Reid Struggles to Sneak Through Online Gambling Bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who barely escaped his re-election campaign last November based in large part to Las Vegas casinos literally bussing their employees to the polls and forcing them to vote for him, is trying to payback the industry with an internet gambling bill that Las Vegas is pushing for in order to cash in on the ever expanding industry including the online poker market. At first the Democrat of Nevada tried to tie the legislation to the recently passed tax bill.

Reid’s attempt was heavily criticized since a gambling bill of such importance and magnitude is totally unrelated to the Bush tax cuts that were extended in trade for a lengthening of unemployment benefits. Another point of contention was online poker being part, and then not part of the gambling bill. Reid has found that there are too many competing interests, even amongst his own Democrat Party, that can come to a consensus with so much other legislation on the table and just a few days before the Republicans take over the House of Representatives and cut into Reid’s margin with increased membership in the Senate.

Reid is trying to work fast and pass the online gambling bill before the new Republicans join the Senate. The GOP has been against any legalization and in fact made online gambling more difficult in 2006 when they passed a banking law (UIEGA) that made it very difficult for US citizens to move money to and from offshore casinos. The UIEGA law has since proven to be too difficult to enforce and banks complained that it was not a workable law. Many insiders also believe that the passage of that bill was what really cost the GOP their congressional majorities in the 2006 elections. Las Vegas casinos offered millions of dollars as well as political muscle to Reid’s re-election win in which he was trailing all the way to the end before scoring a stunning 5 point win.

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