Lawyer pessimistic on Frank bill

[The Buzz]

Las Vegas-based online gambling expert Tony Cabot was in Amersterdam last week at the International Masters of Gaming Law conference. He is not too confident that online gambling will be legalized and regulated at the federal level in the U.S.

He put the chances of Barney Frank's bill being passed at five percent.

From RecentPoker.com

“Nothing is going to happen this year,” Cabot predicted. “Barney Frank has already pushed his [legislative proposal HR 2267] back, and once we get into next year we will be into an election cycle. The Democrats in particular are under a lot of stress at the moment and the last thing the Democrats want to get involved in is an unpopular fight because the Republicans would be all over it.”

[JeterForHOF]

Interesting story. Thanks for the heads up. I hope he is wrong!

Who knows? These stories always can get the imagination running. I hope Frank (or anyone) gets a new law passed so we can have a regulated and safe casino and poker selection in the US. ASAP!

I get PokerStars money in and out, so far so good... But it would be better if there were more options of course!

[smathe77]

I don't think online poker regulation will happen either. It's just too much of a longshot and so far none of the initiatives came even close to changing anything...

[JonOfFinsbury]

I think some of you are being too pessimistic. In my view, some or total legalisation of online gambling is inevitable: the revenue that can be raised my taxing egaming is huge, and is really just money for nothing from the point of view of the the authorities that will take it. And in a recession, with huge public spending to boost the economy, any source of tax revenue is welcome.

However I think Tony Cabot may well be right in thinking that legalisation won't be via Frank's bill (or Menendez's). I think that legalisation is actually much more likely to happen at state level than at federal. Why would states want to give up money and control to federal authorities when they can keep it for themselves?

Calfornia has already made a lot of progress: http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/indu...pva-says.thtml