Sorry to disappoint all of the doomsayers, but.........

[Jussurreal]

[ QUOTE ]
Let's assume for a moment that online poker DOES cease to exist? Does this kill the enterprise? No. It makes it just like any other PROFESSIONAL endeavour. Then, players have to actually go into the "office" to make a living.

[/ QUOTE ] I like most other americans live no where near a casino.

And to the OP....nobody knows what is going to happen. It has much more of a chance of becoming law than you are giving it though. ITS ALREADY PASSED THE HOUSE BY A LANDSLIDE. Because of this, it is definately realistic that it will make it all the way. Because it has a realistic chance your post is wrong. You are not a freakish all-knowing person like you claim to be.

[jsthomas64]

That was a whole lot of words to say absolutely nothing. Well, other than the fact you're definitely one pompous SOB. I don't know who you hang out with, but nobody I know stocked up on Spam and bottled water on Y2K.
Where exactly does the constitution give you the right to invest in offshore goods as you please? If you could let me know what section this is mentioned in, I'd appreciate it so I can go get some Cuban cigars.
Also, what the bill actually does is shift the burden of monitoring these transactions from the government to large financial institutions who have no problem pulling the plug on your Neteller account to stay out of the government's way. After that, if they really wanted to stop the on-line gambling is staggeringly simple to have ISP's block the sites of the most popular online casinos.
The reason free file swapping is so hard to stop is that now its mostly person to person (i.e. Napster is now a pay site if you're about 5 years behind the times). One college kid copies his 50 Cent CD, makes it an MP3 file and in an hour 1,000 different kids have it. That's why the RIAA has filed suit on so many individuals, to try to send a message. Alternatively, internet gambling requires a consolidated clearing house to collect and distribute the money, run the software and host the sites we play at which can easily be pinpointed and sites blocked. If you read a newspaper you might realize that some big internet players actually help China censor and block just about everything they disapprove of, which is a lot.

[NY60]

Excellent post...I agree 110%....THANK YOU!!

[chicagoY]

What I "feel," unfortunately has nothing to do with it. See dictionary definition of "statist scoundrels."

[DuderinoAB]

[ QUOTE ]
if they really wanted to stop the on-line gambling is staggeringly simple to have ISP's block the sites of the most popular online casinos.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not that simple. I promise you there are plenty of people in China viewing whatever website they damn well please. Likewise, we will easily be able to visit the sites of major poker rooms, and our ISP won't have a clue. Reading the paper is probably not the best solution if you want to know what is possible on the internet and what is not.