Congress Moves Forward On Putting Online Poker Players In Jail
from the no-bluff dept
Those students who are upsetting professors by playing online poker while in class may have a bigger problem to deal with: five years hard time. We've mentioned this before, but many Americans who play online poker insist that the only ones at legal risk are the operators of online poker sites. The current law is ambiguous on this (and ambiguous on whether or not poker is considered "gambling"), but the Justice Department has made statements claiming that players of online poker and similar online games involving better could be committing crimes. To help clarify this, some Congressman have put forth legislation that makes these things illegal (subject to five years in jail). The bill in question has now been approved by a Congressional subcommittee. Similar bills have been put forth before and failed to get anywhere, and this one has a very long way to go before it becomes a law... but you have to wonder about any piece of legislation that would turn so many people into criminals overnight. Meanwhile, financial institutions are opposing the bill, noting that it would require them to get involved in trying to stop customers from gambling online -- an enforcement job they don't want. However, those same financial institutions are probably happy to note that the bill carves out an exemption for buying and selling stocks online -- which some people (often reasonably) do view as a form of gambling.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
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So what?
I live in China and I don not care! :-)
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Re: Voted In
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Re: bush
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Re: Bill is an Loser and if you do not live in USA
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USA preschool??
or so it seems according to our government....or maybe there's to many people employed by the privately owned
prison systems in this country that might be out of a job if we were allowed to decide for ourselves how to handle what ever vices we might have. Then again theres always
the idea that some of us might get a hold of a little bit of money here or there that they won't know to tax us on,
God forbid!!! are we ever gonna get too tired of it!!..Yep,
I agree us Americans are turning into a bunch of apethetic
wimps!!!!!!
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Re: USA preschool??
I think the only way to avoid some of these "infringements" that are rapidly changing "The American Dream" into "The American Nightmare" is to stand firm and "choose our battles". Just because our politicians enact laws (which are NOT necessarily the will of the People!) does not mean Americans cannot still choose for themselves. It just means that to do so may mean arrest and/or imprisonment. I guess if we're willing for those consequences, so be it.
I see it like this:
We already have too many 'politically-motivated' laws. All they really serve to accomplish is to create more "criminals", thus more prisoners, thus the need for more prisons, more wardens, more guards, more other staff, thus the need to raise taxes to pay for it all, thus more 'disgruntled' taxpayers and electors of leaders, thus more discontent with the system at large...so where does it all end, and what do these laws really accomplish? To me, nothing more than to make some lobbyists happy and some politicians richer!
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take and take
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The Blame Game
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Goodlatte is an ass
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Morons in action
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Re: Morons in action
First off I'd like to say I'm not a soccer mom, hell I'm a guy. I'd also like to say I drive an SUV. Now, here's the kicker. I get 32 to 35 MPG. I am sick and tired of people stereotyping all SUV's as gas guzzling monsters when MOST of todays SUV's actually get good gas mileage.
And yes we have American Soldiers dying overseas. Have you been there? Did you serve in the military and see what's actually going on over there? I doubt it, you sound like you just believe everything you see on CNN. We may have had over 2000 deaths since this war started how many YEARS ago? We lose more soldiers every year in training accidents than we lose in the War. Also, how many human lives have been saved because of this war? There may have been a few thousand American lives lost, and I garuntee 90% of them were happy to give their life for their fellow man, since I was in the army during the majority of this, I have a first hand knowledge. This war has saved many many many thousands of lives (remember 9/11. 5000 people dead in a blink of an eye) and remember what Saddam was doing to his own people. There hasn't been a dictator like that since Hitler and Stalin. When does it stop being about American lives and start being about Human lives? Your a selfish prick.
