Online poker prohibition could be overturned
Poker Lobby & AGA groups aim to end Online Gambling Bill


The Poker Players Alliance and executives for the American Gaming Association (AGA) say they are hopeful that the recent political changes in the U.S. Congress will help them overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA).

You may recall how the UIGEA was appended onto to the sure-to-be-passed Safe Port Bill when most Senators had already cast their votes and left, in the final hours before the Republican-controlled Congress adjourned for mid-term elections.

The UIGEA, while not making online poker illegal, did made it illegal for banks and financial institutions to process transactions for online gambling sites from U.S. customers when it was signed into law on October 13. Regulations that banks need to comply with have yet to be defined. A Government board has until July 2007 to define them.

AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf said the AGA previously opposed online gambling, saying, "Our policy changed back in April when we took a position that we thought the best way to go was to have an independent commission look at it."

Many analysts around that timeframe noted how online gambling actually lead to previously hesitant players coming to the physical casinos, swelling the number of overall casino visitors, which likely helped change AGA's perspective.

So the AGA board of directors will meet December 6, said Fahrenkopf, to consider whether "to support legislation in the new Congress calling for an independent study of Internet gambling to see if it can be properly regulated, controlled, taxed and licensed here in the United States."

Fahrenkopf pointed out, "My guess is that they are going to say let's go ahead and do it."

This past week Terry Lanni, chief executive of MGM Mirage who is an AGA board member, said the UIGEA is "ridiculous" because it was signed into law Oct. 13 as part of a larger port security bill -- and because it exempted horse races and lotteries, and online bets placed while on American Indian land.

Nevada Representatives Jon Porter and Shelly Berkley had previously introduced a bill to create a Congressional Commission to study Internet Gaming this past May. But the bill died. Noteworthy is that both Porter and Berkley were re-elected last week.

In contrast to the prior Congressional Commission proposed, if the AGA votes for a study it has already said it prefers an independent commission such as the National Academy of Sciences to do the study, noted Fahrenkopf, so results are free from the influence of lobbyists.

AGA's board includes CEOs from some the biggest live casinos in Las Vegas, such as Boyd Gaming CEO William Boyd, Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman, MGM Mirage CEO Terri Lanni mentioned above, and Wynn Resorts CEO Stephen Wynn, amongst others.

Many bloggers have remarked if these well known casinos launch their own online gambling sites then a large majority of players will play at them because of brand recognition and huge marketing budgets, causing yet another re-alignment in the online gambling industry.

In an interview with Reuters news service, Fahrenkopf also remarked how the stated goal of the UIGEA was to protect American citizens. Instead, he noted, it caused many legitimate and responsible operators to pull out of the U.S. opening the way for unregulated companies to fill the void, since most US players were likely to continue gambling online.

He did not go as far as many others have to call the legislation Prohibition II, as did Pulitzer Prize-winning writer George F. Will in Newsweek's Oct 23rd edition and U.K. culture secretary, Tessa Jowell.

President of the 120,000-member Poker Players Alliance (PPA), Michael Bolcerek, said that results of the Congressional election have emboldened the PPA.

"Our members and other poker players went to the polls. They influenced the federal election," he said. "In the next 12 months we're confident that we'll get a study commission bill. We think an exemption [for online poker] is in order, as well."

Legal expert professor I. Nelson Rose, of the Whittier Law School, harshly criticized the UIGEA, saying how it is confusing and contradictory with all its exemptions, and noting how a portion of the bill even sanctions Internet betting conducted within states and tribal lands.

"It's a public embarrassment...it's a mess," said Rose. "Eventually I think they'll get Congress to change the law to do for Internet poker exactly what they did for Internet horse racing. It's an exemption but (based on) states' rights."

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Gambling911.com News Wire

Originally published November 20, 2006 1:28 pm ET

Hmmmmm....very interesting 'hangon', but a gamble is where the person who places the money has no (or very little) control over the outcome, regardless of whether the odds are in his favour. So investing in a blue chip company is technically as much a gamble as in investing in a high risk AIM company. Only the odds of increasing your stake are better. I was not intending to defend any kind of speculative investment (Marconi was blue chip, but went badly wrong).
The only other point I was making was that spreadbetting or CFDs are, imo, very much more of a gamble than 'normal trading' as the spreadbetters are not really interested in the stats, just in short term price movement.
I certainly DO NOT agree that gambling is gambling 'cos it redistributes wealth amongst the players. It does NOT. Most gamblers lose to 'the house' or the bookmaker.

gambling and investing on the stockmarket are as different as an escort is from a prostitute

Workers in the sex industry seem to appear regularly in your posts, cynic!
Is there some link between investing & soliciting that I don't know about? :o)

i'm just an old tart who gambles with investments on the stockmarket!

