Our
gambling laws make about as much sense as the government
banning gin, but not vodka, during Prohibition.
Some laws allow gambling, some encourage it, and some
ban it. You can run an online business for people
to bet on horse races, but not on a poker hand. So
instead of collecting taxes on the $30 billion that
is bet in this country every year on online poker
sites run by offshore companies, our government is
investing tax dollars in an attempt to close down
the games. It's time to fix this absurd system.
While
our nation's leaders fret over our debt, there are
millions of American poker players willing to throw
coins into tax coffers in order to test their skills.
But the national love for Texas Hold 'Em brings in
no taxes while our prosecutors pursue the dealers.
On April 15, a day the online poker world dubbed Black
Friday, the Justice Department unsealed indictments
against 11 players in the online poker world, including
the founders of popular sites PokerStars, Full Tilt
Poker and Absolute Poker. The government also, at
least temporarily, seized and shut down the websites.
Using the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act,
a law passed in 2006 but steeped in archaic concepts
of virtue, the feds are looking to convict these defendants
and reap forfeitures of some $3 billion.
To
identify those forfeited dollars, prosecutors had
to build a complex case based on how people paid to
play, including securing restraining orders on 75
bank accounts. Now, they will have to prove these
11 defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This
complicated and greedy grab by the Justice Department
is totally unnecessary.
The government is spending millions of dollars on
the chance of raking in $3 billion. Who is gambling
now? Why not instead collect a steady stream of tax
dollars on online poker, like many other countries
do every day?
Because our laws now make some online gambling legal
and other online gambling illegal, we have a likely
unconstitutional Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement
Act. We also have to appease leaders in other World
Trade Organization member countries who are miffed
at our illogical and shortsighted law that violates
the treaty in spirit and has ensnared offshore companies
that run online poker sites. It is likely that WTO
countries will come after the U.S. again for the April
15 roundup.
We need not make this a no-limit game. The estimated
2.5 million Americans who play online poker know there
is some skill to the game, unlike other sports that
can be rigged. There can be online safeguards built
in to stop underage players and to warn and screen
for problem gamblers, just like casinos do on a regular
basis.
We don't need more charges of bank fraud and money
laundering against poker companies. Instead, we need
to end this madness with a solid challenge to the
constitutionality of the Unlawful Internet Gambling
Enforcement Act, which is aimed at preventing financial
services firms from processing funds for online gambling.
It's worth noting that Congress hasn't targeted the
online poker players in this country, where lawmakers
know full well its popularity.
Forbes has reported that in 2009, online poker took
in revenue of about $1.4 billion in the U.S. with
PokerStars and Full Tilt, whose founders are now indicted,
bringing in about 70 percent of the total. Let's stop
taking a double hit here. Stop spending to prosecute
under an inconsistent law and start taxing online
poker sites under the proven model used by other countries.
