FBI Releases Comments on Online Poker
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009Spencer Bachus (R-AL) of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee read a letter in the last month of November 2009 that stated online poker games could be compromised.
The letter was dated November 13th was from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cybercrime division and put forth six questions that the FBI thought should be addressed when dealing with online poker.
The first assault on the casinos was one of technology. The letter states that technology exists that would allow a team of 3 or 4 to exploit the other players and consistently win the game. For those in the poker playing community, this is known as collusion. And all of the major sites have mechanisms in place to prevent collusion. But that’s beside the point.
The letter goes on.
Bachus reiterated other points in the letter such as age verification requirements, money laundering possibilities, and poker “bots” that would play the game for other players.
The PPA took a look at these arguments and took a novel route of argument of its own. Instead of arguing point by point for against the various allegations in the letter, the PPA instead insisted that such allegations are the reasons that online poker needs to be regulated in the first place, not outlawed.
Their reasoning is that even with prohibition, dedicated players will find a way to play. Why repeat the same problems that existed with alcohol prohibition when we can learn from the past and avoid the problems altogether?