By
Dan |
Published
Jul 12 2006, 07:35 PM
Tuesday, July 11, 2006 marks a dark day for the online gambling industry, as the House of Representatives resoundingly passed the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. The measure now moves on to discussion in the Senate. PocketFives.com represents the voice of the online player and has been a major force thus far in trying to prevent such legislation from passing. Many members of the site stand to lose substantial amounts of income, as the best online poker pros in the world call PocketFives.com home. PocketFives is one of the largest online poker forum sites on the Internet and the livelihood of its members and staff is now in question.
“I’m appalled by today’s events,” says PocketFives President Cal Spears. “Our site focuses wholly on online poker. Our poker pros who regularly visit, post, and write for the site are all greatly saddened. We hope the Senate will take a closer look at alternatives to banning the industry entirely. Online poker is a game of skill, not a game of chance. It needs to be treated as such rather than placed in the same breath as online blackjack and craps.”
Rather than electing to tax and/or regulate the industry, the United States Congress instead chose to prohibit online gambling entirely. Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-MA) were among the dissenters in today’s proceedings. The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act allows for special exemptions for horse racing and state lotteries, and prohibits all other types of online gaming. In retaliation, Congresswoman Berkley proposed an amendment that would have lifted all exemptions to the bill, but this was struck down by the 109th Congress. “It is troubling that horseracing and state lotteries are exempt from this legislation,” says Spears. “To me, this is a clear example of the unfair nature of this bill. How this was able to be approved is beyond me.”
PocketFives has been actively involved since the beginning of the current bill’s debate. The site held a Contact Your Congressmen Day on June 15, 2006, sending over 5,000 e-mails to lawmakers urging them not to support a ban on internet gambling. In addition, Congressman Frank appeared on the site’s Podcast on May 25, 2006, to discuss the importance of preserving personal freedoms. Poker Players Alliance President Michael Bolcerek joined the show in June to discuss the bill itself. Both were ardently against such legislation. In a statement released on July 11, Bolcerek expressed his disapproval of the measure: “It is unconscionable that a skill game like poker gets swept into the net of prohibition, while online horse betting and Internet lotteries get free passes.” PocketFives will continue to bring coverage of the bill’s passage at www.pocketfives.com.