News

Monday, 27 June 2011 06:39

Despite the Black Friday online poker shutdown and the fallout that followed, Washington D.C. forges ahead with its plans for legalised intrastate online poker.

The irony of it all may be lost on many, but the small District of Columbia, capital of the United States of America and home of the federal Government is also the first locality within the United States to approve a bill that will enable legalised online gambling within the district. This has gone against the flow of a government that so far has shown that it is against the legalisation of online gambling as we know it.

In fact there have recently been some reports of plans to stop D.C. from applying the new law. But none of this has so far dampened the enthusiasm of Michael A. Brown, the D.C. council member responsible for pushing the bill through. He is not worried about any of the controversial Department of Justice indictments that were brought against the game, nor of any perceived threats that may or may not emanate from certain politicians in the government.

As far as Councillor Brown is concerned, his plans for legalised intrastate online poker to be played in the capital are progressing right on schedule. He plans to introduce play-money games online towards the end of July at commercial locations known as platinum sponsors. Real-money games will then follow at the platinum sponsors, while by the year's end the games are expected to be in people's homes.

The bill was actually approved by the council back in April this year, making it an historic event on paper at least. At the time, the event went almost unnoticed by serious poker players, as they were happily playing on sites like Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars, blissfully unaware that anything would change for the foreseeable future.

When Black Friday happened, a lot of players got a nasty wake up call. All of a sudden, everything was altered irrevocably. For many of those players, their livelihood had been snatched away by the Feds when the three main online poker sites were seized and closed down. But perhaps all is not lost, at least for any serious players who might be willing to relocate to Washington D.C. This is the one place in the whole country where the promise of legal online poker is becoming a reality.

Councillor Brown is reported as saying that this should have a very positive effect on the district because serious players can come to the capital and enjoy consumer protection while they play online, which is something that comes from regulation. He believes that many full time poker players will certainly consider moving to D.C. to be able to continue playing legally while knowing that their money will be safe.