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."

----

Gambling911.com News Wire

Originally published November 20, 2006 1:28 pm ET

4.6 million share purchase just gone through, someone knows something.

personally, in this sector i think 365 Media (formerly UK Betting) is a much better bet

Nice to know your still watching cynic. Do you hold on this one, or just an interested bystander.

this company will be taken over by christmas...trust me

PRTY .... No ..... bought 365 a few days ago and perhaps prematurely took a respectable profit this afternoon when Dow started collapsing ...... similarly traded in/out of POG.

maestro ...... sorry to say would not rely on you for the time of day

cynic...you'll see SBT,PRTY,LNG,888 all snapped up before long...SBT will be the most lucrative especially when US anti gaming law gets overturned in the new year due to WTO intervention

So are you all saying that there are probably going to be some huge %age gains within this sector over the coming weeks. Do you have any idea of what the target price might be? Also cynic, do you remember what we were looking at a few days ago, MEO.AX. There have been a few developments on COIL thread pages, just in case your intrested.

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."

what a surprise - the one key word

thanks for the reminder oily, but COIL is too small for me ...... as for this gaming sector malarkey, maestro as usual is talking fundamentally, aka as out of his arse! ..... there is no way that US legislature will overturn the gaming ban any time within the next few months, even if there is a groundswell that it ought to be done, which in itself is not a foregone conclusion.

cynic..you really need a reality check up...lol!

Antigua finds allies among super traders in Internet gaming dispute
published: Friday | December 1, 2006


A computer screen displays an online gambling website. Antigua's quarrel with the United States over market access to its gaming industry was back at the World Trade Organisation this week. - Reuters

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) held two days of talks at the top of the week on Antigua and Barbuda's internet gaming dispute with the United States, from which the twin-island emerged optimistic.

The WTO has ruled in the past that the U.S. was contravening world trade rules by blocking market access, but the large nation of 300 million has so far refused to comply.

Dr. Errol Cort, the finance minister of Antigua, a nation of 69,000, in a statement issued from Geneva said the Caribbean country's position was backed by big trading partners of the U.S., including China, Japan and members of the European Union.

"Major trading partners of the United States have seen it fit to join with us in contesting what we have always maintained is a dispute about granting market access," said Cort in a statement from Geneva, Switzerland, home of the WTO.

Remarkable

"What is even more remarkable is that they choose to become active players in this WTO process, and we believe that a crucial factor in their respective decisions to do so was the pure merits of our case."

The EU's stance on the issue was not surprising given the US$15.5 billion value tag on the industry and the fallout felt by mostly British-based online betting companies after U.S. president George W. Bush signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act into law, criminalising the processing and settlement of payment linked to online gaming transactions by banks and credit card companies.

Two of the largest companies immediately closed down their operations and exited the U.S. market, one of whom sold part of its operation to an Antigua-based company.

Sportingbet PLC and Leisure & Gaming PLC both sold their U.S. operations for a token US$1 days after the law took effect.

Off-loading debt

Sportingbet sold its U.S. sports-betting, casino business and poker operations to Antigua-based Jazette Enterprises Limited, off-loading US$13.2 million of debt in the process.

Jazette, as a condition of the deal, agreed not to take bets from non-U.S. residents for two years, and not to take bets from customers outside the Americas for three years.

PartyGaming PLC, the world's largest gambling company, also said it had suspended all real money gaming activities to customers in the United States.

Questions

Mark Mendel, Antigua and Barbuda's legal adviser, said the panel would have followed up the talks with a series of questions by Wednesday to the disputing parties, as well as third party interests, the answers to which were to submitted to the panel within a week.

A record of the hearings is to be published December 22, and an interim report on January 11.

"On receipt of the interim report, the parties will be given a period of time to submit their comments and observations on the panel's rulings and recommendations, before the final report is made available to the entire WTO membership sometime in early February 2007," said Cort's statement.

"We have every reason to be confident that - given the merits of our case and the fact that the U.S., having given an undertaking to do so, has done nothing to bring itself into compliance with rulings and recommendations of the DSB - we will prevail at this stage," said Kaye MacDonald, Antigua's Director of Gaming.

- CMC and Financial Gleaner reports

see maestro's other clogging posts on all other gaming threads ...... US does not give a fig what Antigua/Barbuda might think

Fundamentalist, your post #16 hits the bullseye. It is regretable, put it mildly, that some people and companies which makes profits in the tens and hundreds of milllions do not want to pay ANY tax, let alone a fair tax. Too late now.

axdpc .... i think you missed Fundie's point .... surely he is merely saying that if the government(s) can get their avaricious little fingers in the pie, then they will be happy ..... put another way, why do you think it immoral to avoid paying tax?

cynic, not immoral.

In short, I believe in rights and rewards proportional to responsibilities and contributions, no less and no more. We survive and prosper by relying on one another. Paying taxes is part of resource pooling. The government and public services are often neither efficient nor transparent in using these pooled shared resources, mosted irresistably demanded upon most of us. There have always been corruptions, job squattings, wastages and exploitations - probably more prevalent now than before. These had to be tackled, but not by paying no taxes on profits.

Worringly, I see more examples of people in businesses, politics and various professions practicing the following philosophy.

"Do for ourselves what we would not let others do for themselves."

"Do to others what we would not let others do to us."

"Below contempt but beyond punishment."

"Exploit the weak, blame the innocent, deceive the trusting."

:-(((

axdpc .... in the first sentence you agree that it is not immoral to avoid taxes, but then the rest of your post contradicts that ..... i could easily enter a philosophical discussion with you as to whether the individual has an obligation to give to charity, but that is very far from the same as saying that one should regard any government and/or its tax legislation as a deserving cause.

Isn't this thread about the possibility the US Authorities may overturn the effects of the Wire Act which was (it might seem)brought-in without full discussion.?
However, I thought that PRTY had sold the US arm - so, IF the ruling goes in favour of internet gambling, it will be a struggle to get back their customers - OR, did they keep the lists, perhaps?
PRTY has income from Europe and Asia where gambling is a lot more than in the UK....so does the US really matter?
- - - - Isn't this on-going business supporting the sp?
I was not aware the issue was Tax, paying it or not....wasn't the issue fundamental moral? That some Americans hate to see money being made by gambling and may fear their land will revert to the Wild West....I can understand US Government wants to have a share of the profits (ie Tax), but I am not aware that was ever the issue - please enlighten, although for the present PRTY does not need US gamblers - do we?

Hangon, the US supplied PRTY with approx 75% of its income before prohibition. Whilst its true that the Chinese love to gamble and the market has huge potential in Asia, the future has something to offer. If the US government want to be seen to be fundamentally moral, why is Vegas and every other gambling institution still open in the states? Answer, because they pay tax. The US government were fed up of seeing what they consider to be their money being taken away. With regard to the gaming lisence, if i'd bought it and things changed I would be selling it for what its worth. I would not be giving it away as a few have suggested on this thread. Thats business.

Some sort of code being used today, 3 sales of 49 shares went through as automatic trades every half hour approx. Considering that dealing charges come to almost the value of the sales, either someone is throwing away their stock or signaling someone else. Does anyone know what these codes mean between brokers.

Ooh look, another 1p rise, is this anything to do with the codes.

oilyrag - I like your thinking, it was a very strange group of trades.