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Let us suppose that the United States Government abandoned the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act tomorrow. There would be world wide web complications of enormous potential:

What does the World Trade Organization do with the Antigua/US dispute?

What does the EU do with the biggest player in the online gaming world back in play?

Does Germany want to control its online poker players, if that means no US players?

Does anyone care about the UK "White List" if the US opens its cyber-doors to everyone?

Of course, the U.S. is not going to abandon the UIGEA anytime soon but the Congress did hold hearings yesterday and listening in might be of some educational benefit, but congressional hearings are boring, so let's just go for the high and low points:

As previously reported, the state of Nevada has been studying the possibility of creating an online gaming portal that would include poker.

"Long before the US Federal government passed the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), the State of Nevada was looking into the legalization and regulation of online gaming. The Nevada Legislature as early as 2003 tasked the Nevada Gaming Control Board with studying the question of Internet gambling and State regulation."

In a move that is likely to have wide ranging repercussions, the federal government of Germany has moved to place severe restrictions on online poker and other online gaming. In an attempt to protect the state run gaming sites, the German government is attempting to restrict access to non-German poker sites and to force financial institutions to halt activities with these online businesses.

While the long term fate of online poker in the United States and other countries around the world awaits the slow and tedious process of governmental regulation.....There is good news for residents of the State of Nevada, including those in Las Vegas. The State of Nevada may be acting to legalize online poker.

Long before the US Federal government passed the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), the State of Nevada was looking into the legalization and regulation of online gaming. The Nevada Legislature as early as 2003 tasked the Nevada Gaming Control Board with studying the question of Internet gambling and State regulation.

Asian Week magazine ran a featured story on World Series of Poker Champion, Jerry Yang. The article suggests that the refugee life and the psychological imprint that left on Jerry and on runner-up Tuan Lam, also a refugee, has had a major effect on how they play poker. The excerpt of the article below makes a compelling case that early life events will have an influence on how someone plays poker.

Here is the Asian Week story:

It’s 4 a.m. in a marathon 16-hour session on the seventh day of the biggest poker tournament in the world. Jerry Yang, 39, from Temecula, Calif., is about to make a decision that could change his life. Sitting across Yang is Toronto’s Tuan Lam, 40, who has put on maximum pressure by going all-in for 22.2 million chips, thus putting his own tournament life at risk.

It's truly amazing to what lengths politicians will go, simply to maintain a position that has clearly become untenable to sustain. We are talking about the U.S. and its ban of online gaming. This latest analysis comes from the Wall Street Journal.

The Bush administration, pressured by an unfavorable ruling by the World Trade Organization, plans to push for legal changes that could make it easier for European service companies, from engineering firms to law firms and shipping companies, to do business in the U.S., officials say.

The U.S. is required to offer trading partners greater access to the American market because in May it lost a long-running dispute at the World Trade Organization over laws that banned foreign firms from offering Internet gambling services in the U.S.