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Re: Re: Re: Morons in action
Sorry to post off topic, but I’m sick of reading posts like this and letting it go. You say to ask someone from Iraq? Ok. I'm here in Iraq right now. This is my second tour here (I was here for the initial invasion) and I have talked to many Iraqis about our presence here. Are they mad that their people are dying in attacks that would not exist if not for the invasion, sure who wouldn't be. Then I ask if they think we should leave, and the answer 90% of the time is no. I’ve also asked had a very long conversation with an Iraqi about what things were like before the war, and I can tell you that I would not have wanted to live that way. I have no clue where the Communist News Network (CNN) gets their polls, or their information, but I just don't see the things that the news media is reporting on. As far as the statistics, I don't know about more soldiers dying in training accidents, but I do know that if you look at the death rates for the age groups represented by the US Military in the states, and compare them to the death rate per soldier/year in Iraq, that I am actually almost half as likely to die in Iraq than in the US. And if I do die (and for my fellow soldiers that have died here) we know that we have died serving our country proudly. Not because some drunken asshole thought he could drive home safely. Regardless of what Bush's original intentions for this invasion were, I know that I am making a making a positive difference for the people of Iraq. So if you want to spout your leftist views about "what's really going on Iraq" why don't you spend a year over here for yourself, then talk shit.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Morons in action
I love how people use the body count as an excuse to preach their own agenda. No one seems to care that 45,000 people die each year in auto accidents for no good reason at all. or how many die because of mistakes in the hospital.
The Internet brings the idiots of the world together. Agonizing Furry, you are the type of guy most of us want around.
I live near Ft. Meade Maryland, the intelligence capital of the world, and know many folks in the business and hear the same things you just said. Problem is it doesn't make good news lines or chat room talk.
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Geh!
Democrats censor your speech because it may offend someone.
Republicans want to censor your speech because it offends god.
See gambling is where dems and reps agree...its too hard to tax the income.
Its kind of funny how things work...30 years ago, you could go to jail for being gay. Now you can almost go to jail for NOT being gay. Go figure.
The whole thing is rediculous.
All I want to do is:
Gamble. If I loose my shirt, its my fault.
Not have bars close at 2am
I want to be able to say the F word at work without getting fired.
I want to not be obstructed while driving by some psuedo healthnut on a bicycle that won't get off of the traveled portion of the road.
I want to buy alcoholic beverages at any store that opts to carry such things.
I don't want to be punished for someone else's shortcomings : i.e. Responsible firearms ownership. I shouldn't denied the right to defend myself because some hoodrat robbed a convenience store. I shouldn't be required to flee a confrontation by a criminal...unless someone wants to pay the full recovery costs including intangibles or replacing my vehicle, my wallet, or anything else that is being stolen, including one's dignity when one is required by law to cower.
Not pay taxes on things I already own: Property tax. Being taxed repeatedly for just pure ownership is just silly. Especially after I retire...seriously, haven't they blown enough of my money on stupid crap over the last 65 years to make me exempt?
I'm not quite so sure its because of the morons in office. The sad part is they reflect the majority of the (voting) Americans that put them there...Everyone I talk to thats politically active are usually all "GAMBLING IS BADDDD" or "GUNS ARE BADD" "WEE NEED TO TAX MORE BCAUSE EDUCATION NEEDS MONEY BECAUSE MY KID IS RETARDED AND THEY COULDN'T MAKE HIM UN-RETARDED BECAUSE I CAN'T GET IT THROUGH MY HEAD THAT NOT EVERYONE CAN BE AN ASTRONAUT WHEN THEY GROW UP"
I PARTICULARLY like the ones that complain aboujt the rich, brag about being poor...then blame it on me for the $50,000 worth of creditcard debt...all because they couldn't show up for work, had 747732 kids and just HAD to have a NEW car and put spinning rims on it.
That is all for this rant.
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Re: Geh!
not joke, I feel the same way about everythign you just said and I couldn't have said it any better.
I am tired of seeing people getting married and have kids making minimum wage...wtf??? get yourself established first before having kids that you can't support!
I want the right to own a firearm WITHOUT PAYING TAXES!!! wtf is this BS??? if thats so then why don't they makeus pay taxes for lets see: my chef knife, baseball bat, cordless drill, chainsaw, ...get my point?
