GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 26 - October 2013

U.S. legislative roundup What’s happening, what’s not happening – and why By Vin Narayanan I used to cover American politics full time. Presidential elections. Congress. The White House. The Supreme Court. State governments. The whole shebang. I loved it. Until I didn’t. At a certain point, the days, weeks, months and years started running into each other. The arguments never changed. The problems were never fixed. The inability to accomplish anything became a constant. The same people who argued one side of an issue turned around and argued the other side. And their opponents did the same. Logic and progress were thrown out the window. Rational thought disappeared. The only thing that mattered was winning. It was frustrating. It was painful. So I stopped. For the past seven years, I’ve covered America’s maddeningly slow journey to- wards regulating online gaming. And I’m starting to feel the same levels of antipa- thy towards online gaming’s advocates that I felt towards all of politics in 2005. The advocates for online gaming have been so ineffective and so shortsighted, I wonder if we’ll have meaningful regulated online gaming in more than a handful of states by the end of the decade. So where are we on the road to regulation? Let’s start at the federal level, where the chances of passing legislation to regulate online gaming this year are slim to none – and slim just left the building. There are two bills in the House of Repre- sentatives: Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) in- troduced the Internet Poker Freedom Act of 2013, while Rep. Steve King (R-N.Y.) is advocating the broader Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and En- forcement Act of 2013. What’s in the bills ultimately doesn’t matter. What does mat- ter is these bills lack necessary support from the House Republican leadership to actually come to a meaningful vote. So if anything is going to happen at the federal level, it has to happen in the Sen- ate. The Senate happens to be the home of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), whose ineffective leadership is threatening to land him a spot in history as the worst leader of the institution. Reid has never actually introduced on- line poker legislation to the Senate. So the legislative body has never actually had a chance to deliberate on the matter. Reid’s preferred strategy is to attach a bill in the dead of night to must-pass legislation that regulates online poker and outlaws all other forms of online gaming. Conventional wisdom suggests attach- ing a bill in the Senate is the only way to get online poker legislation through. It is, after all, the way the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed. And there’s a little poetic justice there. However, there are several obstacles that need to be cleared. And Reid doesn’t look like he’s anywhere close to clearing them. 1. Versions of the legislation leaked to the press have been Nevada-centric and Nevada friendly. The needs of stakehold- ers outside Nevada were not considered. There are reports that new language makes it more Nevada and New Jersey friendly, but not considerate of others with a significant interest in the outcome of the legislation. That’s a serious prob- lem. Senators are not interested in pass- ing legislation just for Nevada (or Nevada and New Jersey). And the Republican mi- nority isn’t interested in giving Reid any sort of victory. 2. Any push for legislation needs a GOP partner besides Sen. Dean Heller (R- Nev.). And no Republican senator has stepped to the plate. In the past, Arizona’s Jon Kyl provided Republican support for the push to regulate online poker. But Kyl has retired. And Heller is from Nevada, which brings us to problem number one, a Nevada-centric push. 44 U.S. legislative roundup