Doyle Brunson’s Ready for a Fight
It seems that as the NEW UIGEA deadline approaches (Yeah, June 1st isn’t that far away folks); forcing American banking into compliance with the law and giving power to prosecute any firms that process financial poker transactions. But Online Poker Rooms are starting to fight back, protecting their profits and standing up for the player.
Leading the charge is DoylesRoom. Founded by Doyle Brunson in 2004 (in Costa Rica) DoylesRoom is one of the few sites that still welcomes players from within the USA. Along with Full Tilt and Pokerstars (who, combined, account for %70 of the US market) they are keeping their main operations out of the USA, but maintaining a very real hold on the online poker market there. By continuing to operating inside the US, with largely no consequences as yet, they are making the statement that by doing nothing the US government is making it legal. DoyleBrunson has even gone as far as to say that he believes online poker in the US is legal.
These are not the only poker rooms out there however. After the initial UIGEA ruling and first round of changes in 2006 (credit card companies and banks were no longer allowed to process online gambling fund transfers, and it was implied that in 2009 all online gambling would becompletely outlawed) PartyGaming pulled out of the US market. Recently PartyGaming has admitted to breaking the law, made a non-prosecution agreement with US Agencies and handed over $105 million.
Stark contrast, and a still unknown future for online gambling in the states. And once again we’re on the road to June when UIGEA will once again be up for heated debate and scrutiny while the US and the rest of the world try to find ways out of this global economic downturn. It’s funny when the answer is staring your in the face.
