Refusing to Fold, Online Poker Players Bet on Prohibition Repeal
WASHINGTON — Anyone who thinks poker isn’t a game of skill should see Boy Wonder playing Texas hold ‘em online from his D.C. apartment. The 24-year-old sharp starts with six tables. Then eight, then 11. He folds. He checks. He raises. New windows pop up on his monitor like whack-a-moles. Boy Wonder doesn’t even break a sweat. This is a job to him.
Well, it was a job. Last Monday, he laid down his poker career to become an internet consultant. His roommate, Johnny CIA, had already done the same thing. They’re hardly alone. A law passed last September by Congress outlawing financial transactions between online casinos and American banks and credit card companies has had a profound effect on the poker players in the United States. In less than a year, according to players and industry insiders, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has pushed online poker into the shadows and saddled a national pastime with a prohibition-like status that many compare to the booze ban in the 1920s.
“There was mass panic when the legislation came out,” says Boy Wonder, who asked to be identified only by his screen name because he fears the IRS might target him. “(The Act) scared away the novice.”
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