Poker Rant

A recent news article prompted me to write this rant.

When is the US government going to live up to its mandate of doing what the people want? It is quite clear from the sheer number of people who play poker both in real life and online, and those that watch the sport on TV that Americans want the freedom to play poker online.

Right now billions of dollars are being invested into this business, but because of the stubborn and incompetent Republican government, nothing is being done to allow citizens to play the game they love.

Americans currently have to break the law to play their favorite game online, while other countries have taken the intelligent step of legalizing, regulating, and taxing the industry. What happened to the freedom?

Right now I could fly to Vegas and play in a legal poker game that could potentially cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars an hour if I play incorrectly. Here in Tennessee I could actually be arrested for playing online, or playing a few friends for $10 in a bar. None of this makes any sense at all. Most of the laws the government are hiding behind were written before the invention of the Internet.

Poker is an American tradition, a wonderful game of skill, and yet Americans are being treated like second class citizens by their own government. If this is a democracy give the people what they want: The right to play poker in the privacy of their own homes.