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United States Congressman Joe Barton is to file within weeks his own draft to regulate the US online poker market on a federal level.
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Congressman Joe Barton
Republican Representative Peter King filed in his draft early June to regulate not only online poker, but the entire online gambling market [4] of the United States of America on a federal level. His bill bears the title “Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2013” and it aims at elevating the issue of online gambling to the federal level in its entirety, including issuing licences and enforcing gambling laws.
King, however, is not the only one to urge the legalisation of online poker in the USA; Republican Congressman Joe Barton has also announced his own draft to be filed soon. Barton has recently given a television interview on the matter and he has appeared confident that his proposal will be successful. As he put it, “it is not a question if my bill passes as much as it is a question of when”.
Barton also says that his draft is compatible with the state-level regulation system, as it is based on an opt-in opt-out structure.
The drafts from King and Barton represent the next steps on the road towards the legalisation of online poker in the US.
Previously, Senators Harry Reid and Jon Kyl filed their own bill to regulate the market but it failed permanently in December last year. The failure was primarily due to the counter-lobby of the state lottery companies, the National Governors Association, as well as Indian and religious groups.
A sample of the interview with Bartion can be viewed below: