More shocked and digusted by the day

[Control-Z]

I was not unaware but I hadn't been to HollywoodPoker.com for a while so I just wasn't prepared for the notice I got when I signed onto my account:

'Important Advisory for U.S. Players

The President of the United States has signed new legislation that will cause HollywoodPoker to suspend accepting deposits from U.S. players and examine potential offerings to U.S. players that would be within the new law. Normal play will continue for approximately 30 days while we monitor any new developments surrounding this new legislation. During this time you will continue to have the ability to access your account as well as play HollywoodPoker games as you normally would, with the exception of making deposits and exchanging Poker Points for Cash or Bonuses. U.S. Free money play will not be affected.

All Non-U.S. players will not be affected. They will be able to access poker, Blackjack and soon to be launched casino and slot games, including progressive slots!'

I can't believe it. I'd heard but...fuck, I still don't believe this is happening. Where is my America? How dare that asswipe tell me how I can spend my money?


Please help by signing the online petition:


http://www.petitiononline.com/LOGNOW/petition.html

[sam sarrha]

1. gambling is addictive as using a needle and harder to quit... it needs controls

those sites are predatory.. i have been in AA for 25 years and i have heard over and over while in Tahoe that gambling was much worse than alconol... i lost half my life to alcohol.

if you cant give up gambling for any period of time.. get help

sorry but i have seen people destroyed by this shit... and when you realize you have a problem it is WAY WAY TOOOOOOO LATE.. there are other things to do that are a lot more fun and not dangerous

gambling is very dangerous and has no positive return, like a better education, a real skill,

[ktlyon]

2. I personally don't understand the fun in losing a bunch of money

but I think gambling should be legal. What I appose is government gambling, like lotteries. Lotteries and scratch-offs are OK but the states should only regulate not participate.

[Control-Z]

7. There is a lot amount of money

spent on state lotteries. Some people buy their tickets every week, religiously. Of course, that's not "real" gambling so it doesn't count.

[Tyler Durden]

3. You may be right, but it's not your call.

I can't get out of the actuarial group that includes Skydivers, extreme skiers, snowmobilers and 4-wheel RV'ers or motorcycle riders: they call that "freedom of expression" also.

[lapfog_1]

4. Thanks, mom...

Really, it's all about choice. Some people can't handle gambling, I've known a few (I play poker for recreation and money), some can't handle alcohol, some can't handle, well, just about anything. But we should not protect adults from themselves... if their lives are ruined, we need to provide them information and help... but we shouldn't tell them that they can't do something "for their own good". We tried that with prohibition, which led to the explosive growth of organized crime, we do it today with many drugs, many of which are illegal, while more addictive and damaging drugs (like, say, nicotine) are perfectly legal.

If you want to regulate gambling (to make sure the games are fair) or tax it (sin taxes are SOOOO popular), fine... but to ban something because YOU think its bad for ME (or others) to do is simply wrong.

I play poker, I play it pretty well, and I make a small amount of money from it (I don't play very often, maybe once a month). I used to make more... but it's physically hard on me to sit at a poker table in a casino for the required hours. Playing from my laptop while I'm also watching TV and answering emails from work and doing a little DU'ing on the side was a great way to spend an evening, all from the comfort of my home. I cashed out my partypoker account before the legislation was signed and haven't played online seriously since (I have $28,000,000 in my play money account, which started at $100,000... but it's simply not as fun as making money I could spend, even if it was only a few hundred dollars).

[Control-Z]

9. I love to play poker

but haven't had a chance to play a real game in more than 7 years. It's amazing how long I can play on a hundred dollars in Vegas. It's a leisurely, social game to me. I spend less in three days at poker than I do at the movies and dinner with the family. And that's if I lose. I really enjoyed going online once or twice a year to play. Sigh. Play money just isn't that much fun.

[MH1]

16. It's not all about choice. It is about the exploitation of individuals for profit.

Usually by groups (institutions - i.e. corporations) but not necessarily, I think.

WHY do you think anyone runs a gambling establishment of any sort. TO MAKE MONEY. Off of people who for one reason or other cannot inhibit the urge to give their money away for someone else's profit. (About as moral as Sam Fox's donations to the SBVT when you think about it - you have no idea how that profit will be used.)

