A report about cheating in online poker that aired Sunday on the American television program “60 Minutes” contained no new information for PokerHelper.com readers.

PokerHelper.com readers learned months ago about the cheating scandals at two popular online poker rooms, Absolute Poker (www.absolutepoker.com) and Ultimate Bet (www.ultimatebet.com), that were featured on the “60 Minutes” report.

In addition, the prime reason given by the program for the scandals–that there was no real regulation of the online poker rooms, because the Indian tribe in Canada that runs the rooms also regulates them–was also fully reported and explained by PokerHelper.com months ago.

There was one piece of information, however, that was reported on the “60 Minutes” piece that was never reported on PokerHelper.com: the “fact” that online poker is illegal in the USA.

It is not.

There are no laws in the USA against playing online poker, either for fun or for real money.

What the befuddled folks at “60 Minutes” likely were referring to when they incorrectly said online poker is illegal in the USA is that it is illegal for American banks and credit card companies to process credit card transactions between gamblers and online gambling sites.

That law–the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act or UIGEA–went into effect in the USA in 2006.

UIGEA does nothing, however, to prevent gamblers from sending monies to and collecting monies from online poker and other online gambling sites via other means, such as cash, checks or Western Union money transfers.

And UIGEA certainly says nothing about the legality–or illegality–of online poker or any other kind of online gambling in the USA.

It’s a shame, really, that “60 Minutes” got such an important fact wrong, because the error really colors the message of their report.

Instead of TV viewers coming away thinking that customers of a legal and legitimate business were ripped off by cheaters, the viewers came away thinking that customers engaging in an illegal activity were ripped off.

When robbers rob innocent people, there’s outrage.

When robbers rob each other, nobody cares.

And when nobody cares, nothing changes.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)