HR 2268, now HR 4976, aka the McDermott Bill, aka the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2009 2010, got re-introduced yesterday … it\’s pretty similar to IGRTEA 2009, with two key differences:
IGRTEA 2010 specifies money for states and tribes — 6 percent — and attaches a dollar amount for a specific beneficiary, roughly $1 billion a year for foster-care programs. It\’s being pitched as a sin tax, really — a simple addition to the tax code to allow one more group of disadvantaged youth to still get its government cheese. But if that\’s the road they\’re going down, perhaps they should earmark the $1 billion/year these kids will get from PokerTaxes.net as being for foster kids with cancer and cleft palettes? How can you be against helping foster children make that abused foster children with cancer and cleft palettes.
Here\’s the actual bill itself. Just three co-sponsors out the gate, one of them being Barney Frank.
Supposedly, the McDermott bill is still companion legislation for Barney Frank\’s 2267. But that bill seems to be going nowhere — instead of heading to mark-up, Frank is telling us to prepare for our next best course of action … let the UIGEA to go into full effect on June 1 and then they\’ll see how really bad it is.
OK, interesting strategy. But don\’t see where the McDermott bill fits in.
The last time we heard that type of talk was in November, when Spencer Bachus was preparing supporters of the UIGEA to prepare for its seemingly inevitable undoing.
So stuff has changed. How exactly remains to be seen. The .org apparently pushing the McDermott component is the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative.
Meanwhile … you tell me, get a sense of where anything gambling really stands in DC when Speaker Nancy Pelosi lets something slip about wagers on health care reform votes:
(I call.)
Some of poker\’s most influential — Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, et al. — are headed to DC in the next month for the Ante Up for Africa and PreventCancer.org tourney/events … and presumably, while mingling with elected officials and writing checks, will see what kind of political magic they can work (or is being worked) between now and June 1, UIGEA D-Day.