In an earlier posting we noted how Harrah’s Entertainment was basically the only brick and mortar casino company that was willing to get behind Barney Frank and his proposed legislation that would finally allow poker players in the US to play online poker. Putting their money where their mouth is, they have put out over $400,000 to back their cause.
As you may recall, Party Poker was the largest and most successful online poker room before the UIGE Act came into play. While some companies decided to risk it and stay with the US market, Party Poker pulled out. At the time, Mitch Garber was the CEO of Party Gaming. Harrah’s has pulled out all of the stops and has hired Garber as the head of their new subsidiary, Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, Inc., to lead the way into a new era of online gaming.
The move makes perfect sense. While the move to pull out of the US market can be questioned, the success of the company up to that point in the US is unquestionable. He will have the advantage of knowing the ins and outs of the industry and will also be able to launch their site in European countries while US legislation is still in question.
There can be little doubt that if this legislation goes through, Harrah’s will immediately take over as the major online poker room in the United States. They will have one advantage over any other site as they are actually a brick and mortar casino and a lot of the packages that they will be able to put together should far surpass anything that any other site can do the satellites into the WSOP. They have the ability to add food, beverage and lodging in a way that no other site can do.
While the other sites have to get more entries for a $20,000 package, this stuff can literally be comped off by Harrah’s to make their site the most attractive on the net. When you also add in the fact that a US company will finally be involved in the gaming industry, it reeks of success.
US players have been longing for a company that they could trust 100% and that would be regulated by the United States to get involved in the online poker industry. While European players will have the advantage of seeing the product first, it is hard to imagine that any other site will be able to match the product that they will develop. This is welcome news to United States players and will definitely change the online poker world in a positive way.
Wednesday was the day that the PPA and every poker player in the United States has been waiting for. Poker legislation in favor of online poker playing was finally introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)on Wednesday May 6th and for the first time, the poker playing public finally feels as though they have a shot of beating the system.
In a show of support, Peter King and Shelly Berkley co-sponsored the bill show a unique solidarity of both Republican and Democratic parties. Funny, they can agree on a poker bill, yet they fight it out over things like the stimulus package. But I digress, this is about legislation to finally handcuff the UIGEA and put a plan into place to stop the suspected fraud that has been reported on some sites and allow the American public to finally be able to trust an internet outlet for poker playing. The legislation also contains stipulations to address the underage gambling that is an obvious concern with the amount of 18 year old poker geniuses that are popping up on the European Circuit.
Another interesting thing that is going on here is that while most brick and mortar casinos are fighting the legality of online gaming for fear of what it will do to their bottom line, Harrah’s Entertainment, one of the largest casino operating businesses in the world, has decided to support the bill in an effort to expand their market. In fact, it has been reported that they have poured almost $500,000 into the lobbying efforts of this bill.
It is finally being recognized by both the casino business and politicians that online gambling can become an avenue that will help out the recession instead of contributing to it. The amount of income the government will make on tax alone would be astronomical. In fact, if it was legalized, it would actually create more jobs as companies like Harrah’s would probably end up running online casinos and poker rooms. There is no doubt that Americans would flock to a site that was regulated by the US Government. Paying taxes on your yearly winnings would be small price to pay to ensure that you were playing on a safe and secure site. Lots more to come on this issue, stay tuned…
A professional online poker player, Chris Wallace, is stepping up and challenging the ridiculous law that is being proposed in Minnesota. In fact, he has gone so far as to email the Justice Department and tell them to come and get him if online poker playing is illegal. Making an income of over $2,000 a week, you can see why he is a little upset!
The Wire Act, initially passed in 1961, continues to be the backbone of current legislation that is currently being attempted to get pushed through on both local and federal levels. Representatives against the legislation continue to point at the age of the legislation and the fact that other forms of gaming have been legalized, yet they continue this assault on online poker.
Their argument this is nothing more than a half hearted attempt to grab headlines and sensationalize everything is easy to understand when you look at some of the sites that they have somehow managed to leave off of the list of banned sites. The bulk of them do not even allow US players to wager on them. Why would these poker sites be included and sites like PokerStars and UltimateBet/Absolute be allowed to continue their operations within the state?
As Barney Frank continues to get his legislation prepared for presentation, it will be very interesting to see how things play out. As reported earlier, the internet providers have 3 weeks (less now) to address the situation and if Barney’s legislation receives positive support, it will be very curious to see how Minnesota and the other states that have banned online gaming react. My guess is that this is far from over and over the next few months this will be dominating the poker headlines as much as the WSOP.
One of the hottest topics of debate in the wonderful world of online gaming has been the reversal so the law that went through the back door during the Bush administration. It was passed via a security act in a very sneaky measure that was quickly picked up by the online gaming world.
As you may recall, this was the law that had the online gaming community running for cover and eventually some very popular rooms, such as Poker, banned US players and had online poker players in panic about their funds. The situation only got worse as eWallets like Neteller also pulled out. The next thing you know online poker site owners are getting yanked out of airports and charged with money laundering! People were literally worried about Big Brother knocking down their door and getting busted just as they clicked on the all in button.
While this bill was initially supposed to be introduced in March, it was pushed back until the Week of May 4. While it is unlikely that the actual version of the bill that Barney Frank (D-MA) is going to introduce will be passed, there is a ton of money being thrown around to ensure that it goes through in some form. This is nothing new as bills are often amended as the process gets completed.
The PPA is on record that they are going to do everything that they can to get his passed into law. Rumor had it that over $4 million was bookmarked for exactly this cause. The lobbyists will be busy next week and here is hoping that they are successful.
The boom in online poker is unbelievable and we can only imagine what it can do to our economy if the bill passes. You would have to think that amount of jobs and revenue that would be generated in US regulated sites would be an incredible boost to an economy that has yet to turn around.
