Home / Poker News September 2011 / The Poker Grapevine – Online Poker Petition
The Poker Grapevine – Online Poker Petition
Posted by: Jo Martin - Sat, 2011-09-24 14:10
The “We The People” petition section has gone online at the website of the White House and online poker fans have already created a petition regarding the legalization and regulation of the game in the US. The petition is about the creation of jobs, the protection of consumers and the generation of revenue through the legalization of
online poker.
The petition also touches on the issues of underage gambling prevention and revenue generation without the raising of taxes. It then wraps up by drawing a parallel between online horse race wagering – already legalized and regulated – and online poker.
The petition went online on September 22, and in order to gain consideration, it needs to accumulate 5,000 signatures until October 22. Given the fact however that at the time this piece was written, 3,810 people have already signed it, accumulating enough signatures most likely won’t be a problem. Whether this petition will have the power to kick-start a legislative process is doubtful, what it is guaranteed to accomplish though is to make online poker players’ voices heard.
In other news: the new DoJ moves against
Full Tilt Poker owners and pros Rafe Furst, Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson as well as the Ponzi scheme allegations have sent ripples through the poker community. TJ Cloutier is the latest pro who has expressed his opinion on the matter, and what he said isn’t particularly encouraging for those who have money stuck at the site.
According to Cloutier, the fact that the company never intended to repay its players was “ridiculous”. Cloutier also said that he’d heard from reliable sources that players wouldn’t get any of their monies back. He said that Howard Lederer owned the biggest slice of the company, a bigger one then Phil Ivey. The rest of the Full Tilt pros were all “one percenters”. According to Cloutier, the reason why almost all of the Full Tilt pros stayed away from the 2011 WSOP was that they did not want to answer any questions.
