OK, I don't usually curse on public forums, but...

[Can o Beans]

...FUCK the repressed asshats that decided that as a 37 year old man, I am too irresponsible to determine whether or not I should occasionally log in and play online poker for real money.

No really. FUCK them. If I want to spend $25 a month decompressing with a little card game, why is that an issue for Congress to decide.

All right, I am done now.

[TroubleMan]

1. I agree.....but they really didn't stop it.

You can still play and cash in. Unless you win a huge amount and decide to go around telling everybody, you'll be okay.

[Can o Beans]

2. Actually no...

Starting yesterday, all of the options available to US players were shut down. To the best of my knowledge (I tried).

Thus the little tirade above. Carry on.

[BikeWriter]

3. They did that to protect all the stupid people, like one I know...

who ran up sixty grand of credit card debt after they suckered her in by letting her win a few grand.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

4. 60 grand !

Wow ...

[BikeWriter]

5. Yes'm, it caused her a divorce from another friend of mine...

who works hard for his money.

[MonkeyFunk]

6. well

it seems she lost her money playing badly. Why should the rest of the country be punished because of her gambling problem?

And believe me, the ban wasn't to "protect" people like her. It was to protect brick and mortar casinos, and because they couldn't STAND that money was being spent that they couldn't tax.

[BikeWriter]

7. Oh, you can bet the casinos spent millions lobbying against it.

[MonkeyFunk]

8. and

horse-tracks, indian casinos and lottery-based companies spent millions lobbying FOR it.

Do you know anything about it?

And your friends idiocy shouldn't preclude the rest of us from such entertainment.

Or do you believe Jack Abramoff and his Republican flunkies did this out of the goodness of their hearts, just to protect us poor little innocent folk?

[Awsi Dooger]

9. The last couple of weeks have been eventful

If I can understate. Not just online poker. Pinnacle sports book shut down in terms of taking wagers from US customers. The money transfer outfit Neteller similarly changed its policies in the US after executives were arrested on money laundering charges.

This will lessen in intensity and the offshore places will find remedies but right now it's a cautionary phase. Best not to fund, transfer or withdraw.

Doesn't really impact anything here in Las Vegas, but in recent years the offshore books had become a billion times better than Las Vegas sportsbooks.

Las Vegas sportsbooks are wimps. The notion that "you can bet on anything in Las Vegas, honey!" is one of the most laughable myths on the planet. The sportsbooks offer wagering on meat and potatoes only, and want losers. Try to bet a big sum and they demand a players card and ask if you are staying in the hotel. Locals who threaten to win are often banned. That's not exaggeration at all. In the late '90s the last of the gutsy oldtime bookies who ran Las Vegas sportsbooks were evicted and replaced by petrified corporate bean counters. Plus, in the last year or so Harrahs has annexed one casino after another and turned those sportsbooks into nothing but satellites of their own joke sportsbook.

Everything changing and none of it for the better.