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By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Published Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Updated Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 | 3:09 p.m.
The top policy-making senators on online poker are agreed: The chances that a federal online poker bill will pass before the end of 2012 are nil. “Two weeks before Christmas, without being vulgar, what the hell would I put it on?” Sen. Harry Reid said this week, referring to his effort to find a bill to which he could attach a poker amendment. And, today, just days after that complaint, Reid officially called it quits on online poker for 2012. “As much as I would prefer a different outcome the reality is that we have simply run out of time ...
Well, it is a good thing this bill will fail because it is NOT an online poker bill...it is a bill to kill the online gambling business so that the big Nevada gaming companies can continue their campaign against any improvements in the US online gambling environment unless the Nevada gaming companies can get a substantive monopoly over it.
Online gaming/gambling can provide great expansions in jobs and economic development for US workers and companies and it is sad that we are still allowing the K-Street lobbyists in DC to destroy opportunities for Americans to get jobs, for American companies to make profits, and for our state and federal governments to generate reasonable tax revenues from those businesses.
And this is because the big Nevada gaming companies either still do not understand online gaming (they think it is their casino gaming moved online --WRONG) or they are deliberately trying to destroy US opportunities so that foreign competition gets most of the new business development in this area...maybe that is why they are buying and partnering with foreign companies rather than supporting US business development.
The online gaming business is good example of how corrupt politicians care more about their personal wealth than about the welfare of their constituents... Just shameful
The fact is that if the Nevada gaming companies managed this correctly, they could grow and expand their businesses substantively; instead they stupidly worry about cannibalizing their current businesses --- just so misguided it is hard to understand how managements like that can continue to get their shareholders to support them while they actively destroy shareholder value and equity.
Reid is the MAJORITY LEADER!!! He's the boss. He can get it done! It's always someone else's fault!!! He can't do anything for this state. We need him OUT and we need to put a rookie in there, who can actually get something done!
Harry wants a larger inbox for Xmas.
Without getting into details, Longtimevegan has said with conviction, "any federal online poker approval would not pass." Said it once, say it twice, said many, many times. The votes are not there! The support is not there! What part of "No" do you not understand!
And now, the poker advocates are trying to blame Harry Reid and Dean Heller, or anyone else on Capital Hill.
Look, the reality, passing federal online poker legislation started out at 50/50. The odds are now 90/10 against. Why is it the poker advocates cannot see this reality? Anyone with relevant information know this is fact, and has been fact for the past 2-years.
The best online poker can do is push States that have legalized gaming to approval measures for intrastate online poker. The Federal level is dead! Not in our life-time will there be Federal approval for online poker. And when the Feds do decide to approve online poker at the Federal level, this will the camel noses into the tent to oversight "all" gaming at the Federal level.
With all the smarts guys running US gaming operation, why can't they see the big picture? What happened to the smart, quite, getting things done, seeing the big picture gaming executives that once dominated the Las Vegas strip and beyond? Or were there every smart guys at all?
A good domino player always says, "all money is not good money." Why score ten points this round when you can force your opponent to play double-six, then you score 25 the next round instead.
In addition... in addition, people like Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn (which are great for Las Vegas) have made lawmakers think twice about expanding any type of power to gaming operators or gaming owners based on their open involvement in the last Presidential Election. This is a deal breaker even in the eyes of a two-year old.
You know, there is a different reality coming from people who have huge sums of money and go out to get something that is driven by personal motivation. And then there are people with authority, with power to help these different reality folks in this alternate universe, and they too, are in a different reality. This goes beyond being in the Bubble. This online poker deal show there are some people still in the moment of reality. You know, like 2 + 2 = 4, and not 3, as some people would like it to be.
Federal approval for online poker is dead, for that fact, it never was alive at the federal level. Reality is reality my friends, let get back to it!
The American Gaming Association help put online gambling to rest for a short period of time. The AGA has been spouting the same old myths and retoric for the past fifteen years. It's time for the AGA to sing a different tune.
A new approach to online gambling will appear in 2013 - the next time it will be well thought out. Las Vegas casino owners never give upwithout a fight. They are the masters of planning for new revenue.
All I am wanting to do is Check-Raise by the holidays!
Approval of Online Poker at the Federal level will restrict the expansion of domestic gaming...period!
Online poker is an intrastate operation. Anything approved at the Federal level will be controlled at the Federal level.
Be careful of what you wish for. This is a no brainer . But if your chasing the money the poker advocates are dangling like carrot to horse, you'll walk off the cliff without knowing it.
Casinos are not masters at planning for new revenues. In this case, they are preparing the end for limiting domestic gaming and giving away control. State gaming provides the approval and the control for the casino industry. This is the partnership that allows legalize gaming to thrive in the USA. A workable and reasonable partnership. Any type of Federal intervention will interrupt this partnership. Federally approved online poker will bring about an intervention of this partnership.
Hmmm...the omnipotent Majority Leader can't even get one 'lil 'ol poker bill passed? Or a 'lil 'ol wilderness bill through? Or a budget? Or foreclosure relief. Or anything else for that matter.
Man up, Harry. For once in your life -- man up.
Sandoval Heller Heck and the other nutty teabag Republicans are at fault. They are too busy blocking the UN disability treaty that would help disabled Veterans around the world. The Republicans are disfunctional people.
All of us avid online poker players, and defenders of liberty, are glad to see this protectionist Federal bill die a slow death. Kyl and Reid are snakes, one doing the bidding of Marty Gold and the NFL, the other his cronies in the Nevada corporate casinos and their stooges at the AGA.
Online poker was never illegal, and still isn't, so the thought of trying to shove a Federal protectionist bill through to restrict open competition was a rancid proposition.
New Jersey state Senator Lesniak has welcomed PokerStars with the public admiration they deserve as the leader in online poker. With the state poised to pass online gambling, and Christie about to humiliate the NFL and the NCAA in court while opening up sports gambling markets, New Jersey is set to begin state compacts tied into international pools, where the actual player is the primary beneficiary,not the Vegas corporate cabal.
I said it before and I will say it again - Las Vegas casino owners are the masters at planning for new revenue. They sit in their ivory tower and watch gamblers on the computer screens part with their money and they plan new ways to get more money from the gamblers everyday.
Sorry to burst your Bubble Theresa, that's not what they do. If you only knew.