Home / Poker News December 2012 / No Poker Bill in 2012
No Poker Bill in 2012
Posted by: Randy Williams - Sat, 2012-12-15 05:33
With all the recent hype and bi-partisan support, the window for the passing of an
online poker bill in the US has closed for the year. According to David Krone, Harry Reid’s chief of staff, the Senate Majority Leader has run out of time on the bill. Krone has acknowledged that there would be another window for federal legalization next year, but he also expressed pessimism about the success of another initiative. The window on federal legalization and regulation is fast closing because states appear more and more eager to get something going within their own back yards, so it’s highly likely state level legalization will begin next year.
According to the PPA’s John Pappas, a tremendous amount of progress was made this year, but the lack of any kind of federal progress was extremely disappointing indeed.
State-level legalization is already well underway. Nevada has begun licensing companies for its own online poker market and it now looks like the actual operations will be set up during the first half of next year.
New Jersey lawmakers are apparently keen on passing similar legislation too, especially in light of the fact that it looks like
PokerStars have chosen the Garden State as their re-entry point to the US online poker market.
According to Pappas, the PPA will definitely back any and all moves by Sen. Harry Reid in the right direction on the federal level, but as states start striking out on their own, the PPA needs to spearhead those efforts as well.
Unlike in years past, the poker bill pushed this time by Harry Reid had bi-partisan support. It defined poker as a game of skill, thus separating it from online gambling, which made it highly likely to pass. The slip-up this time was on a technicality: the lack of a suitable vehicle to attach the bill to.
