Reid and Kyl pessimistic on bill progress
Both Senators say it will be tough to pass legislation in lame duck session.
US Senators Harry Reid and Jon Kyl have both admitted that it will be difficult to pass their federal online poker bill in the lame duck session as legislation to improve the economy will take priority.
The lame duck session began on 7 November following the US elections and runs until 31 December. As a result of the elections, the key US politicians backing federal regulation all held on to their positions of power – Reid remains Senate majority leader and Nevada Senator Dean Heller, the Republican charged with the task of gaining GOP support for the bill, defeated Congresswoman Shelley Berkley and won a US Senate seat.
But Kyl, who will retire from his role as Arizona Senator next month, believes Congress politicians’ need to pass legislation to avert the ‘fiscal cliff’, which would see automatic tax hikes and spending cuts come into effect in January 2013, may mean that there will not be enough time to pass the poker bill.
Kyl told the National Journal: “I am not saying that [our bill is] parochial or special legislation, but it’s not sequestration and [there’s] the fiscal cliff and defence bill and all that, so it would be hard.
“Don’t infer from that I wouldn’t like to see something done,” he added.
Similarly, Reid said: “We don’t have a path forward right now, but we’re working [on it].”
Reid and Heller have agreed to work together now that the elections are over, despite a public falling out during their campaigns.
In the draft bill, which was leaked last month, federal online poker would be legalised, but other forms of internet gambling, including sports betting, would remain illegal, and state lotteries would be prohibited from hosting online gambling.
Criticism of the bill has come from the National Governors Association, Massachusetts lottery director Steve Grossman and Kentucky Lottery Corporation president Arthur Gleason, while Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval has voiced his support.