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Iowa has become the latest state to back away from legalizing Internet poker this week.
Following news Tuesday that the District of Columbia had approved a measure that would make it the first US jurisdiction to allow online poker, both Florida and Iowa have abandoned such plans.
In the case of Iowa, lawmakers expressed to the Des Moines Register that legalizing Internet poker was “too controversial” a subject to decide this year.
Instead, the panel approved a bill that asks Iowa’s Racing and Gaming Commission to prepare a report for the state legislature by December 1. It would study the possible means for regulating intrastate Web poker.
Passage of the bill hit a stalemate last month in the state legislature with calls for change.
“It’s a terrible, terrible bill,” Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull told the Des Moines Register late Tuesday. “It’s the worst bill I’ve seen in this Legislature and I mean that. We’ve had all these social bills to address credit card abuses, violence, children’s neglect and abuse, and here’s the main issue why these things occur.”
Currently, there is federal legislation that was introduced last month while a more prominent state bill in Nevada is backed by online poker’s two biggest card rooms, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, along with two land-based casino establishments, Wynn Resorts and Stations Casino. Wynn would look to partner up with PokerStars while Full Tilt announced a partnership arrangement with the owners of Stations Casino, emphasizing that the casino itself would not be part of such an alliance.
- Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
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