iGaming Prohibition "Hearing" Today in Iowa

[Vallerius]

Igamingnews.com reported last night that Iowa Representative James Leach and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist are holding a “field hearing” in Cedar Rapids, Iowa today to discuss legislative efforts to prohibit Internet gambling. Leach is author of part of the prohibition bill (the part that deals with financial transactions to be precise) that passed the House by a vote of 317-93 in July, while Frist is the most powerful member of the Senate so his support is therefore essential if the bill is to be successful.

The field hearing has absolutely no bearing on legislative matters in Washington whatsoever, and in fact the structure of the event appears to resemble a press conference. One of Igamingnews’ sources in Washington said that it was Frist’s staff who first began to research the idea on Monday and that they spent about three days putting it together.
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Said the source, “Frist is doing this because he wants to run for president in 2008, and Iowa, with its first-in-the-nation party caucuses, plays an outsized role in helping to pick the nominees of each party. Frist is guessing that this will buy him some goodwill with social conservatives in Iowa… Leach is doing this, obviously, because he wants Frist to push his bill through the Senate.”
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Besides Frist and Leach, other speakers on hand to oppose Internet gambling include Merton Hanks, a former football player and current senior manager of football operations at NFL headqurters, Mark Vander Linden, director of Iowa Department of Health’s Gambling Treatment Program, and Jeff Peterzalek, Deputy Attorney General for Litigation. Of course no representatives from the online gambling industry or any proponents of online gambling regulation are listed on the card. Igamingnews reports however that Michael Bolcerek, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, has planned to attend and that he has encouraged all Iowa-based members of the PPA to do the same.
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For all intents and purposes, the current status of the gambling prohibition bill in the Senate remains the same. The Senate has been in recess since early August and does not reconvene until next week. The Senate schedule has lately been packed with so many issues that are of higher priority and less controversy that it seems that not enough time remains in the legislative calendar to pass the legislation, but today’s “field hearing” does at least indicate that the issue is on Frist’s agenda, and that perhaps it is actually a higher priority than originally thought after all.

[1CasinoListing]

Hmmm... Wouldn't it be funny if there would be more people there that are against this bill then supporters of it.

Lets hope there are a lot of PPA members in IOWA that show up.

[big fish]

thanks for the post. it will be interesting to see what comes of this in the next few days. i would like to be a fly on the wall for this one. anyone here from iowa? maybe you can give us the inside scoop...

[Vallerius]

I'll try to talk to Bolcerek from the PPA tomorrow and see what he has to say about it.