Home / Poker News March 2012 / Federal Online Poker under Fire from National Conference of State Legislatures
Federal Online Poker under Fire from National Conference of State Legislatures
Posted by: Randy Williams - Sat, 2012-03-03 10:08
The issue of federally legalized online poker has come up in several congressional hearings since the DoJ’s about-face decision regarding the 1961 Wire Act in December. The general position of everyone concerned is that federal regulation carries more than a handful of advantages over state level regulation, not only in the size and quality of the games on offer, but also on the level of the actual regulation process.
The question no longer seems to be whether or not
online poker will get legalized, but whether it will happen on a state or federal level. Not everyone has jumped onto the federal regulation bandwagon though. A few days ago, Hawaii Sen. Carol Fukunaga and Alabama Rep. Greg Wren have submitted a letter to both parties in Congress regarding the position of the National Conference of State Legislatures in the matter. According to the letter, the NCSL is by no means for federal regulation. The two NCSL representatives have asked the federal government to respect the DoJ’s ruling in the matter and they have expressed their opposition to federal authority preempting state authority in this case.
According to the two above named lawmakers, who are the co-chairmen of the NCSL’s Communication, Financial Services and Interstate Commerce Committee, Congress should respect the sovereignty of individual states and thus not force them to submit to any sort of federal legislation in the matter of online poker and gambling.
According to the letter, the NCSL believes that leaving the regulation of the above said activities to the states would be a logical decision based on their track record in this respect. The federal government should also respect the rights of individual states to opt out of online poker/gambling regulation and to stick to prohibiting the said activities if they so wish.
The position of the NCSL is therefore opposed to the one taken by the representatives of various Indian Nations, who support federal regulation over state-level regulation as the latter would make it a privilege rather than a right for tribes to offer such services in the future.
