My name is Brian, and I was a online poker addict for awhile there. Especially during the college years when the poker boom was just taking off. Thankfully the government helped me kick the online habit in 2006 when they ruled to shut down poker sites that used money laundering type violations. Not that I didn’t play at the home games or the occasional trip the the Indian Casinos, but it became a once in awhile kind of thing compared to playing poker while watching a baseball or basketball game. The sites were back up and running within a year or so, and I was never really clear on why. Either way, I was back playing at a reduced rate. Over the past few years my playing has tailed off a lot to almost non-existent for months at a time (probably for the better). Maybe I got over it because of the skill of some of the online players that I was playing with. I just couldn’t handle seeing some of the most ridiculous hands winning more than pocket aces. Those beats always leave a bad taste in your mouth, especially when it happens over and over and over. Plus, I just don’t have as much time to waste as I used to.

This weekend, online poker went on hold once again for US players, but the lawsuit coming up will have a much different effect on the online gambling world. Mainly, we will once and for all have some set laws in place. If the lawmakers decide that poker is not a skill game, which if you play online enough, you will believe there’s more luck than skill, then poker will forever be banished online in the US. If they find it’s a skill game, we end up with a new way to generate some tax revenue. As of now, there’s no concrete way for the government to tax this billion dollar business. That being said, I don’t think the government really cares about the legality of online poker, just whether they can line their pockets with the addiction that many like myself threw themselves at.