MacKinnon explains:

Before everyone rushes to E-Trade and shorts the market, in Washington I’ve found that things are never as good or as bad as they appear to be. The one thing Congress is good at is kicking the can down the road. This will be a test of wills like no other – especially for lobbyists like me.

The breadth and number of contentious issues to be decided after the election is overwhelming and quietly has garnered the attention of many CEOs and financial industry leaders. A few of the issues that must be addressed before the end of the year: expiring Bush tax cuts; extending the debt limit; stopping drastic reimbursement reductions for physians in the Medicare program; an unemployment insurance extension; a transportation bill to fund highway programs in 50 states; changes to the alternative minimum tax; tax credit extenders for renewable energy and research and development; and the expiring payroll tax cut. Combined, these issues on the table are equal to 3% of our GDP.

All these contentious issues have become very partisan and are to be decided by a “lame-duck” Congress and possibly lame-duck president. Failure to act in a significant way would throw a recovering economy into a tailspin and further harm our ability as a nation to borrow money. Unfortunately, Congress’s track record in recent years is not good and failure, as always, is not an attractive option. Depending on how the election turns out, it is unclear if elected leaders will have the collective political capital to pass a compromise on these measures. Hopefully the congressional leadership knows the discipline involved in a short stack strategy!

Before everyone rushes to E-Trade and shorts the market, in Washington I’ve found that things are never as good or as bad as they appear to be. The one thing Congress is good at is kicking the can down the road. This will be a test of wills like no other – especially for lobbyists like me.

One silver lining for the PPA is that our legislation to regulate online poker brings additional revenue – up to $18 billion - into the U.S. Treasury. That, combined with the Justice’s Department’s ruling last December that the 1961 Wire Act only applies to sports betting, makes it possible that our bill will be attached to “must-pass” legislation during the lame duck session of Congress in December.

As part of PPA’s lobbying team, we are busy trying to win support for our bill. Nobody on either side of this fight wins if there is inaction. Unfortunately we can say that about many issues before the Congress. Hopefully sanity prevails and Congress responsibly deals with all pending issues on its plate INCLUDING passing our bill to regulate online poker. Stay tuned and thank you for your continued support of the PPA. 

FWIW: Fahrenkopf’s sway in the overall-world-is-bigger-than-just-poker political discourse extends far beyond gaming, as he currently serves as co-chairman of the Committee on Presidential Debates. So that’s one to grow on, obv.

Rumors reached fever pitch last week that a bill to legalize and regulate online poker in the U.S. would be tacked on to legislation extending payroll tax cuts. Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV), however, denied the rumors on Thursday. Congress passed the payroll tax bill sans online poker legislation on Friday.

Poker players are all too familiar with gaming-related bills getting tacked on to other legislation. In 2006, the UIGEA was snuck on to the “must pass” Safe Port bill in the dead of night. Last week’s speculation gave full measure to the adage “turnabout is fair play.” 

But U.S. players (and casino interests alike) remain hopeful that online poker legislation is still in the cards for 2012 despite the false alarm and Wall Street’s long odds.

The article quotes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) as follows: “It [the Department of Justice’s clarification of its interpretation of the scope of the Wire Act as not including online poker] (will) give us an incentive to get something done. We cannot have a series of laws around the country related to [Internet] gaming, I know a lot about gaming. I’m a former chairman of the Nevada [Gaming] Commission, and I think it’s very important that we have a national law.” The article further states that Sen. Reid has confirmed that he is negotiating with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) on a federal online poker bill bill!

When articles like this goes public, lawmakers always look at public reaction. So, let’s all do our part and tell both that we wish for them to push forward with appropriate online poker legislation! Fortunately, we can do this quickly and easily.

Take Action

1. Let’s send Senators Reid and Kyl prewritten, editable tweets requesting action on poker legislation. They are HERE and HERE.
2. Please be sure to visit the PPA Take Action page.

Interviews

PPA comes before poker media to take on the tough questions as often as possible. I hope you will find these interesting and informative. This past week’s interviews focused on the Justice Department’s Wire Act decision and its impact on Capitol Hill momentum.

