[DesertCat]

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I'll preface this by saying I haven't looked at the law that the DOJ is relying on, but I highly doubt that what you say is true. Pretty much all serious criminal offenses have intent/knowledge components (one exception is statutory rape in my state, which has an intent requirement that's more or less irrelvant to that actual offense, and arguably DWI's where the intent requirement is only peripherally related to the crime). I would expect that if a site bans US players and has enforcement mechanisms in place to prevent US players from playing, that one US player is able to circumvent that would not subject the US executives to criminal penalties.

Again I haven't looked at the actual law though.

--Zetack

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Well, it's been argued that the original law, the wire act, does not cover internet gaming. The current administration has taken the tack that it's up to the gamblers to prove it, the justice department will prosecute based on "their" interpretation and use their unlimited resources to crush defendants in court.

So even if you are right, a hostile administration can still make the WPT's life miserable over the most technical violations of any internet gambling ban.

So why would the WPT want to ban internet poker in the U.S.? It will help kill their ratings, and forever tarnish their image with potential U.S. customers. If the WPT wants to go to China, go, but why burn all your bridges here? There is literally no benefit to the WPT spending millions to lobby for a poker ban.

Oh, and if the WPT thinks getting Chinese rights is a slam dunk, they should read todays wall street journal.

"China's government has been throwing up some new hurdles for foreign investors in recent months, including increased scrutiny of foreign-backed mergers and proposed restrictions in areas from banking to retailing to manufacturing.

It's not a wave of popular anti-foreign sentiment, of the kind that was on display, for example, after the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999, that is motivating Beijing. Rather, it is the government's growing preoccupation with helping China's expanding universe of domestic companies"

"In automobile production, for instance, a business long dominated by foreign companies operating through joint ventures, the government said in March that it won't approve any new expansion of capacity unless companies meet requirements, as yet unspecified, to make local brands and support domestic product development."