Online Poker Law Not To Sneak Into Congressional Payroll Bill
A recent news report discussed the eventuality of a possible poker legislation not being included in the Congressional bill for payroll taxes.
US poker players were excited about the possibility of poker regulations being passed in the payroll tax bill, but these clauses of the bill were dropped. And, however, disappointing the news may be to the poker community, it would appear that this was done for a good and valid reason.
The original bill was to focus on payroll legislation outlining payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits for Americans. According to a source as mentioned by www.parttimepoker.com, “Airdropping this into the payroll bill wouldn’t sit well with a whole bunch of people from a process standpoint.”
Indeed, the outrage following the UIGEA and the way its altered rules on online gambling payments to offshore sites had been sneaked in to a Congressional bill, fully altering the state of affairs of online poker in the US is a good example of why not to do this. It should also be noted that the payroll tax bill has enough riding on it without the addition of a hot topic like that of regulating online poker in the US being “airdropped” on it and jeopardizing the entire thing.
However, since US lawmakers like Senator Harry Reid are actually entertaining ideas on setting up regulations for online poker, it may be a good idea to formulate a bill exclusively for online poker explaining and outlining its regulations, requirements and legislation perimeters. A spokesperson from Sen. Reid also made a statement to Politico confirming for a fact that internet poker legislation will not be a part pf the payroll tax bill. In the meanwhile, players will have to wait for another Congressional session and another bill to take this issue to task.
