Nov 08
This just in… The UIGEA is really, really stupid.
Anyways, anyone interested in this sort of thing should listen to Barry Greenstein’s audio blog from last week where he talks about the Poker Players Alliance trip to Washington D.C. This is probably the first piece of good news on the issue in quite a while. And although Greenstein’s timeframe estimates are probably a bit optimistic it’s nice to know that the wheels are turning here… even if they are turning very, very slowly.
The most interesting tidbit to me was when Barry mentioned that the European Union is now threatening hundreds of millions of dollars in sanctions against the US for violating international fair trade agreements. I hadn’t really thought about it before but I guess it does make sense. The UIGEA is severely restricting the access of American citizens to foreign websites and businesses. It’s hard to think of this as anything but a no-brainer (-100s of millions of dollars in sanctions vs +1 BILLION dollars in tax revenue… oh, not to mention the millions of Americans who currently hate their government just a little bit more). It is bizarrely hopeful to think that while Congress refuses to listen to the opinions of their citizens, they will be forced to listen to the opinions of foreign business interests.