In short, because it’s in their best interest to act in your best interest.

And by “undergrounders”, Business Week means the private companies that continue to serve the American poker market who are currently signing up American poker players by the thousands.

Check our Best Places to Play List for a Who’s In/Who’s Out of poker.

The private companies know that this is a critical time in the development of the American Poker Market. With the apple cart upset by the UIGE Act, both public and private companies are rushing around slapping deals together as fast as they can. It is entirely in their interest to make sure that every poker player is welcomed with easy sign-ups and healthy bonuses. In fact, there’s probably never been a better time to be an American poker player than right now.

That said, there are still the nasty issues of the UIGE Act and the culture of corruption that installed it.

Jim Leach of Iowa, one of the underhanded politicians responsible for this mess was defeated in the recent election. We’ll just have to wait and see what the rest of the new political landscape brings in the new year. Killing the UIGE Act will take more time and effort. And with 50 million American poker players working at it, it will be killed – dead.

As SportingBet’s Nigel Payne put it – “Do you think the Internet or gambling is going to disappear in the next ten years?”

No, it won’t. In fact, it’s growing every second of every minute of every day. That’s why the “undergrounders” are there – to serve you, the poker player, and the ever growing American Poker Market.

Talk Poker. Play Poker. Because Poker is America.

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Two more casualties of poker prohibition announce their departure from the American market while, at the same time, poker play in the USA continues to peak and peak and peak.

Doesn’t seem to make any sense.

Friday, Tribeca Tables Network said it would be pulling out of the U.S. and gave it’s brand members like Scarlet Poker and Doyle’s Room six months to find an alternative supplier. Pamela Anderson also threw in the towel on Pamela Poker with a brief on her website.

On the other hand, the good people at Casino City confirm that poker play just keeps on growing and growing in America.

So business keeps leaving and customers keeping growing. You don’t need a roadmap to see this opportunity, or national schizophrenia.

For the latest list of the Best Places to Play, always check Poker Patriots

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Seems like our neighbors to the north are taking to poker like a polar bear to water. Welcome to the wonderful world of poker, eh? But an article from the Canadian Press notes that people are at risk of becoming problem gamblers.

Who knew that American Poker could be as addictive as watching television 6 hours a day, everyday?

For those of you who may think your loved one has a problem – answer the 20 Questions provided by Gamblers Anonymous:

1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling?
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did gambling affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone?
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12. Were you reluctant to use “gambling money” for normal expenditures?
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family?
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling?
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling?
20. Have you ever considered self destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling?

Most compulsive gamblers will answer YES to at least 7 of these questions.

After that, if you think there’s a problem, try talking about it first. And of course, there is always outside help from Gamblers Anonymous.

Play your game. Don’t let the game play you.

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“…it would be difficult for individual countries to compel Internet services based outside their borders to stop processing transactions that are legal in the nation from which they operate.”

Translation: If your nation’s internet policies are out of step with the rest of the World Wide Web, it’s going to be almost impossible to enforce them.

As the latest article in Business Week confirms, the UIGE Act will be almost unenforceable. That’s the assessment from a new report by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international organization based in France that develops recommendations for combating money laundering and terrorism financing. Like China trying to stop Google or Eliot Ness trying to uphold prohibition, people will always find a way to what they want.

What a waste of time, for Congress and the American people. The UIGE Act will be a bad memory in 3 years when we finally kill it. But all the effort, money and time put in to right this wrong could have been used to actually regulate and develop the online industry. It could have been used to create technology, expertise and well-paying careers – to lead the way through this growing international market.

But no, because of the special-interest politicians who un-democratically pushed it through when no one was looking, the UIGE Act will cause needless harm to the American people and damage the reputation of one of this country’s greatest traditions – Poker.

Bill Frist, Jim Leach and Jon Kyl – you will be held accountable for your corruptive practices and un-American acts.

Because Poker is America.

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While online gambling giant PartyGaming was having coffee with 888 Holdings, owners of Casino-On-Net and Pacific Poker, regarding possible merger talks to stem the rapid decline of their business, 888 was out back schmoozing Ladbrokes, one of the UK’s largest traditional gaming companies. Opinion on who has the early lead goes to Ladbrokes, as their business is much more stable than PartyGaming.

PartyGaming, owners of PartyPoker, laid off almost half their workforce on Friday and issued a statement that more cuts are expected. And remember, these are jobs in the UK and Gibralter, so the US ban continues to have vast economic impact on major companies from other countries.

Though Ladbrokes operates an online division that offers sportsbetting, casino, poker and skill games, their bread-and-butter for over 120 years has been their land-based betting shops. So they bring a possible stability to 888 that Party just can’t offer. You can read the entire article at the International Herald Tribune.