One of the fast growing activities in American is playing poker often for money on-line. Now new law targets the internet casinos and the cashes they pay out. CBS news correspondent Jim Acosta tells us, the winners are not happy.

Internet poker player, Spencer Smith, spent 2 hours a day at the casino on his couch for good reason. I've done well, it got me through college. It got you through college. But for Smith and the other 10 million on-line gamblers, all bets might be off. Legislation that could pull the plug on thousand of internet casino sites is now attached to the new port security bill that is expected to be signed into the law today.

Play poker on-line
In a measure could topple a 12 billion dollars a year juggernaut that gives amateurs a taste of the action on those widely popular TV poker tournaments. Conservative groups said these sites praying on gambling addicts operating off-shore under the radar of law enforcement . That's necessary because the damages that we've seen in gambling and especially anonymous gambling on the internet. The new law won't make it a crime to play poker on-line, instead it will block banks from processing gambling winning, which is why draws the players are now cashing in their virtual chips.

I pull out the Party Poker and stop playing immediately.
While Jeff Markley with the gambling trade magazine "Bluff" has closed one of his on-line poker accounts, he says players are plotting ways to move their winnings through third party web sites. They're never going to be able to stop the means of funding gambling accounts. Industry observers fear many internet gamblers will simply turn to black market on-line casinos.

The bad things about the law is that it's really drive out the operator who would be the, the most reputable. For this new law to work, the governmnet would have to ante up the money to police on-line gambling. Until that happens, laptop aces like Spencer Smith are nowhere near ready to fold.
Jim Acosta . CBS news, Atlanta

Some poker players also complain the new law protect other forms of gambling like horse racing and lotteries.