Recent appearances:

• OnTilt Radio: Poker Advocacy with Rich Muny, with guest PPA Board Member Linda Johnson (1/16/2012) (listen here).
• Short Stacked Radio: I come on at time point 1:29:55 (1/10/12) (listen here).
• Short Stacked Radio: I come on at time point 1:31:05 (1/3/12) (listen here).
• Website: Poker Advocacy with Rich Muny, with webcast archive (here)

Thank you for your continued support!

It feels like we’ve been talking about Caesars going public since before they were Caesars (we have) … but their latest S1/A filing with the SEC suggests not only that CZR really is might be ready to kick it Zynga-style with a big fat IPO … but also that any public offering from the worldwide gambling empire may be in preparation for imminent legalization of US online poker.

While such hefty levels of high finance are still probably a little beyond my ken … you can read the nearly 300 pages of Big Casino corporate speak and decide for yourself. Somewhere in here, I’m pretty sure, is a blueprint for the future of poker and/or online gambling.

At a minimum, I found this snippet on page 7 suggesting that Caesars is getting ready for something big related to online gambling poker:

We believe that additional jurisdictions will legalize online gaming due to consumer demand, a broader understanding of the need to regulate the industry and to generate income through taxes on gaming revenue. As such, we support efforts to regulate the online gaming industry to ensure that consumers are protected. We believe that the potential for online gaming is substantial and believe that we will command, at a minimum, our fair share in any legal jurisdiction. An H2 Gaming Capital study conducted in 2010 projects that the global online gaming market will grow to $36 billion in revenues by 2012. We believe that the largest opportunity in online gaming in the near term is the legalization of online poker in the United States. [emphasis added]

There’s tons more in this document worthy of perusal … some of which I’ve already skimmed. And it doesn’t take much to see how an actual Caesars IPO — not just talk of it — could-well coincide with legalized American online poker hubbub (finally!) reaching critical mass.

Caesars, after all, formerly known as Harrah’s, was a publicly traded company until going private shortly after passage of the UIGEA in 2006. Changed their name to Caesars in November 2010 — the last time they prepped seriously for an IPO (right after their boy Harry Reid won re-election and owed them a favor) only to withdraw plans for a public offering of stock shares right after someone told them the lame-duck online poker Reid bill was just a farce for other political purposes a couple weeks later.

Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has ASKED for questions via Twitter for an upcoming town hall. You can send him pro-poker questions in under thirty seconds:

1. Send a prefilled, editable pro-poker Twitter question: CLICK HERE
2. Send a second Twitter question for good measure: CLICK HERE
3. You can track the pro-poker messages here.

I also wish to discuss the ongoing issue with player funds locked up at Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, and Full Tilt Poker. As someone with around five figures locked up on Full Tilt Poker, I certainly empathize with the situation.

PPA has issued statements demanding that Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, and Absolute Poker refund player balances. Additionally, PPA representatives – including me – have made statements in several interviews with various poker media sources with demands for repayment. PPA does not accept the Department of Justice fund seizures as an excuse. We have also publicly praised PokerStars for doing the right thing in refunding its U.S. players.

Additionally, PPA’s legal team prepared a legal analysis of the options available to individual players who still have not been able to access their online poker funds held on account. The document — “Legal Rights of Players with Unpaid Balances – A PPA Information Guide” — provides our membership with facts and information about steps individuals can seek to take to claim their online poker account balances.

That being said, PPA is neither a regulatory body nor an enforcement agency. We are a player advocacy group, so our ability to force these sites to comply with our calls for action is limited. In fact, this is why PPA is pushing for legislation that gives us the rights we need as players.

The PPA-supported legislation now in Congress focuses strongly on consumer protection. It mandates protected and segregated player accounts, a U.S. presence (to allow for law enforcement action if needed), and many other provisions that protect our rights as players.

I am hopeful that reports of potential suitors lined up to purchase Full Tilt Poker, along with the recent enforcement actions by their regulators, will help generate positive steps toward player repayment. Full Tilt Poker recently released a statement on this. While it is noncommittal, it is moderately encouraging that they are again speaking publicly on the issue:

Full Tilt Poker, August 30th, 2011

As is obvious from the events that have transpired since April 15th, Full Tilt Poker was not prepared for the far-reaching, US government enforcement effort of Black Friday. 

