Online Poker Regulation and Legalization

Online poker continues in its popularity around the globe. Almost every country has players that are involved in poker in one form or another. I think we all understand that this was inevitable even before Chris Moneymaker won the big one in 2003. Even before online poker came to the fore there was still a budding online gambling community ready for a serious growth spurt as early as 2000. Since then all of us have heard the various situations facing online poker players around the globe.

Some of these countries have found reasonable ways to tax and regulate online gaming, poker included, into their revenue streams. This allows the players to be happy and be taxed on their earnings while not being prohibited from playing as well as the state to establish a revenue stream. I must admit that I thought other countries would follow suite once they saw how successful their neighbors were in implementing regulation. Now, several years later, with several countries dealing with lost revenue and varying levels of recession they still do not seem to get it. To me it's a no brainer. The poker industry and those that own and operate online poker rooms have been saying for years that they have no problems paying taxes to the proper authorities in the location in which players live.

What part of that is so hard to understand?

To simply deny players the opportunity to play the game in the comfort of their own homes wreaks of foolishness and a lack of understanding of what the game of poker is all about. Let's hope that the PPA and other organizations that lobby for poker players around the world continue to help change that. It can't be soon enough.