As you enter NYC Harbor you will see the Statue of Liberty and on it you will read the words: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe freedom"A clear symbol of what freedoms and liberties were meant over 200 years ago when our founders signed the Declaration of Independence.
Poker was invented in 1864 in a 52-card deck in the version of 7-card stud on the riverboats of the Mississippi river.
The first fully functional digital computer ENIAC was completed in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania.
The first internet was up and running in America ARPANET at Stanford Research Institute in 1969.
The first "real money" online poker site was running on Jan 1, 1998 Planet Poker founded by Mike Caro.
The UIGEA/ Unlawful internet gaming Act was passed on Sept 30, 2006 making it illegal for banks in the US to process gaming online transactions thus making it virtually impossible for Americans to play online even though poker itself is and was not illegal.
"Black Friday" April 15, 2011 the United States Dept of Justice seizes the Domains and shuts down and indicts most of the major online poker sites that served US customers in the years after the UIGEA was passed.
This great nation that I love invented this game I love. We marketed it and popularized it and then big corporate America, who is behind the passing of the UIGEA and the DOJ indictments, has now made it where we (America, the "Land of the free" ???) are one of only a few nations that now fully has made it where its citizens cannot play online poker !
Yes that is right, countries like China, Iran, former Soviet Union all allow their people to fully play online with no Govt involvement at all !
Because of this I now know many people whom I met through the poker world have immigrated to other countries such as Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica etc etc where they can be free to play the game they love because they cannot do so in the United States of America !!
Once again I quote: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe freedom"..
What have we done to ourselves ? And what can we do to fix it ? Some groups like the PPA are fighting for Federal Legislation that regulates online poker and will set up licensing fees and tax it. This may seem like a good idea and it certainly might be better than conditions pre "Black Friday" as online poker operated with minimum accountability. But if we allow big business such as Harrahs Corporation and people like Senator Harry Reid of Nevada to get their way we will have a much worse scenario that would give us few sites to play on all owned by a few people which would be really bad for the players.
Even if you do not play poker, PLEASE understand this fight is not just about poker, it is about what it is to be an American ! People are now leaving the US and going to other countries where they are finding the kind of freedoms we once delivered ! That alone should scare any red blooded American.
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