The events of Black Friday came on the heels of prior government enforcement activities and significant theft. Over the two years preceding Black Friday, the US government seized approximately $115M of player funds located in U.S. banks. While we believed that offering peer-to-peer online poker did not violate any federal laws—a belief supported by many solid and well-reasoned legal opinions — the DOJ took a different view. In addition, as was widely reported, a key payment processor stole approximately $42M from Full Tilt Poker. Until April 15th, Full Tilt Poker had always covered these losses so that no player was ever affected. Finally, during late 2010 and early 2011, Full Tilt Poker experienced unprecedented issues with some of its third-party processors that greatly contributed to its financial problems. While the company was on its way to addressing the problems caused by these processors, Full Tilt Poker never anticipated that the DOJ would proceed as it did by seizing our global domain name and shutting down the site worldwide. 

Over the last four months, Full Tilt Poker has been actively exploring opportunities with outside investors in order to stabilize the company and pay back our players. At least six of those groups, including hedge funds, operators of other internet businesses and individual investors, have visited Dublin to inspect the operation. We have recently engaged an additional financial advisor through an investment banking group to assist us in our search for an infusion of cash as well as a new management team to restore the site and repay players. While any deal of this nature is necessarily complex given the current regulatory environment, our players should know that Full Tilt Poker is fully committed to paying them back in full and restoring confidence in our operations.

Noah Stephens-Davidowitz of Subject:Poker wrote a nice analysis of the statement and overall situation: click here to read.

Interviews

PPA comes before poker media to take on the tough questions as often as possible, as the questions we receive at these interviews are representative of the issues in which the poker community is most interested. I hope you will find these interesting and informative:

Wicked Chops Podcast with John Pappas (09/07/2011)

Short Stacked Radio (9/6): I come on at time point 0:41:00

PokerGob Poker Show (9/4) (scroll down to “September 4th Poker Show”)

Thank you again!

Proud to play,

Rich Muny
playerrelations@theppa.org
www.facebook.com/rich.muny

But a few recent stories of particular significance that might otherwise get buried amid PokerStars/WSOP/WPT press releases, 2+2 NVG threads, and the mashup of Jungleman cheating buzz:

Ring-fenced funds: Full Tilt debaucle explained
ALDERNEY
Check out this story in Poker Player Newspaper about a regulatory matter of new relevance called “ring-fenced funds”. It helps one understand a little better why Full Tilt found themselves in tighter straits than PokerStars post-Black Friday (even though PokerStars is the big boy the DOJ most wants) … and leaves one to wonder why senior executives and on-duty attorneys representing both Party Gaming and PokerStars flew in from Gibraltar, Israel, and the United States to observe the proceedings firsthand. Perhaps they thought they were coming in to witness an execution?

Online gambling goes national
WASHINGTON DC
Big talk all over the internet about a piece in the New York Post that points out how stars seem to be aligning for online gambling legalzation in the US — from the Kyl/Reid letter requesting DOJ assistance in squelching offshore operatives and state initiatives alike, to a Boehner aide taking on a VP role with the American Gaming Association, to a warming friendship between House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Venetian pooh-bah Shelly Adelson.

It all supports my belief that online gambling will indeed be a national issue in coming months (assuming people behind a rumored Senate bill want it to be). There’s no mention, however, of the player-friendly Barton Bill, nor much anything about poker specifically — the writer talks of “gambling” — which suggests this story could be a plant by media operatives for the AGA, who we know, of course, represent Big Casinos and likely have Harry Reid’s office on speed dial. It also supports contentions that the effort to bring back online poker (thanks PPA and Joe Barton!) will likely become a push for full-on legal online casinos as bills move forward.

