A month-and-a-half ago Barney Frank (D-MA) was prepping us for life with the real UIGEA in fully enforced effect — at a time, no less, when Federal law enforcement was saying \”we know who you are Full Tilt, and you better be ready to tell us who Isildur1 is!\”
But this upcoming week, Frank\’s online gambling bills apparently are moving … on the docket for Friday, April 16, are Full Committee hearings for H.R. 2266, Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act and H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act-Governmental Perspectives.
Click here to watch the committee hearing live when it happens.
UPDATE: This hearing has been postponed, without a new date set.
HR 2266 is the bill that would grant a one-year delay for enforcement of the UIGEA. (The Treasury Department lumped it in with some bigger-politics stuff last year and compromised with a six-month delay, which expires on June 1.) So perhaps further delay is possible?
HR 2267, of course, is the full-fledged UIGEA-repealing online gambling regulations. Not sure where \”governmental perspectives\” comes in, but that\’s how it\’s officially listed at the top of the House Financial Services Committee calendar. I\’m pretty sure this is where the committee goes over the bill, representatives voice their beefs, and send it back for revisions. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) will likely preach the terror it brings to the the children, at which point any Tea-Party-minded Republicans will have to say, \”Yeah, he\’s got a point. Make the child protection stronger and I can sell it to my voters as being fiscally sensible!\” I think that\’s how it moves … once they do that, then the bill is ready to be (considered to be) heard on the House floor.
It\’s gonna be a big week for poker in Washington DC, that much is for sure. A high-power poker politico contingent will be in town (with their Hollywood friends?) for the Ante Up for Africa-DC tourney on April 14. Why on earth is no one broadcasting that tournament? TV pros and movie stars vs. congresspeople trying to out-bully and out-deceive each other … with a little lobbying subtext to the banter? It\’d be like Celebrity Poker Showdown meets C-Span. Throw Gabe Kaplan in the mix and you\’ve got a guaranteed ratings hit.