Dispatches from the Creation Wars

As I noted more than two years ago, the courts have already ruled on this issue. Online poker is not illegal under federal law. The only form of online gambling that is actually illegal at the federal level is sports betting, despite the pretensions of the Bush administration. But Raymer also points out that the Bush administration was engaged in multiple efforts to intimidate online poker sites and legitimate poker magazines that do business with them:

FREDDOSO: Have you been threatened?

RAYMER: No, but Card Player magazine is a perfect example. They were running ads for real money sites -- when you see a TV commercial right now, it's for sites that only give you access to play money games. Card Player magazine was still running commercials for sites that offered real-money poker games. The Department of Justice was threatening them, sending them letters, that if they didn't cease and desist, arrests would follow. They then came in with warrants, searched the offices, seized documents, maintained copies of those documents to use in a prosecution. But they never sought an indictment. In my opinion, it's because the Department of Justice knew that if they actually went to court with Card Player -- and the Department of Justice knew they would fight, that they wouldn't settle out of court -- then they would have to live with whatever the judge said.

It's interesting to see this sort of paternalism -- not only from the federal government, but from state governments as well -- when it comes to gambling. Because most of these states have state-sponsored gambling, and it almost appears that they are trying to preserve their lotteries at the expense of other forms of gambling, such as people playing poker in their own house, on their own computer.

When they're making money on it, like by running a lottery, they like it. But when they're not making money on it, then they'll say that they're trying to protect society and protect family values and all that kind of stuff. And that's just because the politicians think that will get them votes, to say they're against this immoral enterprise. As far as I'm concerned, morality has no place in politics. I don't want the government pushing a religion on me in the form of morality against gambling.

But it's also true that a lot of online gambling sites and related businesses, including the World Series of Poker, caved in to this intimidation rather than stand up for the undeniable fact that online poker is entirely legal in this country:

FREDDOSO: But a lot of players were intimidated by UIGEA, and participation in the World Series Main Event declined rather dramatically in the year afterward.

RAYMER: Yes. That was because the Rio and Harrah's decided they couldn't do business with the online sites. In the past, before that law was on the books, people would compete on PokerStars to win their seat in the Main Event. But if you won your seat, you needed to show up in Vegas. PokerStars would buy you in directly, in your name, and then you were given your receipt. But when the casinos decided they wouldn't deal with the sites, they couldn't do it that way anymore. Now what they had to do was put $11,000 in your account -- the $10,000 buy-in plus a thousand for expenses -- and then they have to expect you to withdraw the entire $11,000 and use it to travel to and play in the Main Event, which a lot of people didn't do.

Imagine if you're just an average American, you're working hard, you're making somewhere between $20,000 and $80,000 a year, and you play online poker. In your bank account, you probably almost never have more than $1,000. Now, all of the sudden, you have $11,000. Do you think your wife is going to say, yeah, take that ten thousand and go play in a poker tournament where 90 percent of the people make no money at all? Most spouses would say no way. If you're in that situation, how can you justify playing in a $10,000 tournament when you can just keep the money?

So this law really did affect the World Series. And it also intimidated players and poker sites. At the time, the biggest poker site (PartyPoker.com) decided they would reject all American customers. Anyone who was a resident of the United States would be told to withdraw their money and leave -- you're not allowed to play on our site anymore. I think that company made a huge mistake. I would have gone to court and fought it. I would have set it up so that the U.S. could arrest me. Everyone knows I represent PokerStars. The government's never come after me for doing business with an illegal online casino, because they know they'd lose. The Department of Justice will threaten you, but they've never sought an indictment against anyone who has ever stood up to them.

He's absolutely right. The Bush administration rattled their swords a lot and intimidated a lot of people, including Harrah's, but they knew damn well that any case against sites or businesses over online poker would be dismissed because online poker is not illegal.