“If you don’t vote, you don’t count.” The phrase used by Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV) says it all. I’ll repeat it again because it’s so important: “If you don’t vote, you don’t count.” Berkley appears on this week’s edition of the PocketFives.com Podcastto explain legislation currently making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives that could provide a sigh of relief for online poker players everywhere. It’s H.R. 2140 and its title says it all: “The Internet Gambling Study Bill.” Introduced two months ago, H.R. 2140 will shed light on the issue that has affected all of us at PocketFives.com over the last nine months. Berkley's edition of the PocketFives.com Podcast was released, appropriately, on Independence Day.
Berkley provides an easy to understand summary of her views of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, which was tacked on at the eleventh hour to the Safe Port Act last fall, changing the world of internet gambling forever: “I am a proponent of internet gaming. It’s incomprehensible to me that the Federal Government should be prohibiting adults from enjoying a form of entertainment that they select in their own homes and on their own computers. Just on the face of it, banning internet gambling is an infringement on our Constitutional rights as American citizens. There is software that can protect minors from going online and that can identify problem gamblers. The protections are there and there are no reasons to prohibit this other than politics. The right wing of the Republican Party determined that this issue was going to be part of their ‘Family Values’ agenda so that they could go back home and campaign on it.”
Hustled through the Senate by former Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN, pictured at right), the UIGEA received little to no debate in the U.S. Senate after being passed by a 3:1 margin in the House (317-93). However, as Berkley points out, the Federal Government was and still is operating without knowledge when it comes to internet gambling: “I’ve introduced legislation to study the issue. We are operating in total darkness and ignorance. We’re passing legislation and banning things that we don’t even know the effects of. What I’d like to do is take a step back, take a deep breath, and study it. Let Congress legislate on the basis of scientific information. It also is not a red flag in the face of opponents of gambling. How can anyone be opposed to a non-partisan study of internet gambling? Let’s get the information before we interfere with the American people’s rights to do what they want to do.”
H.R. 2140 was the result of Berkley’s efforts. She’s worked hand in hand with the Poker Players Alliance, the main lobbying arm of the online poker industry, to mobilize its 600,000 members to action. She stresses the importance of voting: “If PPA members are not registered to vote and do not contact their members of Congress and tell them they do not support this legislation, it’s not getting passed. If poker players want to have the right to bet online, they had better get politically active. That doesn’t mean hiring a lobbyist like [former three-time Senator from New York and current PPA Chairman] Alfonse D’Amato (pictured at right). It’s going to get done when everyone is registered to vote and when every member contacts their members of Congress. Without that, you can kiss this legislation goodbye.”
Congresswoman Berkley represents the First Congressional District in Nevada, which includes the majority of Las Vegas. She is currently in her fifth term in the U.S. House. Be sure to tune into this historic edition of the PocketFives.com Podcast.
