USA - From the liberal Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank to the conservative Republican Joe Barton of Arlington, have joined to form a coalition to push hard on the legalization of online poker game in the U.S..
381,520 signatures: "Poker is not a crime."
The primary objective is to overturn the 2006 law prohibits financial institutions from money transfers to gambling sites, thereby preventing Americans from using their credit cards for online play. Since the ban, although it was still legal poker, the game was outside law, something that is totally absurd in the view of Barney Frank.
However, thereafter, gaming companies find ways to overturn the ban, allowing players who were using offshore accounts or foreign credit cards or sending money to others transferred to their sites Once the money gaming sites.
It is estimated that if online poker is legalized, there could be 12 billion dollars.
Barney Frank has gained new support, just after last week Dan Michalski Dallas who runs a poker web site and many other players, went to Washington, DC, to try to talk with regulators and submit to President Barack Obama 375,000 signatures stating that "poker is not a crime" and calling for the legalization of gambling online. Today there are 6,000 FIMAS and more and growing ...
Those opposed to legalization say that if it regulates the industry could cause serious damage to many families and their finances.
Proponents argue that it is time to legalize and control the industry once and for all. "This is not a moral issue," says Michalski. "It's a problem of awareness of government. What we are trying to accomplish here is to give people the freedom to play from home ... and create the usual protections. Do this and of course, generate revenue for the nation."
John Blevins, an online poker player and assistant professor of law at the University South Texas College of Law in Houston, said that support for legalization is evident. "For now, this is the only industry that goes to Washington to request that taxes will be imposed."
