Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Harry Reid Fails in Attempt to Get Internet Gaming into Tax Deal

Our friends at HOT AIR are reporting that Harry Reid was trying to sneak an online gaming proposal into President Obama's tax deal.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to use the tax cut package President Barack Obama brokered with Republicans to legalize online poker, POLITICO has learned — a move that could further complicate the deal Obama announced Monday.
Already, the online poker proposal has exposed the Nevada Democrat to charges of flip-flopping on a controversial issue, as well as using his Senate leadership position to repay big casino interests that helped him win reelection in a hard-fought campaign against Republican Sharron Angle last month.


The National Indian Gaming Association is opposing Reid’s effort to insert the online poker language in any tax cut bill, said an official with the group, Jason Giles. He asserted it gives an advantage to Las Vegas-based gambling operators while discriminating against tribal operators.  OP:   Tribal Gaming Nations want to discriminate all by themselves.

BUT, late in the day, it looks like Harry couldn't pull it off:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the Las Vegas Sun after a press conference this afternoon that despite a flurry of last-minute lobbying, he would not be adding legalization of online poker to his list of objectives during the lame duck.
“We’re still working on that, we’re not able to,” Reid said.

2 comments:

creeper said...

To bad... i hope that eventually this will happen...
just because I WANT IT AND WILL PLAY....

OPechanga said...

I think Vegas should lower the gambling age to 18 to compete with CA's tribal casinos that have a lower age limit.