Online Poker Provisions Not Included in Year-End Tax Bill

The Internet Poker Act of 2010 will not be included in President Obama’s year-end tax bill, according to a spokesman for Senator Reid.

Reid’s bill sought to legalize and regulate online poker in an effort to increase tax revenue at both the state and federal level, but including it in the tax bill was met with opposition, most notably from Senator Jon Kyl, a staunch supporter of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

With the lame-duck session set to end next week, sources say that Reid is looking for other bills where he might attach the poker provisions.

In a statement on Thursday, Reid stated that “Internet poker is played by millions of Americans every day in an essentially unregulated environment” and “neither federal nor State governments collect a dime of revenue from this multibillion dollar Internet poker industry.”

There is a small chance that the bill will still pass, but gaming analyst Brian McGill was pessimistic in a Friday research report.

“We expect that Reid will continue to publicly say he is working on the issue until the lame-duck session ends,” he said. “However, our contacts continue to tell us there is a very slim chance the bill will pass in this lame-duck session. We would put the odds at passage at less than 10 percent now. If the bill does not pass in the lame-duck session, there is zero chance it will get passed in 2011.”

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