PokerStars Blocks U.S. Players from Cash Games

Late this afternoon, a message was posted on Facebook by the Poker Players Alliance stating "The PPA will have an official statement out shortly...." Shortly thereafter came their statement:

"On behalf of the millions of poker players across the country, we are shocked at the action taken by the U.S. Department of Justice today against online poker companies and will continue to fight for Americans' right to participate in the game they enjoy. Online poker is not a crime and should not be treated as such. We are currently gathering all of the information around today's announcement and will offer detailed analysis when the full facts become available."

This announcement came after U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed an indictment against PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg and Full Tilt Pokers' founder Ray Bitar, as well as nine others, accusing them of operating illegal gambling businesses.

Really? Our Government struggles and struggles to pass a budget, then watches as billions of dollars in revenue goes flying off to other countries. Way to go guys.

As a poker player I could not be more pissed!

I started playing about ten years ago on a site called Empire Poker and loved it. I made money, I lost money, but it was all good clean fun. With one single deposit of less than it cost to fill my car with gas.

Eventually though, Empire was bought out by Party Gaming, who ended up closing my account to real money play after the original passing of the UIGEA in 2006. Apparently, they decided it wasn't worth the hassle to deal with our Government's stupid BS. By the way, Party Gaming is a publicly traded company in the UK currently listing at $130.00 a share under the trading symbol (BPTY.L). Hardly a shady or illegal entity.

So today, after reading the PPA's statement, I logged into my PokerStars account and received this message: "We're sorry but, due to new U.S. regulations, playing real money ring games is not allowed in your area."

Thank you U.S. Government for your stupidity.