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Message: [QUOTE="dmorris68, post: 1535809, member: 40397"] One other thing about Stars and Tilt... Even if the law banned operators that had been operating illegally in the US, the Federal laws that criminalize gambling are generally accepted as not covering poker. The Wire Act, as noted above, specifically covered sports book operations. Most other anti-gambling legislation, including most at the state level, is aimed at games of chance. There is already legal precedent for poker being considered a skill game, not a chance game, so there is a very good legal standing to argue that poker-only sites like Stars and Tilt were never illegal under US law to begin with. Both of those sites certainly have deep enough pockets to pursue that legal avenue, should the US attempt to blacklist them. Plus, it all comes down to money -- the primary reason the US is pursing this now is not due to the outcries of us poker players. It's due to the potential for revenue. Stars and Tilt are far and away the two largest online poker rooms. Tens of millions of customers between them, and as I understand it the majority are US players. That's easy, guaranteed revenue once they sign on to the new regulations. Kill those sites, and you kill immediate and substantial revenue while US players trickle onto other, smaller sites. It just doesn't make fiduciary sense to kill the goose that has been laying their golden eggs for awhile now. OTOH, sites like SportsBook (bet they're hating choosing that name about now) and Bodog, that spread other casino games as well as sports betting, will find themselves having a very hard time should there actually be a ban on prior illegal operators. However I expect most of the smaller sites will, as SP notes above, find a way around the issue by some crafty maneuver like forming a new operation. [/QUOTE]

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