Alliance supports online gaming regulation

The Review-Journal carried a two-part Washington Post series Sunday and Monday detailing an Internet wagering scandal where online poker players were cheated out of millions of dollars on the gambling Web sites Ultimatebet.com and AbsolutePoker.com. The newspaper conducted a joint investigation with the CBS news show "60 Minutes," which aired a story on the matter Sunday.

The Poker Players Alliance, a Washington, D.C., lobbying group advocating the legalization of online poker, thought the series could spur Congress into studying whether or not online poker could be regulated.

"The recent cheating scandals underscore the need for U.S. licensing and regulation of online poker to help protect consumers," Poker Players Alliance Chairman Alfonse D’Amato said in a statement. "While even the most highly regulated industries are susceptible to fraud and abuse, regulation does provide assurances that when consumers are harmed they have recourse, and that the offenders will be sanctioned. The continued pursuit of poker prohibition, on the other hand, will only drive this industry underground."

D’Amato is a former Republican U.S. senator from New York.