by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Feb 10, 2012 | Updated on Feb 10, 2012Everyone around the world is by now familiar with the adverse situation that most American online poker players are currently stuck in. More recently though, the newest government crackdown on online poker has happened in Spain. Spain’s government wants a piece of the pie that is a big money maker in the country.Spanish gaming authorities like the lottery want to be able to provide the service of online poker to their citizens because they know the amount of revenue that can be raked in. The government in Spain wants to quarantine Spanish players from the rest of the world. If the regulations go like they are supposed to, online poker in Spain will be an intrastate thing where only Spanish players can play. This is much like the current online poker situations in Italy and France. This may seem unfair in so many ways, but the EU has upheld their rulings in France and Italy, and it looks like Spain will not face any EU opposition either.In addition to Spain, Belgium and Portugal are two more countries that are looking to segregate their players from the rest of the world. This move is labeled as being very greedy by most poker players, because it is obvious that these governments want the money that private companies are getting from providing online poker. It is unfair too, because a lot of these sites and networks have been established for a very long time and have operated within the legality of the law, there is no reason why they should be shut down. It is understandable that a government needs to bring in revenue, but I do not think it is very just to bring in money at the expense of other people. If enough nations pick up this kind of regulation, we will start seeing some of our favorite online poker sites disappear.
