In den USA wird momentan über einen Vorschlag zur Regulierung des Online-Pokers diskutiert, welcher anscheinend realistische Chancen hat.
Für uns europäische Spieler hätte dies erstmals negative Konsequenzen (siehe Punkt 3 und 8 unten):
- Stars und FTP ziehen sich kurzfristig aus USA zurück
- europäische Spieler haben keinen Zugang zum US-Markt (vgl. Regulierung in Frankreich)
Lange Diskussion auf 2+2 hier:
http://www.compatiblepoker.com/us-poker-sites/
We’ve finally got a real possibility of a decent legal online poker bill to pass in the US. After reading the Bill and a couple legal opinions on the “Internet Poker Legislation” just released by Harry Reid here is my brief opinion of the poker bill passing and general facts. These are just my opinions at this point.
1. Even if the bill passed tomorrow, there would be no legality change until 15 months.
2. This does not mean this wouldn’t change the landscape significantly in the meantime. Please read the following points, but I would expect very large amounts of acquisitions and mergers due to the nature of things.
3. Offshore operators will be allowed to accept US players, but not until after the 15 month waiting period, and a 2 year blackout. That means 3 years and 3 months of no US acceptance if they go that route. As you would expect, with payment processing so difficult and expensive for these sites that accept US players this would lead me to believe in the following point below.
4. Ok, so due to such a long waiting period for current offshore companies it appears as if US brick and mortar casinos may be allowed to acquire these sites and circumvent the 2 year law. (I am not 100% sure on this but it appears from readings this will be allowed). This would mean we would probably see things such as “Harrah’s Party Poker”, or “MGM’s Full Tilt Poker”….you get the point. I don’t see them dropping the names of such highly branded poker sites, only smaller sites or networks they acquire.
5. If this happens, it will likely be deadly for affiliate partners of the current US accepted poker sites like Stars, Full Tilt, Absolute Poker etc, that are on a revenue sharing program. I see the players being wiped clean by the acquisitions and affiliates taking a massive loss in the short term.
6. Poker players on rakeback and rakeback in general may disappear as sites adapt a business model more in line with PokerStars and offer their players incentives such as gifts and land based loyalty programs.
7. Unlicensed sites will not be profitable in marketing to US players “unlicensed” and will disappear if they try. Also the Bill seems to be ramping up on illegal gaming so it may prove hardship for the online sportsbook and casino operations.
8. In the Bill, US players will not be allowed to play against international players.
9. A 20% tax will be forced on operators. As I said earlier, because depositing and withdraw expenses cost current poker sites that accept US players in excess of 20% already because of all the loops they have to jump through, I don’t see land based poker rooms raising rake unlike what we saw Pokerstars do in France. This is a different sort of tax as its on revenues, not deposits.
10. States that have land based poker rooms will automatically be opted into allowing their state citizens in playing online poker, although they do have the ability to opt out. The states which have this are the following: (California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia). States that do not have legal poker rooms on their land must opt in.
11. You must be 21 years of age to play online poker under this bill.
cliffs: sky is falling
