Home / Poker News November 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – Reid/Kyl Bill in Trouble
The Poker Grapevine – Reid/Kyl Bill in Trouble
Posted by: Mark Baldwing - Thu, 2012-11-29 11:50
The odds of the bipartisan
online poker bill known as the Reid/Kyl bill being pushed through during the lame duck session never appeared particularly rosy, but these last few days they have been pretty much disintegrating in front of our eyes. The reason for pessimism is certainly there, since the already flimsy odds of the bill’s passing have been marred by hostility between Harry Reid and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, another lawmaker who has been working on the initiative. Some partisan finger-pointing has started up as well: Reid has accused Republicans who are already on board of failing to drum up any Republican support for the bill. According to Reid, the bill would need 15-17 Republican votes, and currently there are no Republican lawmakers backing it. Heller on the other hand apparently downplayed the issue, labeling it as a classic “blame the Republicans” move on Reid’s part.
Heller also said that while the poker bill was still a high priority issue for both Reid and Kyl, the impending fiscal cliff took precedence over everything else. Heller told the press that he was working hard trying to get GOP senators on-board, but in the same time, he admitted that it was going to be extremely difficult to drum up the necessary number of votes.
Once again, the online poker world is looking at the lame-duck session as a last-ditch hope for getting anything going regulation and legalization-wise, and once again, the hopes seem to be waning as the lame-duck session approaches. According to PPA director John Pappas, there’s still a copious amount of work to be done regarding a potential poker bill. Pappas also said that it was still unclear to him what Congress intended to accomplish between now and Christmas.
