Recent reports by certain online
gambling websites have claimed that online poker may possibly be exempted in the
future from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. However, Jeff
Simpson, a reporter from the Las Vegas Sun who recently talked with the
president of the American Gaming Association, Frank Fahrenkopf, found out that
is no where near the truth.Fahrenkopf told Simpson
that "they don't have a chance in hell," to get a poker exemption from the new
UIGEA. He was speaking of the Poker Player Alliance's optimism following the
Alliance president, Michael Bolcerek's, statement that he had a meeting with
officials in Key West, Florida resulting in the officials understanding the
legitimacy of poker as a game of skill.
According to Fahrenkopf the American Gaming Association is
pushing for a study to discover if the online gaming industry has the technology
available to keep problem gambling at a minimum and to keep underage curiosity
seekers out of the industry. However, Fahrenkopf believes that even if the
industry does have the technology the legalization of online gambling is still
not inevitable. He believes that the tax rates that individual states would put
on Internet gambling sites would be too high for any to be able to take
advantage of.