Online Poker and US Elections
The mid term elections in the United States are over. The official count is not yet out but it is clear that the map of the United States will be redder than before as the Democrats have taken a big bashing. They are expected to lose over 60 seats in the House of Representatives and yield control of the House to the Republicans. However, they will retain a thin majority in the Senate despite the losses there. What do these results hold for legalization of online poker? President Obama’s administration will definitely focus on getting things on track for the 2012 presidential elections and the online poker issue will be on the back burner. If the progress was slow in the last two years it will be slower now.
However, there are two individual victories for the Democrats that will keep the hopes alive at the online poker rooms like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Barney Frank has been re-elected to the House from Massachusetts. Barney Frank is the sponsor of the bill HR 2267 that seeks to legalize online gambling, create a regulatory framework for it and derive tax revenue from it. Barney Frank is the outgoing chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Sensing the mood against the Democrats he ensured that the bill was cleared by the committee a few months ago. This was a good thing because with the Republicans taking control of the House the chairmanship of the Financial Services Committee will go to a Republican. The name that has started doing the rounds is that of Spencer Bachus, who is online gambling’s enemy number one. He has lost no opportunity in speaking out against legalization of online gambling and has done everything in his power to stall the pro online gambling bills. Fortunately for online poker players Bachus does not enjoy total support from his own party.
The other important Democrat who is expected to win is Senate majority leader Harry Reid from Nevada. The problem is that he has maintained a blow hot blow cold stance towards online gambling because of the possible conflict with the land casinos of Nevada. Now Reid has to openly and unequivocally support the legalization of online gambling. One scenario that is being talked about is attaching the HR 2267 to a jobs bill and getting it cleared in the House in the lame duck session before the change of guard takes place and then hoping that Reid can manage the rest in the Senate.
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