Poker News

A professional online poker player, Chris Wallace, is stepping up and challenging the ridiculous law that is being proposed in Minnesota. In fact, he has gone so far as to email the Justice Department and tell them to come and get him if online poker playing is illegal. Making an income of over $2,000 a week, you can see why he is a little upset!

The Wire Act, initially passed in 1961, continues to be the backbone of current legislation that is currently being attempted to get pushed through on both local and federal levels. Representatives against the legislation continue to point at the age of the legislation and the fact that other forms of gaming have been legalized, yet they continue this assault on online poker.

Their argument this is nothing more than a half hearted attempt to grab headlines and sensationalize everything is easy to understand when you look at some of the sites that they have somehow managed to leave off of the list of banned sites. The bulk of them do not even allow US players to wager on them. Why would these poker sites be included and sites like PokerStars and UltimateBet/Absolute be allowed to continue their operations within the state?

As Barney Frank continues to get his legislation prepared for presentation, it will be very interesting to see how things play out. As reported earlier, the internet providers have 3 weeks (less now) to address the situation and if Barney’s legislation receives positive support, it will be very curious to see how Minnesota and the other states that have banned online gaming react. My guess is that this is far from over and over the next few months this will be dominating the poker headlines as much as the WSOP.

With major gaming legislation about to hit the floor, Minnesota took the lead and tried to cut off the internet gambling at the heart. They have passed very aggressive legislation in their state house that will all but cripple the industry in that state.

As the news hit the wire, poker forums were burning up with concerns about what players were going to do about getting their bankrolls out and how they were going to get their poker fix in. With 200 sites being banned from transmitting information to computers, there is a definite cause for concern not only in Minnesota, but in other states across the United States as well.

The odd part about this little venture is that while a lot of the major poker sites and gambling sites are listed, there are some noticeable players that have been left off of the list. Most noticeably, Poker Stars and UltimateBet/Absolute were for some reason missed the list while Full Tilt and BoDog led the list of banned sites.

Interestingly enough, The Minnesota Department of Safety is not only trying to block the IP addresses, but also the phone communication links as well. This is something that has to have players in absolute panic. With the MDS only giving internet providers 3 weeks to respond to their request, players are not being given very much time to respond to the latest Big Brother move by a local government agency.

The next few weeks are going to be very interesting. With the Federal Government having legislation on deck and this legislation about to take effect in Minnesota, the poker world as we know it is about to be turned on its head. Hold onto you chips guys, it is going to be a wild ride!