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A Blog About Online Gaming and Entertainment Regulations

Hearing Clarifies Issues in Nevada The Nevada Assembly Committee on Judiciary met on March 24, 2011, to discuss AB 258, which would provide for the licensing and operation of Internet poker in Nevada for the first time. Committee members were, not surprisingly, interested in the possible benefit or harm to Nevada’s existing bricks-and-mortar gaming industry from the legislation – such as the possible creation of new jobs, or the loss of existing dealer jobs. Supporters of the bill noted that Nevada is a longstanding leader in the gaming industry, that it has licensing authorities in place to regulate online poker operators, and that since some state will eventually legalize online poker, it would be best for Nevada to get out in front of the pack. Should Nevada be the first state to legalize online poker, the associated jobs and tax revenues would benefit Nevadans. The Committee heard from supporters of the bill that online poker does not violate the federal Wire Act because it is not a wager and it is a game... Read more

Nevada, long an innovator when it comes to gambling, may soon take another big step in that direction by becoming the first state to legalize online poker. A bill just introduced in that state’s legislature would require the state’s Gaming Commission to license operators of Internet poker as long as they meet basic standards regarding… Read More

Today’s news is that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has just vetoed a bill, overwhelmingly passed by both houses of the state legislature, that would have made New Jersey the first state in the country to legalize online gaming. The governor, who has been widely mentioned as a GOP presidential candidate for 2012, though he… Read More

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February 2, 2011

Is D.C. on the Way to Legalizing Online Poker?

By: Ifrah Law

An amendment introduced to the District of Columbia Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Support Act and approved with little fanfare or advance warning could signal a major change in the law of i-gaming. The amendment, introduced by at-large Democrat Councilmember Michael A. Brown, would allow the D.C. Lottery to administer online poker by defining the D.C…. Read More

It appears that New Jersey will very soon become the first state to legalize and regulate Internet gambling. On January 10, 2011, the New Jersey State Assembly overwhelmingly passed an online gaming bill. This bill was passed by the state Senate, also overwhelmingly, late last year, and all that remains for the bill to become… Read More

It now appears that despite a flurry of interest earlier this month, Congress isn’t going to take a good look at legalizing and regulating online poker this year. Staffers for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had been circulating a bill, backed by many bricks-and-mortar casinos in Reid’s home state of Nevada, that would have created… Read More

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December 3, 2010

One Step Towards Legal Online Gaming?

By: Ifrah Law

The Wall Street Journal has reported that staffers for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate majority leader, are circulating a draft bill on Capitol Hill that would legalize Internet poker in the United States, with certain restrictions. This comes as a bit of a surprise, as Reid has not been a supporter of online gambling in… Read More

After the unanimous rejection by the Washington State Supreme Court of a lawsuit that attempted to overturn the state’s draconian ban on online poker, proponents of the game now say that they’re going to go to the state legislature and try to get the law repealed, rather than pursue the challenge in the U.S. Supreme… Read More

Conservative columnist Michelle Minton just wrote an interesting op-ed piece for Forbes.com on why Republicans, and by extension, conservatives in general, should favor legalized Internet gambling. Minton’s arguments come in the wake of the recent passage by the House Financial Services Committee of a bill that would legalize Internet gambling, including online poker, in the… Read More

The highly regarded British publication The Economist has just published an interesting article that strongly makes the case that poker is a game of skill, not a game of chance. The article notes that poker is, of course, big business these days, pointing to a consultant’s estimate that the online poker market amounts to $4.9… Read More