While he campaigns for re-election to the next Congress, Texas Representative Joe Barton is facing calls from his constituents to drop his proposed legislation that would help to bring a regulated online poker market to the United States.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Anna Tinsley, the anti-gambling group Stop Predatory Gambling’s representative in the state of Texas, Jack Ballou, is pushing for the Republican to give up on HR 2366 (The Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2011) that he has advocated for much of the current Congressional session. Ballou and the organization believe that, if online poker regulation is passed on the federal level, it will increase gambling nationwide and particularly in Texas.
“We see this bill as the ‘camel’s nose’ under the tent – a beginning point for gambling online,” Ballou said to Tinsley in her story. “As a constituent (Ballou lives in Arlington, a part of Representative Barton’s Sixth District representation), I’m calling on Congressman Barton to withdraw support of that bill and discontinue pushing it in Congress.”
Another organization has picked up Ballou’s call, especially as it pertains to the state of Texas. “We oppose expansion of gambling in (the state),” Steven Reeves, a lobbyist for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, states to Tinsley. Reeves’ organization is vehemently opposed to the expansion of gaming to the internet, with Reeves saying to Tinsley, “We don’t want gambling through the internet going into every home, office and smart phone through the country.”
For his part, Representative Barton is refusing to back down to his opponents. “People are playing poker on the internet for money in the United States now,” Tinsley quotes Representative Barton as saying. “They are playing on overseas sites that are outside the reach of U. S. law, leaving the consumer unprotected and denying the government the ability to tax winnings.”
Representative Barton’s HR 2366 has been able to draw bipartisan support for his legislation. Republican representatives Peter King of New York and John Campbell of California have joined Democratic representatives Shelley Berkley of Nevada, John Conyers of Michigan and a retiring Barney Frank of Massachusetts as just of the few powerful figures in the House of Representatives that have signed on as co-sponsors. Even with this bipartisan support, however, HR 2366 has been languishing in the halls of Congress.
The bill has received two hearings in a House sub-committee but has yet to come to a vote in that sub-committee for passage onto the full House for consideration. That group, the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, is led by fellow Republican Representative Mary Bono Mack and Representative Barton holds a seat on that board. While the hearings have been generally positive for online poker regulation, the inaction regarding a vote has put pause on moving forward with such regulatory action.
At the minimum, Representative Barton at least has a bill for online poker regulation. The Senate has yet to produce any proposals that would allow online poker regulation to move forward. Although there is a draft bill floating around, a compromise between Senators Harry Reid of Nevada and Jon Kyl of Arizona, this draft has yet to be introduced to any committee in the Senate. As both chambers of Congress are on recess to return home to campaign (the entirety of the House and 33 seats in the Senate are up for re-election), the drive to get anything done regarding federal regulation of online poker and/or gaming in general will have to be considered during a crowded schedule on the “lame duck” sessions following the November 6 elections.
Even with organizations looking to stop Representative Barton’s efforts to regulate the online gaming industry, it is thought by many pundits that he will not have an issue getting re-elected to his seat in the House (an office he has held since 1985). Representative Barton will be running against Democrat Kenneth Sanders, Libertarian Hugh Chauvin and Green Party candidate Brandon Palmer come November 6. In 2010, Representative Barton was challenged by Democrat David Cozad and Libertarian Byron Severns, with Barton pulling almost 66% of the vote to vastly outpace Cozad (31%) and Severns (3%).
