American Poker News

Democrats & Republicans Introduce Poker Legalisation Bills

Online poker players in the States have been absolutely hammered in the last five years. It’s almost as if the federal government randomly picked out an unassuming group and decided to single them out for especially cruel treatment.

The problem for the government is that gamblers are going to carry on gambling and poker players are going to continue playing poker. Whether in a basement game with your friends or whether online if you manage to deposit some money at your venue of choice. In both cases, there’s no tax collected and in both cases also, it’s possible that participation in this harmless activity can criminalise you.

While prohibition does not seem to have very many supporters, the campaign to legalise online poker seems to be gaining momentum. The states which already license gambling want it (Nevada, New Jersey), as do some of those who don’t (Iowa, Florida). The Poker Players Alliance obviously want it, as do the millions of players who enjoyed the pastime before the ban. More importantly right now, some politicians want it.

The first attempt being prepared as I write is from Republican representative Joe Barton, a

Joe Barton

keen poker player himself who will introduce a bill to legalise just online poker and create a regulatory body to oversee taxation. Websites would have to be registered in states which are currently licensed for gaming and the regulatory body for that state, for example the Nevada Gaming Commission, would be responsible for local regulation.

The second attempt is two connected bills from Democrat representatives. One from Joe McDermott will feature new tax regulation measures for online gaming and the other from Barney Frank will deal with the legalisation aspect. Clearly then there is now some sustained momentum for some intelligent thinking here - after all Mr. Obama is a keen poker player.

Joe McDermott summed up the issue pretty well -

Barney Frank

“Legalizing, regulating and taxing Internet gambling just makes sense,” McDermott said. “Right now, the U.S. loses billion of dollars to off-shore gambling and illegal gambling rings because of an unrealistic and virtually unenforceable policy.”

“The current prohibition of online gambling has failed and made countless American vulnerable to fraud, identity theft and money laundering,” said McDermott, who first introduced his legislation in 2009.