From "This ain't no big deal," to "The sky has fallen,' a number of major poker voices have jumped in with opinion pieces concerning the state and future of online poker. Some are very dark, as in the letter that WSOP Media Director and former Poker Stars executive Nolan Dalla served up, expressing his beliefs that online poker has been effectively deep-sixed; while others, including Card Player's legal counsel, Allyn Jaffrey Shulman, insist that this legislation will change little, and it's business as usual for the majority of online players.
As usual, you'll have to make up your own mind, though I'm rather convinced myself that my ability to play online poker will not be significantly impacted in the near future, though my choices will be reduced. But this isn't my soapbox, tonight --- it's that of these others:
Here's Nolan Dalla's initial response, as posted to the BARGE mailing list and re-printed (with permission) by Bill Rini.
An upbeat report from poker-playing lawyer Allyn Jeffrey Shulman on why you really don't need to worry. Read it here.
Earl Burton was the first of several columnists to seek out the opinion of I. Nelson Rose, a legal expert specializing in gambling matters. Rose, who runs the "Gambling and the Law" website, offers a detailed analysis of the legislation here.
This blog's patron saint, Lou Krieger, has been at the forefront on relaying the World Trade Organization implications of the legislation, and he's had several new pieces on the topic. Sometimes I take Lou for granted, as happened when I accidentally omitted him from the first pass of this post. Sorry, Lou!
And for an even-handed interpretation of Rose's thoughts expressed in layman's terms, try this Liz Benston article from the Las Vegas Sun.
CJ, Otis, and G-Rob have served up some of the best armchair quarterback commentary at their Up For Poker site. Rather than a simple "I think" diatribe, they've offered a well-researched, three-part series that touches on several spects of the current scene.
From the "showing their real colors" category, we have a press release from the WPT that's really a big "Ha-ha-ha-ha!" moment. Anyone with a sense of modern poker history upchucked over their civvies when they read this precious little bit: "'Whereas casinos were closing their poker rooms in 2001 prior to the launch of the World Poker Tour, today casinos across the country are expanding their rooms or opening new showcase poker rooms....' 'It was a wide-spread love of this game and the reinvention of poker as a televised sport that ignited the poker phenomenon,' said Steve Lipscomb, CEO and founder of WPTE." If that's not a rewrite of history, it's certainly a liberal reinterpretation. But the quote that should have you turning the channel at the sight of the WPT's opening credits is elsewhere in that release; your mission is to click the link above and enjoy it for yourself.
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