That's right folks, you very well may be finished playing online poker for a while. The British money transfer co.  NETeller has closed it's virtual doors to ALL American poker business. The two founders of the company, Canadians  Stephan Lawrence, and John Lefebvre, have been charged with conspiracy to transfer funds with the intent to promote illegal gambling. They could both be sentenced to 20 years of prison under the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006".

   The law, that passed both the House and Congress, and was signed by Pres. Bush, was enacted as part of Homeland security, and was designed to make it illegal for credit card companies to collect payments for bets. The law did not make playing online poker illegal, that jurisdiction is still held by the individual states, but this is going to make playing legally extremely difficult.

  When the law first came in to being, most of the publicly traded poker sites immediately pulled out of the American market. A few "Privately Held" companies (  FullTiltPoker,  BODOG,  among others ) still offered their services, but many were holding their collective breath until the full scope of the law came into fruition. Well, the shoe has dropped.

   If you are one of the millions of Americans who have accounts at these sites, you should have already received notification that your funds are safe. FullTilt is suggesting alternative avenues if you wish to withdraw your money. Click2Pay, and ePassporte are two that they are working with to aid your transactions.

   MY TAKE:     This has been a while in the making, and it's not going away anytime soon. As my friend ShooterB so eloquently stated, this is a BILLION $$ a year business, and 'Ol Uncle Sam just wants to get his "Fair Share". The U.S. has been in the gambling game for many years now,.IE:  taxing the Casinos and the ever popular Lootery.... I mean Lottery... They want to put a hold on all this money, until they can figure a good way to get it to siphon through them, and therefore be able to peel off their piece. So..... you  I-Net Poker junkies will have to wait a couple months/ years before you can get your gambling fix.

Me.... I'm going where "Real Poker" has always been.... in the Casinos, and in the backrooms and alleys around this great land..... Live and In Color!!

Like always... that's my story.................

special thanx to....... FullTiltPoker / Bluff Magazine / Casino City Times / ShooterB / and the Future X