Shortly after the beginning of last week’s charity celebrity poker game to aid the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Ben Affleck goes all-in with a flop of Ace-Nine-King and two diamonds. He winces when two of his opponents call the bet. He yells “Re-buy”, but the turn is a seven of hearts. Affleck is disappointed when a jack of diamonds is dealt on the river. He took the hand seriously even though there was no real cash at stake. This is just the kind of thing that Affleck and several other poker enthusiasts are petitioning for.

Over $100,000 was raised for the paralyzed victims, but this was not the only purpose of the poker tournament held in Coors Field. Members of the Poker Players Alliance are working very hard to legalize online poker in the United States. As part of their agenda, they are pushing to repeal the 2006 legislation Congress passed which bans U.S. Banks and credit card companies from processing transactions related to online gaming websites.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, is optimistic about the direction that the new congress will lead this decision. Pappas says that the alliance is pushing for a licensed industry, just for internet poker, and not for all online gaming. Pappas is interested in having a safe, regulated industry that all Americans can enjoy. The group is fighting for the rights of people and the privacy they deserve in their own home.

“There are misconceptions about poker and about online poker,” poker pro Andy Bloch said in between hands during the charity poker event. “Some people think that online poker is gambling like a slot machine, and it’s not.”

No Comments »

Participating in online poker rooms and casinos and signing up for the rakeback sharing affiliate program can be an extremely popular, fun and exciting way to earn additional income on the Web. But in the case of many rakeback sharing affiliate program members, participating in the rakeback program is literally the whole reason for participating in the first place. Considering the sharing of residual income over time and its lucrative payouts, the rakeback program is a big motivator for players to participate on the web. Without the rakeback sharing affiliate program, many online poker rooms and casinos would lose a tremendous amount of their business very quickly and have problems maintaining the revenue that is generated on a regular basis. As long as you make that sharing affiliate program is in place, it is very likely that there will be no problem with maintaining new business and keeping new players playing at the online poker room and casino tables in general. In the case of the legal ramifications involved in the rakeback sharing affiliate program, up until now, it has been legal due to the reduced amount of sharing. The law regulates the amount of revenue that can be shared at a certain percentage, which online poker rooms and casinos such as Fulltiltpoker.com follow to the letter. But with new legislation and new developments, the rakeback program as it is currently known may change over the coming years into some other type of program that is barely recognizable by players of the modern-day poker rooms and casinos. While it may be true that online poker rooms and casinos provide a tremendous amount of competition in tournaments as well as free rolls to motivate players and provide extra incentive to participate, without the rake back sharing affiliate program that so many players have gotten used to, it is very likely that these types of online poker rooms would very quickly go out of business without the interest that is sparked by these types of online poker promotions.

Obviously if the United States government was to completely eliminate the rakeback sharing affiliate program or change it so much that it no longer resembles its current incarnation, players would most certainly leave the Internet in droves and look for action elsewhere, anywhere that the rakeback was less constricted and harshly imposed upon by United States government law. In the case of the online poker rooms and casinos that currently exist, very few of them would survive if the rakeback sharing affiliate program was completely eliminated.

No Comments »