Nevada regulators prepping for Poker+ …
LAS VEGAS/CARSON CITY
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to many, Nevada Gaming authorities are in the midst of sweeping changes to state regulations — with very specific language updates on matters of foreign partners, “suitability”, server location, mobile gaming platforms, slot machine networks, money transfers, tax collection, you name it … The new rules currently taking shape in Nevada touch on just about every issue brought up in the online gaming political sphere over the past five years. Whether revolutionary or standard as far as procedure goes, if you really wanna know what the future of online gambling (and therefore poker) will look like — and/or place your bets on who the corporate winners will be* — follow the public work of the Nevada Gaming Commission and State Gaming Control Board here in coming weeks.

* for entertainment purposes only: smart bet is Caesars, William Hill, and Cantor-Fitzgerald.

Play Late!

ACTION ALERT: Pokerati Game — 1/2 NLH/PLO — gets underway tonight at 7pm! Goes until whenever …

This letter, from two senators coming from very different camps on the Internet gaming issue, is a very interesting document both for what it says and for what it doesn’t say.

What it says is that the Department of Justice has been lax in pursuing foreign private Internet gaming operators and that this has “led to a signficant and growing perception … that the Department of Justice thought that the case [against operating Internet poker and other Internet gambling websites] was uncertain enough that it chose not to pursue enforcement actions.” The senators state that it’s important for the DOJ to pursue “illegal Internet gambling” in the United States “aggressively and consistently.” Most notably in this paragraph, Senators Kyl and Reid assert that Internet poker websites have been offering online play to Americans for many years “with apparently no repercussions.”

I can’t know what the senators meant to convey by this language, but as drafted, some of these claims are puzzling. Yes, the DOJ has perhaps not been as consistent in its pursuit – or not – of various Internet gaming operators. This owes as much to the fragmented nature of law enforcement in the US as anything else. (The Attorney General could convene a unit or task force to pursue Internet gaming across the various federal districts, but this seems unlikely. I don’t think that’s what the senators are after here, anyway.) But: a lack of aggression? Apparently no repercussions? Setting aside all state actions against Internet gaming, federal prosecutors across the United States, and taken as a whole, have been pretty busy. They have hounded operators, and those working with them, that are taking what the DOJ perceives to be illegal bets and wagers. There are the current federal indictments in New York and Maryland. There have been previous indictments in New York, Utah, and Missouri. There have been forfeiture orders sought and granted in federal courts in New York, Washington, Maryland, Missouri, and California, to name a few. The DOJ has collectively taken highly aggressive steps to disrupt operators’ businesses in the United States, with huge repercussions for those operators (many of which have decided to leave the US), payment intermediaries (many of whom have been indicted and/or shut down), and players (who have huge difficulties getting their money, if they can get it at all). No-one can deny that federal law enforcement has had a huge impact on the US-facing industry since 2006. It seems strange to me to call this a lack of consequences or aggression when the opposite appears to be true.

The Kyl-Reid letter goes on to cite concerns that the senators have with “the spread of efforts to legalize intra-state Internet gambling and the spread of efforts to offer such intra-state gambling through state-sponsored lotteries.” They call the efforts by intra-state gambling advocates and boasts about the DOJ’s “effective consent” by unnamed officials from various state lotteries “troubling.” They finish by asking the Attorney General to work with them to strengthen penalties for those who break the law, to see what modifications would be helpful to the DOJ in its fight against Internet gambling, and to either: a) reiterate the DOJ’s longstanding position that federal law prohibits gambling over the Internet (including intra-state gambling); or, b) if the DOJ’s position has changed, to consult with Congress before finalizing such a new position.

The request to restate the DOJ’s position is an empty one. Cleary the DOJ’s position has not changed. The New York and Maryland indictments both rely on the Illegal Gambling Business Act and respective predicate state law violations. The indictments in Maryland don’t rely on UIGEA (the New York indictments do), but the affidavit in support of the seizure warrants in Maryland relies on both UIGEA and the Wire Act. Some believe that the New York indictments signal that the DOJ knows that the Wire Act doesn’t prohibit Internet poker or casino games from being offered. If true, that’s as far as the DOJ will go, i.e., they just won’t invoke it, without comment one way or the other. The DOJ has consistently taken the position that the Wire Act applies to all Internet gambling, irrespective of the In re Mastercard decision, and this letter won’t change that. This in spite of the fact that, as many have pointed out before, the UIGEA expressly allows intra-state gaming, a point that is unsurprisingly not addressed by the senators. (That carve-out likely only gets intra-state gaming out of the UIGEA, not the Wire Act, but the point should still be addressed.)

