Congressional Battle over Online Gambling Heats up

It\’s here … the debate we all wanted in 2007, 2008, and 2009 is finally happening. And all signs point to good-for-poker. But we might wanna be careful what we wish for … not sure exactly how it\’s gonna play out, but even if the laws we champion get passed post-haste it won\’t be like we\’re suddenly back in 2006, time-warped to an era when Jamie Gold was the only thing bad about poker. Ahh, the innocence …

Even as online gambling legislation that would effectively make online poker fully legal moves forward, so many different interests will be fighting to have things worded their way …

ABCNews.com gave today\’s hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee some significant real estate … and in general the mainstream media has been chirping. Expect the chatter to increase as June 1 approaches. We\’ll see if and when online gambling — and specifically poker — become something more than a side-snippet across the multiple channels of CableTalk TV.

Still, with this most recent movement on the McDermott bill — a little 2-hour committee hearing — we got one big step closer to the day when all those 10s of millions of Zynga poker players suddenly begin to play for real money.