Where Poker Dreams Go to Die

Jim Kasper’s dream died recently, a casualty of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 — a law passed in the middle of the night with no debate and no recorded vote, just so Senator Bill Frist could pander to the religious right and garner their support in advance of his bid to secure the Republican nomination for President.

On July 27, we had Jim Kasper on Keep Flopping Aces, the radio show Amy Calistri and I host each Thursday night at 9:00 PM Eastern Time on www.holdemradio.com. While many other republicans were lining up behind UIGEA, Kasper was trying to make North Dakota a licensing agency for online casino poker sites. He told us that North Dakota would be able to fund public services by licensing online gaming and that the state-owned bank of North Dakota would profit by handling transactions.

But UIGEA killed Kasper's initiative because the Bank of North Dakota can not act contrary to UIGEA, and Mr. Kasper's hope that North Dakota might serve as a safe harbor for online poker sites is dead.