new online poker developments

In recent weeks, the online poker world has turned into chaos.  The three biggest websites; PokerStars, Full Tilt, and Absolute Poker have all shut down.  An estimated 10 million Americans play online poker and are being affected by this movement that was started by the FBI.  Online gambling within the United States is illegal but the website go to places off-shore, such as places within the Caribbean on Europe.  People play poker and do sports betting online with websites that are off-shore, which is completely legal.  The problem with what the poker sites were doing was that they were laundering the money into bank accounts within the United States.  The money that is deposited into the accounts must also be kept off shore.  By funneling the money into US bank accounts they were deceiving banks or bribing them to allow the accounts to be opened.  By opening these accounts they were never paying taxes on the money that was deposited by the players.  In the United States that is called tax evasion.  In 2006 a law was passed that did not directly outlaw online poker sites, but instead barred businesses from taking payments for "unlawful" online gambling.  This left the definition of what is unlawful to others.  After the law was passed, the largest site used by American players, PartyPoker, was forced to shut down its operations in the United States.  But other companies thought they would be able to navigate the law.  They stated poker is a game of skill and consequently could not be categorized as gambling.  In addition, moving outside the United States allowed them to have a little more free reign.  The biggest issue with this controversy is whether the players from these websites should be allowed to withdraw their money from their accounts.  Now that the government has the online gambling world in hand, they now are trying to figure out how to regulate it.

This is important for all of us to care about for three main reasons.  Starting off with the fact that the legal online gaming age is 18.  By the end of the year the whole class will be 18 years old and legally would be aloud to open up and account.  Another reason that this is an important issue is because gambling addictions are on the rise and are increasing dramatically.  If they set new regulations on who can gamble online, if anyone, it can have an effect on the gambling epidemic.  Lastly, by having the government look at online gambling, it's really putting a spotlight on gambling as a whole.  This means that new laws can be made for casino's and other places that allow gambling.