US Gamblers.com has started a petition to legalize and regulate online gambling in the United States. Their goal is to collect 1 million signatures. When they reach their goal they will deliver the petition to Congress. If you are as frustrated as I am trying to get your money in and out of the online poker and gambling websites, I urge you to sign this petition.

Several people I have talked to have expressed concerns about the government legalizing online poker because it would mean taxes and maybe restrictions but I disagree.

Before everyone starts worrying about the online sites being regulated consider this: Right now it is a major hassle trying to get money into an online Pokers sites. Neteller has frozen the accounts of US Players and those of us trying to get our money out are in limbo.

The US Government arrested the owners of several of the online gaming sites and those of us with money in their sites lost everything we had on deposit.

The brick and mortar casinos are regulated by the government and they are in line and geared up to run the sites once they are legal. It should not be much different from what goes on in the cardrooms they run now.

The rake online right now is lower than the B&M cardrooms may increase a little because of the taxes the sites have to pay but I feel there will be enough competition to keep it lower than most B&M rooms.

As far as taxing the players, right now if you enter and win any money in a live tournament you have to supply your Social security number when they pay you. I have no problem paying taxes on poker wins in exchange for being able to play online and know that I can get money in or out in a secure environment.

If I think the price is too high to pay then I have the option not to. It will still be better than having to worry if the money I have in the online sites is going to be lost because they are closing down.

Other than the rake there is no house edge for poker and I am confident that I can continue to make money playing even if the rake is a bit higher. I make money in the B&M cardrooms so I don’t mind. Over that last few years that I have been playing online the only money I lost came from my funds being locked up due to the government crackdown.

I have signed the petition from US Gamblers.com (http://us-gamblers.com) I also paid my dues to the Poker Players Alliance which is working to legalize online poker. Maybe I won’t like the government regulations but at least I will have the right to chose whether or not I want to play online. It will still be better than the present state of affairs that is going on at present.