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Online Poker Legislation Nevada
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Overview Nevada was actually the first state to fully legalize and regulate online poker in the whole of the US. As a state which has had legal gambling within its borders for many years, the creation of legal poker sites in Nevada was the next logical step. Surprisingly it didn’t become legal until 2011 and Nevada was. The Bovada casino is one of Online Poker Legislation Nevada the best in the business, utilizing software from world-famous companies like Realtime Gaming (RTG) and Betsoft, and there are hundreds of table games and slots on offer. If you want a one-stop casino gaming experience and one account to rule them all, sign up at Bovada today! Andrew Doughman. Surrounded by Nevada legislators, Gov. Brian Sandoval signs an online poker bill into law, Thursday, Feb. The law will allow Nevada to move ahead with online poker in.
There is an adage in the halls of power in Washington, D. C. that “politics makes for strange bedfellows.” Sometimes, however, the political process can lead to division between even representatives of the same state. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Steve Tetreault, that type of division is occurring between the two Senators from the state of Nevada, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and junior Senator Dean Heller, when it comes to the federal regulation of the online poker industry.
Reid, who has been working on a bill with fellow Arizona Senator Jon Kyl (who will be retiring once this Congress ends in January) that would open up the United States for regulated online poker, has been pushing for his Nevada colleague to rally support among other Senators for passage of the bill. According to Tetreault, Reid set a deadline of this past Monday for Heller to achieve his goal, but that seems to have rubbed Heller the wrong way.
Republican Heller, in a letter to Reid Monday evening, objected to this arbitrary deadline set by the Democrat Reid, Tetreault writes. Heller stated that “this was not a strategy we discussed” and suggested that the Senate would be better off letting the House of Representatives take the lead on the subject. “Any change to this strategy jeopardizes the passage of this issue,” Tetreault reports Heller as writing to Reid.
The refusal to push the issue among other Senators has raised the ire of Reid. Tetreault reports that a spokesperson for Senator Reid, Kristen Orthman, said that Heller’s letter was an attempt to “run for cover” regarding the issue of regulated online poker. “Several months ago, Senator Reid asked Senator Heller to secure Republican votes to help pass an Internet poker bill, and to date, Senator Heller has not been able to secure any support,” Orthman is quoted by Tetreault as saying. “Unfortunately, rather than standing to fight for this important issue for Nevada, Senator Heller has decided to run for cover and attempt to lay blame on others.”
The proposed legislation that Senators Reid and Kyl have proposed might not only be difficult for other Senators to endorse but also would be difficult for the American gaming and poker aficionados to get behind. While it would open up the U. S. for a regulated online poker market, it would actually strengthen many of the current laws that are on the books regarding online gaming in the U. S. Such laws as the Wire Act of 1961 and the Illegal Gambling Business Act of 1970 would be enhanced to cover internet gaming, there would be reaffirmation of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 and an overturn of the U. S. Department of Justice’s stance regarding the Wire Act from last year.
The political process, already a slow one, has been particularly “molasses-like” when it comes to the issue of online poker. Although Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank (retiring this year also) led the charge for an overturn of the UIGEA in 2008, his legion of bills on the subject died when the current Congress was seated in 2010. Since that time, there have been other proposals make the rounds, but little actual voting.
Texas Representative Joe Barton currently has the only bill that has received a hearing in front of its appropriate committee. The Barton bill, HR 2366, has been presented in two hearings in a House subcommittee, but there hasn’t been a vote taken on passing it on to the full House for consideration. The Reid/Kyl bill itself has been something that has been rumored for months and it still is a “work in progress” and hasn’t been presented to any committee as of yet.
As the Congress will be taking a recess in a few short days to prepare for the November elections (the entire House and a third of the Senate are standing for re-election), that leaves a very short time for any passage in Congress of regulations on the online poker industry. The “lame duck” session will follow the vote in November but, if history repeats itself, little will get done during that time and any hope for online poker regulation in 2012 will end.
Nevada’s online poker bill has taken a major step in the right direction, as the interests on both sides of the aisle came forward on Tuesday in support of an amended version. The Assembly Judiciary Committee unanimously passed Assembly Bill 258 on Tuesday.
William Horne, chairman of the committee and sponsor of the bill, told Card Player that part of the language of the bill still needs to be cleaned up, but that “the parties agreed that intranet poker will be able to be commenced, and the Nevada Gaming Commission will be able to license gaming for online poker, before the federal regulation happens.”
According to Horne, the amended bill no longer has any provisions that deal with international play. The compromise on AB258 would prevent a Nevada online poker system from dealing with internet poker until federal legislation resolves the issue or the United States Department of Justice gives its OK. When the federal government puts laws into place, a tax structure on international play to benefit Nevada would be implemented. Horne also said that Nevada’s online poker bill would allow the Nevada Gaming Commission and the Nevada Gaming Control Board to have regulatory structure in place for a future online gambling climate with blanket federal laws.
Contrary to reports circulating on the internet, Horne said that Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval is on his side when it comes to an intrastate online poker bill in the Silver State.
“I don’t believe the governor’s letter to me actually said he didn’t support the poker bill,” Horne said. “In fact, my meeting with the governor in his office yesterday afternoon showed me that he is supportive of the poker bill. He recognizes that we need the bill, and he just has concerns about us coming in conflict with federal law. Today we passed out an amended version of the bill, and I am confident that the governor will sign when it reaches his desk.”
New York Online Poker Legislation
The Nevada Resorts Association, which arguably had been, up until Tuesday, the biggest opponent of the legislation, also joins Horne in the quest to make Nevada the first state in the country to operate online poker. “Their primary representative, Pete Ernaut, sat at the table today with us, and with Richard Perkins, the representative for PokerStars, and both of them presented their support for the amendments,” Horne said.
The bill now moves to the Assembly floor, and if it passes, it will move on to the Senate, where the hearing process starts all over again. If it passes out of the Senate in its current form, it will go straight to the governor’s office for signature. If the Senate suggests a different version of the bill, the legislation will move to a Congressional Committee to discuss the discrepancies. According to Horne, he sees a smooth process in the Senate, due to the bill’s major opposition now on his side.
California Online Poker Legislation
“The concerns of the bill’s opposition have been alleviated in the Assembly,” Horne said. “I anticipate when we go to the Senate that everyone will go to the table in support of the bill.”
With AB258 on its way through the Nevada legislature, Horne said that the state is positioning itself to remain the leader and the “gold standard” in the gaming industry. “Nevada will have all the pegs in place,” said Horne, who sees federal legislation as inevitable. “Until then though, Nevada is not precluded from intrastate poker.”
Despite the bill losing its ability to tax the rake generated from players in other jurisdictions, at least until the federal government takes action on the issue and sets up a regulated system, Horne called Tuesday’s compromise a “victory.”
“This puts Nevada out there and up front,” Horne said. “The important thing is putting the regulatory framework in place for the Gaming Control Board and the Gaming Commission to begin work now and to establish an avenue for granting licenses for those companies who are seeking it.”