Last year, President Bush made waves in the gambling community when he signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act in the Summer of 2006. The new law cleared up a lot of the ambiquity in the antiquated wording of the Wire Act of 1967; and, finally made it clearly illegal for offshore casinos to take online wagers from U.S. citizens. And moreover, the arrest of former BetOnSports.com CEO Peter Carruthers made it absolutely clear that the United States was enforcing a no-tolerance policy on online sportsbooks who chose to ignore the new legislation.

But, when word came out that Online Poker sites would also suffer the same fate; the issue became the subject of intense debate among noteworthy politicians and congressional lobbyists. According to the Poker Players of America, Poker is not a "game of chance" and should be protected from the wrath of the Internet Gambling Act, which was orignally intended to target rogue terrorists groups and tighten Port Security. However, debate rages on between poker players and Congress. And for the time being, online poker sites can continue to take wagers; but only at their own risk.

Fortunately for Kentucky Derby fans, horseracing has continued to receive an exemption by the United States government with regard to all forms of gambling legislation; both online and offline. And believe me, many people have been taking advantage. There are a number of horse racing sites on the net where you can bet on races all over the world; and, still others that allow you to race and breed virtual horses and win thousands of dollars in real cash in the process.

One of the most popular virtual horse racing sites on the Internet is HorseRacingPark.com. At Horse Racing Park, you start off by purchasing a virtual horse. It is your responsiblity to train your horse in order to qualify for virtual horseraces that take place every day. The cool thing is that at HorseRacingPark.com, you can race your horses on all the real tracks, and win real prize money as well. In addition, I know of stable owners who have sold their entire stable of horses for over $4,000 dollars. So check out HorseRacingPark.com when you get a free moment. I'm sure I'll see you over there!

In case you missed it, Mark Cuban and his golfing buddies from Wall Street and Google Enterprises came up with a really great idea after a couple of beers, a round of golf, and a few high fives on the 18th tee. They decided to start a new football league called the UFL; and, the first game is scheduled for August 2008. The United Football League plans to have teams in 8 major cities across America. Cuban has agreed to purchase a franchise in Las Vegas for $30 million dollars - think about how many hungry children that could feed; and, other teams are being planned in Los Angeles, Orlando, San Antonio, and even Mexico City.

The owners are Wall Street wiz Bill Hambrecht, a former partner in the USFL's Oakland Invaders; and, Internet mogul Tim Armstrong, a senior executive at Google. Unlike the USFL, XFL, and Arena Football Leagues, the owners of the UFL plan on taking the NFL "head-on" during the months of September through January. However, before we bid farewell to our great samurai warriors - going off to battle armed only with their bare hands; we would like to acknowledge a couple of interesting wrinkles in their battle plan. First, UFL games will be played on Friday nights; with their only major competition being High School Football. In addition, the league plans to eventually sell shares of each franchise to the public so that the fans will actually own a third of each team.

Unfortunately, given what I have heard thus far, the UFL may not even raise enough money to pay for my '94 Toyota pickup based on their ourtrageous plans and even more outrageous strategy; or lack thereof. I scoured the Internet today to try and find updates on the new league; but, there has been nothing released since June 3rd - the date on which the news story first broke.

Mark Cuban clearly felt the urgency to throw himself headlong into a new venture after reeling from the effects of the meltdown in Dallas after the Mavericks made NBA history by being the only #1 seed to lose to a #8 seed in the NBA Playoffs. Cuban is obviously mourning right now and the rest of America is watching it unfold with the Mavericks owner on center stage- much like Jordan's run with the Birmingham Barons after the passing of his father. And similarly, Cuban's chances of hitting it big w/ the UFL are about as improbable as Jordan's chances were of making contact with a 98 mile per hour fastball.  

What's so unfortunate about this story is that even if the UFL is somewhat competitive and entertaining, the NFL has so much power that it will be able to bully its competition out of the ring with sheer brute force. Many say that the NFL will create more teams or gain exclusive rights to cable and satellite providers in order to drive the competition out of the market - similar to what Madden did to NFL football video games. Let's be real, it is all but certain that the UFL will be buried alongside its fallen comrades. And like all of the others, its commemorative headstone will read, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."