Online Poker Bill presented to Congress.

[TenPercenter]

Sent to me by a friend Richard.

Congressman Barton (R-TX) offered up HR 2366, the Online Poker Act of 2011
today. Here are the cliff notes:

If signed into law it would take effect 30 days later. Then the Commerce
Dept. has to issue regulations within six months. That means if this is
passed it will be seven months before you could play; i.e., we are looking
12-18 months out best case scenario.

Initially the only persons who could offer online poker would be:

--Casino Gaming Facility: Operating 500 or more gaming devices (slots, vlts,
etc., but not pari-mutuel wagering machines) for the past 5 years.

--Qualified Card Room: licensed for at least 250 tables for the past 5
years.

--Qualified Race Track: licensed for 500 or more gaming devices for the past
5 years, and $200M or more bets on horse racing during 3 of the last 5 years
before enactment.

--Slot machine or mobile gaming system manufacturers

That means we are looking for a major casino to offer online poker. If
there were one . . . oh wait, didn't the CEO of Caesar's Entertainment,
which owns 2/3 of the hotels on the strip say it was the future of his
business? Hmm.

Licenses will only be granted to states which allow for it. Hmm, is there
any state which does? Why yes. Nevada just passed a bill in the last two
weeks which specifically allow for online poker to be offered by existing
casinos.

Must be 21 years old to play.

Can't use software to gain an advantage. They specifically mentioned no
bots so this might exclude HUDs.

States can opt out. I don't know where Texas stands but Washington State
and Utah are definite opt outs.

Here's a biggie: The bill will specify which sites fall under the UIEGA and
therefore give a list to banks of which sites to avoid. That means if it
isn't listed then banks will process money from them.

There is no penalty for a player who plays on an unlicensed site.

This last part is interesting because if Pokerstars doesn't get listed in
the UIEGA list they might be open again for US players through a loophole.
It depends on what happens with their existing court case.

More updates when I hear more, but just being introduced doesn't mean much
right now. It's got to wind it's way through Congress and well, I just
leave it at that.

[EmptyPocs]

good news!

[Dazzler]

All sounds very mafia-state like

[vapourtrail1]

Interesting that a Republican is introducing it; I would have thought that the conservative christian type Republicans would not approve of this. I'm sure the casino execs are lobbying big time. And lets face it, our government needs the tax revenue. i think this thing has legs, but it is going to take a long time.

[Meddler]

Originally Posted by vapourtrail1

Interesting that a Republican is introducing it; I would have thought that the conservative christian type Republicans would not approve of this. I'm sure the casino execs are lobbying big time. And lets face it, our government needs the tax revenue. i think this thing has legs, but it is going to take a long time.

Thankfully not all republicans fit the conservative Christian mold eh

[vapourtrail1]

Espn has an article on Full Tilt's demise. The page also has a link to a podcast with Congressman Barton discussing the bill.

Full Tilt Poker has offshore gambling license suspended - ESPN

[wartdog]

the bill will be most likely get banged around,changed here and there, but i understand that it will be for USA players only? no credit card processors so you can't fund your account on credit?....who knows what will come of all this total focking of the average USA player who enjoyed loggin into a site to play a few SNG's for a buck or two.....

btw 2+2 pdcast mentioned the about plus a situation which may conflict with brick & mortar casino's that will give you credit but online they cant?? i dont know..its all too early... see how it shakes out

[MrBo1011]

Certainly doesn't seem like much progress is being made on this lately. For those who haven't seen it, there's a "contact your lawmaker" link on the PPA homepage - PPA: Action Center Only took 30 seconds yesterday to fill in the blanks on the form email and send it in, so I figured it couldn't hurt. Got this response from one of Maryland's senators today:

Dear Mr. ________:

Thank you for contacting me about your support for the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act of 2011 (H.R. 1174). It's good to hear from you.

This bill would allow the Secretary of the Treasury to license and regulate Internet poker and other games of skill. Currently, most online gambling is illegal under Public Law 109-347. This law also prevents banks and credit card companies from making payments to gambling websites. President Bush signed this law on October 13, 2006.

Currently this bill is pending in the House of Representatives. At this time, there is no companion bill pending in the Senate. Knowing of your views will be helpful should this issue come before the Senate.

Thanks once again for writing. Please let me know if I can be of assistance in the future.

Sincerely,
Barbara A. Mikulski
United States Senator


Most likely a form response of its own, but something that irked me is that it only mentioned HR 1174, and not HR 2366. From the digging that I've done there seems to be a significant difference, and I'm not sure I would even support 1174, which (again, from the digging I've done) seems like it would block previously U.S.-accepting sites from opening back up to U.S. players, as well as tax the crap out of withdrawals to make playing online an eternal -EV experience.

Why the hell can't we just stop worrying about people playing cards in their underwear and move on to more important things?

[MrBo1011]

Update - the House Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a hearing on this earlier today. Didn't get a chance to watch it but have been flipping through 2+2 posts and there seems to be a fairly positive reaction to what went down.

Appears to be more of a "how" discussion rather than a "should" debate about the morality of gambling blah blah blah...

I find this news a bit exciting, but I'm definitely not holding my breath, especially given the typical pace of Congress