Home / Poker News December 2010 / Poker bill not attached to Tax bill
Poker bill not attached to Tax bill
Posted by: James Carter. - Sat, 2010-12-11 09:50
The 44-page Tax bill put forth by the senate a couple of days ago, which – according to some rumors – was supposed to have a bill legalizing online poker (but not online gambling) in the US attached, did not have provisions regarding online poker whatsoever. The
online poker community’s hopes were high after hearing (and reading) about Sen. Harry Reid’s intentions to attach his online poker bill to the Tax Bill, the main focus of the lame-duck session of Congress, as that would’ve practically guaranteed the bill’s passing.
Reid, whose intention was to appease some of his Nevada-based backers through the law, ran into stiff opposition from the usual sources: Sen. John Kyl and several other high ranking capitol Hill officials opposed the idea of legal online poker staunchly, and even some who didn’t particularly want online poker to stay illegal supported the idea of keeping Reid’s bill away from the President’s controversial Tax-cut initiative.
What Reid’s failure to attach his online poker bill to the Tax bill means is that there will be no legal online poker in the US this year. The fact however, that the cause of legal online poker has gained a formidable supporter in Harry Reid remains. His online poker bill has by no means been brushed aside, rather it’s been shelved to be pulled out again at a later time.
According to some inside sources, the focus of Reid’s efforts is the appeasement of MGM and Harrah’s, huge live gambling interests which have contributed massively to his re-election.
Even though Reid will probably continue to champion the cause of online poker, according to experts, if the bill is not passed during the lame-duck session, the odds of it being passed in 2011 are pretty much non-existent.
US-based online poker players will therefore have to wait quite a bit more until their legal status is fully clarified on a federal level.
