Menendez takes shot for online poker, gambling

13 August, 2009

The war to end the prohibition on online gambling in the United States is one usually fought inside the Beltway and with Congress currently out of session until Labor Day, a ceasefire-like calm presides over the legal battlefield through August.

Before the professional politicians took off for the summer, however, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) was able to move forward the bill known as “Internet Poker and Games of Skill Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act,” or a bit more succinctly, S 1597.

Menendez’ bill represents the more mainstream view that current legislation (specifically, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) would be best overturned with a more long-term attack. By this viewpoint, the first step in making online gambling less taboo and more socially acceptable is to first redefine “gambling.” Advocates of this course, as represented in high-profile lobbying by the Poker Players Alliance, would have games such as poker, rummy, bridge and such defining as “games of skill” and therefore perfectly legal for wager fodder.

Like a good little politico, Menendez’ bill appeals to the jingoistic side, mentioning that “Poker is part of the cultural and recreational fabric of the United States and has been since the founding days of the United States. United States poker aficionados have included presidents, judges, and statesmen.”

Included in the Internet Poker and Games of Skill Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act is a statute that would provide $71 million over a five-year period to problem gambling, and the bill also states that current legislation forbidding (certain) sports gambling in the United States. Under S 1597, the federal and state governments would each receive 5% in tax monies applied to an online casinos’ annual profit.