Top U.S. poker playing star Howard "The Professor" Lederer
came out with guns blazing this week in an article condemning the
House of Representatives vote against online gambling.
In an excellent guest article in the New York Daily News, Lederer
says that the machinations of Washington politics defeat him most
of the time, but it is clear that effectively banning certain forms
of online gambling - in particular online poker - is a terrible idea.
Lederer writes that Bill HR4411 offends common sense by trying to
ban something that is enjoyed by millions of Americans and is legal
in other forms.
"And it is as hypocritical a piece of legislation as Washington
has produced in a long time. That's saying a lot," he avers.
"Get this. While the sponsors of the bill call it a "prohibition,"
the legislation actually clears a path for certain favored types of
Internet gambling. For example, the bill affirmatively legalizes online
bets on horse races, Internet state lotteries and certain fantasy
sports.
"I am baffled at how the House can protect online activities
like lotteries and betting on horses while sweeping a skill game like
poker into the net of prohibition."
Explaining his reasoning, Lederer says that live or online, the game
of poker demands a keen understanding of mathematics, basic human
psychology and the ability to use experience and skill to think quickly
in innumerable situations.
On the other hand, lotteries, which the bill protects, require merely
that someone has to get lucky. "The only reason to protect lotteries
is because they generate tax income through regulation. In that case,
I can only hope that Congress will consider licensing, regulating
and taxing online poker in the United States," says the poker
pro.
Lederer also addresses the political view that the Bill should be
supported as a rebuke to the work of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff,
who lobbied against and helped defeat a previous attempt to ban online
gambling.
"But here is one of those 'only in Washington' moments,"
he writes: "The bill contains the exact same exemption for state
lotteries that Abramoff was fighting for on behalf of his client.
The House has passed precisely the bill Abramoff wanted."
Lederer goes on to quote statistics from an analysis conducted by
the nonprofit Poker Players Alliance showing that regulation of online
poker could raise more than $3.3 billion in annual revenue for the
federal government and an additional $1 billion for state coffers.
He ends with the sage observation that: "Poker should not be
a casualty of a misguided attempt to prohibit an activity that should
simply be regulated."