The largest pot of money in the history of online poker was won on Monday November 16, 2009 by Patrik Antonius. The largest pot in the history of online poker went for a total of $3 million. The downside of this historic event is that online gambling will become illegal on December 1, 2009 with the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The bill was originally passed on September 30, 2006 but has been delayed for the past couple of years. When December 1 rolls around it will become illegal for banks to process any transactions that are in relation to online gambling websites and online gambling tournaments.

Online poker continues to boom across the United States but come December 1, 2009 online poker will be considered illegal if money changes hand from a loser to a winner or from an entrant in a tournament to the person running the tournament. Poker players across the country have been emailing their state representatives and ‘tweeting for poker’ trying to get the start date of the law pushed back once again or give the game of poker an exemption.

Timothy Geithner was also petitioned by the Poker Players Alliance for a delay of the enforcement of the new law. The alliance has yet to receive a response back from Geithner about their petition, which is not a good sign whatsoever. One way to keep internet gambling legal is to regulate the way poker is played online by the Treasury and the Fed, which would raise a lot of taxes for the government and still allow poker players to enjoy their favorite game online.