On October 30, 2007, Poker News ran a story that included this:
On a popular internet forum, Greenstein posted the following:
"I'm sure it will be less than 6 months before Congress realizes that they
need to pass legislation contrary to the UIEGA. If it hasn't already happened,
it will happen in a few weeks. I don't know how slow the process is and how much
debate there will be as to whether there is a different approach that should be
taken than the Frank and Wexler bills."
Greenstein expanded on this incredible news on a recent "The Poker Road"
show, where he explained what he witnessed during his trip."We met with
politicians and I can tell people that I am very confident that online poker is
going to be back strong, legal; use credit cards, bank accounts, it would really
shock me if it wasn't within the next six months."
(Full Poker News story is here: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2007/10/barry-greenstein-online-poker-to-fully-return.htm.)
When I read that I thought, Barry Greenstein may be a fine poker player, but in terms of politics, the man is completely delusional. I think he got bluffed by a bunch of politicians who are highly experienced at sensing just what constituents want to hear and saying those things, wave good-bye, and then do nothing--or even do the opposite of what they had promised.
There was just no way that Congress was going to reverse itself so soon after passing the UIGEA, let alone get Bush to sign any such legislation.
It's a bit too soon to say that I was right and Greenstein was wrong--but does anybody want to put down cold, hard cash on the proposition that Congress will, within the next 21 days enact the kind of wholesale relief that Greenstein thought was just around the corner?
You know that old joke about how you can tell a politician is lying because his lips are moving? Well, Barry, I think you just learned how to pick up a "tell" on congressmen.
Posts
2 comments:
Oooh, should have waited one more day, it looks like you got rivered. Barney Frank and Ron Paul, the two congressmen with the four first names, introduced a bill on 4/10 to block enforcement of the UIGEA. I don't know how it'll play out, but the timing is interesting with regards to the blog!
It won't go anywhere--and certainly not within the next couple of weeks. And, much as I love Ron Paul, this bill is incredibly stupid. It would be far better to introduce a bill to completely repeal the UIGEA. Just saying that the executive branch can't promulgate regulations may be worse than doing nothing, because it leaves completely unclear what is and isn't legal.
Post a Comment