Poker News

An American congressman has compared poker players to drug addicts in a key debate about the future of the online game.

Alabama Republican Spencer Bachus claimed poker was not a game of skill and told the The House Financial Services Committee 'young people' would get lured into becoming addicts in their bedrooms.

He told the hearing, which is considering HR2267 – a bill which would regulate online poker and gambling: “If we told our young people not to smoke or drink and then put those items in their rooms, we'd be sending a mixed message.

“We should not put casinos in every dorm room."

It is not the first time Bachus, who himself made up to $50,000 gambling that the stock market would plunge during the financial crisis of 2007 - has compared online poker to drug addiction.

In may he told ABC news “internet poker is the crack cocaine of gambling” and in 2006 he went further, claiming there was a “correlation between drug dealers and gambling sites.”

The hearing was called by committee chair Barney Frank, who believes all forms of online gambling should be regulated and taxed by the Federal Government.

His bill, also called the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, would see online poker again made legal in the United States.

Poker pro Annie Duke appeared on behalf of the Poker Players Alliance – a body demanding the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which was passed in 2006 – be overturned.

She said: “This Committee and this Congress should not tolerate laws that seek to prevent responsible adults from playing a game we find stimulating, challenging and entertaining.

“H.R. 2267 provides this freedom in a safe and regulated environment and I urge everyone on this Committee to support this common sense policy.

“However you might feel about gambling on the Internet, I would suggest that gambling with freedom is far more risky."

She added: “At its most basic level, the issue before this committee is personal freedom, the right of individual Americans to do what they want in the privacy of their homes without the intrusion of the government.”

Asked about the risk of underage players becoming addicted, Duke pointed out that many countries – including the UK – regulate online poker very effectively, demanding more evidence of age verification than most US land-based casinos.

Frank added that to ban all activity to protect children was illogical.

“You can protect children, but this is not a protection of children,” he said. “This is a ban on all activity.

“The poor children here are being used here by the people who don’t like gambling.

“It is the death of freedom if you say that because some minority of adults will abuse something, you prohibit it.”

It has been claimed that regulating online gambling could generate as much as $72 billion in taxes and create 60,000 US jobs in the next decade.

The bill is expected to be brought back before the committee for a mark-up and vote before the end of August. If successful, the legislation would then go to the full House of Representatives.