On the legalisation front in the United States it appears increasingly as if all the running is being made by individual states, with Nevada, New Jersey and now Delaware way out in front and Sen. Rod Wright’s California initiative mired in conflicting views from self-interested tribal and other groups.
At least six other states are toying with the concept, mainly in regard to online betting on state lotteries.
Hopes that Texas Representative Joe Barton’s HR2366 bid to federally legalise online poker, and a similar drive to legalise online gambling more generally through HR 1174 introduced by Rep. John Campbell of California, have not been realised after months of anticipation.
According to GovTrack.us there has been little change in the number of Congressional co-sponsors signing up for either bill, which boast around 30 co-sponsors apiece.
The topic appears to have gone ominously quiet on Capitol Hill, but with the states’ initiatives coming closer to fruition that may not be the case for much longer.
This weekend an editorial in the Reno Gazette-Journal pointed to the growing pressure for legalisation from individual states and asked Congress how long it was going to ignore states looking to gain a foothold in the high-tech internet gambling industry.
“It?s time to stop the stalling and legalise online gaming,” the newspaper commented.