Home / Poker News December 2010 / Online poker to be legalized next week?
Online poker to be legalized next week?
Posted by: Randy Williams - Tue, 2010-12-07 02:25
When there’s a will there’s a way – they say, and apparently, enough will has finally been mustered on Capitol Hill to pass legislation making online poker legal during this lame-duck session of the Senate and House.
Harry Reid is apparently dead serious about pushing this bill through, so much so that it is rumored he’s working out behind the scenes deals with House and Senate leaders to have the bill attached to a legislative package which is expected to be passed as early as next week.
A draft version of the bill is already available online, but a final version is likely to be made public within the next 24-48 hours.
Rumour also has it that the bill has already been attached to a larger bill, which is usually a sign that both houses have agreed on it and that legal
internet poker is well on its way towards becoming reality.
By the looks of things, the only question remaining now is how good this poker bill will be for the players. After all, there are quite a few provisions in there which may not resonate well with the community. Overall, the essentials seem to be well thought out though. The oportunity shall be given to a large selection of online poker interests to obtain licences, and that includes online poker giants
PokerStars and
Full Tilt Poker too. This sort of competiton will enable the industry to keep rake levels at their current rates. The 20% tax that shall aparently be levied on player deposits will be small enough that the sites won’t be forced to raise rake levels to transfer the costs to their players.
Also cause for concern is the fact that the awarding of the first licenses shall be preceded by a hiatus of 15 months (probably designed to give US based operators time to catch up with the industry front-runners).
