Senator Menendez New Online Poker Bill

September 9, 2009

For a while, legal U.S. online poker news has been mostly restricted to the efforts of Barney Frank, the Congressman from Massachusetts and Chairman of the House Finances Committee, to pass two bills into law regarding online gambling in general. Passage of either or both of these bills – which now counts an abundance of Senators – across party lines even – as co-sponsors – would be a tremendous victory for online poker as well as its cousin once removed, online casino gambling. But Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat representing New Jersey, has done Frank, the Poker Players Alliance, and online poker players throughout the U.S. one better.

Senator Menendez has just introduced before Congress a bill called S 8309 or the Internet Poker and Games of Skill Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. Note the thoughtful inclusion of the word ‘Skill’ in the bill’s name, as the question of whether poker is more a game of skill or luck is one of the key issues in this debate.

The bill, revealed to the world just this past Thursday, August 6, includes, along with online poker, the games of backgammon, bridge, chess, and mahjong too. Quoted directly from the bill: “While each of these games contains an element of chance, over any substantial interval, a player’s ultimate success is determined by that player’s relative level of skill.”

The 89-page bill places heavy focus on “consumer protections” which in the case of online poker means the protection of U.S. online poker players. Among its statutes, for example, are provisions to make sure that the online poker games U.S. residents play are 100% fair.

Written by admin · Filed Under Poker News