3 Solutions to Facilitate Legalized Online Poker (part 1 of 2)

One of the many problems facing proponents of an Online Poker industry that is both legalized and regulated is that they are approaching the issue from a poker professional’s point of view. And if poker teaches you anything it’s that you must strive to think like your opponent in order to understand their mind-set and calculate their next move.

The main arguments being brought to the table are incredibly sound:

• Poker is a game of skill
• Prohibition is ineffective
• Poker would generate a huge flow of revenue

Now ask yourself this: If the arguments are sound, why are they falling on so many deaf ears? It has to do with looking at it from a casual poker player’s point of view, or someone who doesn’t play poker.

The game of skill argument

Serious poker players know this to be true, but we also know that poker will never be equated to a game like chess where all the information is known. Because of this, casual and non-players see the luck in the game, so this argument is BS in their mind.

Prohibition is ineffective

Yes, there are a few more hoops that Online Poker players have to jump through to deposit and withdraw their money, but at the moment virtually anyone can fund an Online Poker account if they really want to. However, it’s these extra hoops that make a casual player, and opponents of Online Poker think prohibiting Online Poker has been effective. Of course they don’t understand that they are only prohibiting casual players who would be risking $50 or $100 from playing Online Poker: Because serious players will still find a way around any prohibition, as will the legitimate gambling addicts.

Increased revenue

The problem with the revenue argument is that when a country is trillions of dollars in debt an extra $4 billion from the online gaming industry each year isn’t going to solve the problem. Furthermore, the sheer size of the numbers –$8 Trillion, $42 billion over 10 years, and so on-makes them all too abstract for people to wrap their heads around.

Other factors

Beside the problems with opponents of Online Poker not seeing our side of the argument, proponents of legalizing Online Poker must also deal with the cheating, money laundering, and underage gambling allegations that always seem to dominate the debate. You can make all the sense in the world, but if people see even a few examples of Online Poker destroying families or more cheating scandals come to light the battle to legalize the industry will be sunk. Unfortunately most people make decisions based on emotions and not on logic, any good salesman could tell you that.

In part 2 of this series I will suggest three specific ways Online Poker sites could help alleviate any concerns people may have, and get the ball rolling in their effort to get Online Poker legalized in the US. Frankly, if the Online Poker sites think they will simply be legalized and regulated as is they are sorely mistaken. There will have to be quite a bit of compromise before legalized Online Poker is a reality in the US.