Senators Jon Kyl and Harry Reid have drawn up a federal online poker legislation, which would legalize the activity across the United States. While the bill has gained a great deal of support, time is ticking, as the window of opportunity for the bill to be passed is slowly closing. According to Bloomberg’s Business Week, Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. of the American Gaming Association is not very optimistic.
Fahrenkopf states that the upcoming election has cut the bill’s lifespan, and it will require a great deal work if there is any hope of online poker being legalized this year. Since nothing will happen before the election, Fahrenkopf believes that the last chance we’ll have for online poker in 2012 is a lame duck session.
“We will need plenty of hard work and a little gambler’s luck to see a federal bill pass this year,” he says.
At the recent Global Gaming Expo, he highlighted the need to online gambling regulation. As there are over 85 countries around the world that have legalized online poker, he believes that it is now America’s time to follow suit. Currently, the market is worth more than $35 billion worldwide, and American players are spending their share in international markets. As such, the United States is losing out on valuable online gambling revenue that needs to be reclaimed.
