After the mid-term elections in November the current Congress will reconvene for what is known in political parlance as a ‘Lane-Duck Session’. One of two things typically happens during a lame-duck session of Congress: Either they will do nothing, leaving any serious decisions to the incoming Senators and House of Representative members, or they will push through a number of different bills, since the outgoing Congressional members no longer have to placate to special interest groups –it’s like stealing the pens, notepads, and stapler on your last day of work, who cares!
Since it appears the makeup of Congress will shift towards more social conservatism, the lame-duck session could be the best chance to get online poker legislation passed through Congress. Even with the exclusion of sports betting from the bill, social conservatives still staunchly object to any form of legalized gambling, and despite easily passing a committee vote, Barney Frank’s (D-MA) bill HR 2267 still stands an uphill fight in the current congress, let alone if upwards of 50 or more seats slide towards social conservatives.
Even the Tea Party candidates, who are shouting for smaller government, lean heavily to the right on social issues – Perhaps the most glaring example being Libertarian Rand Paul who is running for Senate in Kentucky, and despite his Libertarian views is a strong social conservative.
So in the end the future of online poker in the United States could come down to something known as a lame-duck session!
Comments
Let people be free! Let people use thier own money! How is this issue even debatable?...A minority of fascists declaring what a population of 300 million can do with its own money!?....preposterous! And the only way this was done in the first place is by sneeky Republicans, the night before recess, at 11:00PM when no one's in Congress, sneeking this law into the Safe Port Act.
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