On Wednesday, the Michigan legislature’s Regulatory Reform Committee held an informational hearing to discuss two related online poker bills: SB 889, which would legalized and regulate online gambling in the state and SB 890, which would amend Michigan’s penal code to permit for the online gambling that is legalized in SB 889. From the sounds of it, it was a solid hearing filled with reasonable people interested in educating themselves on internet gaming, unlike hearings we have seen on Capitol Hill.
USPoker.com’s Steve Ruddock was on hand in Lansing providing live updates on the hearing, so credit to him – I’m just lounging around in Georgia (look, man, my kid had a Little League game tonight). Amongst the witnesses at the hearing were three representatives from Amaya/PokerStars: Jeanne David, head of PokerStars’ responsible gaming efforts, Steven Winter, Amaya’s director of operations, and Matthew Robins, director compliance.
Ruddock reported that all three gave excellent, detailed presentations on how they protect their customers. He called Jeanne David’s explanation of the company’s responsible gaming protocols “eloquent.” She demonstrated the options players have on placing limits on their play, such as setting restrictions on stakes or losses, both on a daily or even per-hand basis (the latter would be for casino games, presumably).
Steven Winter discussed how the company combats gaming fraud and detects problem gambling behavior. He went over a host of things such as how the site makes sure players are who they say they are via identity technologies and geolocation. He also explained how PokerStars maintains the integrity of its games.
Matthew Robins focused on how PokerStars works with different jurisdictions on their varying money laundering protocols and how, despite what opponents of online gambling will say, it is harder to launder money online because of the data trail.
One of the stars of the hearing was Poker Players Alliance executive director John Pappas. In a lengthy (twelve page!) statement, which can be found on the PPA website, Pappas dropped knowledge on the Committee.
“S.B. 889 should not be viewed as an expansion of gambling in Michigan, but rather as an opportunity to protect consumers and add a new distribution channel for the state’s existing, and tightly regulated, gaming industry,” he said. “To be clear, citizens of this state have access to online poker, online casino games and online sports betting – but they play on foreign sites, none of which are properly licensed or regulated by this government.”
He then made the bold move of bringing up an instance in which poker players were ripped off by a poker site, something that some people would probably prefer wasn’t brought up in front of lawmakers.
This void in consumer protection is all too real for Michigan residents who played on Lock Poker, an online site based in Curacao, which abruptly shut down in April 2015, and took millions in player deposits. Sadly, because of zero regulatory oversight, there’s nothing affected customers can do to get their money back and to hold this rogue website accountable. S.B. 889 changes this dynamic and puts Michigan in control of internet gaming by corralling the unregulated market and turning it into a state-based industry that is safe for consumers and accountable to regulators.
His point was an excellent one. It is not that a poker site couldn’t do bad things in a regulated environment – after all, companies run afoul of the law every day – it’s that customers would have recourse if they were wronged.