The question is - and I agree it is a question on which reasonable people may disagree - is what role, if any, should the government have in preventing or limiting such exploitation?

I confess I go back and forth on the answer to that myself. But, of all the things we have to worry about these days, it's WAY down on my list.

At the risk of offending someone, I would say that if you look at the world today, and one of your top concerns is whether or not the government is stopping you from gambling, then I would suggest you consider whether you have an addiction. Of course, you might see it as another intrusion of government in our lives, and therefore something to fight on those grounds, but I would suggest there are many, many other intrusions that are far more harmful, and more likely to be righted by your efforts, than restrictions on gambling.

[Control-Z]

5. I guess alcohol should

be outlawed then. Coffee and tea, for that matter. Caffeine gets people all stressed out, you know. And let us not forget tobacco and pornography. Talk about dangerous.

Gambling is not evil just because a few people have problems with it. Some of us spend less than $100.00 a year on gambling and get great enjoyment out of it. How can you say there is no positive return? Possibly not for you but for others there is.

I'm sorry you have a problem with alcohol. I can see how that would color your view. But is it the government's job to save you from yourself?

[Clark2008]

6. What does that have to do with the OP?

The OP says he/she hasn't been to the site in a long time - therefore, I would suspect he/she isn't addicted.

The point is that the OP wants to spend some entertainment money in a manner he/she sees fit to spend his/her OWN MONEY and Bush says, "No. You can't."

How soon before we're told we can't download music that Bush deems inappropriate?

I don't think the OP needs a lecture on gambling. Yes, it can be destructive and I'm not arguing that - but I, personally, don't want the US to turn into a Nanny State (although, it already is to a certain degree).

[trumad]

8. Excellent slap down guys---up above.

it is all about choice.

[sam sarrha]

10. so they why isn't Heroin legal.. meth.. some C4.. hand grenades, RPG's

[pretzel4gore]

14. fascism (arbitrary authority) has warped your pov...

actually, that's the worst problem with fascism ...and there's no debating fascists re anus coulter/limbah-humbug/j gibson/woof blitzer/cnn/nytimes etc ad nazism....

[Control-Z]

12. Thanks, Clark2008

for your observation. You are right. I haven't tried to sign on for more than 6 months - possibly a year. No addiction that I know of. But I was beginning to feel a little immoral there for a moment.

This isn't about gambling. It is about freedom of choice. There were all these countries listed on the websites whose citizens could play. America wasn't included on any of them. The drop down boxes didn't even list us.

This is what the Bush administration has done to us. It frightens me, what is happening.

[Bill McBlueState]

13. it's not just Bush, of course

This is legislation, so it was voted into law by both houses of Congress as well. That doesn't mean it's a good idea, just that some awareness of the Constitutional process might help people to focus their anger more appropriately.

[Toots]

19. To be fair Bush* doesn't legislate

He signed the law but it was created by Congress..

[baldguy]

15. They said the same thing about alcohol.

And we've how well banning that worked. And the War on Drugs has been such a great success.

Now gambling. Next porn?

[JackDragna]

18. Poker isn't gambling.

Over repeated games, good poker players beat bad ones. It isn't like a slot machine or blackjack, which will slowly take your money over time due to house advantage. There's an element of chance in poker, but the skill of bluffing and knowing the odds can manipulate chance to your advantage. Why is it that this huge poker "problem" isn't so much of a problem in other industrialized, internet-capable nations? Because, as with alcohol and other social vices, they don't seek to nanny-state their populations, thereby preventing said thing from becoming this taboo forbidden fruit. I'm tired of the frigging fascists in this country who constantly tell me they want to "limit government" in my life, then seek new ways of putting the boot to me.

[cgrindley]

11. All gambling should be illegal

including lotteries, church raffles etc. It's a huge societal problem. One no one should have to tolerate.

[Terri S]

17. that's IT!!

Decent society has been brought down by... BINGO!! Someone should have taken my little Italian grandmother and her blue-haired lady friends from the bingo hall in leg-irons, I tell you.. leg-irons!!!

(do I need the sarcasm emoti here?) ;)