- The first concrete positive outcome of the RAWA hearing will not be to online poker opponent Sheldon Adelson’s liking—Republican Representative Joe Barton from Texas plans to introduce a bill to explicitly legalize online poker.
- The bill is likely to be a resubmission or close re-write of the HR2666 bill which he submitted at the end of 2013.
- “It’s poker only,” he said. “It doesn’t apply to the lottery or any other games of chance.”
The first concrete positive outcome of the RAWA hearing will not be to online poker opponent Sheldon Adelson’s liking—Republican Representative Joe Barton from Texas plans to introduce a bill to explicitly legalize online poker.
The bill is likely to be a re-submission or close re-write of the HR 2666 bill which he submitted at the end of 2013. “It’s poker only,” he said. “It doesn’t apply to the lottery or any other games of chance.”
The bill will give states the right to determine whether they want to offer regulated online poker and contain provisions to protect children from accessing online poker rooms. Deposits would not be permitted using credit cards, only debit cards and a regulatory agency would have the right to impose limits on players who might be at risk of problem gambling behavior.
Barton will likely again receive the support of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA)—Director John Pappas provided excellent testimony during a hearing on HR 26666.
Like millions of his fellow Americans, Joe Barton enjoys playing poker recreationally. “I go to Oklahoma about every three or four months to play poker,” he said.
As to the prospects of his bill succeeding, he believes there is an inevitability that poker will be regulated at some point.
“Folks who think they can stand in a pulpit and tell people how to run their lives and tell states how to run their businesses don’t see the same Constitution I do,” he told the Texas Star Telegram.
