How Party Poker Gets Around The Gaming Laws

Gambling, in most of the USA, is illegal, as is advertising gaming websites. Conservative appointee John Ashcroft made a unsuccessful effort to shut down internet gaming by going after the advertising venues. Why is Party Poker able to keep pushing its message on cable tv?

Given the uneven and unsettled laws and the uncertain nature of enforcement liabilities, the online poker world operates in a kind of nether world, where legality is both at risk and unenforced. Recent government actions against advertising venues and credit card companies has made life more difficult for the online poker world.

But at the same time, the financial potential for this industry has encouraged once stogy investment organizations to look more closely at online poker as an investment. Pary Poker's parent company, Party Gaming, was the first such company to not only become a public company, but also the first to have its stock held by reputable firms in the investment community.

So we know the laws that ban advertising online poker are there. Some television networks have knuckled under to the scare tactics of the Justice Department and now refuse to run ads for online poker. MasterCard and Visa have similarly fallen into line, and won't accept charges on your credit card for online poker. And we know that at any time, another attempt to shut down online gaming could occur.

One of the reasons Party Poker has been able to maintain its number one position in the online poker marketplace is that it has a large advertising budget that supports not only a huge online and traditional ad campaign, but a series of very effective tv ads.

But wait a minute. Didn't we just say that venues were refusing to run tv ads for online poker? So why is Pary Poker able to continue to advertise on tv.

The answer to this question is that Party Poker is not advertising online poker on tv.

Yes, you've seen the ads, but you need to look closer at what's being advertised.

When you do, you'll notice that Party Poker is not advertising PartyPoker.com, their poker room, but PartyPoker.net, their poker school. Party Poker has gotten around the legal liability by using a very clever diversion - so clever that only the lawyers need notice.

Let's all go to online poker school. From there it's legal to then point us to the real poker room.