There are a lot of stupid people who make life a living hell for the rest of us...like how I love the law in Virginia Beach, VA that women can't wear thongs...I wonder who made that possible. *sigh* this gets me so depressed...I am going back to work before I start posting a 100 page long comment.
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I PARTICULARLY like the ones that complain aboujt the rich, brag about being poor...then blame it on me for the $50,000 worth of creditcard debt...all because they couldn't show up for work, had 747732 kids and just HAD to have a NEW car and put spinning rims on it."
Nowhere in his rant did he say the hoorats were the ones with the kids or the cars. He said Americans that complain. His only mention of hoodrats? :
"I don't want to be punished for someone else's shortcomings : i.e. Responsible firearms ownership. I shouldn't denied the right to defend myself because some hoodrat robbed a convenience store."
Hoodrat implies someone who is impovrished living in the inner-city, or hood. They ARE the ones robbing the convenience stores in most cases. Don't hear a lot about the farmboys runnin into the QT with their 9mm. RTF Post before you comment on it, not doing so makes you look like a close-minded idiot...
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I had to rant alittle myself
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Re: Geh!
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Don't blame me...
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Make online gaming illegal - so you can sell more lottery tickets and draw more people into the casinos, that are taxed heavily, I'm sure.
Get a clue government - keep your nose out of the free market. if anything can screw the market up bad, it's the government.
So arrest some pedophiles, terrorists, murderers, or rapists and quit worrying about some joker blowing his money on online gaming - it's his problem.
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Hypocrisy
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Internet Jail!
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hmm...
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voted for who?
but im from texas, in a heavily republican area.. my vote was worthless
not to mention in the last two elections there has been alot of evidence of tampering and inaccuracy.. i dont think bush fairly won either election
in 2000 a recount of florida PROVED he lost, the supreme court GAVE him the presidency unconstitutionally..
in 2004 we were using voting machines that dont allow a recount and are easily hackable.. the only evidence they provide shows people voting weeks before elections and 'bulk' votes in some areas where tons of votes appear at once.. i dont know how 1000 people can vote in 1 minute
the machines are easily rigged and cant really be checked, the CEO of the company providing the machines garenteed bush the election, and has now stepped down admist tons of other criminal investigations
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Defeated ?
I remember reading a book (the title of which escapes me) some years ago that suggested that elections be declared null & void in those areas where the votes counted represented less than 50% of the voting population, the reason being that the results did not reflect the will of the majority
Maybe it's time to persuade people not to vote ?
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It seems to me
You elect them, you bitch whine and moan when they do things. you throw a hissy fit when they do not.
Can you not see that they are just trying to save you from your own stupidity.
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Re: It seems to me
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Re: It seems to me
As my neighbor, Booger Lipshitz used to say, "FUCK YOU, TOWEL-HEAD."
Ah, thank you for listening. I feel so much better now...What a chatharsis.
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agreed
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Re: agreed
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Poker People Poker
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waste of time / waste of money
If this law was made to prevent online gambling, it is misdirected. It is not the government's job to provide a national vice-watch, especially not one with a built in double standard that says gambling in Vegas is fine, gambling online is not.
If the purpose of the law is to stop transactions that it does not draw taxes from, it is poorly written. Like the RCAA trying to go after torrent sites in Sweden, the US govt is powerless trying to tax offshore poker sites.
If the US govt wanted to tax American players' winnings, these laws are already in place.
Hopefully there are enough bright people in congress to shoot this down or I'm going to leave the country.
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People Poking.
The people are powerless.
The government has nukes.
Those in control don't care about those at the bottom... or even the middle of the food chain. Say what you will, but it doesn't change a thing. But I send out this challenge. Do something about it. Try.
You'll then understand why americans speak in whispers, and act as if the constitution no longer exists... because in a sense of day to day life here in the US, it doesn't.
The founding fathers of this nation designed the constitution in such as way that not only is it our right to bring down any regime that would corrupt our nation, but it's our duty. Somehow along the way, the people have become programmed by fear, and couldn't be given enough bravery to do their duty... so rather than do what's right ( which is also to try the nearly impossible ), our people jump on the bandwagon to go to war against someone else. The way they see it, at least over there they have a fighting chance. Here, were there to ever be a popular uprising that sparked off a 2nd revolution, the US govt wouldn't hesitate to nuke its own cities.
