PPA Discusses Timeframe for Online Gambling Bill
Written by RogerCP | Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Last week, the Poker Players Alliance gave an interesting interview concerning the progress of Barney Frank’s HR2267 bill, even going so far as to suggest a possible timeframe when we can expect to see the bill actually passed.
The director of the Poker Players Alliance, John Pappas, said that he could see November to January 2010 as a perfect time to pass the bill as this was the date before the new Congress starts and after the elections. This “makes a lot of sense” according to Pappas.
Pappas believes that if the bill doesn’t get pushed through by then, it may be too late. “There will be some opportunity to move legislation between the election and the New Year,” said Pappas. “In an ideal world, we get something done before the election. But the next opportunity after that is the lame duck session.”
Another thing noted by the PPA is that they do not believe that the bill will be able to pass as a stand-alone bill, as hoped by Barney Frank. Instead, they believe that it would make more sense – and have more chance – to pass it as an attachment to another bill.
Pappas pointed out that HR2267’s passage through the House Financial Services Committee was a huge boost to poker players and gave online gamblers hope.
“I think that what it demonstrates is that the old way of thinking in Congress has changed,” said Pappas. “When you look at 2008, when the PPA tried to pass a bill out of the House Financial Services committee that would have clarified the UIGEA, it stalemated at 32-32.”
The PPA indicated that it would have to weigh its strategy in terms of supporting Senator Robert Menendez’s bill which also deals with the legalization of online gambling.
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· Written by RogerCP · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
