50 Minutes

50 minutes, that is what the latest 60 minutes show should have been called. It really would have saved the show if they had just dropped this 10 minute segment on online poker.

First, let me say that online poker is not illegal in the US at this point in time though 60 minutes claims this to be the case. There is no law currently in place that makes the act of gambling online illegal, two laws that remotely come close to this is the old wire act established to prohibit people from making sports bets over the phone. The other is the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act. This act makes it harder for one to withdrawal and deposit funds onto sites associated with online gambling. But again, there is no law in place that says one can not play online poker.

I was really disappointed by this 60 minutes piece. Not only did they say that online poker was illegal, when this is not the case, but for an investigative report they seemed to have done 0 investigating (driving by a couple of buildings is not investigating). All of the information that was brought forward was already known by the poker community. All they did was put it in the lime light.

At no point through this segment did they mention other supposed scandals of the past, the UIGEA, or the PPA. They also left out some interviews with people like Greg Raymer, the '04 World Series of Poker champ.

This truly was a lack of good investigative reporting and it makes me wonder how credible the other pieces they air are. If they continually get facts incorrect and leave out key information, then the show has lost all credibility in my eyes.

I realize that I will have a bias point of view when it comes to online poker, but I am trying to be as neutral as possible. I knew all this information before it aired. I just thought they would at least get the facts straight or bring in some new information into this black-eye scandal for online poker.

I also want to add, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet are the ones behind this scandal. There are other places to play that are much better in terms of security and customer opinions. Two that come to mind right away are Pokerstars and Full Tilt, both the more popular sites for American online poker players.