For those who are fans of Real Time with Bill Maher on Comedy Central (and if you're not, you should be), you'll know that irreverent looks at politics are his main fare. And if you watch the show, you know that one of his contributors is Matt Taibbi, an irreverent writer with credentials such as Rolling Stone Magazine. Taibbi typically takes no prisoners and he took a shot at the i-gaming industry this week.
In a piece on the Democratic Convention, he began at the "free speech" zone which looked like a ghost town. Then, he moved on to the rash of lobbyist sponsored parties which were going on all over town. At that point, he heard that there was a poker tournament going on (organized by the Poker Players Alliance) and he tried to get in. Although you never can be sure about the brutal editing he does, a rather ineffectual tournament gatekeeper was featured with a true "deer in the headlights" look. When he was refused entrance to the poker tournament for not being on the list, he proceeded to blast the internet gambling lobby (which had legislation pending in Congress) as he would any other big lobby.
So does that mean that i-gaming has "arrived" if they draw the ire of liberal pundits who go after lobbying interest for "big business"? Perhaps. We won't really be able to say that until we're successful getting a proactive piece of legislation passed.
In the mean time, we'll keep an eye out for when this Real Time piece is posted to the internet and make it available.