Gambling Bill BRAINSTORM - No Complaining Allowed

[adioking]

You guys may have read my other post where I noted how sick I was of people sitting around and waiting for SOMEBODY ELSE to come up with an idea to save their hides. Well here I am, I'm that somebody else who is going to get something CONSTRUCTIVE started.

I'm opening this thread for the purpose of coming up with ideas that may save our hides (probably not), keep us in business somehow (very possible), and other ideas.

I highly doubt that we will be able to continue doing things as we are, promoting GAMBLING WEBSITES (that accept bets and wagers) in return for commissions. However, I do think that we are able to find a way to keep our current websites online without legal interuption. From what the bill states, as long as we are not promoting GAMBLING (once again, sites that accept bets or wagers), then we are well within our rights (given that also do not give depositting advice).

Brainstorm Idea #1

COMPLETELY STOP PROMOTING GAMBLING SITES.
You may not like it, but if you live in the US, the you MUST stop promoting gambling websites. However, you can promote non-gambling websites which just happen to include sites such as PokerStars.net, PartyPoker.net, AbsolutePoker.net, and many others. I should also let you know that I'm more of a poker promoter than a casino promoter, so if there aren't online casinos that are 100% websites, then you're probably screwed if you don't promote poker sites that have these free .net domains.

Now you must also be thinking that these sites don't pay, simply because they are FREE websites. Well this is another place where you are wrong. Believe it or not, .net websites actually do convert players over to the .com, and larger sites such as Pacific Poker actually track this conversion and pay affiliate revenue on these conversions. Obviously the player conversion is going to be less, but anybody with major traffic can still make a living promoting free poker and free casino sites.

What you should do now

Now that I've begun this thread, I'm going to leave it up to you to do some things. You can a) refute my statement and give evidence in support of your rebuttle or you can b) come up with some other ideas that may actually work and post them here. Good luck everybody and I hope that this thread is the start of a newly recreated industry.

[psmoney]

is poker technically defined as gambling?

[adioking]

Here is something that might help us out in the long haul as well:

http://www.boston.com/business/techn...ie_in_antigua/

If Antiqua wins against the US then we can expect to see some changes to this bill. Can somebody here help me research the details of this WTO case? The US was supposed to allow Antigua based online gambling operations and their deadline was in April. Now that this bill has passed I think that we'll hear more from Antiqua about it, as well as the WTO.

Remember, that this won't be a big deal to the US financially, but the involvement with the WTO is a political monster.

[adioking]

Okay guys, here is something else that we can do for further exposure. I found a post on DIGG.com, which is a huge social networking websites. If enough people DIGG an article, it will get exposure and be placed on the homepage. I wouldn't be surprised if it is some 10,000+ US users.

Here is what I need from you guys:

1) Read the gambling bill article at DIGG: http://digg.com/politics/Internet_Gambling_Bill_Passed
2) Sign up an account at DIGG
3) "DIGG" the article.

If it gets "dugg" over 35 times (already at about 29) then it becomes a very popular article and will receive even more exposure. I also recommend that you sign up two accounts (no more than that) so we can get this thing up there right away. DIGG.com will ban you for more than 2 accounts from what I've heard.

I don't get anything from this, I am just trying to save our asses by gaining our exposure and lobbying against this ruling.

[PPP]

Antigua has already won its case. The US ignored it. If Antigua wins its appeal, the US will ignore that.

"You may not like it, but if you live in the US, the you MUST stop promoting gambling websites."

Why would you come to that conclusion? I do think that paid .net advertising is a good path for people to explore, but unless you are taking money froom a bank the bill didn't impact you. Being a gambling site or taking MGR is still as illegal as it was before.

[adioking]

Thank you for your comments PPP, as well as the criticism. This is precisely what I'm looking for in this thread and I appreciate it as I'm not really one to care about "saving face" as much as I am to make sure we have an accurate story.

Being a gambling site or taking MGR is still as illegal as it was before.

I was unaware that it was "illegal" before. I'm not sure if you are referencing to whether it was illegal before, or that it was not illegal before and is still not illegal. Could you please explain just a little bit more? Thanks!

[themike537]

Taking MGR has always been illegal, but not really enforced.

[DealerDan]

I for one, will be taking a "wait and see" approach, and I think that is the smartest strategy at this time, rather than knee-jerk/impulsive reactions to this.

This bill was passed less than twenty four agos ago. We don't even have clarification(and won't for while) on exactly what it means, or what impact it has on the industry. There is also no public responses as of yet(that I know of) by the people most affected by this bill, that being poker rooms, casinos, bingo halls, Neteller, etc etc.

While I understand your reasoning for the post adio, and I too am not happy at a lot of the negativity being thrown around, and also agree that it is a very good idea to work out contingency plans, I believe it is way to early to start this process yet, as we don't even know what we're planning against.

Just my two cents

[PokerProp]

I agree that right now is a time of wait and see, but I don’t say that as casually as most people have. I believe we need to be prepared to act and am hopeful that some educated parties with vast financial resources, expertise, and strong financial interest in this matter will help guide us in doing so. I’m quite confident that drastic actions are (or will soon be) warranted. What has been done is not right! There are no ands ifs or buts about it. It’s the role of our government to protect our freedom and interests before all else. It is clearly NOT the role of our government to legislate morality!
I might offend some people here by saying this and I’ve remained politically correct or whatever and not mentioned it before: but I strongly (and I mean very strongly) am against gay marriage. At the same time I was strongly against the bill that failed by a rather small margin to outlaw it. This is not our government’s role at all. Personally I believe it should not be legislated at all! Anyways, I bring up this example to say: Even the people who are strongly against online gambling can also be strongly against its legislation. Why? Because it’s not the role of our government to legislate morality. It puts the wrong kind of power into the hands of elected officials. The problem with legislating moral issues is it will always attack the freedoms of some percentage of the population and it plain and simple is NOT RIGHT! Thomas Jefferson told me that I was endowed by my Creator with certain unalienable Rights, which among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
In passing the related legislation the government has placed morality and social issues over the civil liberties our county was founded on.
To me personally this is the straw that has broken the camels back. I am a person who wants very much to believe that our country can still be great but this is only one of many items that needs to be addressed. I do believe that we can get threw to others who still have some ability to think logically for themselves that this legislation is not right! It is a violation of our God given rights that our counties founders declared to be self evident. People need to see this and I believe that even those who might be strongly against online gambling could also be convinced that this legislation is not right!
This will only be the first step. I do not know the best course of action to follow, but I am hopeful that one will present itself soon. I personally remain on watch for it and will be ready to act.

“When so ever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government.” Thomas Jefferson

[SharkScope]

Originally Posted by themike537

Taking MGR has always been illegal, but not really enforced.

MGR has never been illegal by most reasonable assessments. It's performance based advertising revenue, and nothing more - and very little different from CPAs in that repsect. The only suggestion that MGR was illegal is through the very tenuous argument that:

a) online Poker is illegal under the wire act - (a highly dubious assessment - that has already been tested in a lower court and thrown out)

and

b) You could actively prosecute someone for aiding and abeting a)

Sports betting is an entirely different matter as this is clearly covered by the wire act.