Plans to Legalize Online Poker In North Dakota May be Over
New federal legislation may derail North Dakota state Rep. Jim Kasper's plans to revive a proposal to make North Dakota the first state to license Internet poker sites.
The measure, which the U.S. House overwhelmingly approved last week, would ban Internet gambling websites, including online poker rooms, from taking money from customers in the United States.
It changes a 1961 antigambling law, called the Wire Act, to explicitly apply its terms to Internet gambling. It requires the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department to write regulations to block casino gambling money transfers by American banks.
Kasper said he has not reviewed the legislation, which is a meshing of separate bills introduced by Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Jim Leach, R-Iowa. The House endorsed it 317-93. One of its supporters was Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D.
Approval from the Senate and President Bush is still needed for the bill to become a new gambling law. The Senate has not taken up the measure, and may not do so before the current session of Congress concludes at year's end.
"I don't want to give it up, because there's too much money for the people of North Dakota, and there's too many good things that can happen if we become the first state that regulates the Internet poker business," Kasper said. "But I've got to interpret what this bill does. Maybe there are too many restrictions in it. I don't know."
The federal legislation exempts horse racing and state-run lotteries from Internet gambling restrictions, and would allow Internet gambling operations that are contained only within a single state. The intrastate exemption would be meaningless in North Dakota, which is not a large enough market to sustain a lucrative Internet poker business.
Kasper toyed with the idea of circulating initiative petitions to put the Internet poker measures directly to a vote this year, but the effort never got started.
He said any new poker legislation he offers in the 2007 Legislature will have stronger provisions to ensure that underage gamblers would not be allowed to play, and safeguards would be included to stop players from gambling away too much money.
July 16, 2006
Posted By Susan Torres
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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