[McMelchior]

I've kept out of this thread so far, and it's quite possible I would have served the cause better by staying with that strategy.

Nevertheless:

A) I have a strong interest in seeing online poker explicitly legalized and regulated here in the States - the same way it appears to be happening in EU these days. I find it hard not to believe 100% of the previous posters in this thread share this interest.

B) Online poker does not have even a remote chance of recieving approval from the US legislature, unless there are highly effective means in place to secure that i) no minor is playing for real money, ii) no cheating of any kind is possible, or - if this is impossible - that the cheating is detectable by the sites.

C) With ways of enforcing the UIGEA still under development I have little doubt the steady influx of casual players (personally I hate the term "fish") will decrease to a level, where even the best of those guys that eek out some sort of a living from todays games will find themself without sufficient income to cover their allowances (I'm not talking about paying rent, health insurance etc, since it appears most of them still lodge with their parents). It might not happen this year, but it's a trend and right now little is bucking it.

D) Judging from the success of the casino industry it's pretty obvious, that the potential revenue from online poker is of a scale, that individual sites eyeing even a remote chance of legalization/regulation in the US will have an interest in investing into developing means to clean up the games.

E) The opponents of legalization/regulation will have an easy time as long as the issues of cheating and under-age gaming are not addressed by the poker community. Way too easy.

The only way I see we are to have any shot at defeating the religious/puritanist/conservative/whatever buttholes is by - very vigorously - addressing the cheating and under-age gaming ourselves.

Concerns about loss of income (EV) due to this debate are as petty and nearsighted as it comes.