The pokersites are getting what they deserve

[Leader]

blame the victim. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] Yeah poker sites could have done more, but the people how wrote the law and pushed for its passage are the ones to blame.

[whodatdare]

[ QUOTE ]
i hate how people are looking for place to point blame. what's done is done. concentrate on the future and not the past. what good is making a post about whose fault it is? and besides, i don't see how you, Troll_Inc on 2+2, could know for a fact what happened behind the scenes. frist wanted this so badly that it's very possible nothing was going to stop him

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, Frist did want this to pass in a big way. You have to give him credit, slimy as he is, he played this hand brilliantly by placing this in a bill guaranteed to pass, and if anyone decided to vote against it they would be crushed in advertisements saying that said person was WEAK on terror. Pure election politics at its finest. Makes me want to puke.

[specultr]

[ QUOTE ]
i hate how people are looking for place to point blame. what's done is done. concentrate on the future and not the past. what good is making a post about whose fault it is? and besides, i don't see how you, Troll_Inc on 2+2, could know for a fact what happened behind the scenes. frist wanted this so badly that it's very possible nothing was going to stop him

[/ QUOTE ]

What's wrong with accountability? Actually it does a lot of good to understand the past because it oftentimes repeats itself. Are we to assume that online poker sites will somehow in the future vigorously defend online poker rights in the US? They didn't in the past. The sites' attitude seems to be to cut their losses and move on to European and Asian markets, which is right in line with their passive reaction to the American congress. You bring up the point that "behind the scenes" they could have been working like gangbusters as far as we know. Apparently, it was very far behind the scenes. Maybe they hired the lobbying firm of Deaf, Dumb and Blind. As far as nothing stopping Frist, that's the kind of attitude we don't need. We CAN fight City Hall, you know. The fight continues in November.

[RGL]

I'm talking about our reaction now, both as players and as sites. No counter-ads or PR blitzes, no suits or blocking legal actions (other than the WTO), no real up front, high profile spokesperson or spokespeople for our side.

The spin feels like the government is finally using the tax code to get Al Capone, who everyone "knew" was guilty all along. The spin is they are protecting the victims of gambling rather than trapping the willing participants.

We have an argument to be made, and are even at times making it effectively among ourselves. And some of the sites have taken a gutsy stand with us.

Sure we're victims in a shared undertaking. But there's nothing keeping us from silently remaining so. The political-media complex and the resulting opinions that flow from it among the populace is the battlefield. We're not on it except as poor unfortunate over-our-head exploited people on the one hand and greedy, shady exploiters on the other.

So I'm not blaming the victim. I'm blaming the victim for coming across like the victimizer.

Sorry for the rant, but I've been watching the media winds forming today.

[JOHNY CA$H]

Blame shmame. Wasted energy. Let's focus on improving things NOW.