It is worth mentioning that this is the second time the two gaming giants move in to discussion for a deal with the former being in 2006 when Labrokes again was in serious talks to acquire 888 but when the deal was blown out with the appearance of the UIGEA.

At the same time UK based Sunday Telegraph reported that the initial offer from Ladbrokes was an approximate of 70 pence per share adding up to 240 million GBP as 888 is said to have 345,429,509 ordinary shares of 0.5 pence each in issue.

At the same time industry rumours confirm that both European facing bwin.com and Sporting Bet have both expressed their willingness to buy the triple 8 firm. However industry voices confirm that if a possible acquisition might come through it will most likely come from the Ladbrokes front as the new administration of the UK facing betting giant which currently focuses mainly on its land based betting establishments I eager to make a strong appearance and comeback to the web.

After the midterm elections in November the legislature of the U.S. is in a transitional period, which means that there will not be many bills, which is why Harry Reid is pushing to pass the law on online poker before the Republicans take the reins; as the specific group are surely not famous for their sympathy towards online poker in a whole.

“We will know for sure by the end of next week whether the online poker will be part of a bill that will pass this time”, said the executive director of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) John Pappas. “Whether it becomes a law or not will be something that we will find out in the coming days”.

The greatest concern, however, for poker players is based on the fact that the senator is supported and influenced by the interests of land based casino owners (mostly in Nevada). The final version of the bill has not been published yet but it is expected to occur within the next few days. However, a version of the bill has already leaked towards the public and it does include provisions that do not look very good for online poker players.

Many existing car room websites that will receive the necessary permits including Full Tilt and PokerStars will probably be allowed to maintain the level of the rake and reward programs but there will be a cost of taxation of 20% on all deposits. This is acceptable but the issue with the bill is that in order to give the time to casinos and new businesses to create their own software and their own websites to strike towards the internet based poker market there will be a delay of full 15-month period in which no online poker room will be legal in the United States,

If the above mentioned bill does pass through professional poker players might find themselves stuck in to a 15-month blackout period which could be disastrous as they will not have the opportunity to earn money by playing poker via the internet and many of them have reported that they would move to different countries in order to continue to play poker online.

“It doesn’t makes sense for the player or the poker industry”, says Pappas. “I do not know why some companies will want to enter an industry decimated and the players have moved to other sites. There will never earn back these individual players. If anyone cares to run an online gaming site they would like to see a far smoother transition”.

Another point of concern is the so-called three-year trial period. The main concept is that the first three years the Americans and non-American players will be divided between them. The American websites will not be allowed to accept non-US citizens and PokerStars, for example, should open a new poker room exclusively for American citizens by the end of that period.

Pappas asks players and members of the PPA to support the bill because if the bill will not pass during this transitional period the majority of Republicans will force a total ban of online poker in the United States.

“There will be obviously parts of the bill that the players will not like and we should push for corrections. Perhaps, we have to push now to pass the bill and then to correct some points. I think the most important is to provide a clear framework and to establish a long-term institutionalized online poker market. There will definitely be Harrah’s on the scene and some new entries in the field perhaps may be Google, Yahoo and even Facebook in addition to the existing companies. There will be a dynamic market with strong consumer protection and competition which will ultimately prove beneficial for the players”, states Papas.

This is an agreement similar to that concluded last year between PartyGaming and the the U.S. government and virtually opens the door for the return of Sportingbet to the online gambling market in the United States when the frame law become active. As part of the settlement U.S. authorities agreed not to bring criminal charges against executives of Sportingbet that accepted bets from U.S. residents before the enactment of Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

“There was a prolonged and quite painful process of negotiations with the Justice Department and we are very pleased by the outcome of discussions”, Stuart Slotnick said recently in an interview given at a popular online gaming portal.

The Feds have accused Ahmad Khawaja and his two firms of accepting to process funds for online poker play for the worlds largest online poker room pokerstars.com licensed in the Isle of Man. The funds had been traced to be linked to overseas banking facilities rumoured to be settled in Cyprus. The popular poker room from its own point of view remains strong behind its position and claims that they are not doing anything wrong as all their business practices are properly licensed and the associated institutions with pokerstars.com follow all relevant protocols for licensing, integrity and fair practices.

“PokerStars does not condone efforts by processors to conceal the nature or purpose of funds used to play online poker,” PokerStars said in a statement. “PokerStars has taken steps to ensure that processors properly disclose the nature of their business to their relevant financial institutions.”

