Harry Reid Pushes For Online Poker Regulation With New BillBill Supports Online Gaming For Land-Based Casinos Only |
|
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, has begun to circulate a bill that would legalize online poker. If passed, the Internet Poker Act of 2010 would regulate online poker and provide much needed revenue with federal and state taxes.
As its currently written, the bill would only apply to existing casinos, horse tracks and slot-machine makers. Off-shore online poker sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, would have to wait at least two years before they were allowed to re-enter the market. Those two sites account for the majority of online poker action in the United States.
Several Las Vegas casino companies have already voiced their support for the bill, including Rob Meyne, vice president of corporate communications for Boyd Gaming.
“We definitely support federal licensing, regulation and taxation of Internet gaming with revenues shared by both state and federal governments,” he said.
Of course, Meyne also feels that individual states should have the right to opt out and lose their share of tax revenue as a result.
Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM Resorts International, echoed a similar sentiment, saying that online poker should be legalized, regulated and taxed.
“There may be any number of technical or language issues with which we might disagree, but on the whole, this effort seems to us to be a comprehensive and appropriate balance between creating jobs and generating badly needed tax revenues for states and providing significant structure and rigor to the licensing and operations of online poker sites,” Feldman said.
Reid is hoping that the bill will pass during the current lame-duck session, which will conclude Dec. 17. Though the bill has received support, it also has its fair share of detractors, most notably Alabama Republican representative Spencer Bachus, who is under the impression that the bill would be taking advantage of the “young, the weak and the vulnerable.”
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
