Regulation round-up 18 September 2012
The biggest regulatory news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (12 September to 18 September 2012).
Reid/Kyl federal online poker bill details revealed
Legislation would prohibit other forms of egaming and block companies operating post-UIGEA for five years.
Details of Harry Reid and Jon Kyl’s highly-anticipated online poker bill have been leaked and outline the US Senators’ plans to strengthen the Wire Act and UIGEA, but permit online poker, online lottery ticket sales and off-track horserace betting.
A summary of The Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2012, shows that Reid and Kyl plan to reverse the DoJ’s opinion of the Wire Act in December which has opened the door for states to legalise egaming individually.
The bill summary, seen by Pokerfuse, also includes a provision which would ban entities who continued to operate online in the US after UIGEA in 2006 for five years, unless they can prove to a court that they did not break any federal or state law during this time. This would prohibit PokerStars and its recently acquired Full Tilt brand unless the former can argue its case successfully.
If enacted, there would be a blackout period of 15 months before operators would be allowed to go live online.
Kyl criticises Reid for making federal online poker “a lot harder”
Arizona Senator Jon Kyl has revealed his frustration that his federal online poker bill co-sponsor Harry Reid gave Nevada Senator Dean Heller a deadline to gain 15 Republican votes by Monday.
The deadline became public knowledge once the media found out that Heller wrote a letter in response to Reid criticising the deadline as “not a strategy we discussed” and suggesting that the legislation should be introduced in the House first, rather than the Senate, of which Reid is the majority leader.
Kyl has stood up for his fellow Republican Heller and told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he agreed that “if the Senate acts first, the House will feel itself jammed, and [the bill] wouldn’t go anywhere.”
Heller questions Reid’s priorities as row escalates
Nevada Senator Dean Heller has accused Harry Reid of prioritising Shelley Berkley defeating the Republican in the state’s Senate elections in November ahead of progressing his federal online poker bill.
Along with Republican Jon Kyl, Reid has been preparing an online poker bill and had recruited Heller to muster up support within the GOP. Reid is believed to have gained the support of 45 Democrats for his legislation and set Heller a deadline to secure the votes of 15 Republicans by Monday last week to ensure a majority should the bill be introduced to Congress before the October recess.
However in an interview on Saturday, Heller told the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “We have a major problem and that is that Harry Reid would rather have Shelley Berkley win this race than have this bill pass. I told the industry that three months ago. And if someone would have told me this was going to happen right before the election I wouldn’t have been surprised. And I’m not surprised. This is all politics.”
Seven days in regulation:
AAMS releases gambling advertising guidelines
Italian egaming regulator AAMS has published a new set of advertising guidelines relating to both online and land-based gambling, imposing a strict set of restrictions and potential sanctions.
Operators risk a fine of up to 500,000 if they fail to comply with the guidelines, which forbid them from advertising online in a manner which includes “incitement to gamble or exaltation of the practice.”
They must also ensure that online adverts provide no association between children and gambling, while responsibility must be taken to include details of payout percentages and warn of the risk of problem gambling or “dependence” on the activity.
Poll results: French market ‘has failed’
Barely two years have passed since the first dot.fr egaming licences were issued by French regulator ARJEL, but the majority of eGaming Review readers are already prepared to write off the market as a failure.
Last week four more operators – including Snai and Titan – saw requests granted for regulatory authority ARJEL to repeal their licences, and 62% of those polled believe the market has failed.
Despite the positive performance from the sports betting and horse betting verticals, whose figures are boosted by former monopolies, just 6% of readers have deemed the French opening a success. Poker declined 11% year-on-year in the most recent set of ARJEL figures, with a multitude of operators either merging (like MyPok and PokerXtrem) or leaving the market altogether (like TitanPoker).