Pappas Calls Out US Justice Department on Online Poker Seizure

During an interview on Fox News, John Pappas of the Poker Players Alliance explained why a US Attorney's move to seize online poker bank accounts is both poorly thought out and illegal.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, tore holes in the US government's rationalization of its seizure of bank accounts set up to pay online poker players. Speaking on a panel interview with Fox News that also featured former US prosecutor John Kelly, Pappas laid bare the lack of legal and logical standing found in the Department of Justice's latest mad-dog attack upon Internet gambling.

Pappas hit right away at the substance of the case, which is that "there is no law which says it is unlawful to play online poker." He pointed out that the Wire Act, the basis for the US Attorney's actions, has been found by courts to apply only to sports gambling.

Kelly replied that, well, of course Internet gambling is illegal, under laws including the Safe Port Act, which notoriously had hidden, deep in its labyrinthine depths, the UIGEA. He said the fact that online gambling is not specifically declared illegal is "splitting hairs," a statement that shows a strong background as a public prosecutor in the US.

Papas said the UIGEA hasn't even gone into effect, so trying to use it as support for the seizures makes no sense.

Kelly went on to say that Internet gaming is bad for the usual reasons: it's unregulated, children might access it, states are losing revenue, problem gambling might increase.

Pappas responded with the truth that has become apparent to persons who think rather than accept their faith as fact. Problem gambling has been shown in studies from sources as hallowed as Harvard to be less likely on the Internet, and the industry is indeed regulated and licensed, by strict rules within the jurisdiction from which they operate.

"As to the concerns of children and (revenue), we believe licensing and regulating would mitigate damages in those areas, if there are any," said Pappas.

"Kelly starts offering reasons why he thinks online gambling should be illegal," says OCA gaming analyst Sherman Bradley. "That's the problem with US prosecutors; instead of enforcing the law as determined by the legislature and interpreted by the courts, they wan to do all three jobs themselves."