What do the senators not say in this letter? They don’t say that the DOJ’s position “that all forms of Internet gambling are illegal” is the law of the land or that they agree with it. They clearly state that it’s the DOJ’s view. They also say precisely nothing about efforts to regulate and tax poker at the federal level.

What is the upshot of this correspondence to the Attorney General? I think it’s this: the senators are letting the DOJ know that it is to continue with its current policy. Kyl and Reid don’t necessarily endorse that blanket view of the application of the Wire Act (for example), but it suits their purpose to endorse tough “enforcement” from the DOJ. So what is their purpose, then? I suspect it’s to remind the DOJ that the legislative branch is calling the shots on the development of Internet gaming policy and, further to that power, to warn the states away from adopting their own intra-state gaming programmes. Kyl and Reid may also be signalling that they will support an Internet poker bill in Congress, perhaps even this year. Reid and the AGA already appear to be on board with a poker-only bill, and Kyl seems to be lining up with them. I agree with Jon Ralston’s conclusion on this (here); I just disagree with him that Reid and Kyl want an explanation for the Maryland and Manhattan federal indictments. They want nothing of the kind. In fact, I think the senators would be fine with further indictments being pursued.

The timing of the enactment of such a bill, if it happens, is still highly uncertain. Some colleagues of mine in the US that I greatly respect seem to believe that it has a better-than-even chance of happening this year, which I initially found surprising, but they could be right. Any federal i-poker bill could use one of three vehicles currently before the House of Representatives – the Barton, McDermott, or Campbell bills – but it will likely look very different from any of those drafts by the time it passes. Reid and Kyl will be the ones co-ordinating and signing off on the drafting of such a measure, for as long as Kyl is around, at least.

If my read on this is right, it affirms that pronouncements by politicians in general – and by Harry Reid in particular – are rarely what they may at first seem.

Seriously, this shift into the 21st late 20th century dramatically alters daily activity in every Vegas casino with a poker room … Wonder if Nevada Gaming learned about this “email” tactic on their junkets to Alderney.

The Alderney Gambing Control Commission — which will be making its own determination on the fate of Full Tilt Poker later this month — partnered with Nevada regulators in January, shortly after the Reid Bill somehow didn’t pass.

The political arm of America’s brick-and-mortar casino industry is working on its own federal online poker bill, Frank Fahrenkopf, CEO of the American Gaming Association, revealed yesterday at a press conference in Washington DC. The AGA bill will likely be a hybrid between inter- and intra-state, providing federal oversight of independent state regulations.

Joining Fahrenkopf at the press conference were Keith Smith, president of Boyd Gaming; Gordon Kanofsky, CEO of Ameristar Casinos; and Virginia McDowell, president of Isle of Capri Casinos. The lobbying push the AGA kicked off yesterday talked about online poker most immediately, but language used didn’t seem to exclude the possibility of online slots and other casino games becoming part of these efforts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is holding a lunch today with top Democratic leaders and casino executives to discuss, they say, a broad range of online gambling matters.

Gary Loveman, CEO of Caesars Entertainment (parent company to the WSOP), made note of the importance of online poker yesterday in an SEC filing yesterdayreporting Caesars Q1 2011 financial results. In the positive spin put on losing $147 million in the first three months of this year, he told Uncle Sam:

“Finally, we believe strongly that the recent federal indictments of illegal online poker operators should convince Congress to allow American citizens to play online poker and to allow American companies to compete in a multi-billion-dollar industry,” Loveman said. “By acting now to legalize a game enjoyed by millions of adult citizens, Congress can clarify ambiguous federal laws, generate tax revenues for federal and state governments and bring thousands of jobs to this country.”

Because where else could billionaires come to grips with their future together but on a fabulous yacht in exotic locations and make the deal (surprisingly) even-steven 50-50?

