Joined: Dec '09
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 2087
Have you heard about this stuff with your government banning online poker? they seem to be going a bit crazy wanting to ban political sites and other things. Thought i would ask you as i only seen a little article about this and thought you would know
Joined: Dec '09
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 2087
well the thing that i read was about some law they put in so they could ban looking at child porn and such things but they are now wanting to use that law to ban other things like political sites poker sites and a few other things. I thought jess would know more about this, looking at your link it would make sense if they were planing on screwing online poker to
Can't play poker in the privacy of your own home, but go to a public library and you can surf porn in full view of any child that might be looking over your shoulder.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
Yeah, isn't this the poops! I'm still trying to figure out what it is that the U.S. government actually wants from the on-line poker sites. I haven't seen any articles pertaining to what they are actually trying to seize or gain control over. Do they want U.S. players to pay taxes on their winnings or are they just stating it's an illegal activity for U.S. citizens to gamble with real money on-line?
I guess I'm looking for a glimmer of hope that U.S. citizens will be able to play on-line poker again in the near future. Am I just dreaming? Does anyone know what the U.S. really wants from the poker sites they pursued legal actions against (FT, PS & Absolute).
Joined: Feb '08
Location: Netherlands
Age: 52 (M)
Posts: 818
I think if the Aussies would do that, Jess would go crazy I hope for him they don't. Green hang in there man, reading your posts lately i can see that it hit you hard. I hope it will be sorted asap and you can relax and play as much poker as you like again. Gl to you and everyone, in life and poker
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Well. There's always been dark clouds looming, for quite a while anyway.. Originally it was a so called "child-porn filter" (yes - lol). Basically - this was a way to get public support to impose what was effectively a government blacklist where they could list any IPs they wanted and it would be enforced at an ISP level.. This luckily didn't pass, after it was looking VERY likely to come through, with this - it was expected online poker & gambling sites would be included in the blacklist (going by a leaked document on wikileaks).
Now - basically they're looking at cracking down on pokies machines - live machines - which is great, those things are the devil - unfortunately as part of this action they may also look at ways to curve online gambling - one such current suggestion is to block all Australian credit cards from being able to to gambling related transactions.. (This wouldn't affect me as I don't use a card.)
FWIW: Technically speaking - gambling online in Australia is already illegal. It's just currently not enforced in any way.
Joined: Dec '09
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 2087
what i read seemed a bit scary, lol i dont mean just losing online poker lol but they seem to be stealing alot of freedom. I did not know it was illegal either, seems like you guys could be in the same boat as the americans soon hoep it dont come to that
Joined: Nov '10
Location: Serbia
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 2087
Wow, Some s**t news all around!!! What is going on??? Are we going to stay without our passion and incomes Lucky for me I live in country that have LOT of bigger troubles so they will probably be last ones to ban online poker
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Yup, a lot of doom and gloom and uncertainty. As I have said before, the ability to play online instantaneously against people from all over the globe is an amazing feat technologically, and I would hate to lose it. It certainly feels more and more like freedoms overall are diminishing.
Joined: Oct '09
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 57 (M)
Posts: 667
Hi Greenmohave. Just read your article and I am not sure what your government want but living over here I would suspect that it probably is all down to money. It seems to me that if one of your countrymen win say $200,000.00 in a FTP FTOPS event that your lot want their %. If this is the case I would ask if the electric you use and obviously pay for is tax deductable?
That would be my case - it is all about money.
Not being a US citizen and not ever visited your country I have a couple of questions for you.
1. Do you have bookmakers - either on-line or on the racecourse?
2. If so, does the change in legislation affect that? If not watch this space.
It seems that your government is picking up the people that probably pay their taxes and if they shout about what is happening - they will look bad or the phase "In these hard times it is only fair that these persons should contribute more"
Oh well I expect that will stop me ever getting a visa to visit - now the FBI are on my case.
GL luck to you all and hope to see you on FTP or wherever you play soon.
Jess, it's almost the same in Poland... They're comparing poker to this stupid machines, roulette or other crap like this and trying to make poker illegal. But the good thing is, that as long as we are in EU and as long as in EU online poker is legal they can kiss my cards It's just stupid politicians game, they are trying to show us how strong they are and how bad gambling is, but they are too stupid to know, that poker in fact has a luck factor, but it isn't gambling. Probably they lost their money on PS or FTP and it's a kind of vengeance
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
LooserKiddie you are wrong about EU The European Council has voted already a law that prohibits online gambling in any form. The real question though is when they are gonna start taking actions about that. So dont feel so safe
As long as they aren't as stupid as our politicians (can you put more as's in one sentence? xD) they should know, that there is "hard" and "soft" gambling. In Poland online "soft" gambling with the new gambling law is legal (e.g. sport betting), the problem is that they think poker is hard gambling, which of course is bullsh*t. We can play live poker only in casions and I think not in every single one, the tax is high as hell, therefore poker is quite dead in Poland (excluding online and tourneys abroad, where Polish players are making quite good profit, while our country can't benefit from our successes). But small "casinos" with stupid machines are everywhere and you can buy a bingo card even if you are under 18. Well, it's obvous that winning at bingo or slots takes more skill and less luck than playing poker, isn't it?
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
Now this is a ugly development, i actually don't care about political sites, they are useless anyway. Still i disagree to ban a site, no matter what his content is. Internet and sites should be a 100% free world, not reglemented by any rules. Who is accessing the internet should be smart enough not to believe all that he see online and judge for itself first everything that you see online. As for poker sites that is outrageos, and when i say poker site i reffer to a poker blog or a poker offer site just like bankrollmob. Still, the same thing is also available for poker platforms. It's unbelieveble how far they want to go just for some money that they want to take from the poker sites. I hope i'll be able to see any internet page no matter what the content is, internet shoulf be a free world.
I hope for him they
hoep it dont come to that
