Now I like to keep things related and this article is not designed to promote Daniel Negreanu's Power holdem strategy book like the rest of the site so it may be a little off topic. But it's obviously a very important issue to many poker players out there, so I'm still going to cover it. If you are not from the U.S you don't need to read this article.

Gambling Legislation

As you all know the United States Congress recently passed a bill. If it is not vetoed in 6 months all US transactions between poker sites will no longer be accepted.
Fortunately, since Neteller is not a US company, any transactions between Neteller are still legal (even after the 6 month period until the law is in effect), since it doesn't violate any international laws. As long as those poker sites reside completely in other countries they aren't violating any international laws either.
Neteller and a few sites that have no companies or assets in the US will be safe as long as they stand their grounds.
The danger comes with sites that choose not to allow US citizens to play poker, and the casinos that act out of panic. Sites like Party Poker, pokerchamps, and many others fall into this category. Pokerstars another MAJOR site has refused to agree that they would continue to allow US citizens in the next few months, and has said that they have not yet determined how they would handle it, and that they are "carefully considering all possible options" (now if that doesn't sound like they are afraid and preparing to backdown without having to recieve as much violent oposition from poker players, I don't know what does!)
But rest assured, Sites like AbsolutePoker.com, and
Poker.com will remain available. And you can play with confidence, because the law does not penaltize US citizens for playing poker online.

Poker.com
recently issued a statement at twoplustwo.com that they will maintain their usual business and make no changes. They will accept US business and I expect poker.com to grow to be one of the larger poker sites as their are millions of party poker players looking for somewhere to play.
(That's where the $50 refer-a-friend promotion comes in handy)
Also there are some that question whether poker sites violate the law since they view gambling as betting completely 100% against the house. Basically since Poker is designed to bet and play with other players rather than the house (with the house taking a small fee), lawfully it's not too different than a membership for software such as foreign exchange trading software or any other program that allows exchanges and/or transactions such as itunes, or even internet explorer or firefox as they allow more efficient trading, or even a bank service with a "transaction fee" service such as paypal.

Neither Neteller nor poker.com are U.S. based companies so all transactions will be safe.

From what I understand the law does not make poker or gambling itself illegal, it basically just makes it more difficult and requires foreign transactions, and it greatly discourages sites from allowing US customers. But the only thing the law really does is designed to not allow US transaction for gambling sites.
Check out the http://www.pokerplayersalliance.org/
to help keep poker legal there's still hope.

An estimated 3.3 billion dollars could be made from the US if they regulated poker... Imagine if we used that funding to go towards curing cancer and other major diseases.

But politicians are more concerned about staying consistant and representing strong (fake) values just so they can win the next ellection and win one more lousy term then taking a stand to make this world AND the US a much better place. Little do they realize how much harm they're truely causing.

I do want to mention that there may be drastic measures to prevent downloading of casino and poker software so make sure to head over to poker.com and download their softtware ASAP I'm serious about this now, I don't care if you deposit money now or in 5 years, or even if you just freeroll and don't even make a deposit. But if you do decide to deposit, there's a 100% new player bonus in it for you. Many have already taken advantage of this great opportunity.
So if you like the freedom to play poker online (and if you're interested in Daniel Negreanu's power holdem strategy I assume you play poker), it is vital that you download the software while you still can.
Now, imagine in 6 months if poker.com was the ONLY site that accepted US customers you could play with and you didn't have a way to download their software?
Make sure you take action now.

p.s. Keep in mind that they have great freerolls for you to develop your bankroll without any risk.

Poker.com Weekly Freeroll Schedule

Our weekly freeroll schedule includes the following:

* $20k Weekly Freeroll – Every Sunday at 14:00 EST
* The $20,000 freeroll is for players that have earned at least 2000 comp points in the previous 7 days.

* $4k Weekly Freerolls – Every Monday and Wednesday at 18:00 EST
* The $4000 freeroll is for all members that have earned at least 1500 comp points in the previous 7 days.

* 500 Daily Initial Depositors Freeroll – Everday at 19:00 EST
* Players making an initial deposit at Poker.com will receive a coupon valid for 7 days entry into our daily $500 initial depositors freeroll.

* $100 Freerolls - Every 3 hours
* Open to any Poker.com member.
Enjoy!