Home / Poker News November 2011 / Online Poker Hearings Offer Hope
Online Poker Hearings Offer Hope
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2011-11-22 14:56
Last week, on Capitol Hill two much-hyped hearings have taken place concerning the legal position of online poker. According to reports both of these hearings hit a positive note regarding the game.
Although breaking open the champagne is definitely premature, there was a good vibe about both hearings, in the sense that – like every other Congressional hearing this year – the impression one got watching the proceedings was that lawmakers were working on how to legalize
on line poker rather than debating whether or not to legalize it.
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing was all about the tribes wanting to be included in the drafting of any online poker bill that will be passed, in order to be able to secure equal opportunities with Nevada Casinos when the online poker/gambling rush begins.
The House Subcommittee on Commerce Manufacturing and Trade hearing featured quite a few high-profile witnesses, among them long time legal online poker supporter Barney Frank, John Campbell and a representative of the anti-poker side: Frank Wolf.
Wolf brought the attitude and the arguments one could’ve expected from him: he slammed online gambling as the “crack cocaine of gambling” and he argued that legal online gambling would only offer a windfall to gambling interests, at the expense of the American taxpayer.
Barney Frank struck a conciliatory tone, stating that he was a co-sponsor of Wolf’s bill on the establishing of problem-gambling prevention programs. He also said though that those without a gambling problem should be able to legally use their heard-earned, after-tax monies for gambling on the internet. He also pointed it out that legal online poker and gambling would provide much needed tax revenue while creating jobs and giving one of their most fundamental freedoms back to taxpayers. AGA president Frank Fahrenkopf also testified, together with a last minute addition: Rachel Volberg of the University of Chicago, who specializes in the study of problem gambling. Both Fahrenkopf and Volberg, together with Mark Lipparelli of the NGCC and Charles McIntyre of the New Hampshire Lottery Commission testified in favor of regulation and legalization.
