Who is Teddy? Well, he is the Oreo eating Russian mobster (played by John Malkovich) that ran an underground poker room in the movie Rounders. In one scene, Matt Damon is trying to win his way out of debt to one of Teddy’s comrades by playing heads up with Teddy. Damon had already sworn off poker after a huge loss to the Russian in a previous match up. This time around Damon’s character discovers Teddy’s tell and sticks it to him good. Not only does he get out of debt, but wins enough to buy a seat to the World Series of Poker, which is where he is headed as the movie ends. If you’re a poker player and haven’t seen this classic, you need to put it in your netflix queue.

In 2003 the world woke up to discover a game called Texas no limit hold’em when an accountant from Tennessee won 2.5 million dollars in the World Series of Poker. Chris Moneymaker single-handedly brought the game into the lime light. The invention of online poker software along with Moneymakers win was the catalyst that created a poker boom where everyone and his brother began to play the game online. A game that was once only seen in the backrooms of bars and the casinos of Las Vegas had emerged as a sport that you could now watch on television daily. Televised tournaments were making Vegas poker pros famous overnight. The explosion was out of control and a new player that took the time to learn good poker strategy could go online, play a little poker and actually make money.

The only law on the books regarding online poker at this point was antiquated legislation created in 1961 called the Wire Act. It made placing a wager over a telephone line illegal. If you ask anyone form the Justice Department today if it is legal to play online poker, you more than likely will be told no and this would be based on the Wire Act, but to date the Justice Department has not charged, brought to trial, convicted, or sentenced anyone for playing poker online. So, the amazing growth of poker continued unrestrained until the fall of 2006 when Congressman Robert Goodlatte(R) Bill Frist(R) and Jon Kyl(R) in a sinister fashion, managed to attach legislation placing restrictions on internet gambling to the Ports Security Bill which was passed at midnight on the day Congress adjourned for the 2006 elections. This legislation known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIEA) does not make playing poker online illegal, but it does make it illegal for a U.S bank to process a payment from any poker site. Kind of makes it hard for a player to get his winnings in hand.

Be advised that the above discussion does not take into consideration any State or local laws that might make online poker illegal for you, but the question above asking if online poker is a crime might be answered soon. There is legislation pending in Washington, that is designed to exempt online poker from the UIEGA as well as set up a system that would tax and regulate online poker. Let’s just hope the politicians for once, pull their heads out and give us back one of our lost freedoms. Go ahead and buy one of the featured buttons and let others know that a friendly poker game online should not be a crime.