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Written by Marcus | Friday, July 29th, 2011
Senator Minority Whip Jon Kyl, a Republican from Arizona, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat from Nevada, wrote a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that the Department of Justice clarify its stance on the enforcement of Internet gambling laws.
Sen. Reid has been a supporter of poker legalization efforts, and Sen. Kyl is against legalization, helping push the UIGEA through back in 2006, which inevitably led to the indictments handed down on Black Friday and closed down the biggest online poker rooms to the US market. Kyl does though note on his website that he does view poker as a game of skill, but he doesn’t support online poker. The letter expresses the senators doubts regarding the logic and consistency of the federal government’s stance on the legalization of online poker.
The letter states: “These indictments came after many years in which the entities [that were indicted] operated Internet poker websites to Americans in an open and notorious way with apparently no repercussions from law enforcement.”
It continued, “This lack of activity by law enforcement led to a significant and growing perception that operating Internet poker and other Internet gambling did not violate U.S. laws, or at least that the Department of Justice thought that the case was uncertain enough that it choose not to pursue enforcement actions.”
The letter further raises concern with the efforts in more than a dozen states to legalize Internet gambling at the intrastate level. These states have indicated that they have written letters to the Department of Justice explaining their plans for legal online poker in their states and asked that if the DOJ objected to these plans that they would reciprocate communication and set forth their objection. The DOJ’s silence is enough for the states to proceed with their arrangements.
While a passive way to go about things, it may just work, despite efforts to bring this issue into light by Senators Kyl and Reid.
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Written by Marcus · Filed Under news · |
