{"id":1219,"date":"2007-02-20T08:09:36","date_gmt":"2007-02-20T13:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2007\/02\/poker-players-place-their-bets-elsewhere\/"},"modified":"2007-02-20T08:09:36","modified_gmt":"2007-02-20T13:09:36","slug":"poker-players-place-their-bets-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2007\/02\/poker-players-place-their-bets-elsewhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Poker Players Place Their Bets Elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

After San Carlos professional poker player Jim Rashleger lost $600 as part of a federal action against online gambling this year, he took what seemed to him the logical step to continue his profession. He got out of the house and traveled to the card rooms.
\n\u201cMy advice for anybody right now is to not play online anymore,\u201d Rashleger, 58, said. \u201cI\u2019m just going to go play at casinos. It\u2019s more lucrative that way anyway.\u201d
\nPeople such as Rashleger, a retired construction worker, have local card room owners paying attention to see if the fallout from the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 will benefit them. Results so far are mixed, with the owners of Colma\u2019s Lucky Chances card room saying they\u2019ve seen a business increase that they think may be related, while staff members at Artichoke Joe\u2019s card room in San Bruno and Garden City Casino is San Jose say increased television publicity for poker is more responsible for new players filling the seats.
\nRashleger may still get his money back, but he doesn\u2019t know when or how much. He formerly played poker online at UltimateBet.com, with Isle of Man-based firm Neteller.com acting as the financial intermediary. In January, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York began a court-ordered seizure of up to $55 million of Neteller\u2019s funds as part of its investigation against the company\u2019s two founders. The firm said in a release this month it cannot pay back its customers\u2019 money until an unknown future date.
\nIt also ceased U.S. business operations in January, the result of the federal act introduced by then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and signed by President George Bush in October 2006. The act disallows electronic banking transactions related to online games of chance, and has prompted a massive pullout of online gambling companies from the U.S. market.
\nRashleger disagrees that poker is a \u201cgame of chance,\u201d rather than skill, but is taking his business to San Jose\u2019s Garden City anyway. He said he chose that card room because it has more players and smaller-stakes games than other card rooms.
\nAt least one local card room believes there are others like Rashleger coming in the doors.
\n\u201cThey have seen an increase in business, and believe it to be a result [of the act],\u201d Lucky Chances attorney Harlan Goodson said. \u201cThey do believe it is attributable to the clamping down on Internet gaming.\u201d
\nOthers aren\u2019t so sure.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s totally speculative and anecdotal,\u201d said Frederick Wyle, the Chapter 11 trustee for Garden City, which is moving out of an eight-year bankruptcy. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult for us to pinpoint an interest in business on any particular cause. We\u2019ve heard that [online gamblers may be coming in], but we\u2019ve also heard that people who want to continue online gambling find ways.\u201d
\nHe said the business has increased slightly recently, but attributes a greater overall business over the last six months or more to television shows about poker.
\nSan Fransisco Examiner<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After San Carlos professional poker player Jim Rashleger lost $600 as part of a federal action against online gambling this year, he took what seemed to him the logical step to continue his profession. He got out of the house and traveled to the card rooms. \u201cMy advice for anybody right now is to not … Continue reading Poker Players Place Their Bets Elsewhere<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}