Minnesota Tries Online Poker Ban Trick
Written by RogerCP | Monday, May 4th, 2009
It seems that different state politicians in the US don’t bother reading news that happens over their own borders. If they did, politicians in Minnesota, for example, would note that Kentucky’s attempts to seize the domain names of scores of online gambling sites led to nowhere, except a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.
The Minnesota Department for Public Safety would also see, for example, that taking sudden, dramatic steps to try and curtail online poker playing will simply lead to nothing.
However, Minnesota seems hell bent on ‘protecting’ its residents from the evils of online poker and recently issued a warning to over ten ISP’s and telephone companies to block the access of residents to over 200 sites.
“Attached is a list of online gambling sites and telephone numbers that are available to your Minnesota customers,” read the letter sent to companies such as ComCast and Verizon. “This gambling is illegal within Minnesota. The federal statute requires upon notice by a law enforcement agency (our division is a state law enforcement agency) that you do not allow your systems to be used for the transmission of gambling information. We are therefore requesting these enterprises not be allowed to transmit gambling information to your Minnesota customers.”
The Minnesota government’s decision is completely irrational, for a number of reasons. It is clear from the list that the department has no clue about what it is doing. Sites such as PokerStars, which proudly markets to US players, as well as the controversial Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker sites, did not appear on the list. However, sites such as Party Poker and Titan Poker, which have a self inflicted policy of blocking US players, actually do appear on the list!
According to the Chairman of iMEGA, Joe Brennan, there is no Federal law – or Minnesota law for that matter – which makes it illegal to play at any of the sites listed in the letter sent to the ISPs and telephone companies.
Brennan also blasted the state’s comments regarding its plans to extend its ‘program’ to incorporate thousands of other sites.
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· Written by RogerCP · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
