Las Vegas Casinos: Legalization of Online Poker

It's been four long months since the United States government and F.B.I agents successfully shut down some of the largest online poker rooms from operating in the U.S. in what has been called the "Black Friday" crackdown. Three of the more popular offshore poker rooms; Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker ceased operations on U.S. soil back in April when the F.B.I seized their domain names and abruptly stopped millions of Americans from enjoying poker in the comfort of their own homes. As expected, reports from Las Vegas casinos are stating that the countries largest land-based casinos are now pushing hard for legalization.

Nearly a dozen persons connected to the three largest online poker rooms are facing charges of bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling with billions of dollars in penalties since the Black Friday crackdown which has the left the door open for Vegas casinos to push for the legalization of online poker and sports betting on U.S. soil. Similar to prohibition, the U.S. government has not made online gambling an illegal activity for its citizens but has kept American companies such as Caesars and MGM Mirage from providing the online entertainment services. Steve Wynn, who was been credited with reviving and developing many Las Vegas casinos, has been an advocate for legalization of online poker rooms and even threatened to move his operations to Macau.

Wynn is not alone in his fight to allow online poker on U.S. soil as senior United States Senator from Nevada Harry Reid and Massachusetts U.S representative Barney Frank have been pushing Washington to legalize the entertainment industry for quite some time. In a country that is already on the brink of financial disaster that continues to fall deeper into debt, many states have also been lobbying to allow online poker in their districts which would add millions of dollars in revenue. States such as California are drawing up bills to be presented in the Senate that would allow American Indian tribes to operate online poker rooms which could return nearly a $1-billion dollars in revenue to the state. That being said, entertainment companies such as Bodog continue to offer a safe haven for playing online poker in the U.S. under a license from the Kahnawake gaming commission.