As most of you know, last December the Department of Justice issued an opinion which essentially stated that The Wire Act did not apply to Internet poker. So what exactly does this mean and is the future bright for new legalized Internet poker? To get some answers, we sat down with our legal team a couple of weeks ago and here is a quick summary of what they said.

First off, there are two laws that stand in the way of Internet Poker. They are The Wire Act which concerns itself with bets that go across state lines and The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) which concerns itself with how banks deal with money that is going to and from Internet gambling sites (including poker).

As for The Wire Act, its status is now not clear. Yes, the DOJ just issued a favorable opinion, but this follows many years of unfavorable opinions. So, what our attorneys would like to see is further clarification from the DOJ confirming the new ruling, and then we will know for sure what this all means concerning this old law.

However, even if The Wire Act is no more as far as poker is concerned, the UIGEA still exists, and it is enough to stop poker from moving forward. So that’s the bad news.

There is also some good news on the horizon. It’s now clear that if states choose to do so, intrastate poker, that is poker restricted to poker players who live inside a particular state, will now be legal. It does not mean that intrastate poker will be open to residents of a particular state and residents of foreign countries as some on our forums members are thinking. The reason for this is too long to put here, but our attorneys felt sure that non-US players participating in US States sites wasn’t going to happen.

As for states banding together, as they do with lotteries, the feeling was while that might happen, it would take some time. First, states have to set up their own Internet poker and then move on from there, and this would probably not happen quickly if at all, and again, the UIGEA could be an issue.

So, this report is certainly not as good as some of the stuff we have been reading even though some progress is being made. But again, it’s just opinion, and opinion is always subject to change. On the good side, Nevada is now moving ahead with intrastate poker, it has been approved, the regulations are currently being written, and we expect to see the first licenses issued in just a few months.

To finish, one thing this probably does mean is that the idea of giving up on a federal law and just going with the states is probably wrong. It would sure help to at the very least get the UIGEA replaced with something else or perhaps even outright repealed. So, effort at the federal level still needs to be made.