Programmers, help fight the UIGEA from the bottom up.

[Tuff_Fish]

I read this thread with considerable interest.

Open Source Post

Here is what I think could come from it.

Suppose some of you really talented programmers were to get this software into a completely usable form that could be downloaded to any PC. And suppose it were clean enough and compact enough that a normal PC could act as a game server, serving perhaps a dozen tables or so. And, suppose it was easy enough to load up and get running by idiots like me. And suppose it was a completely functional poker hosting package able to do most the normal things we have come to expect from poker site. Not fancy, but capable.

So now anyone that wishes to could host an internet homegame. It is all completely legal most places as long as it is not being run for pay in any form.

So all across the country we have people getting together on the internet and playing poker together. There can be hundreds of these homegrown networks, and thousands of games going at once. Some games will become 24/7.

The participants can buy the host a case of beer for his trouble, or offer to pay their Broadband bill, or make a "donation", again, perfectly fine as long as it is completely voluntary.

And, of course, there will be some folks who "bend" the rules a bit on the "voluntary" part. In fact, the first thing to come out of it will be some very creative ways to "bend" these rules.

There will be a darwinian process of weeding out the scammers and word will get around as to who runs a clean operation, ("bending" the rules notwithstanding) and who's wife is completely honest handling the money.

This all sounds very much like how internet poker first came about, except now we can have (I hope) really good software.

It also sounds very much like how the underground live games are organized. But they are indeed breaking the law in most places by charging in some form.

Imagine the DOJ etc going crazy trying to figure out which games are completely legal, which are "bending" too much, and which are outright for profit underground internet game sites.

Take THAT Kyl and Frist. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

So I sincerely hope somebody can make it happen. Even if you were to charge a hundred bucks or so far a finished turnkey poker package, I imagine it would be quite popular.

But mostly, we would want to do it to stick it in the eye to the jacka$$es who were behind the UIEGA.

And we would expect MGM, Harrahs, et al to really start to bend some arms to get commercial big site poker completely legal in the US.

Just thinking out loud here.

Tuff << I will log onto the first site to get running.

PS: I can see a new sub forum here, "Internet Home Games" [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]