Gambling Groups See Backlash from American Voters over Internet Gambling Ban

 "This last minute deal reeks of political gamesmanship," said Michael Bolcerek, president of the Poker Players Alliance, a grassroots advocacy organization of more than 110,000 poker enthusiasts. The American people should be outraged that Congress has hi-jacked a vital security bill with a poker prohibition that nearly three-fourths of the country opposes."

Revenge of the Voters

Bolcerek said that enabling this bill to become law, with the signature of President Bush, would be contrary to public opinion and would damage an already fractured relationship between government and foreign governments, where online gambling is completely legal.  "The millions of Americans who enjoy playing this great game will have the last voice in this debate come Election Day," said Bolcerek.  

Bolcerek pointed to research which shows that 74 percent of Americans oppose federal attempts to ban Internet poker.  The study can be found online at, http://www.pokerplayersalliance.org/press_releases/pr040406.html  .
Bolcerek said Congress has a chance to regulate and tax online poker leading to potentially billions of dollars in annual revenue for the federal government and the states. "If the goal of Congress is to protect people from the possible dangers of gambling, a prohibition is the worst way of achieving it," said Bolcerek.  "All it will do is push poker underground, essentially creating online speakeasies, which will provide no protection for youths, no services for the problem gambler and leave only the most unscrupulous operators in the game."

The Poker Players Alliance www.pokerplayersalliance.org is a nonprofit organization advocating on behalf of American poker players.

Gambling CEO Released

The complete absurdity of Congress' "ban" on online gambling became apparent the very day the measure was passed, when the former chairman of Sportingbet.com was freed by a New York City judge after Governor George Pataki refused to sign a warrant that would have allowed his extradition to Louisiana to face Internet gambling charges.

The decision will come as a relief to the 58 or so other Internet gambling executives with outstanding warrants against them issued by the State of Louisiana. The warrants remain sealed but are known to include three other Sportingbet.com executives.
The executive, Peter Dicks, who was arrested three weeks ago, telephoned his wife, Marina, outside the courthouse to relate the startling news, telling her: “This is what they call a good moment.”

Dicks, who had resigned from the company to focus on his defense, told reporters he was “very grateful."
Barry Slotnick, the lawyer for the former executive, said that Gov. Pataki had “reviewed all the papers and heard all the arguments and decided that extradition was not appropriate”.

A spokeswoman for the governor said that state law permitted extradition only if the accused person was physically present in the place where he is accused of breaking the law. "The governor does not have the legal authority to extradite Mr. Dicks,” she said.
Judge Eugene Lopez declared Mr. Dicks a free man after a brief hearing.

According to Nigel Payne, Sportingbet.com's new chief executive, the company is "pleased that our former chairman has been allowed to return home. What we would very much hope is that this unfortunate event provides a catalyst for parties to begin to reconcile their different opinions.”

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