CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

POCKET ACES

Columns

• Back to Maryann's index

• Back to columnists' index

Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

March 24, 2007

Poker People and Places You Might Need

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. -- Justice Louis D. Brandeis

So, every time I decide to stop talking about the Internet gambling mess, I do a flip flop, as the politicians would say. This has nothing to do with the cliche about women changing their minds constantly. I think flipping and flopping is good because it indicates flexibility, rethinking, and open mindedness. In this case, though, it just indicates the appearance of additional, must-have information for my poker playing audience.

First, Barney Frank isn't the only politician with a clear-cut point of view on the Internet gambling ban so hats off to Al D'Amato, an avid poker player, who has joined the Poker Players Alliance and holds the position Chairman of the Board. (D'Amato, a Republican, served as Senator from New York from 1981-99.) Despite some negative input from an online forum, this group has the support of influential gaming people as well. Anthony Cabot, one of the premier gaming attorneys and author of several books (including Federal Gambling Law and the Internet Gambling Report), suggests players join this group. Most of the PPA membership dues goes to the Federalist Group which is one of the top lobbying outfits in the nation's capitol.

Also intent on fighting for player money is the new Neteller Customer Coalition, formed as a yahoo group only recently. I've watched it grow from a handful of members a few weeks ago to nearly 400 members. While it's kind of nebulous how the group might meet it's mission statement (" Éactively pursuiting all avenues that will get our money released -- going after Neteller, the government, the media, etc.") -- by the way, "pursuiting" is their choice of wording -- the site could be a meaningful force in the future. I would not be surprised if it somehow does what I think could really sink Neteller comes out of this group. That's a giant class-action suit. Then again, maybe that's reaching too far.

Meanwhile, even though it is NOT illegal to play poker online and technically, as far as we can tell, it is NOT illegal to have money in a Neteller account, tons of U.S. cash has been held up by said company. Could be they are using those funds as investment money; could be the U.S. government somehow figured out how to force them to freeze those accounts; could be anything. But, this past week the company announced that they'd have some kind of resolution plan in 75 days. They did NOT say they would get money back to the people who earned it in 75 days, just that it would take them that long to figure out how to get it back. I don't know. Sounds like a lot of flim flam talk to me but if you want to stay abreast of what's in store from this once highly-touted company, check out their updates on their own site at content.neteller.com/content/en/member_businessupdate.htm

As for the other individuals and companies mentioned here, the information follows.

To contact Barney Frank write:
Congressman Barney Frank
2252 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515-2104
(202) 225-5931
To find more information or join the Poker Players Alliance, visit: www.pokerplayersalliance.org/index.php

To get more information or join the Neteller Customer Coalition, visit: sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/NetellerCustomerCoalition/

For those who want to know exactly what the bill is all about, you can access it in its entirety, including the safe ports part at www.rules.house.gov/109_2nd/text/hr4954cr/hr49543_portscr.pdf

And for those who just want to play poker, play, for goodness sakes. Keep your skills honed. Have fun. And exercise the single most important factor for poker success Ð patience.