“The millions of Americans who want to play poker online deserve a licensed and regulated market”

At the beginning of this month, Peter King, a Republican Congressman, introduced legislation which would establish a common federal regulatory regime for online gaming while creating the Office of Internet Gambling Oversight in the Treasury Department to set criteria for the licensing of operators by state and tribal governments. John Pappas, Executive Director of the PPA, was interviewed by Yogonet.com about this issue.

Why have you decided to support Peter King's federal online gambling bill? What are the crucial items of this paper? Does it have weakness points?
The millions of Americans who want to play poker online deserve a licensed and regulated market. The federal online gambling bill would ensure consumer protections to citizens that are currently vulnerable to fraud, underage play, and addictive gambling. Instead of a patchwork of state laws that would limit the pool of players and only protect those players within the state, the federal legislation would ensure a fair and safe playing environment for all Americans. Plus, Rep. King’s federal bill allows states the freedom to opt out completely or establish their own intra-state online gaming regimes if they see fit.

Do you think that this federal law could get into force any time soon? Why or why not?
Federal legislation is honestly an underdog at this point and ideally the PPA would prefer a poker-only solution, which might have a stronger shot at passing through Congress than legalizing all forms of Internet gambling. Given the success of Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware in passing online poker legislation and the several other states that have drafted proposals, I believe Congress will have to seriouslyconsider some kind of online gaming legislation sooner rather than later.  

Meanwhile, what is your opinion about the state-by-state approach? What state is doing a better job in this arena?
While a state-by-state approach is not ideal in our opinion, they are taking the lead and we are supporting those efforts. Americans, and our members, want the freedom to play online poker in a regulated market and since Congress doesn’t seem to be stepping up and recognizing the benefits of federal legislation, we will continue to support a state-by-state approach to fill the void. It is far too early to gauge which state is doing better than others. Currently, only Nevada has a site offering services to its players and it seems to be a successful endeavor. 

What country should be a role model for US in terms of online gambling legislation?
There is no single role model that, in our opinion, achieves what we think a regulated online poker market in the U.S. should look like. Countries across Europe have specific laws that guarantee free and fair competition between companies within the EU, but there is a problem of open access to each other’s markets due to the patchwork of varying online gambling laws. With the passage of Congressman King’s federal online gambling bill, the U.S. could serve as a leader in providing a robust and comprehensive safe and fair online gaming environment.  

What is the next step? What are PPA's plans for the coming months?
We will support the federal bill introduced by Mr. King, and we will workto get fair hearings in the respective Congressional committees and eventually a committee vote.  We also anticipate poker-only federal legislation to be introduced in the coming weeks, so we will work to ensure it too gets a fair hearing in Congress. However, a bulk of our activity will be focused on lobbying various state opportunities. At the same we are working to solidify our grassroots presence in a number of states, building coalitions of support for various proposals and educating lawmakers about the benefits of a regulated market in their state.