If you follow poker news closely, you’ve no doubt seen the state of Iowa in the news quite a bit recently. Most likely what you have seen revolves around SSB 1165, an initiative of Iowa’s State Senate which would legalize and regulate intrastate online poker, allowing Iowans a legal outlet to play poker, albeit against one another only.

Similar bills have made it into the shallow end of the legislative pool in New Jersey, California, and Florida. New Jersey’s bill was recently vetoed. While it is rather tough to imagine any state being the first to have the courage (not to mention the gaming portals and infrastructure) required to block its residents from playing at other sites and funnel them to an in-state system, it is not beyond the realm of possibility.  Bills in Florida, California, and New Jersey are more logical as those states already have large poker markets and each has some clout in the brick and mortar poker room market. Branding their own rooms online would at least make some sense for them if anyone is to do it.  But Iowa is an altogether different situation.  Iowa does not have nearly the land-based gaming industry found in those other states, and while its approximate number of online players (150,000) sounds impressive, it is still a relatively small piece of the overall pie, ESPECIALLY when you consider that not all players would likely make the move to an intrastate gaming platform.  The point is that if this can be considered in Iowa, it can be considered anywhere, given the proper legislative climate.  If you’ve seen “The Music Man”, I’ll suggest to you that we’ve got trouble right here in River City, and it starts with T and that rhymes with P and that stands for…………Poker.

I know the chances are slim that this bill will ever pass.  And I know that other states considering similar bills have an uphill climb.  I also know that as a recreational poker player I should be fully supporting “legal” online poker, but it just doesn’t feel right in this case.  Legalizing online poker and then restricting play to intrastate platforms has a wide range of potential problems:
– How can we ensure that the games are only being played by in-state players?
– What happens if a player moves to another state?  What if he wants to play while  traveling?
– Will states who operate their own poker sites ban their players from off-shore sites, a la Washington state’s current regulations?
– Is a fraudulent account able to be discovered, policed, and dealt with appropriately?  What measures might be taken against such players?
– Isn’t limiting play to such a narrow group of customers an invitation for the ethically challenged among us to initiate more creative and easier-to-use methods of collusion?

Those questions even manage to miss out on one crucial point for players that everyone seems to be ignoring, or at least brushing aside.  At the end of the day, poker is about money as much as basketball is about baskets and hockey is about goals.  Will limiting the player base limit the profits as well?  It sure will if you play for mid to high stakes!  How many of your fellow state players will you be able to get into a higher limit game?  Probably not nearly as many as if your opponent pool were worldwide, and the players you do get will feed on each other until a few have won, some have broken about even, and many have lost.  The intrastate games may very well dry up quickly, and then where might those players go?

To be perfectly honest, I don’t think that intrastate legalization of online gaming is the long-term answer.  I DO think that some answers need to be found in relation to our current gaming options, and I can understand why states and federal governments would want a piece of the pie in terms of revenue.  They should want that, because the potential revenue stream for them is quite high.  But careful consideration of this particular bill has led me to the conclusion that in-state platforms are not the answer; there are just too many unknowns to confidently make the switch as a player.  Tell us what you think………..and as always, Good Luck at the Tables!