Harry Reid Drops Online Poker Draft Legislation From Agenda

The excitement over a push for legalization of Internet poker in the US has dwindled fast late Wednesday with reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to drop his draft bill from the lame duck session agenda.

Reid, prompted by some of his biggest donors, the Vegas casinos, had been circulating the bill in recent days.  Opposition had since mounted on the Republican side.

Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush and current Fox News commentator Karl Rove said of Reid’s efforts yesterday:

“Harry Reid is desperately trying to get this bill passed in the Senate because one of his big campaign backers, Harrah’s, is signed up with a European poker operation (888.com) which has already been dealing cards in the United States in violation of U.S. law over the internet, and they want to get this bill passed so that Harrah’s and their foreign partner have the lead in establishing Internet poker games in the United States.

“And he’s trying to get it, so the object is to rush this thing through, let’s all agree with it, and really it would in essence disadvantage all the American competitors of Harrah’s who don’t have a relationship with one of these European companies that’s got a two or three year head start, but this is the last chance to get that thing through before a new Congress comes in and you have to start the process all over again and there are going to be more scrutiny as to what’s in the bill.”

The Las Vegas Sun broke the news of Reid’s decision Wednesday evening, noting that, after a press conference, he would not be adding legalization of online poker to his list of objectives during the lame duck.

The lame duck session was expected to end a week from this coming Friday. 

- Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher