Alternatives to Online Poker bill
12/05/2012 : REID'S ONLINE POKER LEGALISATION ALTERNATIVES
With the Congressional clock ticking down on a federal solution, Reid still has options
With time running out in the lame duck session prior to the adjournment of the current US Congressional season, Sen. Harry Reid still has options in trying to push his Reid-Kyl online poker federal legalization proposals through, the Heritage Foundation suggests.
Brian Darling, senior fellow for government studies at the Foundation, said the wily senator from Nevada has three options for passing the bill if, as appears to be the case, he is unable to recruit Republican support for his stand-alone measure.
Darling opines that Sen. Reid could:
* Attach the gambling bill to other “must-pass” legalization – such as a possible fiscal cliff deal – as an amendment.
* He could wait and attach the bill in conference between the Senate and the House as legislators try to thrash out differences on a must-pass bill.
* Or he could insert the bill directly into the base language of another bill.
“If he has the will to do it, he has tools at his disposal,” Darling said, suggesting a “secret negotiation” could be undertaken to get the bill, which specifically outlaws other forms of online gambling, through.
Meanwhile, the publication PJ Media.com this week resurrected previously expressed fears voiced by several US states that the Reid-Kyl bill is more about giving his home state of Nevada commercial advantage than it is about "standardising online gambling."
Individual US states have labeled the Reid-Kyl bill as a payoff to Nevada’s casino industry. State lotteries directors and governors alike have argued vigorously that they shouldn’t be limited to offering only online poker to their residents if such states decide to go online in terms of states' rights.
The publication pointed to the recent drive by the American Gaming Association in support of the Reid-Kyl federal solution , commenting on the possibility that it would ultimately benefit AGA members – established and major land gambling interests.
PJ Media recalls that only a few weeks ago Steven Grossman, the chairman of the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, noted in a letter to Reid and Kyl that “attempts to wish the online gaming genie back into the bottle are doomed to fail,” especially given the easy accessibility of international gambling websites.
Meanwhile the publication Big Government notes that Sen. Reid’s efforts to push the bill are a red flag, explaining:
"If Harry Reid’s ideas become law, and one set of [federal] regulations governs, with only online poker being allowed, large corporations will be able to quickly snap up the lion’s share of the gaming [business], with most of those corporations being casinos headquartered in Reid’s home state of Nevada."
In a letter to fellow Nevada politician Dean Heller earlier this year, Reid wrote: "….we are at a standstill. And every day we stand still, Nevada’s workers, its economy and its gaming industry suffers." He added that the [federal] legalization and regulation of online poker “may be the most important issue facing Nevada since Yucca Mountain. This bill means jobs for Nevada.”
