Not good!

Granted that this is NOT good news. However, I read another article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060525/ts_nm/leisure_gambling_congress_dc

that clearly stats that it may not even make it to the House or Senate floor this year, due to too few days left in Congress’ schedule.

Also, the Senate is said to be a body that has the strength to vote this down; whereas, the House may not be able to.

Now that this hurdle has passed, look for the lobbyists to come out full force, specifically:

(1) The Banking industry – they don’t want to lose CC business, and there
are major investment banking firms that have money invested in
overseas, legal gambling establishments.

(2) The legalized casino industry (they will use this as a push for legalization,
so that they can get an entre into the on-line arena)

(3) ISP’s – if they are mandated to block “gambling” sites from access, what
is next ???????????

Clearly, it doesn’t help that Bush got his right-wing, religious right guys into the Supreme Court. If it ever comes down to Supreme Court ruling, we could have some trouble.

Overall, a minor bump in the road. Lots of stuff that gets out of these House Committees, never sees the light of day, when put up for a vote. This is a hot topic, so it does gets on the news.

More coverage with further details on the amendment wrangling, here:
http://www.igamingnews.com/index.cfm?page=artlisting&tid=6702

The odds of anything bad happening here are next to nil.

Lobbyists for gaming will now be in full force in a multitude of industries. Nothing will happen this year, and by November of this year, the shift in Congress from Republican to Democratic will be well underway (thanks George !).

This may never get to the floor, but if it does, it dies. We may eventually see a commission chartered to look into feasibility of legalization. It will take years, IMO, for anything to change.

Everyone should use this as a warning to diversiy into other businesses.

Hopefully it will die, but I try not to sweat it. I have enough pressure trying to get some traffic let alone sweating things I cannot change. Let the chips fall where they may, but I really find it hard to believe they will pass it and if they do I hope it is short lived. This bill goes against everything this country stands for. It is the same close minded people trying to pass this horse shit that think it is ok to dictate who someone marries like making same sex marriage against the law. Who in the hell do these morons think they are to tell me I can’t play poker in the privacy of my own house, yet you see all these people on welfare buying a .05 cent piece of gum with their food stamps so they can spend the other .95 cents scratching lottery tickets. If they are going to press this kind of thinking at least be consistent and shut down the lotteries, dog tracks, ect… Bunch of damn hyprocrits. I feel very fortunate to be able to live in this country, but at times I am not real proud. There is a lot of messed up shit.

This has been going on since 98 although it’s a worry I don’t think it’s going to happen this year and agree that the most likely outcome will be an appointed commission.