I couldn’t help but think of Vardi’s post as if told in a novella….

When Scheinberg Met Steve

Chapter 1: The First Meeting

Nearly two years ago billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn met Isai Scheinberg, the founder of PokerStars, the world’s biggest online gaming firm, for the first time. Scheinberg generally avoids traveling to the U.S., but the meeting took place on Wynn’s boat while it was anchored in the Mediterranean Sea. Over a three-hour lunch, Scheinberg tried to convince Wynn that the two of them should work together to regulate online poker in the U.S. with an eye toward setting up a joint venture.

Chapter 2: Relationship Doubts

It was a tough sell. Wynn had for years opposed online gaming. He was not a big user of technology. When Wynn needed information from the Internet he would just ask his secretary to find it. He also thought it would be tough to regulate online poker.

Chapter 3: Playing It Cool

During their lunch Wynn found Scheinberg to be quiet and reserved, carefully precise with his language and paying close attention to detail. Still, Wynn didn’t take the meeting too seriously. He did, however, take up Scheinberg’s offer to learn more in the ensuing months about how PokerStars conducted business. Wynn says what he learned shocked him, especially the company’s ability to identify any abnormal activity on its web site and stop it.

Chapter 4: Turning Point: Enter Reid

But the real turning point for Wynn came last year when Nevada Senator Harry Reid called Wynn to signal he was changing his mind about online poker. Wynn had no idea who put the issue before Reid, but he realized Reid was serious.

Chapter 5: We Meet Again

Scheinberg, meanwhile, continued to engage Wynn and the two met again on Wynn’s boat last year. This time the boat was anchored off the Bahamas and Wynn was taking Scheinberg’s proposals very seriously. During their discussions, Wynn asked Scheinberg why he was eager to change the status-quo in the American market. After all, PokerStars is making massive profits in the unregulated U.S. market, where it only has one serious competitor, Full Tilt Poker

Chapter 6: Let’s Get Hitched!

Wynn eventually agreed to work with Scheinberg toward establishing a joint venture that would be split 50-50, PokerStarsWynn.com, which was announced in March. Wynn says there is a written contract that obligates him to be responsible for the joint venture’s regulatory compliance if online poker becomes regulated in the U.S. For now PokerStars is getting a powerful ally who has been close friends with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for some 40 years.

Chapter 7: Shades of Grey

Wynn has clearly educated himself about the grey legal environment facing online poker firms like PokerStars. He brushes off the fact that his new strategic partner operates in the U.S. while the Justice Department takes the position that facilitating for-money online poker violates U.S. law. “In the United States of America the Justice Department has an opinion but several states have ruled and courts have agreed that poker is a game of skill, it’s not gambling. PokerStars rests their argument on that,” says Wynn. “I say there is a bit of sophistry here clearly. What difference does it make what PokerStars or the Justice Department says? The point is millions of people are playing poker and they are going to continue to play poker legally or illegally.”

Chapter 8: But What of Our Future?

Still, Wynn doesn’t think getting a Republican-controlled House of Representatives to approve online poker betting will be easy. “I don’t have any idea at this point,” says Wynn.” I know that as a nonbeliever I was convinced by the logic of the argument. And when I learn something and change my mind I may have the naïve notion that other people might be enlightened by the facts themselves. But that doesn’t mean I am right, especially in Washington.”

Nearly two weeks after the deal was announced, Steve Wynn told us all why he approved it.  If Reid, with the help of PokerStars, has made Wynn a believer in the future of iPoker, it is hard to believe that federal regulation is just a dream.

Nevada wants in on the regulating online poker game … and introduced a bill today to do just that. But many are curious … a Caesars legal counsel seems downright irked … about how the state the Harry Reid built could be pushing an intrastate measure, when they want interstate.

OK, yeah yeah, Harry Reid didn’t build the whole state, I know. He would have to be like 140 years old for that to tbe true. But you know this kinda thing isn’t moving to the point that it did today without him having at least some finger in it. Right? State and federal are usually different … but internet poker kinda became the US Senate Majority Leader’s baby … or at least his bratty nephew.

Line it up: the pre-regulation of online poker continues … and the game is just getting extra good.

