At the end of December, the Department of Justice changed its stance on the Wire Act of 1961 and said that it only applies to sports betting, which means the online gambling and online poker field is wide open.  Now, to understand some of what were seeing on ABC News and other news media  - the DOJs reversal didnt make online gambling legal in the United States. They just made it not already illegal on a Federal level. That means that states can pass online gambling legislation without violating federal law. And many of them are already on their way to doing so, particularly where online poker is concerned. Nevada is already issuing licenses for online poker. New York is looking into it. Iowa wants a bill that will combine their poker players with other states so they have someone to play against.

So, the country or at least parts of it are going to embrace online gambling. The question becomes what is Congress up to. Well, not much yet. The problem congress may be facing is that the states are showing they can act far more quickly on issues than congress can. But now Harry Reid is stepping forward to say that we cant have a bunch of local gambling laws across the US and need to look to federal legislation to bring in the top online gambling operators. I have to agree with him.  Now, I live in Florida which is probably likely to have online poker at some point. Probably a point that occurs somewhere in time after the Hard Rock says hey, we could run an online poker site.  And Florida has a secret resource when it comes to poker players retirees.  Itll be like the senior event at the WSOP every day down here, but at least there will be people to play against.  (Iowa has corn. Corn has not proven to be a very active poker player.)

So Harry Reid is right without federal legislation, the US wont be a competitive environment for the top casinos and online poker rooms. And I want to play with the best. Dont you?

 

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