Ban This

I'm not impressed. With the legislative perversion of Bill Fucking Frist. With the immediate and total capitulation of PartyGaming and others. With the Land of the Free saying it's okay to subjugate simple human rights in the nebulous War on Terror while simultaneously removing personal choice.

I'm worked up, but I also firmly believe, in the end, we'll all be back on the online poker horse in an environment reasonably similar to the one we previously enjoyed. Why? Because if you take something away from people, something they love and crave, they will find a way to get it back. War on Drugs? I can get seven kinds of drugs in the next five minutes if I want. Free downloads of music and movies? What happened when the Jackboots shut down Napster? Dozens of other options sprung up almost overnight. Some of you are probably Bit Torrenting your ass off right now. Prohibition? That worked well. I'm certain there is an army of computer geeks and poker afficianados hard at work right now finding a simple work-around. And the people who desire to continue to play poker will have the means to do so almost entirely without fear of reprisal because how the hell can this ban be enforced? Once the shock wears off, the major sites will turn their collective heads and embrace a "see no evil, hear no evil" policy as they accept deposits from my Tijuana PO Box (Donde esta el banque?) while ignoring my US ISP.

It's all so stupid. Not just for the backdoor Frist Fucking, for the hyperbolic societal effects of online gaming, for the political shenanigans and campaign pandering. But because online gaming should be seen as an OPPORTUNITY for the government. An opportunity to get their hands on a ton of tax revenue, while also addressing some of their stated concerns (some of which contain a modicum of validity). I wrote about it almost 18 months ago here.

Now, some of that is past it's "sell by" date thanks to this perfect storm of hysteria, politics and apathy, but that was a solution. What happened over the weeekend is not.

We're in for interesting days. As I watch the tumblers to fall, one thing's for certain: I'm not cashing out and running just yet. I'm gonna gamble a little.