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) is pushing revisions to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act — the first such changes in 22 years — which would make it harder for Native American tribes with gaming licenses to acquire new land on which to build casinos.

Does Feinsiten have a sincere interest in limiting various Tribes’ expansions? Or could this be part of a multi-level political negotiation connected to future online poker and gambling bills currently being haggled over in Washington DC? It’s just a hypothesis at this point — no real information on my end — but it seems likely that Feinstein’s legislation could become a bargaining chip for Harry Reid should it gather momentum. Just the threat of such restrictions, you would think, limits the power of Native Americans as they lobby to make sure they factor into the 21st Century gambling equation.

But today, just a little more than a day after the second lameduck session of 111th Congress ended, the Sun chose to say nothing at all about #reidbill in this story published at 2am entitled “For Harry Reid, it’s been the best of times, worst of times.”

—-

LV Sun Articles: Timeline

NOTE: Dec 2nd -> #reidbill announced to public via Wall Street Journal article

Dec 3rd -> “Harry Reid pushes bill to allow for online gambling”
Dec 7th -> “Harry Reid rushes effort to legalize Internet poker”
Dec 9th a.k.a. zombie-bill-day -> Is it dead? -or- Is it alive?
Dec 10th -> “Casino trade group supports Internet poker bill”
Dec 15th -> “Letter: Legalizing online poker of no help to average Nevadans”
Dec 15th -> “Reid, Republicans in spat over Christmas session”
Dec 17th -> “All bets off: Online poker bill dealt possible death blow”
Dec 19th -> “Senate passes food safety bill, again – Sunday, Dec. 19″
Dec 22nd -> “9/11 health care bill still on Reid’s agenda”

NOTE: Dec 22 -> 2nd session of lame duck adjourned “sine die” (adjourned for an indefinite period)

—-

In this article, writer Karoun Demirjian gives the “lion’s share” of props for the work the 111th Congress has done to Reid, and said that for the NV senator:

… on the professional front, things have never been better.

Scholars and pundits of all political persuasions agree that the 111th Congress has been the most productive the country has seen since at least the “Great Society” years of 1960s, if not ever.

The lion’s share of the credit goes to Reid, who as majority leader in the Senate was the ultimate stopgap: If he could find a way around blocks, filibusters and changing majorities, bills passed; if he couldn’t, they died.

“If we had accomplished in any prior Congress that I’ve been involved in 10 percent of what we were able to do this Congress, we’d be celebrating by turning back flips,” Reid said in his office on Wednesday, barely an hour after the Senate had ratified the New Start treaty with Russia, its last major piece of work before breaking for the holidays.

“Think of the stuff that we’ve done.”

A partial list is considerable, even if some of the measures were controversial: The stimulus, health care overhaul and Wall Street reform; and bills to repeal the military’s policy against gays serving openly, strengthen equal-pay laws and give the Food and Drug Administration more power to regulate food safety and tobacco.

With Republicans coming to power in the House in less than two weeks, it’s likely we’ve not heard the last word on some of those issues — especially the stimulus and health care, which Reid counts as his biggest accomplishments.

And also talks about what his *priorities* are in the next session of Congress:

Reid said his job for the next two years is to be a “cooling vessel for the heat of the House of Representatives.”

“It’s going to be much easier than it was,” Reid said.

Of course, that outlook doesn’t quite square with the to-do list Reid seems to have going in his head for the next session.

Amid all the activity, Congress failed to take significant steps in three major areas of the president’s agenda that are vitally important to struggling Nevada.

Energy legislation, a subject with huge implications for Nevada’s new renewables industry, not to mention Yucca Mountain, never happened. Neither did wide-scale, pre-collegiate education reform, or anything on immigration — a controversial topic nationally that has emerged as the key policy issue for Nevada’s Hispanic population, which made up 16 percent of the midterm electorate.

