In the first half of 2011, lobbying spend on Internet gambling issues at the federal level fell markedly on a combination of unfavorable political conditions and the Black Friday indictments, according to a new report from GamblingCompliance.
With New Jersey’s tattered gaming industry mired in a prolonged downturn, state Senator Ray Lesniak is taking another shot at legalizing Internet gambling after falling short earlier this year.
Caesars Entertainment, the world’s largest casino operator by revenue, posted its biggest quarterly sales gain in three years and trumpeted the inevitability of Internet poker regulation in the United States.
Lobbyists in Washington, D.C. have cast an Internet gambling missive penned by two key Senate powerbrokers, Harry Reid and Jon Kyl, as a “trust-building exercise” that could lead to the eventual introduction of regulatory legislation for online poker.
While a draft Internet gambling bill that would unite quarreling Indian tribes in California is inching closer to realization, political insiders in Sacramento say that such a bill is unlikely to be finalized — let alone passed — in 2011.
Disagreement among California’s politically powerful Indian tribes over online gaming regulation continues to intensify, according to testimony provided at a state Senate hearing on Internet poker held yesterday.
For most gambling industry interest groups on Capitol Hill the jury remains out on a new Internet poker bill that, according to some lobbyists, is intended to entice the Senate Majority Leader from Nevada, Harry Reid, back into the fight for online gambling regulation.
Although federal prosecutors in Maryland have taken aim at two Internet gambling businesses domiciled outside the U.S., the offshore industry continues to test the reach, resources and resolve of law enforcement agencies across America.
