111th Congress to Include Poker Bill in Early Meetings
With the bad news of the UIGEA being finalized this week and effect on 19-Jan-2008, the poker community took a hit in the United States. But there’s still hope in the 111th Congress.
In the 110th congress, several bills such as the one introduced by Barney Frank to overturn the UIGEA, will expire after the inauguration ceremony of the newly elected Congress, and this means that they’ll all have to be reintroduced if they are to be made into law.
This is good news in the eyes of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), as one John Pappas, the executive director of the PPA, is closely working with Congressmen to rewrite the legislation that would make it more easily pass.
Three prominent bills are in the spotlight. First is the “Internet Skill Game and Licensing Control Act,” which aims to put into the black letter law of the United States that poker is in fact game of skill.
Next is the “The Skill Game Protection Act,” which would effectively undermine the UIGEA by also giving the game of Hold ‘Em a poker the title of “skill” game. If this bill passes, then even with the UIGEA in effect, poker would be exempt from illegal gambling activity as it’s wouldn’t be considered gambling on a game of chance.”
Finally, the “Payments System Protection Act of 2008″ was Barney Frank’s bill that was aimed solely at the UIGEA by definitively offering what activities would and would not be considered illegal under the 2006 Act. Poker was prominently in the legal category.
So even with the lame-duck president thrashing about in his final weeks of power, the poker hopeful do have something to cheer about in the form of governmental checks and balances.
