For over two decades, the Republican Party has had, as a default policy, a call for a blanket ban on internet gambling as part of its Presidential platform. Surprisingly, as the US goes to the polls again in just four short months, the Republicans have lifted the online poker ban from their platform. This news was relayed to the US poker public by the Poker Players Alliance recently, after intense efforts were made by the pro-poker group to influence the political party.
The decision to remove this blanket ban wasn’t done from the goodness of the Republican Party’s heart, if the truth would be told. In fact, it is believed that the ban was lifted from the platform simply because it is considered too sticky a subject to deal with on a federal level. Instead, the powers that be prefer to shift the responsibility of online gambling to state governments, and they seem to have found the best way to do so.
Online gambling proponents may have scored a victory on the lifting of the ban, but they need to be vigilant on another front. Republican Presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, has picked as his potential right hand man, Indiana Governor Mike Pence – a die-hard opponent of internet gambling who has thrown his weight behind Sheldon Adelson’s efforts to restore the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
In the past, Pence has said about the need to have a federal act in place to ban online gambling: “Internet gambling crosses state lines and impacts the ability of a state to regulate and control gambling within its borders. By its very nature, the Internet involves interstate commerce. Internet gambling relies on technology, such as GPS location monitoring and other controls, that may be compromised. Internet gambling also relies on verification procedures for participant ages and payment information that are subject to similar vulnerabilities. Taken together with the mobility of our society and the widespread access to the Internet, a federal prohibition of Internet gambling is necessary. Otherwise the ability of states like Indiana to prevent and control Internet gambling within its borders, despite our best efforts, will be greatly diminished.”
PPA Executive Director, John Pappas, has called on the poker public to be vigilant in their efforts to demand a regulated and legalized online gambling regime in the United States, and has also warned against Pence. “While I cannot say what a Trump presidency would mean for poker, there is some smoke,” he said. “And, as they say, where there is smoke, there could be a fire. The story with Trump’s running mate, though, is perfectly clear. While there is smoke with Trump, Pence’s desire to usurp the states with a federal online poker prohibition is a raging inferno.”
