Well if you can point me to where I've spread unsubstantiated hysteria that would be useful because I don't believe I have. I will admit to stating things in very blunt and unapologetic terms in an effort to get people's attention but I have not claimed people are going to lose all their money or anything like that.
Also I don't play into the hands of anybody. I disagree with the PPA on several issues and I've stated some of those in public and some I've discussed with Michael in private. I don't feel the carve out is the way to go. Which by the way is funny because supposedly I'm siding with the non-US companies, the PPA, and since FTP is using that email to encourage people to join the PPA which I obviously am siding with then . . . I guess FTP as well. According to you I'm playing into every side's hands :-)
In poker we're taught to look at the long term and not be results oriented but that still doesn't mean you shouldn't pay attention to the hand you're playing right now. And, to be completely honest, that's the advice I see you give out in several threads. Oh don't worry, we'll wait and see how this all pans out. Why wait? Some things are highly probable. Some things have a medium possiblity and some are highly unlikely. Why not prepare and take action to either protect yourself or to profit from the highly probable events? Why should we wait for regs to be published?
You say the only actions that should be taken now is if you're a pro with no savings. Why shouldn't Joe Player be evaluating which sites are more likely to stay than others? Some site's payment options are troubling. Should you ignore that because the regs haven't been published yet or should you take your business to a site that offers more security.
And I do look at the long term. I see a very bright future for online poker for the long term. However, I don't see a very bright future for sites currently offering gaming to US players in the long term. The US has a way of remembering who's given them the finger and I don't think any of those companies is ever going to legally be able to offer gaming in the US. America's funny that way.
But the bottom line is that while you may hate my point of view, you would likely not suffer any ill effects following any of my advice which, to date, has been:
Join organizations like the PPA (if there was others, I would recommend them too)
Vote
Inform your elected reps that you won't vote for them if they don't support online poker
Get the word out to others
Educate yourself
Don't listen to any of these online poker sites blindly
Be very, very careful until this whole thing gets sorted out and expect the worst.
Is any of that hysterical? Is any of that unreasonable?
I don't need to beat my chest. I'm not here to say I'm right. I'm here to at least offer a counter-opinion to all of this overly optimistic crap being flung around as facts or advice from people in the know. Many of the same people claiming that the worst is behind us are the same people who claimed it would be impossible to shut down Netller. I'm not saying you said that (and I'm too lazy to read through your copious posts <grin>
but certainly many of the folks still offering their expert advice on what's coming up did. Banks couldn't cut off ACH transfers, no way! It's too expensive. Too complex. But somehow they did it. And they did it without the regs.
Now which would have been more prudent:
a) Act blindly thinking you had 270 days to gamble your little heart out
b) Do a little research and find out how vulnerable the payment processing business is and adjust your actions to reflect that fact (e.g. keeping smaller deposits, etc).
Picking "B" doesn't mean you run around like a chicken with it's head cut off, quit playing, go into hibernation, and start stockpiling guns in your bomb shelter. It means you adjust yoru actions based on the risk involved. Many people are not only promoting staying ignorant but intentionally pumping misinformation into the forum as a form of denial. If you can get another people to believe then somehow it seems more reasonable for you to have held the view in the first place.
Starting to see why I'm more than willing to sound a little like chicken little if it might help people avoid making the mistake of picking "A"?