Even after the above case the Feds have stood unable to go directly after the online gaming establishments for reasons that still remain silent but can be understood to be either diplomatic or based on loose tie of an amendment which can back up allegations. As the online gaming industry is expected to be opened soon in the US the above clearly presents a scenario of diplomacy from the US authorities against US facing gaming establishments which can prove to be future tax payers if the UIGEA is amended and revised in the following year.

The Feds once again have proved unable to back up the grey UIGEA and have once again shown that they are unable to stop the online poker from running in the US. It is noteworthy that pokerstars.com is more than likely to continue to run its operation as is today even if the UIGEA is revised and if a French gaming model is introduced as the industry talks about thoughts coming from Uncle Sam’s representatives to block gaming establishments that had continued to accept wagers from US citizens after almighty president Bush thought that he had found the solution to the tax losses coming from online gaming when he introduced the UIGEA in 2006.

The above accusations and prosecutions all lay under the Wire Act of 1964 which has found broadband internet escaping from its paragraphs and gaming companies taking advantage of the lack of clarity of the particular Act. At the same time the US government has realised that a possible strategy of blocking gaming altogether might end up to be very costly in terms of tax losses which is why 5 years have passed and a solution is still being searched for.

More information about the UIGEA

Why US Poker Rooms Cannot be Affected by the UIGEA

The new bill HR 2267 is a proposed legislation that seeks to amend title 31, United States Code, to provide for the licensing of Internet gambling activities by the Secretary of the Treasury, to provide for consumer protections on the Internet, to enforce the tax code, and for other purposes. So lets put down the facts and make it quite simple as this industry is being overwhelmed with too many specialists which in reality don’t know the facts but rush to post news articles and comments on sites and blogs which people read in an attempt to be updated; these so called specialists which in reality are propagandists should start thinking before they post news saying that pokerstars.com might be bought from facebook.com.

The facts

Well said and there’s much more that can add up to the list but for the sake of not becoming too peaky lets focus on the basics. PokerStars.com and Fulltiltpoker.com can simply not be forced out of this market as they partially own it; they are the people that made online poker what it is today and no entity, no bill and no Barney Frank can push them out of the market; anyone placing an embargo towards them is realistically shooting himself in the foot. Although we are not directly affiliated or associated with any of the two above mentioned online poker rooms our guess is that #1 they both prefer for the market to remain closed for the rest of the operators and #2 they don’t really care if it does open and their left out as the tax cut Uncle Sam would be enjoying is just too much of a cost for two poker rooms that have remained tax free for more than 8 consecutive years. The truth is yet to come.

The decision to allow online poker was taken as California suffers from an enormous debt. The California Senate Committee on Gambling hopes that the revenue generated by taxation of the winnings will cover the 20% of the state debt within a period of 5 years. Additionally, the amended rules, will generate a number of jobs, will stop the cash flow to offshore companies and will ensure fairness and security to the online poker players in California.

The Federal law in United States offers the ability to States to decide if they will – or not – authorize online gambling. However, each state must create their own safety frames in order to control and eventually benefit from the cash flow from online poker users. This is exactly what the State of California plans to do as they have realized that they cannot control online gambling.

Advertisements for major poker tournaments such as WSOP are everywhere and the majority of poker rooms online are offering packages through satellites and other tournament structures. Studies, estimate that the Californians spend – only within 2009 – about 300 million USD on poker websites without any benefit to California’s treasury coffins. We should note here that the current debt of California is expected to reach 19.1 billion USD in the first semester of 2011.

Almost four years passed since the law enforcement and now distinct members of the political world started a debate on Senate’s Ways and Means Committee as an effort to reverse the 2006 ban. Congressmen Barney Frank and Jim McDermott are leading the campaign which is based on three main points.

The first one is by permitting online gambling, the federal government and the states can receive over $42 billion by taxation within a 10 years period. The companies will have to pay 2% tax to the federal government and 6% to the state that issued the gambling license. Additionally, taxes will be applied to the players’ winnings who; as Jim McDermott stated: “We are sending a multi-billion dollar industry offshore and underground. As a result, we are making tax criminals of Americans who can’t declare their online winnings to the IRS”.

The second point is the creation of more than 32,000 jobs to the legitimate onshore companies that are involved in internet gambling industry without counting the job openings to the states and to the federal government that will handle issue and monitor the online gambling applications.

The third point is that according to the statistics, the 2006 ban failed to provide a working solution regarding the destination of the funds. According to research firm H2 Gambling Capital, the scale of offshore gambling in the US is right back where it was in 2006, after falling by a third in the immediate wake of the ban, to an expected $6bn this year.

