Wexler Scores Win in Florida & a Win for HR 2610
Posted on: November 7th, 2008 8:03 pm | By: helenWhile Barney Frank is the most well-known political advocate for the interests of the online gambling industry, there are many other “soldiers” fighting the good fight to restructure certain pieces of legislation so that the restrictions on the industry are reasonable, logical and enforceable. With most of the politicians who have worked to address issues related to the industry mainly falling under the democratic category, it is great news that in this week’s election, an overwhelming number of democrats beat out their Republican opponents throughout the country.
A Democrat from Florida, Robert Wexler, has made considerable progress in addressing how games of skill should be omitted from the UIGEA and the Wire Act. To this end, he introduced HR 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act that serves to exempt online bridge, chess, poker and other games of skill from both the UIGEA and the Wire Act. If you are scratching your head trying to figure out exactly what they may mean by “games of skill” it is rather simple. The basic definition of a skill game is where the main action involves one player versus another player, as opposed to one player playing against the house (or casino). As the representative of the 19th Congressional District of Florida, Wexler had tremendous success with his recent campaign, beating Republican Edward Lynch by 66% to 27%.
While this victory may only mean small steps forward towards improving the legislation that dictates the guidelines for the online gambling industry, they are very positive signs that more and more opportunities will open up to reduce the overreaching power of the UIGEA Act and other misguided pieces of legislation that fail to serve the interests of the people.
