PokerWorldNow

Senator Menendez is Our Hero?

As reported by CardPlayer.com Senator Robert Menendez (NJ-D) introduced a bill in the senate to regulate and tax online poker, or more accurately Internet games of skill. The major difference between this bill and Barney Frank’s bill is that this bill focuses on online poker specifically while Frank’s bill is more general to different forms of online gaming. Both bills oppose sports betting.

The Menendez bill (full-text, yawn) aims to:

• Regulate and license Internet games of skill
• Define poker as a game of skill
• Define who is and isn’t suitable for licensing, and make it illegal to operate without a license. The bill outlines the specific qualifications an applicant must posses and discusses. Under the “unsuitable for licensing” it does not list current operators of online poker in the U.S., but does list any business that has taken sports wagers. Good for Full Tilt and PokerStars and others who have operated in the U.S., not so good for Bodog. <Update: upon further reading and research, I discovered  there is a protectionist clause that states that companies who have failed to pay taxes in jurisdictions in which those companies have operated will be rejected. Sorry Full Tilt, PokerStars, PartyPoker, 888, Titan, and so on.>
• Protect against underage gambling
• Define tax code and collect tax revenue
• Further define the wire act (a throw in for the NFL lobby?)

As far as how much a license will cost: it will be based on the cost of setup and administration of each licensee. Seems fair.

While I share the Poker Players Alliance optimism in the fact that it appears that regulation of online poker is picking up some serious momentum, there are some inherent problems with the Menendez Bill:

• Focus on poker. Since the Menendez bill focuses on poker there isn’t too much room for politicking. It seems like a take-it-or-leave-it affair. While the Frank bill has a lot of room for concessions, such as taking out some of the generic online gambling proposals and leaving it for another discussion.
• Defining poker as a game of skill. Of course I agree with this statement, but it is one that has two diametrically opposed sides. Typically the people that play poker understand that it is a game of skill, but people that don’t (or tend to lean to the righter shade of red) see it has having about as much skill as a slot machine. Menedez should not open this debate. It will drag down the bill in an unresolvable argument.

All this being said, I can’t claim that I am and expert in the legislative process, so someone who is might argue that this is a strategy to build momentum for the movement regardless of the bill that gets passed. Since Frank’s bill is a house bill and this is a senate bill, perhaps they will coalesce into some form of consensus.