Phil Ivey Wins the War on Terror
STRIP #34
This one's probably in my top five, so it figures that I didn't come up with the idea. Drawn0ut from the PokerXFactor forums suggested it to me -- a money laundering terrorist gets hooked on the game and loses all the funds. Hard to believe that Bill Frist actually used this as a reason to ban online gambling. There's no proof that terrorists have ever used poker sites to launder money and it doesn't make much sense for them to do so.
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posted by Bobby Crosby at 12:36 AM
11 Comments:
Man, these get worse and worse
Justin - shut your hole.
Bobby - awesome strip, I think it has been well received all round. I love the strip and it's good that when it comes to things as serious as terrorists we can shrug them off and poke(r) fun at them.
I look forward to Mondays.
In the land of the giant box laptops, perspective is not part of art.
I agree with justin...lame.
yeah dude... The disapointment continues...
Bobby - new reader for the last couple of weeks, so far I'm an avid reader.
However -- I spent 3 years in Costa Rica as the General Manager - Professional Services for a software company supplying wagering and gaming software to the offshore sportsbook industry world-wide.
I can tell you with some authority, as I directly particpated in a number of client's audits for IPO's, as well as countless hours on many client's supervision floors of direct observation, that anyone thinking that utilizing online gaming companies for money laundering isn't happening, is sadly misinformed. (I can also tell you that the writers on The Sopranos are, if anything, moderately understating the reality.)
Reputable wagering businesses in truly legislated, certified, and regulated countries however, have always taken measures to be as responsible to the general public as possible, not only in adhering to regulations both inside and outside their "home countries".
That being said, the sad truth is that unregulated or ineffective or unenforced regulations are in place in many countries where these "businesses" reside, and the heads of these "businesses" don't care where or how the money comes in, only that they get their piece of it before it moves on. The margin on one of these "businesses", by the way, was $995M USD for the year 2001.
I had never observed any of this kind of activity in our client's sites where regulations were in place and enforced.
In the end, here's hoping the braindead polititians you folks have currently in office (I'm Canadian...we're past braindeath and into icky, gooey decomposition in the grey matter with the mess we have in office) will someday realize that if anything, prohibition has encouraged, rather than discouraged, almost everything it's been applied to.
Here's also hoping that realizing that acceptance, regulation, and enforcement (where required) would not only rectify some issues quickly, there might be a few bucks for the Treasury along the way, too.
To Justin (and possibly the same goes for aces and kidpoker, but I'm not sure): You've made similar posts in response to almost every comic. Why do you continue to read every strip if you hate it so much?
Inside Edge: Interesting stuff. It's of course possible that terrorists have laundered funds through poker sites, but it seems like there are much better ways for them to do that, and they certainly don't need the poker sites, as Frist makes it sound.
They're not saying online poker sites launder money for terrorists. They're saying online "gambling" sites launder money. And I can back up edge that they most certainly do.
They don't use pokersites but online casino's etc do get used for this.
Remember, online poker is just a tiny piece of this bill and you seem to be confusing poker with online gambling as a whole in your posts.
Hopefully we can get a poker carve-out.
Oh, and as an aside. I absolutely love the strip. Screw the haters, they're obv still reading every one.
Honestly Bobby I keep reading because the idea was so good and it had so much promise...
"Remember, online poker is just a tiny piece of this bill and you seem to be confusing poker with online gambling as a whole in your posts."
Oh, I know that, but I just say "poker sites" sometimes to make it easier for those who aren't familiar with the bill to understand, since it does affect poker sites as well, of course. I've read almost everything there is to read about the bill and what it could mean. And I'm not saying that terrorists have never laundered money through gambling sites (although Corbin is) -- I'm just saying it's ridiculous to use that as a reason to ban online gambling.
From Daniel Negreanu's recent blog post --
"The weasel (remember, that's Bill Frist), claims that online gambling is a way in which terrorists go about laundering money. Come off it? How do you say that with a straight face? Weasel, do you have any proof whatsoever that any terrorist group has used online poker accounts to launder money? Any at all?"
I also want a carve out for poker sites.
I agree with gath about the lackluster punchline (well, lackluster last two panels in general -- too wordy and just couldn't get a good flow going) and about Violet looking great.
Justin, when and how did you discover the strip?
lol, i thought it was really funny. :D
Everyone knows that the reason they are going after online poker is because Vegas and to a lesser fact Atlantic City are lobbying like hell.
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