What is Minnesota Doing?

May 22, 2009

The drama rages on over in Minnesota and their attempts to block online poker and gambling sites from their residents. In case you missed it, the state decided that they were going to invoke an archaic law having to do with Wire Transfers and use it to say that online poker playing and gambling was illegal. However, experts say that it does not apply because the law was written before anyone even heard of online casinos, or the internet for that matter.

They contacted the various ISPs and told them to block all online poker playing and gambling, and contacted the phone companies and told them that phone calls were not allowed to these sites. But they are making it seem as though there were many online poker and gambling sites that their residents had access to, but this is simply not the case.

Out of the list of two hundred sites that the state wants banned, only 44 of them allow US players. That means that Minnesota’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division is working hard, spending their tax payer money to block 44 sites – or 22% of their list. The remaining sites don’t allow US players to register or play at their sites already. .

When asked why they chose the online poker and gambling sites that they had, AGED Director John Willems said that it was a random sampling. However, experts say that it seems more like they simply pulled names out of a hat and hoped for the best. They said that it didn’t seem like any thought had gone into the choices.