UN... think about that one.
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Re: People Poking.
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I wish
Lets all just move to Canada or something!
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tax it!
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Online gambling punishment 5 years?
Maybe 5 years for that too?
Five years as "Bubba's" jail house pal for them? Wow, what an inducement for cleaning up their own better-than-you attitude.
Just the first thing that came to mind.
Cast out your old tired everything...
That's c o y o t E L o g i c.
See ya,
c
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Thing, is, they found a receptive ear in the churches, for two reasons. First of all, if a man gambled away all his money, and couldn't afford to buy food and clothing, guess where else he didn't put any money?! So the churches were perceiving that money that should have gone into their collection plates on Sunday mornings was being gambled away on Saturday night. And beyond that, if the family was in really dire straits, it might fall upon the church to see that the wife and kids got clothing and food.
When you think about it in that context, you can understand why the churches have traditionally been against and vice that takes money out of the family. You can argue about whether it was their own collection plate or the family's welfare they were more concerned about, but either way, they were very much against gambling, hard liquor, drugs, and anything else that might transfer funds to those who probably don't go to church or support social welfare. (And the real fundies were also against leisure activities and for hard work because after all, if a man did nothing but work he would make more money, and then all they had to do was to convince the guy of the necessity of tithing according to their made-up formula of 10%, which is really NOT Biblical but that's another discussion for another time).
Then add to all that that guys got murdered, or injured so badly that they could not work, when they failed to pay their gambling debts, and that organized crime was often behind gambling (and still is today) and you can understand why it was a pretty easy sell to make it illegal.
What people today need to understand, before you look on this solely as a matter of personal freedom, is that in most cases you have no clue who is really running these online gambling operations. It is quite possible that at least some of them have the backing of organized criminals. Others may be "just for fun" and the government probably shouldn't tar every operation with the same brush. But anyway, I just wanted to answer your question about why gambling is illegal in the first place - there are definite historical reasons for it. To put in in context, probably 100 years from now there will be some people asking why drunk driving is illegal, not having lived through an era when so many lives were ended prematurely due to drinking drivers. The laws against gambling probably made perfect sense at the time they were passed, and while times have changed, the reasons behind those laws may still exist to a greater or lesser degree.
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... you proved it, you do need moddy coddling
Smoking is not outlawed in Scotland for a start, just in closed spaces.
I smoke but i also support th stance on what the government is doing in the UK.
and i do actually know about the American way... probably a lot more than you do to be fair, you live it, the jaded version of it.
Election processes are a very similar to british process' aswell, just seems to me tht you lot cannot understand that most of you are too ignorant for your own good and need hand holding.
Dont blame your government for looking after the majority, ignorant arseholes.
On the Iraq Iran Afgan issue, please dont forget who sold them the damned stuff in the first place.
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Afgan Iran and Iraq
Why did you bomb and invade a country on one terrorist attack, you didnt see the UK bomb ireland for what the IRA did for over 20 years, could of been a good thing though, or the French or Spanish bombing each other over the terroist actions of ETA.
It seems to me the wars you choose to put yourself in are financially motivated. Please, someone arrest Bush for gambling with monrey and lives.
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Online Gambling-poker
A better solution isthis the banks of the USA along with the Gov't tell the online gambling sites that if they want to do business with people living in the USA,they must go thru a US Bank-ie Bank of America,Wells Farg,etc.
The banks along with the gov't develop an accounting system whereby special Gambling Accts for individuals are setup.The banks charge a fee to the account holder ,the States and Fed.Gov't take their taxes right off the top for any winnings and as a dded bonus imagine the money available to use by the banks-bank stocks go up the economy will gain needed help.
There's just too many good things to look at before causing a negative effect to the economy.
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worried but outraged
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Pathetic
I hope others who have commented have written and called their congressman. I have done so several times. This really infuriates me!
