by Hillary LaClair, Senior Editor
December 2, 2008
The Chicago Tribune recently hosted a panel discussion which posed the question, “What would you like an Obama presidency to mean for Chicago?” A rather progressive response from sports columnist Steve Rosenbloom, left his editors speechless. Rosenbloom called for a repeal of the UIGEA.
“I want out Poker Player-elect to obliterate the unworkable Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which was deviously attached to the SAFE Port Act in 2006 and hastily rushed to finalization last week by the lame-duck Bush administration,” said Rosenbloom in an article for the Tribune. In response to the criminalization of online poker rooms, he opined, “Regulate it, tax it, reap millions. Governments back lotteries, which prey on the stupid. Why should people playing a game of skill such as poker get the criminal treatment?”
Poker News Daily sought a response from Rosenbloom, who told them, “What [Bill Frist] did was despicable. There was no way that the SAFE Port Act would not have passed. I think it’s very short-sided. You are denying the opportunity for the country to help solve some of its financial problems if you regulate it, license it, and tax it.”
The topic of online poker is not one commonly featured in U.S. news outlets, save last Sunday’s ’60 Minutes’ segment on the infamous “superuser” scandals. Typically, the topic of legalizing internet gambling is found on poker-related websites. Following the recent “midnight drop” of the UIGEA, poker advocates everywhere are in an uproar.
Rosenbloom has hoped if the call for internet gambling’s regulation came from a more commonly used news source, the Obama administration may be more likely to reconsider the UIGEA’s enforcement when he takes office. “I knew if the call to regulate internet gambling came from some place other than a poker website, it might carry a little bit more weight,” he explained.
A common argument for online poker’s regulation is that poker is more a game of skill than it is a game of chance. The Poker Players Alliance, a non-profit organization one million members strong, has been lobbying for this definition of the game and to distance it from online casinos and sports betting.
According to Rosenbloom, “Every game or sport has an element of luck. A ball can bounce off the ground with a certain way in baseball. If you can take something like a lottery and say that it’s legal, then you can certainly have a game with a lot more skill like poker that would also qualify.”
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