This past friday (April 15th 20111) the US government has raided the online poker giants Pokerstars,FullTilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, and Absolute Poker, you can see the seal's at NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE and NOTICE

The FBI is filing a 3 Billion dollar civil suit against these websites for Money Laundering and Fraud, saying that they tricked the payment processors, saying the money being transferred was for purchasing jewelry,golf balls, t-shirts, ect.

I've played online poker for a few years, and while I have bought T-shirts from them(using points obtained for being a Frequent Player) I have also requested many bank wires and checks from there, and have always received them with the title "Pokerstars" I will be surprised if this fraud charge really sticks.

However why is Internet Poker illegal? Do I not have the right as a consenting adult to play a game of skill with other people, I can play a game such as Bejewelled for money, and it is perfectly legal, I can play Freecell, Solitaire, and tons of other games for money, literally I can put my $5 against someone elses online and the winner gets the pot. But not internet poker.

Please do not use things such as "Cheating, Collusion, Bots" as for reasons to not allow Online poker, these things are easily defeated, and I would happy to spell out why they are not significant(and in some cases actually better than live poker) Also compulsive gambling isnt very effective either, as websites have deposit limits, transfer limits and even loss limits before you can lock yourself out of playing for a period of time.