Home / Poker News August 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – GOP is Against Online Poker
The Poker Grapevine – GOP is Against Online Poker
Posted by: James Carter. - Thu, 2012-08-30 06:06
Although some Republicans had here and there crossed party lines and expressed their support for legal
online poker in the past, the RNC (Republican National Convention) currently taking place in Tampa, Florida, has made the overall position of the GOP on the matter extremely clear: Republicans still oppose legalizing online poker, they’re still against all forms of real money gambling over the internet, and they plan to do something about it too.
The official platform that was approved at the RNC contains a chapter which details the GOP’s opposition to online poker and gambling. According to the said plank, the GOP opposes online poker on account of the damage problem gambling causes to millions of Americans each year. Not only did the document underline the GOP’s call for online gambling prohibition, it went a step further and it demanded the overturning of the DoJ’s December 2011 decision, through which the DoJ essentially changed its position on online poker in regards to the 1961 Wire Act. The decision was hailed as a huge victory for online poker interests, and it was widely believed to have represented the first all-important step towards legalization and regulation. The GOP now wants that decision overturned and it wants to re-include online poker among the activities punishable through the above said Wire Act.
If the Republicans do reclaim the White House, they will definitely shove online poker aside for another four years to come. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has made his anti-gambling position known several times and one shouldn’t expect Republicans to consider online poker any different from online gambling either, despite several court rulings and scientific studies pointing to the fact that it is indeed a game based on skill rather than chance. Some Republicans have been known to refer to online poker as poker-gambling, so it’s clear they have their minds made up in the matter.
The bottom line: if the Republicans nab the White House from the Democrats come November, all progress made thus far in the legalization effort of online gambling will amount exactly to naught.
