Poker Players Decry Online Gambling Ban

A letter addressed to the congress as sent by the Poker Players Alliance opened in a direct message of dismay saying, "I am a voter, I am a poker player and I am mad".

In response to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which was recently signed into law, the letter urges every individual that was affected by the new law to protest.

The act bans US banks and credit card companies from transferring money to online gambling companies, preventing players from making their wagers online.

Many however, believe that while the new law might make it harder to gamble online, there are still many ways to go around it.

A lot of online poker players are angry because of the act that they liken to having the rug pulled from under them.

"It was tacked on literally in the 12th hour on a port security bill as kind of a last chapter," Poker Players Alliance spokesman John A. Pappas said. "The legislation was never given a hearing."

"Whether you play poker or not, the way that legislature was passed through was not a good representation of what our democratic system should look like," he added.

He also thinks that the provisions themselves would be hard to implement.

"Prohibitions have never worked, and they certainly won't work in the case of online poker," Pappas said. "The internet is so ubiquitous, and the enforcement mechanisms, by putting the burden on the banks, [are] going to be very difficult to enforce."