Home / Poker News April 2012 / Legal Online Poker – Frank Pessimistic
Legal Online Poker – Frank Pessimistic
Posted by: Mark Baldwing - Thu, 2012-04-19 07:19
Online poker’s biggest supporter in the US Congress, Barney Frank has announced the other day that he wasn’t at all optimistic about the chances of online poker legislation being passed in 2012. Given the fact that he has announced his retirement next January when he won’t seek re-election, that also means Frank won’t be around when a poker bill eventually passes in the future. Although he pretty much said online gambling and poker legislation was out of the question for this year, Frank also said there may be a slim chance for such a bill to be included in a wider package and passed during the lame duck session between the November elections and the year’s end, but he added that he thought other issues would replace the online poker/gambling deal in that package.
While he essentially gave up on the legalization and regulation of online gambling and poker, Frank expressed optimism that proper legislation in this respect would pass within the next couple of years. He said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wanted to do it, together with a bunch of other people on Capitol Hill. Eventually, even Sen. John Kyl, the largest ever opponent of legal online gaming, has apparently gotten onboard, although his support is far from assured.
Franks first legal initiative regarding online gambling dates back to 2007, when he submitted a proposal which garnered no support from legislators.
He has been on the legalization warpath since, but come January, he will hand the reins of the legalization campaign to someone else. The actual circumstances for online gambling legalization have never been this favorable according to Frank and that stems not from the effects of Black Friday or the mail campaign launched by several pro-legalization groups, but rather from the new interpretation of the 1961 Wire Act, which has created legal chaos around the issue, chaos which needs to be eliminated through a bill.
