Rumors are now circulating in the press that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is getting ready to once again roll out legislation making online poker legal in these United States.
This rumor remaining after a related rumor that Sheldon Adelson has suddenly done a 180-degree turn in his opposition to legal online poker in the U.S. has been debunked, at least according to Adelson’s spokesperson who says that he is still adamantly against it. Nevertheless there were several reputable news outlets reporting that Adelson had told Harry Reid that he would back new online gambling legislation if it restricted itself to online poker. Regardless of what Adelson’s spokesperson says, if the rumor about Reid’s forthcoming bill is true, we’ll find out the veracity of that other rumor in due time.
Meanwhile on a state level, news has just come out that Nevada and New Jersey – two of the states to have already passed online poker legislation for their states and begun the processes of implementation – are nearing completion of their pact to open the doors of each other’s online poker establishments to one another’s residents.
Reid’s rumored bill will effectively place a blanket-ban in the Federal Wire Act on all types of online gambling except for online poker.
Interestingly, this news comes out at the same time that an appellate court reversed a lower court’s ruling acquitting a player charged with illegal online gambling because he was playing Hold’em Poker, an established game of skill.