Wednesday’s approval of Rep Barny Frank’s Internet gaming bill has set off a world of discussion with some pundits, like Philadelphia Inquirer writer Joseph DiStefano, arguing that Congress may pull a few tricks to fast track this bill in order to get some new tax revenues flowing in.

But considering that there is still a companion bill about exactly how to tax online gaming — which means poker — that has to be passed as well and then merged with the Frank bill, we’re still leaning towards a slower timetable.

In the Senate (which has to OK all this too), the online bill is sponsored by New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez. His bill defines poker as a game of skill, but hasn’t even moved to the hearing stage. The NY Times has a nice story about the whole situation.

Look, this is an Atlantic City poker blog and we never claimed to understand Washington. But online poker could still be a boon to Atlantic City if efforts by state politicians to make New Jersey the first to OK online gaming make any progress. And it’s interesting that New Jersey’s Menendez is one of the sponsors of these bills.

Who knows, one day A.C. could find itself a double threat; an online poker hub and a competitive live poker market. Worse things could happen.

Tags: Poker headlines

This entry was posted on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 10:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.