According to several media reports, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is trying to build support for a bill that would allow and regulate Internet poker in the U.S. According to reports, the goal is to pass the bill during this month’s lame-duck session of Congress. The Wall Street Journal reports the bill is backed by large casino interests and will allow only existing casino, racetrack and slot machine manufacturers to operate online poker websites for the first two years after the bill is passed
The language gives Caesars Entertainment (formerly Harrer Entertainment), which owns the World Series of Poker brand in the U.S. market, an early advantage. Caesars currently operates a free online poker site for Americans and an online gambling site that makes real money in the U.K. Nevada’s athletics casino companies, including Caesars, have been among the biggest contributors to Reid’s bruised reelection campaign this year. Reid is expected to try to stick it to a bill that “must pass” the bill because there is no time to get it through both the House and Senate before the lame-duck session ends.
“We have heard reports that the Senate will definitely pass such a bill because it has calculated that a secret, closed-door, and undemocratic process represents the best chance of accessing the American market,” reads the letter, written by Reps. Spencer Bach (R-Ala), Dave Camp (R-Mich), and Lamar Smith (R-Texas). “Creating the federal government’s right to gamble, which has never been done in our nation’s history, and imposing an unprecedented new tax system on such activities, requires careful consideration, and is not a backroom deal or honor for special gain.” 토토사이트 추천
Ironically, this argument was also used by those who opposed passing the Illegal Internet Gambling Control Act (UIGEA), which was attached to the Safe Port Act, which UIGEA considered a “must pass” bill just before the 2006 midterm elections. And while the letter argues that the bill would create a “federal right to gamble,” no federal law currently exists to prevent Americans from betting on overseas sites. UIGEA makes it illegal for banks to transfer money from online poker rooms and casinos, but sites that decided to operate in the United States were able to overcome most of those bans.