The oncoming legalization of online poker charges ahead this week with more lawmakers “seeing the light” or at least the potential revenue dollars that online gambling could add to state coffers. News broke Friday that Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval signed a bill that would pave the way for licensing and regulation of online gambling in the state. The bill gives the Nevada Gaming Commission (the agency that regulates all gambling in the state) until this January to develop rules that would govern online gambling activities. However, those rules would not be implemented until the federal government passes some kind of legislation that officially legalizes online gambling. A graph of the odds of that happening would probably look something like a rollercoaster track. Yet, the events of the last three months make it appear as though legalization in some form or another is more likely than ever.
This past March long-time Internet gaming advocate Democrat Rep. Barney Frank teamed up with the newly minted Republican Rep. John Campbell of California and Republican Rep. Peter King of New York to introduce a new bill to legalize, regulate, and tax online gambling. Then on April 15, the Department of Justice shut down the most popular online poker sites serving Americans. Black Friday, as that day became known, was quickly followed by “Blue Monday” with federal prosecutors in Baltimore shutting down still more sites. The DOJ smack-down was preceded by several states taking independent action to legalize intrastate online gambling within their borders (including the District of Columbia, which did pass a budget measure legalizing the activity in the District).
In June news got out that Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas had drafted legislation that would classify poker as a game of skill — paving the way for its official exemption from the “gambling” laws that have allowed federal agents to prosecute online poker as illegal gambling. Barton, the former head of the Energy and Commerce Congressional Subcommittee, has asked the current head to introduce the legislation in the committee, which would vastly increase its chance of passing.
Even Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, one of the most long-standing and vocal opponents of legalizing online gambling, has softened his stance in recent weeks. In an interview with The Las Vegas Sun, Rep. Bachus said that he was “not opposed” to considering Barton’s proposal… “But if there’s gambling, it has to be regulated.”
With states taking action to legalize the activity intra-state, conservatives changing their tune, and the PR disaster that federal prosecution of online gamblers has turned into, it’s a good bet that some type of federal legislation legalizing and taxing online poker will make it through Congress this year.
RSS Updates 
RSS E-Mail Updates 
Twitter 
Facebook 
CEI.org 
WorkPlaceChoice.org 
GlobalWarming.org 
CEI On Demand Video 
Liberty Week Podcast 
They need to add Blackjack to the games of skill.
hope they have a country wide site because at least half of the regular players are tournament players and it needs to have alot of members that why poker stars was huge because of tournaments the law in washington d.c. only having d.c. residents able to play would be worthless for tournament players would be like bodog is now hope they have enough sense to max there revenues
I’m all for regulating and taxing online poker but the unfortunate truth is we’re still years away from any sort of viable offering going to market.
Various attempts have been made each year since 206 when the UIGEA was passed to legalize online poker in various states (even with the backing of prominent politicians) but given the conservative fervor in the US at the moment it’s next to impossible to get your rank-and-file politician to stand up and vote in favor of gambling in any form, skill-based or not.
Seth your totally wrong there are a ton of viable offerings that are available to go to market right away. Online poker has flourished over the last couple of years with some big london stock exchange companies building out software. Perfect example is party poker. They could come in day one and offer a great experience with payment processing and fraud/security protection built in. Plus they can verify players which will be a big obstacle for companies. There is software out there called Aristotle that can verify customers to the poker sites.
The true problem with all of these bills is the fact that its only going to be open to existing brick and mortar casinos. All of them have zero experience in online gambling, and in my view they will totally mess up the industry going forward with probably sub-par software.
Another thing that its missing is international play. The US is all about open markets but in regards to poker its going to be a closed market to the US brick and mortar casinos.
Comments on this entry are closed.
{ 1 trackback }