Phil Ivey, one the most reputed online poker professionals and winner of WSOP main events has decided not to participate in this year’s World Series of Poker. Ivey is doing this in protest against the US online poker site Full Tilt Poker, which has not yet paid out all its players after the Black Friday incident.

Oskar Garcia, a reporter for the Associated Press, recently discussed the status of the US online poker industry. When questioned regarding the absence of Phil Ivey in the World Series of Poker this year, Oskar Garcia accepted that this would have a major impact on the WSOP since most US online poker fans come out to watch him play.

US online poker has become extremely popular in the country on account of its legendary players and Phil Ivey is a big player. People associate him with the best of poker faces and the perfect composure of a confident poker player who does not give away any information regarding himself through his appearance. That is the level of deception that enabled him to be the legend that he is.

Oskar Garcia went on to equate the incident with Michael Jordan was not playing the NBA Finals. Garcia agreed that the casino industry has been pushing the legalization of online poker to a large extent and they have been focusing on the revenues that would be generated if that were the case. The industry in itself would generate $6 billion in revenue every year and that is a huge amount that cannot be overlooked. Not to mention, the number of jobs and increase in employment rate that would occur due to the legalization of online poker.

While the lobbyists used this angle, the opponents are completely against any kind of online gambling and in this scenario even other games might get affected. Online poker was the one that was targeted since it hangs in the balance between being called the game of skill or that of chance. There are even some in the casino industry who are against this legalization since they think it would take out all other competition and the land-based casinos will take huge hit, in terms of business and revenues.

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