Crap, I\’m never gonna get to that Deep Purple concert before Smoke on the Water … stepped away from the Pokerati Game @PalmsPokerRoom for a bit, and sure enough the draft of Joe Barton\’s online poker bill — one crafted with more input from players (via the PPA) than squabbling online poker entities, and supposedly supported already by Harry Reid, has leaked out.
You\’ll have to tell me what\’s in it … I gotta go to the concert — and I\’m sure the Senate Majority Leader from Nevada won\’t be able to resist manipulating it in some way by the time it moves outta the house … but feel good overall that it will be more player-focused from the start than any that preceded it … simply because Black Friday put so many other battles amongst potential supporters to rest … and we\’ll have to reassess, but I really think the conditions look strong for now as opposed to later. And I say that even though I\’ll bet that Barton\’s staff didn\’t take my suggestion and include any provisions for splashing pots with concert tickets in the Pokerati game. (Didn\’t they see I still have a 214 area code!?) Hey, special-interest politics is about compromise, right?
Maybe I\’m wrong, but I just think the masses of poker players are in a better spot for such negotiations in 2011 than we were in 2010 … especially if this 101-page bill I skimmed is more than just smoke-and-mirrors on the water, which now it has no reason to be.
Click here to download a copy of the Barton online poker bill … so hot off the not-for-publication-yet presses, it\’s listed as HR _______.
