will be the only rug they check under? I imagine they will leave a fair portion of the smaller off-shore rooms to still play when the time comes for welcomed exchange of money for online poker, et al. unfortunately, you may want to grab a newspaper because those that get left behind will depend entirely on where they are. From that will determine if they stay or go depending on the current relations of trade and treaty between the United States and whatever country is in play. Make sure you know your current events and you can at least stay in the game if not be a step ahead. The US could want to sink a big company in a country that we owed money too and that country could then say, “Well America ok, come on in and get your guys. Oh by the way, we are going to call in on that vig we have on you so if you could just settle that with Mary at the front desk we would sure appreciate it!” Think the US will move to the next name on the list? Don't be naive to the world-wide schoolyard, it's recess 24/7! I for sure could be dead wrong, the US Government may want to level the field completely and build a Wal-Mart. Disallowing any company that did business with a single United States Penny during the time the UIEGA was in effect, would leave a molecule size chunk of poker rooms left. New ones would pop up like watching ten minutes of “Meerkat Manor.” Frankly to me, that sounds a little imperialistic, but then again this is an empire like it or not.

by Ryan Sayer