Harry Reid Online Poker Bill: An Ugly Necessity

“No man can have society upon his own terms.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week, the most commonly used phrase in online poker discussions is not “pot odds,” “fold equity,” or “continuation bet,” but rather something not poker-related at all: “lame duck.”  If you have been reading Poker News Daily recently, then you know what the term is all about.  The period between the November Congressional elections in the United States and the inauguration of the newly elected officials next year is the “lame duck” period, during which many Congressmen are in their final days in office.

For internet poker players, special attention is being paid to this year’s lame duck session, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is trying to get a bill passed before Congress goes on recess that would legalize and regulate online poker.

There is much hand wringing about the “Reid Bill.”  Naturally, many poker players want it to pass; they want the online game to come out of the shadows, out of its gray area, and take its rightful place as a “legitimate” pastime in the eyes of the law.  Others hate the bill and prefer the current environment to the restrictions that would be in place under a regulated regime.

The bottom line is that the status quo is crumbling.  Believe it or not, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is working.  No, it hasn’t chopped off the head of the online poker industry, but it is bleeding it to death.  The most important thing to the online poker rooms is liquidity; players need to be able to easily transfer funds to and from the sites.

As that process has gotten more and more difficult and expensive, the casual players have been giving up and moving on to other hobbies.  The decreased numbers of casual players not only makes for fewer available games, but also tougher ones, as there is a larger percentage of pros and other strong players at the tables.  The games are scarcer and more difficult for the remaining players.

The status quo is not good right now and it’s only going to get worse.  Thus, warts and all, we need Reid’s bill to pass.

Yeah, there are some pretty rotten aspects of the bill.  U.S. players will be locked out of online poker completely for 15 months once it passes.  Players from other countries won’t be allowed to play on U.S. sites for three years, if ever.  And it won’t be forced upon individual states, as there will be an opt-in or opt-out provision.  I think the first two, in particular, are asinine.  The lockout is only there to appease the bill’s opponents and I can’t see any good reason to only allow U.S. residents to play on the sites.

Like it or not, that’s what the bill looks like.  The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) might be able to help improve things a bit, but the bill still won’t look good in the end.  In the short-term, the internet poker landscape in America will be ugly.  We may still be able to play on a few sites that decide to not to follow the laws of the U.S., and those sites might actually grow a bit and provide decent player traffic, but if you think money processing is iffy now, then good luck with all of that.

But when the sites do finally open, I predict things will be better than they are now.  At first, the player bases of the poker rooms will probably pale in comparison to PokerStars and Full Tilt because of the lack of worldwide players, but things will pick up.  When casual poker players across the country realize that everything is legal and regulated, a large percentage of former online players will come back, and those who never played online will give it a try because it is now “okay” to do so.

Sites will almost certainly accept credit cards, so depositing money will be as easy as buying a book on Amazon.  Again, that means more casual players.  Plus, since sites won’t have to find all sorts of sketchy payment processors who are willing to risk prosecution, the cost of processing will go down.

This, combined with the stiff competition as the sites try to establish market presence, may very well mean lower rake and will almost certainly mean juicy promotions.  The tables will fill up, maybe not immediately, but more quickly than many people think.  In my opinion, non-USA players will eventually be allowed onboard and, at that point, online poker will truly thrive.

With regulation, players will be better protected than they are now.  Currently, if a player or a poker room cheats us, we have little to no recourse.  With regulation, there will be laws in place to punish the bad guys, along with the means to do so.  We won’t have to worry about whether or not our cashouts will find their way to our bank accounts.

I am as perturbed as anyone that anti-gaming lawmakers want to legislate their own morality.  It angers me that in order to get our game legalized and regulated, we have to put up with nonsensical rules such as the blackout and country restrictions.  But it is better to put up with it all than to lose everything.  The medicine may taste bad, but it will keep us healthy in the long-run.