Keep Flopping Aces

The American Gaming Association (AGA), the trade association that represents major, US brick-and-mortar casinos, is involved in discussions with those in Congress who support a regulated and legalized US online gambling industry.

In the current edition of eGaming Review, AGA president Frank Fahrenkopf’s (pictured left) comments criticized the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act’s (UIGEA) lack of clarity, and in a quote that should win the hearts of online poker players everywhere, said that regarding amended legislation, “on balance, if we could only get poker, the [AGA] board would be very satisfied.”

But AGA’s posture won’t make friends everywhere, especially with online sites that continued to cater to US-based customers since the enactment of UIGEA in 2006.  According to Fahrenkopf, discussions to prevent those sites from profiting when new legislation is implemented are underway with those lawmakers supporting a repeal of UIGEA, and that “no existing licensee would be able to sell their player database, buy their brand, or license their software.”

Fahrenkopf also told eGaming Review, “I have talked to legislators who say, ‘So, you deny someone a license because they have been operating in violation of US law, that’s a penalty for what they did. But if you let them turn around and sell their assets, and make millions of dollars, they have benefitted from violating the law, they shouldn’t allow that.’

“I have not seen things that are specifically drafted, but I should tell you that discussions of that nature are taking place inside and outside Congress.”

My own take on all of this is positive. It appears that all the forces are continuing to line up in support of repealing UIGEA and replacing it with a law that would eventually license and regulate online poker in the US.  While I’m convinced it will happen, I’m not sure when these changes will become reality.  It will probably not happen in 2010, and will undoubtedly take longer to become a reality than I’d like, but nevertheless, all the leverage seems to be moving in the right direction these days.  It’s just that we’re looking at the turning of slow moving wheels—but at least they’re beginning to move, and in the right direction too.

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“In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia,

Down in the dark of the Cumberland Mine,

The day still comes and the sun still shines,

But it’s dark as a grave in the Cumberland Mine,

Dark and quiet as a grave in the Cumberland Mine”

—Ewan MacColl, Springhill Mine Disaster

In his classic coal mining ballad, Springhill Mine Disaster, Ewan MacColl writes of a mine collapse in Nova Scotia in 1958.  In that cave-in, twelve miners were rescued after eight days, and they never reopened that mine.

When the San Jose gold and copper mine’s collapse in Chile left 33 miners trapped in the dark, the miners survived by rationing a few days’ supply of food for two weeks, and passed the time playing poker. Estimates reckon that the Chilean miners will be underground for four months before they can expect to be pulled 2,000 feet up a narrow hole and rescued.  Although they now have food, water, and light, it’s poker that figures to keep them sane.

Enjoyable activities are one way to triumph over trauma, according to Elements Behavioral Health, a California treatment center. According to the center’s website, “Whatever it is that you know your loved one generally finds enjoyment doing, make it a point to encourage this kind of activity.”

For the miners, poker fills that need. So when the miners say, “Keep those cards and letters coming,” I’m guessing they mean fresh decks of cards as well as those written to lift their spirits.

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The Morongo Band of Mission Indians, located in Southern California east of Los Angeles on the road to Palm Springs, has been pushing an Intranet poker proposal in the state legislature for a few months now.  Twenty-one tribes recently joined with them in a California Intertribal Intrastate Poker Consortium.

But tribal politics are thorny, and other tribes strongly oppose the idea of legalizing online gambling, contending that it would hurt bricks-and-mortar tribal casinos.  “We have 21 tribes at this point,” said Morongo spokesman Patrick Dorinson, who anticipates “quite a few more,” adding that some of these tribes involved had “substantial gaming interests in the state.”

The tribe is working with state senator Rod Wright on a bill. Wright, as you may recall, introduced an Internet poker bill (SB 1485) in early Spring, but he couldn’t gain any traction and cancelled a hearing before his own committee. The tribe, however, is courting Wright in hopes they will become front-runners if Intranet poker in California is eventually legalized.

The Morongo band is trying to pass an online poker bill before the legislative session ends August 31.   If not, the tribe plans to try again in 2011.

I’m hoping it does … but I’m not betting on it—not by a longshot.

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