Many online gaming companies that were shut out of the US market eye the opportunity of a come back. London based PartyGaming and 888.com, two of the biggest companies in the world in the area of online gambling have already mobilized towards that opportunity. PartyGaming is in negotiations with brick and mortar casino operators in the US about possible joint ventures, should the laws be relaxed at a federal level or by individual states, and 888.com, too, is “staying close” to the American casino chain Harrah’s.

Sources of information for the following were provided by Wikipedia:

PartyGaming: PartyGaming Plc (LSE: PRTY) is an online gambling company, well known for its online poker room PartyPoker.com and its online casino PartyCasino.com. The company is headquartered in Gibraltar Europe and is quoted on the London Stock Exchange. PartyGaming Plc was founded in 1997 with the launch of Starluck Casino from a successful partnership of Ruth Parasol with Anurag Dikshit. Prior to the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act of 2006 which forced stock listed or stock listed to be online gaming companies from accepting wagers from US tax payers PartyGaming Plc held the world’s largest online poker brand (based on ring game revenue and number of players). Its market share has diminished since then but it remains the fourth largest online poker room in the world and the largest European stand alone online poker room. Read more about Party Gaming on Wikipedia.

888.com: 888 Holdings plc (LSE: 888) is a online gaming company which operates a number of high-profile gambling websites including the popular 888 Casino On Net and 888 Ladies Bingo which is popular in the UK for its services on the web to bingo online. The company was founded in 1997 and is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. It is run from Israel based in Gibraltar and its is London Stock Exchange listed. It has an operating subsidiary, Cassava Enterprises, which is incorporated and operates under the laws of Gibraltar. Brothers Avi and Aaron Shaked owned approximately fifty percent of the parent-company through family trusts. Another pair of brothers, Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak, control approximately eleven percent through a family trust. Read more about 888 on Wikipedia.

Barney Frank: Barney Frank (born March 31, 1940) is the United States House Representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district since 1981. He is a member of the Democratic Party. In 1982, he won his first full term, and he has been re-elected ever since by wide margins. In 1987, he became the second openly gay member of the House of Representatives, and he has become one of the most prominent LGBT politicians in the United States. Frank became the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in 2007 after the Democratic Party won a majority in the House. The committee oversees the entire financial services industry, which includes the securities, insurance, banking, and housing industries. Read More about Barney Frank on Wikipedia.

Jim McDermott: James Adelbert “Jim” McDermott (born December 28, 1936) is the current U.S. Representative for Washington’s 7th Congressional District. The 7th District includes most of Seattle and Vashon Island, and portions of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Tukwila, SeaTac, and Burien. McDermott is a member of the Democratic Party. He serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and is a member of the House Progressive Caucus. He has consistently received strong support from his district, taking 84% of the popular vote in 2008, easily winning against Republican challenger Steve Beren. Read More about Jim Mcdermott on Wikipedia.

Additionally the study presented a total of £700 million paid in taxes by online gaming operators; what this means? Well lets put it this way; the UK has a population of 61 million and the US has a population of 304 million so on a very rough calculation; the U.S government at this current point is missing out on a total of $5.5 billion in tax contribution just because it decided to become the online gaming regulator which would make the difference in giving a great opportunity to underground processing companies to offer their services to opportunists located on and a number of islands which are quite difficult to find on the map.

Since its implementation the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement ACT) has done nothing but harm the overall spirit and health of online gaming as the only accomplishment the great “Act” president Bush has introduced is managing to kick out regulated companies offering state of the art gaming and substitute them with a number of outfits located on jurisdictions which look more like inflatable’s in the ocean which at this stage are running underground businesses which welcome US players on board with absolutely no guarantees of their funds and no payout guarantees what so ever. So yes hurray, they managed to stop online gaming and they also managed to give birth to underground money laundry. So how’s that for the land of opportunity.

The total regulation is proving to be a joke and nothing but that and that’s just why we can only applaud PokerStars which has had the guts to stand up to the “ACT” with a clear policy which in reality can be interpreted to be saying; were not leaving the US market because it don’t make sense to us. Were running a fair business so come and get us if you can.

The whole ACT is got dirty all over it and it’s a gift to players that card rooms like PokerStars or later launched Full Tilt Poker are still operating business in the US despite the introduction of the Bush ACT; therefore offering players a way out from all the dirt operated around the carribbean putting the total reputation of a multi billion industry in stake.

