Recently we have seen the start of certain UK Poker sites pushing for the legalisation of online poker in the US by spending over $5 million lobbying the US Congress. These UK poker sites, including PokerStars, Party Poker and Sportingbet have also lobbied the UK Government to gain political support to apply pressure to the US.
Lobbying group UC Group currently acts for ten online poker sites that are looking to take advantage from being able to freely provide for the US marketplace. Out of all of the online poker sites represented by the UC Group only PokerStars offers poker games to US players. A spokesperson for the UC Group has stated that the lobbying efforts are just the beginning of a much larger move to legalise online gaming in the US in as short a period of time as possible.
The owners of Party Poker, Ruth Parasol and Russell De Leon alone have spent £929,000 in lobbying fees since September last year. Earlier this year another Party Poker shareholder Anurag Diskit settled a legal case with the US Government, paying $300 million after pleading guilty to violating the US Wire Act.
With these UK poker sites pushing for the legalisation of online poker in the US along with pressure from the Poker Players Alliance, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, Barny Frank and the many members of the US public who signed the poker petition it is only a matter of time before the somewhat unclear online poker laws in the US get adjusted to meet the needs of the voting US public.
25/05/2010 15:17:17
