About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

50 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 519 (2013)
Unstacking the Deck: The Legalization of Online Poker

handle is hein.journals/amcrimlr50 and id is 551 raw text is: UNSTACKING THE DECK: THE LEGALIZATION OF ONLINE POKER James Romoser* I. INTRODUCTION As long as Americans have been playing poker, the government has tried to stop them. During the nineteenth century, when the game first became popular, legislatures tried to banish it,' but poker flourished anyway on the rough-and- tumble frontier.2 Its evangelists were thieves and cheats;3 its outposts were seedy saloons;4 its sanctuaries were lavish riverboats that could leave their docks to evade the law of the land.5 From these shadowy roots, a game evolved that embodies the American ethos, with its freewheeling individualism, its veneration of risk, and its capitalist Sys- tem of keeping score.6 Far from just a gambler's vice or a swindler's hustle, poker slowly straightened out-and as it did, it filtered upward into polite society. It has been enjoyed in the White House by the likes of Ulysses S. Grant,7 Dwight Eisenhower,8 Richard Nixon,9 and Barack Obama.'° For thirty-three years, Chief Justice William Rehnquist played in an elite monthly game.' Mark Twain was an avid card shark;12 so is U.S. Olympian Michael Phelps.13 And a * Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. expected 2014; Columbia University, B.A. 2005. I would like to thank Brad Leneis, for his astute editing and ample patience; Nicole Callan, for her unflagging and uplifting support; and my parents, Maureen Fitzsimmons and Fred Romoser, for everything. © 2013, James Romoser. 1. See JAMES MCMANUS, CowBoYs FULL: THE STORY OF POKER 63, 161 (2009) (noting legislative efforts). 2. See id. at 74-77 (describing the outlaw cachet that surrounded poker as it spread through the interior of the country). 3. See id. at 68-73 (discussing early years when poker was known as the Cheating Game). 4. See id. at 159 (noting poker's origins in grimy saloons and other dens of iniquity). 5. See id. at 63 (explaining that land-based gambling operators moved their businesses onto Mississippi steamboats to avoid anti-gambling statutes). 6. Some have even suggested that poker-not baseball-is the true American pastime. See James McManus, Op-Ed., No More Bluffing, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 25, 2012, at A19 (Poker is America's card game, some say its national pastime.). 7. MCMANUS, supra note 1, at 13 (2009) (He played poker.., all through his Presidential career for money.). 8. Id. at 16 (describing Eisenhower's natural aptitude for the game). 9. Id. at 16 (discussing Nixon's ruthless style of play). 10. Id. at 3-6 (quoting Obama naming poker as hidden talent, and describing his discipline at the table). 11. JEFFREY ToOBIN, THE NINE 135 (2007). 12. Martin Harris, Poker & Pop Culture: Mark Twain, PoKERNEws.cOM (Feb. 17, 2009), http://www. pokemews.com/news/2009/02/poker-and-pop-culture-mark-twain-I 123.htm. 13. Donnie Peters, It's 7ume for Michael Phelps to Swim with the Real Sharks, POKERNEWS.COM (Aug. 16, 2012), http://www.pokernews.comnews/20l2/08/its-time-for-michael-phelps-to-swim-with-the-real-sharks- 13209.htm.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most