Recently, the United States
government made the decision to tax online poker players, versus the concept of
taxing the gaming establishment itself.
While previous laws passed by the government forbid banking institutions
in the United States from doing business with online poker rooms and casinos
in an effort to limit the ability of players to wager online, new laws
specifically target the online poker room player themselves. Theoretically, the government seems to be
against games of chance and gambling of any form over the Internet. Predecessors to the current regulations have
indicated that the practice of gambling and gaming over any type of United States
transmission and communication lines should be prohibited in any way, shape or
form.
While these laws are largely
designed to protect United States
citizens, many experts would disagree that the laws themselves have the best
interest of United States
citizens and their ability to earn profits from online poker
rooms and casinos at heart. By
disallowing American users to participate in the online poker rooms and casinos
such as Fulltiltpoker.com, the American government
provides offshore businesses a surefire way to collect income from American
citizens that American citizens themselves cannot enjoy. This odd confluence of events is in direct
reaction to the steady series of more and more prohibitive and restrictive
government regulations that pertain to online poker rooms and casinos. With this extremely negative view and outlook
on the operations of online poker rooms and casinos such as
Fulltiltpoker.com by the United States
government, it becomes more and more obvious that the United States
government has no interest in allowing its citizens to profit from gaming and
gambling in online poker rooms and casinos.
Despite largely embracing the
poker culture in Las Vegas, America
is still hesitant to allow widespread and rampant unrestricted use of gaming
and gambling facilities on the Internet.
It remains to be seen what type of effort will be made by gaming and
gambling lobbyists to correct some of the ultra-restrictive laws pertaining to
online poker rooms and casinos on the Internet.
With all the focus on extreme profits as well as the game of pokers
recent emergence as one of the most popular television properties, it would
seem obvious that the government has blundered and missed out on a prime source
of tax revenue.