Home / Poker News April 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – Utah Sends Anti-gambling Letter to Washington
The Poker Grapevine – Utah Sends Anti-gambling Letter to Washington
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2012-04-15 16:27
The state of Utah has been one of only two US states without any form of legal gambling, and the state has made its position clear regarding the possible federal legalization of
online poker and online gambling too, a while ago. Its religious affiliations well known, it didn’t really come as a surprise for anyone that Utah approached the issue of legal and regulated online poker and gambling the way it did. The state not only made it clear it would never accept the legalization of any form of gambling, it has expressed concern regarding the potential federal legalization of the said activities. What federal legalization and regulation would basically mean for Utah is that the state would be forced to accept such regulation. In regards to that, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has recently sent a letter to Senate majority leader Harry Reid and to John Boehner, speaker of the House, requesting that individual states be allowed to decide the issue of legal online gambling for themselves.
Less than a month ago, Gov. Herbert signed House Bill 108 into law. The bill stipulates that online gambling will be included in Utah’s ban on gambling, even if the federal government decides to legalize and regulate the activity. The only other US state which has all forms of gambling expressly banned is Hawaii.
In other news: a year ago, the online poker world was shaken by the Black Friday indictments handed out by the DoJ. Since then, a host of accusations and lawsuits have been leveled at Full Tilt Poker and it various representatives/owners. Last Thursday, 4 poker players filed yet another lawsuit against Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, adding to the myriad of legal problems that the two are already facing. The 4 players allege that the two Full Tilt owners handled player funds illegally before and after Black Friday. Lederer had allegedly picked up $42 million and Ferguson $85 million from FTP’s “profit sharing” scheme.