Maybe they don’t read the news , maybe they fail to understand how it all works; but if they did have the dignity to look in to the issue putting aside personal interests they might have realized that the only thing they have accomplished is to create a monster of illegal gaming and illegal processing which will be a major backfire to the economy in the long run with billions of dollars been wired every year overseas to outfits that want to call themselves online gaming operations;

The flip of the coin? PokerStars has established itself as the largest online poker room of the world and Full Tilt Poker as the second; so what’s the chance they will return to be licensed and taxed in the US if the whole ACT gets amended? NONE; Good Thinking!

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The list of criteria we look for before listing a particular site in our pages is rather long in contrast with other sites and at this current time were having difficulties finding respected American casino sites to refer our players too. Please note that the most US Casino sites as they are now called do not accept withdrawals through credit cards as they mostly process withdrawals through direct bank transfer. The online casino sites we list on the site have proved over time to be fair, honest and take the customer in to consideration. The casino sites we have included take measures to avoid compulsive gambling and they do not allow players to make enormous deposits in order to avoid irregularities of gambling behavior or stolen credit card usage by third parties.

You might be wondering why some of the big brands like William Hill Casino and 888 Casino do not accept US players to their site as we have received emails from players asking us why they are discriminating. The reality is that it does not have to with discrimination but with a measure called the UIGEA which was implemented back in 2006 preventing credit card companies from processing payments for wagers made by U.S. residents, companies listed on stock markets have therefore backed out of the US market as they could not be in conflict with banking institutions or the U.S government altogether. Please note that it is not illegal for a player to engage in playing at a site that accepts deposits from U.S residents. The detailed explanation of this measure can be found at our US poker rooms section.

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Our US players should be advised not to take in consideration rumors saying that it is illegal for them to play at online poker sites, online casino sites or online gaming sites altogether. The fact is that the majority of online gaming sites are licensed and taxed elsewhere from the United States as Uncle Sam seems to be the greediest of all, which means that wagers, deposits and withdrawals processed at online gaming sites are 100% tax free for US players. The US senate decided to prevent the tax loss by implementing measures saying that online gaming sites are not any more allowed to accept wagers from US tax payers. Although the UIGEA or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 is as stated above, the media have been influenced to present it to players that they are not allowed to make wagers at US Poker Rooms and that it is illegal for them to play as of the UIGEA implantation.

It is not illegal for a US tax payer to play at US Poker Rooms, but nevertheless his participation might not be welcomed by some sites which have decided to go with the UIGEA. There is still a number of US Poker Rooms and casino sites that have decided not to go with the UIGEA and they still accept wagers from the USA. The only difference is that you might have problems using your credit cards to deposit as most reputable US banks have blocked transactions from these operators. The sites that still welcome US players have adopted the use of electronic wallets like Neteller, Ukash or Money Bookers.

The 2 largest poker rooms, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars continue to be US Poker Rooms and our players can sign up to fulltiltpoker.com through our exclusive Full Tilt Poker Referral Code. Players that are seeking out for a relatively smaller online poker community can seek out to Cake Poker and Ultimate Bet. We are on the go of managing to acquire competitive bonuses for more US poker rooms so we will be soon able to refer our player to more rooms accepting US players.

The UIGEA was in reality an opportunity for non listed poker rooms to accept the risk and strengthen their position in the online poker industry in contrary to other stock listed companies that were in a way enforced to disrupt the flow of wagers from US players to secure their future as stock listed companies. The UIGEA does not in any situation make the player liable for participating or wagering at an online poker or online gaming site but on the contrary makes the site liable for accepting wagers from you as a player. The UIGEA has not been clearly stated till this day, therefore making operators reluctant to interrupt operations regarding accepting wagers from US players. Nevertheless by participating on online gaming you can be violating state or tribal law so we would recommend that you look at your local laws to determine if online gaming is permitted.

The UIGEA had many online poker players asking themselves if they are not allowed to play any more. The government releases painted the picture in a way that US players are not allowed to play any more. The law says that US banks are the ones that are not allowed to accept transactions between their customers and the online gaming or gambling operators, which basically means that if your bank does allows you to make the transaction its there responsibility. You can also consider using electronic wallets like Neteller, MoneyBookers or UKash at all the site listed above if you feel that you dont want to go in to the hassle of trying to use your credit card. The U.S. poker rooms include Players Only Poker, Carbon Poker, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Bodog Poker, Doyles Room, UltimateBet Poker and Absolute Poker.