After being decidedly on-the-record regarding the subject in the past three weeks, kinda odd this Nevada newspaper is choosing not to mention the one topic closest to the wallets of Reid’s key supporters in the most recent election, and undoubtedly the minds of Pokerati’s readers, leaving us to ask:

<<>> Just where is internet poker legislation on Harry Reid’s “to-do list”? <<>>

In fact, makes me wanna give an assignment to Las Vegas 1st graders and/or 2+2 — crayon drawings of how they see the 2060 WSOP.

Anyhow, though I still think we (as in “poker”) technically may have one out left, all interested parties seem to be resigned to the notion that 2010 — for all the heartfelt ups and downs we experienced — is not the year for change poker players can believe in. Right now I think our best bet, with all the major-world issues being fought over in DC, would be for a staffer to trip while bringing a bill to Obama and letting a few sheets of paper slip in unnoticed for an accidental signing.

We’ll have to leave it to the mainstream pundits to determine why on earth this shoulda even been a problem when we ultimately brought $60 billion via decent policy to the table — and the people theoretically supporting it controlled all branches of government … one of them being one of the most powerful people in Washington DC. Something doesn’t seem to add up, and I suspect Harry Reid will have a lot of questions to answer but not really as a guy who secured his gig for 6 years. But in the meantime, the PPA, in just its fourth year of existence, has put out the statement below surrendering this round while assessing how to build off a year where they made more progress for poker than ever before seen on a federal level … bringing us closer to those kindergarten dreams of what 2060 could look like:

Poker Players Alliance Disappointed Congress Failed to Regulate Poker and Protect Consumers

Washington, DC (December 17, 2010) –The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide, today expressed its disappointment that lawmakers will likely miss an opportunity to license and regulate online poker before the end of the 111th session of Congress.

“On behalf of the millions of Americans who play online poker, I am disappointed Congress has not acted to implement important licensing and regulation of this growing industry. Not only will this include valuable consumer protections, but it also will pump much needed funding and jobs into the weakened U.S. economy,” said former Senator Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the PPA. “It’s a missed opportunity, pure and simple.”

The PPA remains fully committed to its mission of establishing sensible laws that provide Americans with a safe, regulated environment in which to play poker, whether online or around the kitchen table. At the federal level the PPA will continue to work closely with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) who has taken a leadership role on this issue. The PPA will seek to correct some of the problems with draft legislation to ensure that players are treated fairly and that states are in a better position to immediately opt-in to the federal model. Additionally, PPA will be reaching out to the more than 100 new members of Congress who will be sworn in this January to educate them on the value of licensing and regulating online poker.

PPA’s efforts in 2011 will not be limited to Washington, D.C. The organization will continue to identify legislative options to overturn the ridiculous anti-Internet gambling law in Washington State. We will also remain involved in the various state efforts to regulate the online game. Our commitments to the legal defense of poker players will remain a priority. The PPA will continue to assist the online players from Illinois who have been targeted by greedy lawyers seeking to exploit the laws. And, we will carry on with our efforts to advance the skill vs. chance debate in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and other states and localities where this issue arises.

“While we are clearly disappointed that a law did not pass this year, 2010 was a year of tremendous progress for PPA and the online poker community. The progress we’ve made this year and the momentum of the past few weeks will only help as we continue to work with lawmakers at the state and federal levels to protect the rights of Americans to play the great game of poker in a safe, regulated, U.S. market,” said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA.

The panel breaks down PokerStars most recent signing and handicaps the Bluff Magazine Readers Choice Award Nominations

The Poker Beat: December 15, 2010

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• Antonio Esfandiari wins WTP Five Diamond.
• Reid Bill AGAIN…
• Pokerstars signs isildur1.
• Bluff Magazine Reader Choice Awards Votes?

Vote vigorously and/or repeatedly for The Poker Beat
for Favorite Web-based Show in Bluff magazine’s 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards.

For the final show of the year, Chops is joined by Attorney and poker writer, Dave ‘F Train’ Behr and Dan Michalski of Pokerati.com as they discuss and analyze the latest on the Reid bill and poker legalization in America. Jess Wellman provides the poker headlines where one thing is dominating the poker world. Tune in for the latest poker news, debate and the occasional Duhamel. For more information, show notes and an upcoming schedule, go to http://thisweekin.com

Released Dec 15, 2010