Released by TruePoker on Oct 04, 2006

In the October 3, 2006 LA Times, Professor Nelson Rose is quoted as follows with respect to the coverage of “poker” under the recently passed US legislation:

That's a major weakness" of the new measure, said I. Nelson Rose, an expert in gambling law at Whittier Law School.

"It left out expanding the reach of the Wire Act, so poker sites can say, 'We're not covered by that.' "

This failure to amend the Wire Act to include poker is the first step of two positive analytic threads:

First thread: Playing online poker is itself not "unlawful Internet Gambling" under Federal Law (leaving aside State law for now), so deposits for online poker are not in connection with "unlawful Internet gambling".

1. The UIGE Act only related to deposits in connection with "unlawful Internet gambling".

2. Poker is not unlawful Internet gambling (under the Wire Act, leaving aside State laws for this discussion.)

3. Therefore, deposits in connection with online poker are not retricted by the UIGE Act.

The second thread, which was our initial thought,:

1. Even assuming that online poker were construed to be "unlawful Internet gambling", the UIGE Act only applies to acceptance of deposits by persons "engaged in the business of betting or wagering".

2. Poker site business models do not involve any risk of the site dependent upon the outcome of play; poker sites do not "bet or wager".

3. The “poker-only business’ model is not a person covered by the restrictions of the UIGE Act.

Conclusion: TruePoker is not covered by the UIGE Act, and will continue to offer games for play by US players.

If you live in the US, your Bank or credit card issuer may cut off deposits in the future, but we will always be able to process cashouts. We are awaiting the analysis from Neteller, Firepay, Click2Pay and other services.

Over 55% of our business is from non-US players. We will continue to offer play to US players, unless their State laws specifically ban Internet gambling.

 

We urge poker players in Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and South Dakota to get poker, a game of skill, expressly exempted from their State's Internet gambling statute. 

We are not giving legal advice, you need to determine whether your State laws ( US players) allow you to access our games’ servers.

TruePoker