[viper930]

Not a legal expert so take this for what it is, but I am of the opinion that everyone around here is vastly overreacting to this news. The passing of this bill is definitely not good news for us, but these "withdraw money?" or "oh [censored] move to another country" posts are just ridiculous dont you think?

From what happened today, the only direct consequence is that the fed now has to set a system of regulations in place within 270 correct? It is already known that banking institutions and much of the financial world is viciously opposed to strict measures of enforcement for these regulations as it causes a lot more work for them. Aside from the main United States banks, institutions like Firepay and Netteller are used for other purposes aside from online gambling, and it just seems highly highly unlikely that the government will put in place regulations that would completely shut these businesses down. This would be like saying "paypal has to go because we have found people using it to pay for drugs on ebay, which is illegal."

For those who are slamming the poker sites and the online gaming industry for lack of initiative throughout the process, dont you think that you are vastly oversimplifying and underestimating the financial prowess and awareness that a multibillion dollar industry is sure to have? It is completely impossible that if every average person who browses this forum can say "holy [censored] this [censored] up online poker forever omg" that the online gambling companies would not have realized this far far in advance. These aren't Party Poker customer service towelheads that are calling the shots on what to do, it's their highly paid analysts that are responsible for maintaining their profit margin for a living.

That being said, again, this definitely is bad news, but not yet nearly as bad as most people seem to think, imo. For those of you having a seizure right now, chill the [censored] out.

[/rant]