With the coming prospect of legal and regulated online gambling appearing on the legislative horizon with HR2267, many poker enthusiasts are wondering if the poker world is nearing another proverbial golden age. I think some players prefer the status quo, where online gambling exists in a legal netherworld and the games come from overseas providers and the vast majority of potential and current online poker players should see this bill as a positive development. If HR2267 is passed by the House and Senate it would grant the Secretary of the Treasury the authority to regulate and issue licenses to online gambling firms. It would also grant legitimacy to the practice and open up the game to a large pool of individuals that want to take part but have been prevented from doing so by the fear of any possible legality issues. Having recently passed the House Financial Services Committee with a positive recommendation, the bill has a reasonable chance of being looked upon favorably by the House as a whole. Now the question remains as to whether or not this will cause a renaissance of sorts in the online poker world, but changes will undoubtedly occur.
Many experienced players I know hope for a return of the influx of less skilled players that the game saw during its initial boom in 2004-2005. I doubt it will be the same this time but one thing is fairly certain and that is there will be lots of new players and money coming into the game. That is always a good thing.

In addition, the legislation will officially ratify online poker’s status as a legitimate business practice as well as a recreational diversion. Assuming that the regulations enacted by the Treasury do not make hosting games prohibitively expensive and/or difficult, there is no reason that online poker can’t experience another golden era. All of the major sites in the industry will have an incentive to tap the newly legalized legion of American poker players. If history is anything to go by, the new level of competition introduced into the market will spur innovation and enforce quality on the industry in a way that government regulation cannot. Once the harsh prohibitions are lifted and the United States market is ready to be tapped, the poker industry could potentially erupt at a magnitude reaching perhaps billions of dollars. Given the expense of processing money in the current unregulated system, the added costs to players that would be incurred by taxes would easily be alleviated by the savings of being allowed to operate in the open marketplace. While it is impossible to tell the future, it seems fairly certain that another golden age of poker exists just over the horizon.