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It is Time to Legalize Online Poker
 
August 13, 2009

The legalization of online poker should be a no brainer. Something that seems so simple has gotten all kinds of caught up in the mess of the Unlawful internet Gambling Enforcement Act or UIGEA, leaving those that are interested in playing in a mess because they don’t know what to do. There is a lot of confusion as the majority of the poker industry says that they don’t fall under the UIGEA and the government says that they do.
 
The government recently seized millions of dollars from poker player accounts, making their position on the application of the UIGEA very well known. This outraged the Professional Poker Alliance because they said that they should not be penalized for gambling when poker playing is not gambling.
 
But the fact of the matter is that the government seems to be fighting a losing battle. At some point online gambling and poker playing are going to be legal. The government is able to get a lot of money from legalizing it now but they are holding on to some idea that they have that they are going to keep it illegal.
 
People are still playing poker on the web – this has not stopped. In fact there are more people playing poker now than there ever were before so by making it illegal they really only made it more popular than ever. There are several bills out right now that would make online poker legal again – the government just needs to pass them so that they can start benefitting from them.