Enforcement of the new law

[Jeremy]

I know it seems like a lot of people are jumping ship, turning their links off, or selling their sites. However allow me to raise a hypothetical BUT real question.

Do you really think that as soon as G Dub signs this bill into law, the DOJ and other legal authorities are going to be beating down our (affiliates) doors. People are freaking out, but I just don't see the immediate threat to webmasters with poker sites. The majority of these old bastards in the senate barely understand how the internet or online gambling even works. Now try explaing to them how affiliate programs work, good luck.

The meat of this bill deals with payment processing, not affiliate marketing. The government knows they can't enforce a prohibition of online gambling or prohibit webmasters from marketing for sites. Hence the reason they are passing the buck to the banks to do this. And for all practical purposed the banks have already said this is going to be extremely difficult. Even more so, there are third party payment processors that are not banks........hmm one big one comes to mind that apparently is not worried at this point about the bill.

Reading all these message boards and even Nelson Rose's asessment it still seems to me like being an affiliate for a site NOT involved in sports betting is still a rather gray area.

For each their own and everyone has to asess their own risk/reward tolerance, but the real question I have is will this new law even be enforced, and what are they going to charge a small time affiliate with?

I see people on other boards talking about banning at the ISP level and acting as if sites will be pulled down immediatly by the feds. For the love of god folks, do you know how many of us there really are, and how disorganized the U.S. government is.

Once again I am not a lawyer, and I encourage everyone to do their own thing. But people thought it was gloom and doom when paypal and credit cards couldn't be used for online gaming anymore.......

[corpfan1]

I could have gone on reading 10 pages of that...AMEN.

Jeremy is right on the ball...there is TOOOOO MUCH FREAKING PANIC MODE going on.

I for one, have been having a better month than usual, albeit 3 days.

Nothing is going to happen too fast...this may not even get signed....and if it does get signed, it won't be enforced except for a few SPOTLIGHT cases to make it SEEM like they are enforcing it.

Banks don't give a crap about it (I can guarantee that)...and gaming sites are just banning US players (temporarily) for good PR and publicity that they are law-abiding.

Also, the gaming sites need to ban US players to piss them off so that they will fight back...otherwise they will just sit around and let things progress in the WRONG direction. So it is a win-win for the gaming sites in reality.

Let's think of the good points...this might be NEGATIVE publicity...but it will increase the spotlight of ONLINE POKER and GAMBLING. The idea that poker is a skill game may even get this overturned SOONER than later.

Sometimes we need a good KICK IN THE PANTS to motivate us or "wake us up"! This might be the right KICK IN THE PANTS.

Everything I have read from TRUE experts, says that this ISN'T SO BAD for the future of gaming online...and that it is NECESSARY to eventually regulate the game of poker.

In the meantime, drink up, watch the Yankees win the World Series for the 27th time and continue to do business so you don't fall out of the loop. Educate yourselves about marketing to non-us markets and proceed with what you love doing.

I guarantee that in the long run, many will be saying that this was a blessing in disguise and that chaos eventually leads to order. Those of us who jump ship, will only drown...we won't be throwing you life preservers as we will be busy building a new foundation in the business.

[adioking]

They will never stop money orders from working. Also, if I felt like typing the same thing, I would have, but I completely agree with corpfan.

[the27offsuit.com]

The meat of this law is to ban banks and cc companies from making gaming transactions , for most people myself included my Credit cards never worke for gaming sites so its not a big deal . As for banning Ips i dont think this could ever happen , imagin telling google to pull all the gaming links from there search engines there will be a 10 year court battle before that happens .

Now the good news , Party and pacific are pulling out of the U.S. market if the bill is signed , remember the bill is not signed yet . But think if party pulls out there are probably a million people now looking for a place to play , so look at all these new customers we will now have who are going to need a different place to play .

[corpfan1]

Speeding is illegal...in most states the speed LIMIT is 55. Ever recall people travelling under 55 on the interstate?

[corpfan1]

Originally Posted by the27offsuit.com

Now the good news , Party and pacific are pulling out of the U.S. market if the bill is signed , remember the bill is not signed yet . But think if party pulls out there are probably a million people now looking for a place to play , so look at all these new customers we will now have who are going to need a different place to play .

VERY GOOD POINT!

[Georgia Poker]

Duly noted.

I'm still bailing out for many reasons.

PM me if you want any of my sites

[Kyle]

I guess I have a different take on this law. I guess my biggest fear is not getting in trouble with the law, but the amount of new players I will miss out on , and existing players that will bail out because the US gov't has scared them into it. That is the one of the biggest issues for affiliates in my mind, especially if you have 80% American traffic. Scare tactics.

[Bryan]

Agree with Kyle. I'm not worried about getting in trouble... I'm worried about the fact that I report and write and have a site based mostly on U.S. Poker which most of us do.

Even though we all know plenty of players from other countries... the sport of poker is pretty well dominated by American players. Atleast as far as what the media hypes as stars.

There is obviously alot of room for expansion in other markets, but alot of us aren't interested in moving and the media coverage wouldn't be sufficient here in the U.S.

More importantly though is the fact that close to 80% of the worldwide market is U.S. based, so even though there is room for expansion in other markets, they sure as hell are not playing online right now. Doesn't leave alot of room for picking up new players right now.

Bryan

[freydaddy]

personally i could careless about getting introuble with the law, im jumping ship b/c the mass majority of online poker players reside in the U.S. and with the big boys such as party and 888 closing their doors to usa players where does that leave us? and im certain that most sites will follow suit and close play to usa players also, the market is now limited, limited market means limited potential, means less, far less money! just not worth the work when you can put your time and effort into something the u.s. goverment can't mess with