"Senate Leadership Accused of Secret Plan to Legalize U.S. Online Gambling"

[Big City Jack]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-02/senate-accused-of-secret-plan-to-legalize-u-s-online-gambling.html

[davenewgates]

“Congress should not take advantage of the young, the weak and the vulnerable in the name of new revenues.”

They're still putting up that issue against the legislation of online gambling..

[thepokerkeep]

Representatives Spencer Bachus, Dave Camp and Lamar Smith, all in line to be committee chairmen with oversight of online gambling when Republicans take control of the House in January, said they have learned that the Senate may attach a measure to “must-pass” legislation during the current lame-duck session.

Sound familiar?

Approving such controversial legislation by attaching it to another bill would be “a secretive, closed-door, undemocratic process,” they said.

Really?

Funny how history has a habit of repeating itself. And actually quite funny that the legalization process may actually happen in the same way that the UIGEA came into existence. Poetic justice?

[TonygPAS]

Poetic justice indeed Terry. At least I hope so. This bill is extremely intriguing and probably our best shot at a regulated US market in the next 2 years.

[graham]

Sound familiar?

LOL... I was thinking the exact same thing. At least those ports are safe now though, right?

[TonygPAS]

A copy of the new Harry Reid Internet Poker bill was released on the web this afternoon by the Las Vegas Review Journal. This bill will need to go through before the Holiday recess in DC.

You can find a PDF copy of the bill below. Keep in mind this is not the final draft of the bill. PPA Lawyers and Board Members are confident that the final draft of the bill will be more "player friendly". Specifically, that the Orderly Transition provisions will be reduced in time or eliminated. Part of the Orderly Transition provision calls for a 15 month period where no operator will receive a license (meaning no online poker in the US for 15 months).

Draft of Bill: http://media.lvrj.com/documents/Inte...ct_of_2010.pdf

If you don't want to read through the 75 page bill, check out a great summary by Pokerati here: http://pokerati.com/2010/12/03/summa...forcement-act/

Notables:

- only existing US licensed gaming companies (or tribes) who have been in operation for 5+ years would be eligible for an Internet License (Harrah's, MGM, etc)
- current operators would have to wait 2 years before applying for a license (no Poker Stars, Full Tilt for at least 2 years)
- any state in the US that currently offers land based poker would be automatically opted in: California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. These states CAN opt out.
- all other states would need to opt in (decided by the Governor)
- US players would be ring fenced (ie, not allowed to play with non-US players) However, the bill does leave an opening for International play (probably to protect itself from the WTO).
- Taxes? "A licensee under the Bill is required to pay not later than 15 days after the end of each calendar month an Internet poker license fee equal to 20% of the licensee’s Internet poker deposit receipts for that calendar month."

[grem]

That would certainly be poetic justice

I find it shocking this is how the legal system works in the US

[wagerjunction]

Found this on lasvegasvegas.com while I was roaming around looking for articles about that bill:

Legal Internet poker will produce billions in tax revenues that will be shared by states and the federal government while providing players a high degree of security through time-proven intense scrutiny of the legal Internet poker rooms. Online poker players will enjoy a level of protection from cheats and scams plus a guarantee of honest games, something that has been missing from current offshore Internet poker rooms.

I am so thoroughly disgusted by the way they use, abuse and then discard the 'people' just to turn things to their advantage.

Protect players my a**. They are just looking for ways to refill their coffers (and their pockets while they are at it)

[JoeAdams]

This issue sounds interesting. It's very intriguing. And the bill, I think is odd.

[wagerjunction]

Tell me about it. It's enough to turn any normal individual right out crazy

[LuckyLizzy]

I wish that someone would begin a website that turns all the political mumbo jumbo of bills into something we can all understand. I'm not stupid but it is really annoying to read and decipher the exact meaning behind all the sophisticated nonsense. In my opinion they do it just to make it hard for us to know what the heck it going on.

I went to vote for the first time and was shocked when I got my ballot. It was like gambling. I didn't really know for sure on some of them so I just left them blank.

If someone would create a site which translates this information into something we could understand easily it would be a huge help. Or they could just write the bills out in plain English in the first place and it wouldn't be a problem! Sorry for venting but it's really annoying.

I bet half the people in politics don't even know for sure what they are voting on exactly.

[GamTrak]

I wish that someone would begin a website that turns all the political mumbo jumbo of bills into something we can all understand. I'm not stupid but it is really annoying to read and decipher the exact meaning behind all the sophisticated nonsense. In my opinion they do it just to make it hard for us to know what the heck it going on.

I went to vote for the first time and was shocked when I got my ballot. It was like gambling. I didn't really know for sure on some of them so I just left them blank.

If someone would create a site which translates this information into something we could understand easily it would be a huge help. Or they could just write the bills out in plain English in the first place and it wouldn't be a problem! Sorry for venting but it's really annoying.

I bet half the people in politics don't even know for sure what they are voting on exactly.

LOL Hey Liz, I'm sure you are not alone. That is exactly what happened in the Obamacare bill. They had to settle for crap in order to get it done and then go back and fix it in the future. It's just mind boggling to me how messed up our government system is the sad part is that it's suppose to be the most prefered in the world.

In order to keep up you have to do a lot of work, but it helps to watch cnn, msnbc & fox so that you get a well rounded view and not just one side.