Home / Poker News July 2011 / Raymond Lesniak Writes to Attorney General
Raymond Lesniak Writes to Attorney General
Posted by: Mark Baldwing - Fri, 2011-07-29 10:11
New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak is well known to supporters of legal online poker. Last year, the Senator managed to pen legislation and to push it through the legislative channels, which would have legalized intra-state
online poker and gambling in the Garden State, had it not been for the last minute veto of Governor Chris Christie.
The spotlight is yet again on Lesniak. In response to US Senators’ John Kyl and Harry Reid’s letter sent to US Attorney General Eric Holder about a week ago, in which the two requested more severe penalties against those who facilitate online gambling in the US, as well as the clarification of the Attorney’s position regarding intra-state online gambling – which should be illegal under federal law too, according to the two above named Senators – Lesniak sent a letter to the Attorney General as well, decrying the offensive nature of the aforementioned legislators’ letter.
Reid and Kyl had asked the attorney to adopt a tougher stance on online gambling in general be it of the federal or intrastate variety. They have also scolded the DoJ for having allowed companies like
PokerStars and
Full Tilt Poker to operate relatively undisturbed right up till Black Friday.
According to Lesniak’s letter, many of the assertions conveyed by Senators Kyl and Reid have no anchor in fact or in law. Obviously, it was the part against legal intrastate online gambling that Lesniak protested most vehemently.
According to Lesniak, there is no basis in Federal law to prevent individual states from pursuing their own legal frameworks regarding online poker and gambling.
While the language in the Kyl/Reid letter was positively disheartening for the poker community, many put a positive spin on it, by asserting that it was in fact the prelude of some future online gambling/poker law that Kyl would potentially support.
One thing is certain, having poker and gambling legalized on state level is not currently in the best interests of either the online gambling or the online poker industries.
