While different states have either moved forward with regulation of the online gaming and poker industries (or have tried and failed), the federal government has largely been quiet on the issue since the end of 2012. That may change with proposed legislation from one of New York’s most well-known and respected members of the House of Representatives.
New York Representative Peter King is expected to introduce “shortly” (according to a spokesman for Rep. King who spoke to Politico.com) legislation that would put federal regulations on the online gaming industry. As a part of that legislation, most online casino gaming would be banned but online poker would be exempted from the bill. If this sounds familiar, it is because it was pretty much the same legislation that was proposed late last year that never reached the floor of Congress.
Throughout last summer, Nevada Senator Harry Reid and (now retired) Arizona Senator Jon Kyl touted their own proposal that would have ushered in federal regulations for online gaming. Kyl, long a staunch anti-gambling proponent, wanted to rein in online gaming and saw such action – even if it allowed for online poker – as a way of cementing his legacy before leaving office. Many believed Reid’s involvement was to ensure that his home state of Nevada remained at the forefront of gaming, be it live or online, through hosting of online sites or other regulatory involvement.
The proposal last year would have limited online gaming to just poker and, at the same time, limit what states could do with their online lottery sales. This didn’t sit well with many outside of the Beltway in Washington, D. C., who saw it as an encroachment on states’ rights. The uproar over the proposed Senate bill from Reid and Kyl was so raucous that the bill never even saw the light of day for discussion in a Senate committee or on the Senate floor itself (a similar bill in the House from Rep. Joe Barton had two House subcommittee hearings, but no vote was ever taken).
There has been no distinct information on the proposal from Rep. King, other than his spokesman, Kevin Fogarty, stating that King has been able to work around those obstacles with his proposed bill. Although Sen. Reid stated last year that he would look at reintroducing his version of online gaming regulation in the early part of 2013, to this point he has not done so. It would take bills in both houses of Congress to pass before it could even be considered by President Barack Obama (after differences between the bills are worked out and one version is created).
King’s declaration that he is working on online gaming regulation (and Reid’s continued interest in the subject) come on the heels of what has been an active first four months of 2013 for online gaming in the United States. Prior to this year, Nevada and Delaware were the only states that had passed online gaming regulations (Nevada for online poker only, Delaware for complete casino gaming). In February, however, New Jersey joined the parade by passing their own regulations for complete online casino gaming to increase the revenues of their Atlantic City casinos and several other states have opened discussion on the subject.
While the three states have moved forward and put regulations on the books, it wasn’t until earlier this week that anything actually came of those efforts. On Tuesday, the first online poker venture opened under the Nevada regulations came online when Ultimate Poker accepted its first action. While there has been a cacophony of complaints about the debut of Ultimate Poker (wading through its verification system for play on the site, among others), the site has still done well enough that, in just two days, it has already qualified for a spot in PokerScout’s online poker room rankings (currently, Ultimate Poker is the 40th largest online poker outlet in the industry).
The rush of states to get in on the potential online gaming and poker boom over the past four months is seen as the reason for the revival of interest in federal regulation of the industry now. Passage of federal regulations would shut down the states from passing their own rules (and revive the argument of states’ rights) and would probably limit any gaming in the United States to simply online poker. It would also drive a great deal of revenue to the federal government instead of the individual states that have already or intend to pass laws regarding the issue.
