PokerStars Bans Washington Players, Denmark Moves towards Regulation

PokerStars has recently been forced to ban residents of the State of Washington from its tables, due to a State Supreme Court decision. Meanwhile, Denmark is drafting a regulation that would allow foreign providers into the country.

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The Washington Supreme Court has recently rejected the legal opinion upon which PokerStars had based its policy of providing real-money online poker for the residents of the state. This had been the approach that „the state could not constitutionally regulate Internet poker, or at least could not discriminate in favour of local cardrooms and against online sites.” After the decision of the Supreme Court, however, the company now excludes Washington residents from playing at their tables: “In light of this decision, following extensive consultation with our legal advisors, we believe that the right course of action is to now block real money play by Washington residents on the PokerStars.com site. This policy will remain in effect until the law changes or subsequent legal challenges succeed.”

Denmark, on the other hand, seems to have chosen a far more progressive path. While the government realised the need to regulate the industry, the draft is unlike the French or the Italian pattern in favouring the consumers and not the state monopoly: “In terms of poker, it’s proposed operators can still keep international liquidity, unlike Italy and France, which makes it much easier for us to set up, and for the Danish consumer, it is going to be much more positive. I think the Danish Gambling Board saw early on in the process that running a ring-fenced poker network based on 5.5 million people would be very unattractive for Danish poker players,” Ladbrokes Nordic Country Manager for Denmark Richardt Funch told eGR. [4]

I am honestly curious as to which attitude is going to leave its mark on the stages of development to come in the issue on a global scale.