Tag: us online poker

Congress Reconsiders Legal U.S. Poker

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In the wake of New Jersey’s smooth and successful entry into the legal intrastate online poker market, Congress has been spurred to reconsider legislation that would make online poker legal nationwide. The bill under consideration currently (after the failure of so many similarly inclined bills preceding it) comes from Texas Republican and an avowed poker player Joe Barton. After sitting on the shelf since July when Barton first introduced the bill, New Jersey’s widely publicized foray into the legal online poker market has led Congress to hold a hearing on Barton’s bill.

In that hearing, held before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, Barton asserted that the day for federally legalized online poker is coming, whether it’s his bill that reins in the new era or not (our wording, not his). Barton’s bill would make online poker legal nationwide with a provision allowing states to opt out if they so wish.

Republicans used to be on the opposing side of the legal U.S. online gaming debate, but in recent years the tide has seemed to change on their general opinion of the industry, recognizing certainly its income producing value, no small factor when taking into consideration the still lagging economy.

Federal standards would not prevent states like New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada from continuing to offer online poker as they wish within their own state’s borders, but they would be obliged to comply with federal regulations and guidelines were they to go into affect. According to officials from New Jersey, the state’s own guidelines would meet or exceed the federal ones.

Legal US Online Poker Stalled Again

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United States Senate Majority Leader and the Democratic Senior Senator from Nevada, Harry Reid, declared on Friday, December 14th that any discussion on a bill to legalize online poker in the U.S. is dead for the current lame duck session of Congress, due to the priority of solving the budget crisis and avoiding the fiscal cliff. In his comments, published in a story by the La Vegas Sun, Reid expressed his personal wishes that the situation could be different and that he is disappointed time won’t allow Congress to address this issue this year.

Reid also mentioned that he, along with fellow Nevada Senator, the Republican Dean Heller, are committed to ironing out this issue in a bipartisan manner and bringing it to the table before Congress.

Until this announcement it still seemed possible that the Internet poker bill that Reid himself drafted along with the Republic Senator from Arizona, Republican Jon Kyl, might still be passed by the Senate at least before Congress adjourned the 2012 session. Opponents of that bill who lauded the announcement that it was, at least for the moment, dead in the water, included Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land, the National Association of Evangelicals, Focus on the Family, the National Governors Association, and state lotteries.

If passed, such a bill would weaken a 2006 law that mandates enforcement of illegal online gambling, but in a decision by the Justice Department in late 2011, the definition of illegal online gambling was restricted to sports betting alone. US based players can play on any of these online poker sites.