I just contacted the online campaigns of John Edwards, John McCain, Dennis Kucinich, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ron Paul, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney to find out two things: (1) Whether they play poker (I already know that Barack plays - see here); (2) What their views are on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) preventing banks and other financial institutions from allowing people to use funds to pay for online gambling.  I’ll be surprised if anyone gets back to me.  My prediction is that Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul will be most opposed to the Act.  Stay tuned.

When police begin to go after people playing low-stakes poker in VFW posts you know something’s going crazy. It’s apparently illegal in Texas for the house to make money off of a poker game, even if the money is being used for a charity. Keep in mind that it’s not illegal for the state of Texas to take a cut of lottery proceeds. Hmmm, something doesn’t seem too consistent about this.

Poker, the game played by Mark Twain, George Bush, members of the Supreme Court, is apparently destroying the fabric of this great nation. Watch the video and see for yourself the problems that cops face viz a viz people who play poker in “illegal” gambling rooms. Drew Carey does a nice job narrating.

Neteller used to provide payment services to online gambling Web sites.  I used the company to transfer money in and out of online poker rooms.   After the American government cracked down on online poker and Neteller’s two founders were arrested, Neteller stopped dealing with online poker rooms.  They also froze the deposits of American players, which meant that they had about $300 of my hard-earned money.  And I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see this money again.    

Today I found out two interesting things about Neteller. 

First, Stephen Lawrence, one of the co-founders of the company, pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy.  And he agreed that he is partly responsible for the 100 million dollars that the goverment is seeking in restitution.  [I'm not sure what this restitution is for.]  It’s not clear whether he will serve any time in jail. 

Second, there is some reason to believe that I will eventually be able to withdraw MY money from Neteller.  Neteller says that it has developed a distribution plan to return US member’s money.   It is not decided when this distribution plan will be implemented.  But according to Neteller’s website, it may occur no later than July 13th.  When it does occur there will be 180 day period for poker players to make their request for the return of funds. 

I feel sorry for what happened to Lawrence.  I think he’s gotten a raw deal.   Neteller wasn’t placing any bets.  They were just being middlemen for something that should be legal.  I’m hopeful that I’ll see my money again.