There are several countries that have already legalized online poker, but many are still in conflict over the law, lets take a look of the situation in some countries:
United States:
After Black Friday there was a lot of confusion brought to the online poker legislation process, legislation will be different in each state, left to the discretion of the same.
-California -law's passage was delayed until January 2012;
-Nevada - online gaming law may be approved later this year;
-Massachusetts - gaming law was presented last Friday;
European Union:
Greece: Law approved and its market is not closed (ie operators do not have to specify a license in that country), operators only have to have a European license (Malta, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Alderney, etc.) operators pay taxes of 30% of their profits and players pay 10% of their profits;
France: Law approved, regulation is made by ARJEL (now is not clear because the Court of Toulouse was decided that poker was a game of skill and as such ARJEL will not have jurisdiction over online poker) the market is closed (only French players can play against them), now it is known that ARJEL will lower the taxes on players and poker rooms, because PokerStars is already threatening to abandon the French market, operators must be licensed in France;
Italy: Law approved, regulation is made by AMMS, the market is closed (Italian players can only play between them), and only recently the players were allowed to play cash games because previously they could only play tournaments and had a maximum of hours that could play per day, operators must be licensed in Italy;
UK Law approved and its market is not closed, players do not have to pay taxes only the operators have to pay 20% of their profits, operators only have to have a European license;
Germany: Law passed, online poker is illegal (country where online poker is most played in the European Union despite the law);
Belgium: They want to make law-like France and Italy but the European Union has threatened sanctions because European rules say there can not be closed markets among the 27 European Union member states;
Russia: Law passed, online poker is illegal (it is the Asian country where poker is more played despite the law);
With online poker legislation already established in several countries, we have several examples of how the legalization of poker can be so good as it can be very bad in others!
We have bad examples like France and Italy that close their markets going against European standards with a completely authoritarian and retrograde attitude, bringing very limited options to their players!
We have excellent examples such as Greece and the UK where there is limitions for the players, do not make ridiculous demands on operators and the tax burden for the players is low.
The hope for European players is that the European Union is against the closure of markets, and also considers valid the European licenses!
A major problem in the legislation is due to the fact that online poker is being placed at the same level of online gambling, a very lucrative market in countries that normally close the markets because they want to maximize its profits! But we have to distinguish the online poker because it has nothing to do with online gambling and as such should not have the same rules as this is not a game of chance!
