April 03 2012, Matthew Kredell

The Fraternal Order of Police, which lobbies Congress on behalf of 330,000 law-enforcement officers, sent a letter to leadership of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives last week asking for federal action to create a strong regulatory framework for legal Internet gaming to protect U.S. consumers and provide law enforcement the tools necessary to put offshore sites out of business.

The letter was signed by FOP president Chuck Canterbury and addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

At face value, the letter doesn’t seem that important to the cause of officially legalizing online poker. Nowhere does the letter even specifically mention poker. The FOP seems more interested in shutting down allegedly illegal offshore poker sites still serving the U.S.

However, regardless of if the FOP’s interests exactly align with players, the letter is a valuable chip for the movement.

As Canterbury mentions in the letter, the FOP supported enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006. Now the FOP realizes that millions of Americans want to play online poker, and that if it is not regulated in the U.S., they will just play on offshore sites beyond the reach of the federal government.

“Today, there are no controls on Internet gambling to give U.S. consumers recourse to U.S. courts to provide prompt and accurate payments; no protections are in place to prevent or detect money laundering; no firm and transparent licensing of operators exists; and no regulatory controls are in place to prevent criminals from entering the marketplace, rigging games, or misusing customer financial data,” Canterbury wrote. “This has created a situation in which U.S. law enforcement authorities cannot shut down illegal activity, nor is there any way for those victimized by fraud or other criminal acts to seek redress.”

For legislation to license and regulate Internet poker to pass through Congress, many policymakers who voted in favor of the UIGEA will need to support sanctioning one of the key forms of online gambling.

No one in politics wants to be called a flip-flopper. By establishing its belief that supporting online gambling regulation is a logical progression from backing the UIGEA, the FOP is setting a key precedent.

It’s also clear from the statement that the FOP has taken notice of the damage done to U.S. consumers by formerly trusted sites, such as Full Tilt Poker, and views it as a reason regulation is needed.

As the largest union of police officers in the country, the FOP has significant influence in both political parties. The Poker Players Alliance was particularly excited to get FOP as an ally.

“The simple truth is the status quo is not working,” said PPA executive director John Pappas. “Even our law enforcement officials recognize that regulation is the only way we can protect U.S. consumers and ensure their basic rights are upheld. We are proud to have the FOP join our efforts to ensure a safe and regulated online poker market for all Americans.”

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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.