Home / Poker News August 2010 / PokerStars and the battle for legal online poker
PokerStars and the battle for legal online poker
Posted by: James Carter. - Thu, 2010-08-05 10:49
You have probably heard about Barney Frank’s HR 2267 passing through the House Financial Services Committee with flying colors. If you’ve been reading the news on here for a while, you probably also know that here was a cost to this victory, one that may yet prove to be an extremely dear one. The bill only passed with a few amendments peppered onto its side, and these amendments cover some pretty significant points. Online poker companies targeting a possibly legalized US market would have to have the majority of their employees in the US. Also, companies which are considered to have broken federal or local laws in the US, would not even be considered for a license. What exactly does that mean? It means none of the sites which accepted US players at one point or another after the 2006 passage of the UIGEA, would qualify. Yes, that includes sites like PokerStars and
Full Tilt Poker.
Despite the possibility of being left out of a potential second online poker explosion,
PokerStars officials remain optimistic about the road their operation is about to go down. According to Paul Telford, PokerStars’ General Counsel, PokerStars will support HR 2267 in every possible way, despite the above mentioned amendments. Apparently, PokerStars would still be able to operate in the US through various operators in a licensing setup similar to the one it currently uses in Italy and in France. To make things absolutely clear, the PPA’s legal team has confirmed that indeed, none of the existing
online poker operations could be legally denied access to the US market under the provisions of the bill, in the form in which it’s been passed by the House Financial Services Committee.
Despite that, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker may have to settle for second fiddle behind operations like Harrah’s which the government will likely push over everyone else if and when regulation happens.
