Posted by Dr Fro 10:03 PM

Reproduced here without any permission from Daniel is Daniel Negreanu's take on the recent events in poker:

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Ok, so unless you've been living under a rock you already know that Senator Bill Frist, from here on in known as slimy weasel, was able to pass a Port Security Bill this weekend that also makes it more difficult for banks to fund online accounts.

Before I mentioned it in my blog I wanted to make sure that I educated myself a little bit more on the state of online poker and what this bill means to all of us.

For the most part, I think they can take their bill and shove it where the sun don't shine. An attempt several years ago to discourage credit card companies from funding online gaming accounts may have caused a slight panic, but in the end, companies like Neteller and other third party operators made it easy for customers to fund their online accounts.

What's still a really grey area is what exactly will happen to a company like Neteller. Neteller isn't a U.S. bank so the U.S. government should have no jurisdiction over Neteller accounts. If that's true, then things will continue to be business as usual.

The way I understand it, you will still be able to fund your Neteller account from your bank account. Neteller is NOT an online gaming company. Your bank would have virtually no way of tracing what you do with your funds after you send them to Neteller, which appears to be totally legal as I understand it.

A couple of publicly owned companies have went on record saying that once the bill is signed by president Bush, they will no longer accept U.S. accounts until they have time to fully understand their options.

As for the majority of privately owned sites, it will be business as usual. Frankly, as moronic and intrusive as this bill is, there is really no need to panic. The bill states that banks have 270 days to comply with the law. Most banks, especially smaller ones, won't even have the resources to do that as I understand it.

In a time where Italy recently announced that they will legalize online gambling and most European countries following suit, it just boggles my mind that the U.S. government fails to realize that A) they do not govern the world, B) they cannot put a stop to online gaming, and C) they are costing the American people billions and billions of dollars in tax dollars that they could use to spend on education, welfare... or just building more "pretty" bombs.

The weasel (remember, that's Bill Frist), claims that online gambling is a way in which terrorists go about laundering money. Come off it? How do you say that with a straight face? Weasel, do you have any proof whatsoever that any terrorist group has used online poker accounts to launder money? Any at all?

The weasel is a self-righteous douche bag who has decided to push upon us his moral agenda by claiming that online poker is "bad." Has he ever played poker? Probably not. Does he even understand that it's different from slot machines? Probably not. Does he even realize that many Americans put food on the table by playing online poker? Probably not, and I doubt he cares. He thinks "gambling is wrong" so we all have to have the same view of it as he does.

Now to the important stuff. There is an organization that we all have to support. I don't mean next week, I don't mean when you have some time, I mean right now. Take a few minutes to check out www.pokerplayersalliance.org/

Currently, over 125,000 poker players have signed on to become a member of this important organization. That number needs to get to a million. I know a lot of you guys read this blog, so please, if you haven't signed up yet do it now. This is no Sally Struthers plea, this is serious. The more people we have behind the PPA the more leverage we could have in Washington.

You can become a full member for as little $20. That money will be used to help fight for a very worthy cause. I'm signing up right now, and you should too. Ok, stop reading now... and go sign up.

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