dont encorage cynic please harrycat..............he's one of those tiresome people with inane comments which dont mean anything. he goes from thread to thread each day typing endless trivial stuff.

thankfully moneyam dont have many comments each day on the threads

I think we should nip this one in the bud now, before we end up with the usual insults.

nice profit this week for all holders. 15th march, I bought back in at 42.2pence 28120 shares. 21st march I sold at .4451pence. this was a bad move, but I still made a profit. I would never have thought they would have gone up like they have done. Do you think they may drop next week. I read on the london stock exchange news yesterday that they have gone up more than the target price. I still hold 33,300 sbt that I brought this tues, they have gone up to .70p. 650.00 profit on prty and 2331 profit if I sell sbt on mon providing they do not drop in price. You can make money on the gaming shares but they are very risky. Or should I use the word (VOLOTILE). I paid .63pence for the sporting bet. Good luck to all holders. I am surprised cynic has not had a little punt just to have an interest in the subject. Recently I have decided to not have so many minows and am investing more in blue chip companies. This has proven to be quite profitable. Hopefully I can recoupe some losses made on the minows, as a lot of them seem to half in value or more on me. I could mention a few but I shall leave that to a later date.

Janet ..... i do not like this sector at all ..... a much better and almost guaranteed very very significant profit would have been to put your money on PXC ...... all very well and openly flagged ...... bought at 14 double up at 15 and arguably should have doubled up again at 16/17, but that would have been pretty greedy with much still unknown ..... it now looks as though the bids for PXC will have to be >20p, as that is apparently the indicative marker from BT, though that still has to be confirmed ...... however, if i can buy at <18 on monday morning, may very well have a further pop

I actually held these shares some months ago pxc. I think I paid around .125pence per share. There was a lot of talk of takeover on the company then. I must say that this does now look to be a good one I may buy in on monday at .18p. I did think abount this yesterday morning, but did not bother. I hope you are doing well with your investing. I must admit you were correct about having some good solid stock and just a few minows. That is the way forward. take care richard from jan.

dont worry about WHY a share goes up......just be thankful you OWN them when it happens.....and DONT hang on for that extra tick before taking a profit..IT MIGHT never happen, but even if it does...MOVE ON to the next trade.

janet .... glad my advice was some use then (lol!) ..... you might like to take a look at POG too as a really good gold mining stock .... Merrill have put a target of 20.00 against today's 11.20 .... shall also be taking a further look at NAE which i already hold with a view to perhaps adding

I have put pog and nae on my watch list. I will let you know what I think later on in the week.

Greetings to you all.

Nice to read your postings and thoughts.

Re prty janet ......... I took profit on Friday afternoon.

Didn't fancy holding over the weekend.

Seems to me that after the news comes out they tend to drift back (remember I got sucked in last time ......... also , this is not really any fresh news)

So, Janet, I'm looking for a pullback to around 47, before another upward march.

Do any of you use charts with any suuccess?

Cheers
Amar

yes ...... but not on this stock as i don't like the sector at all

amardev if you are correct and prty do drop back down to around the .47p level. Then I may buy back in. Things are definatly changing all of a sudden. Gordon Brown has now decided in the budget to charge income tax on internet gaming. Charges are being dropped in louisiana, spelling may be wrong. I decision tomorrow will be sbt whether to sell or not. Has anyone heard any more news on this one being taken over by bwin. Time for a cuppa. good luck to all.

I have had some fun with these PRTY, I CFD them at 45p, there is a 20% margin on these so the leverage is only 5 times, still have more than doubled these guys...

Iagree Janet things are looking much brighter-I am now back into prty and sbt in a small way. I'm hoping to make back my previous losses in fact if I'd held my nerve and doubled my holdings I'd be well up by now!

I am still way down with losses from these gaming shares from back in october. I keep getting some money back here and there but I still have a long way to go. If we all had the crystal ball and could see what is happening with these shares we would be all on to a winner. We will have to keep plodding on. Sometimes we will win and sometimes we will lose. A fortnight ago I had 133,000 shares in prty, I sold some at .40759 and in the afternoon some at 45.3p. I bought 28,000 back at .42.5p sold at .445p. Then my bottle went. I thought then that they had gone as far as they were going. Then look what happened they went to 55p. Unfortunatly I did not replace the 133,000. Lets see what the coming week brings. This is all good fun. good luck. I think we all need a little.

Janet ..... draw a line under old losses and certainly do not be foolish enough to try to recoup same from the stocks that cost you so dear ..... move on .... if by some fluke, these gaming stocks look genuinely attractive, then buy them but on their merit on the day

I think PRTY will continue to go upwards. It was oversold and with recent European Union support on internet gambling and release of charges on SBT directors on this issue, this has to be a BUY.