WASHINGTON – A rift between Nevada’s senators widened Monday over a high-stakes bill that would clear the way for Nevada casinos to offer legal online poker to gamblers nationwide.
The split between Sens. Harry Reid and Dean Heller elevates the already steep odds that Congress could pass a lucrative yet controversial gaming bill in the waning days of this year’s session.
Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has readied an online poker bill and has been seeking a way to get it passed, even as Senate officials acknowledge it is 15 votes or so short of the necessary majority.
Reid had set a deadline of Monday to see whether enough votes could be gathered for the bill to move in the less than three weeks remaining before Congress recesses for the November elections. It is expected to return for a lame-duck session after Election Day.
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The 70-page Democratic platform contains 12 references to the word “Internet” and the plank, “Internet Freedom” under the heading, “Advancing Universal Values.”
How many of the Internet references pertain to legalizing Internet poker?
Zero.
How many of the Internet references discuss the issue of Internet gaming?
Zero.
A week after Republicans approved a platform that called for a “prohibition” on Internet gaming, the Democrats seemingly ignored the issue altogether.
Delegates to the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, N.C., gave their support to the party’s platform Tuesday in the convention’s opening session.
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WASHINGTON, DC – Harry Reid went on record about the lame duck session schedule, telling The Hill, “we need to stay here until we finish.”
Whether or not “finishing” includes passing the online poker bill remains to be seen. What is clear is that the Reid bill is still on the table and continues to be revised, albeit quietly, as the Senate engages in a multitrillion-dollar left-vs-right holiday battle royale. But so far the only thing the bill has attached itself to is what is becoming, as NPR explains, a contentious race against the clock.
The Constitutional deadline for this session of Congress to close its business is noon on January 3rd, 2011.
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