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So, Again. You can, please do.
If all the America haters would leave we would have more than enough room for the America lovers trying to get in and access the greatest oppotunity in the history of the world.
Bo
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Gambling....Let's see
I have spent the last 10 years in Mainland China helping companies locate there. We've sent our hard earned dollars there to make more profits. It's a gamble though,,,nothing guaranteed. Hey, isn't everything a gamble...What we eat, how we drive, whether we exercise or not, what kind of investments we make, how dangerous our hobbies are....etc...oh, and whom we elect to Congress and the benefits we've allowed them to have. A pension for life...not social security. It's a Ponzi Scheme folks..the whole economy is based on a Ponzi Scheme. Congress passes laws to control us, so that they can keep their power. Internet gambling is a sin because they are not getting their cut. Once they do, they hope we gamble ourselves into oblivion,,,or have us smoke cigarrettes so that they can get their tax money..OH!!!! don't make cigarettes illegal..we need that revenue. And make sure the schools are getting their school lunch money..by God we need that money flow...It's power to us. Keep the peons under our thumb, then we can control them, then we can have everything we want, and they will get the scraps.
Hey I've got a good one..let's make DDT illegal so that millions will die in Africa...Hey Bill and Bill....you could cut the death rate in Africa by quite a bit by allowing DDT to be sprayed on those blood sucking cousins of yours, the mosquito. Aids? Why sure..sounds like a good cause to me...you could save millions by allowing the spray to go forward and not shunning countries that do. That way, you would have more people alive that could die of aids instead of malaria.
Government, please stay out of our business. Poker playing an illegal offense? Unbelieveable! More superfluous badinage coming out of Washington designed to control you and me. You are controlled because you allow yourself to be.
I hope I win on PowerBall Saturday night, then I won't have to play online....I can afford to live in Vegas and waste away gambling. Better than the stock market.
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Leave Poker Players Alone
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Outlawing internet gambling
It's like our small town of Portland, Tx, used to be regarding alcohol sales. Until recently, the sales of beer, wine, & liquor in restaurants or bars was illegal in Portland unless, of course, it was at the Country Club where all the city leaders had been going for years to drink and be merry. Then Chili's came in with the new Walmart & first setup as a private club in order to be able to sell alcoholic drinks. Shortly after that, the city dropped the ban on alcohol in restaurants & bars and there are now two restaurant/bars in Portland--one at the Country Club that's been there for years and the new one at Chili's.
As was the restriction on alcohol in Portand, banning internet gambling will restrict access from the ordinary public, but it will do nothing to take gambling away from the rich & privileged. Those folks including the members of Congress will still have their special venues for gambling.
Congress should leave internet gambling alone!
As with alcohol, some people who gamble are hurt by it, but most people who participate aren't. The majority will simply enjoy it from time to time. The fact that a small percentage of participants will be hurt financially and possibly emotionally is not sufficient reason to restrict it.
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Re: Outlawing internet gambling
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Online Poker and Bush
Please tell us how you REALLY feel!
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Online Poker and Bush
Please tell us how you REALLY feel!
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This is NOT U.S.A
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at home poker
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Online Gambling
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Knowlege is Power
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:D
I cant even withdraw my $39.25 because it doesnt meet the minimum limit to withdraw. F off partypoker! It was all rigged anyways!
I am just gonna set back and let all you people handle this problem and pray you get me back on partypoker soon.
I really dont even need my pc now........
Im a party poker crackhead!!!
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Poker laws
Greedy fuckers.
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Poker laws
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poker laws
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poker laws
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_law/article/1446
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Fed Up!
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poker
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All about the money....Corporate America
It comes down to the money and people in power who can push the right politicians into protecting their US gaming profits.
I am caring for my sister who is dying from cancer, I work full time also. In the evenings I enjoy playing poker. I spend very little money and stay in play long enough to get my money and lots of entertainment worth.
As someone very highly connected told me once, it is corporate America who runs America. And in this attempt to block on-line poker proves that very point.
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awesome
judi poker online terbesar
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