Annie Duke Says On National Television Online Poker is Illegal
WSOP bracelet winner Annie Duke was a guest on Monday on the CBS talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. The purpose of her visit was to hype her new book “Decide to Play Great Poker” as well as to talk about the Epic Poker League.
If not for one statement made, most of the poker world would have dismissed this interview as a glorified fluff piece. However, at one point, Ferguson asked Duke whether or not playing poker was illegal. Her response was “only online.”
This statement surprised many in the poker community, especially due to the fact that Duke was a sponsored pro by UB and was with the site during the old UltimateBet.com days. Duke left the site in late December to supposedly pursue “non-poker” business opportunities. Soon after, she was announced as the new commissioner of the Epic Poker League.
The speculation as to what Duke meant in her interview has cause some debate with many thinking that she said that it was illegal due to the fact that the big three sites were indicted by the US Department of Justice on April 15th. Some feel that since her league centers around live poker play online, that she is hyping her own league with the statement that the online game is illegal.
In either case, this comes at a bad time for the online poker community. Full Tilt Poker, a company where Duke’s brother Howard Lederer is a reported owner, has still yet to repay player funds and is currently in a state of shutdown pending a trial by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission over its license.
Also, UB has yet to repay any US players and has nearly lost all of its traffic as it appears that the conspiracy theorist may have been right all along with the assumptions that the company would fold if pressed
In addition, there are rumors beginning to swirl that the Merge Gaming Network may face charges from the US DOJ. Rumor has it that the DOJ will seize funds and property from payment processors sometime this month. Those rumors are still such as no quotable source has stepped forward.
