Jon Kyl Gets Owned in Senate on Thursday
Arizona Republican Senator and long time opponent of online gambling, Jon Kyl, was accused of causing delays during a Senate Health Committee. He later threw a temper tantrum that would have made Dennis the Menace proud.
Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona indignantly raised his voice after committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana urged him to hurry up and finish a point. An outwardly irritated Kyl told Baucus he was not delaying, but was instead trying to make an extremely important point about flaws in the legislation. Baucus shot back that while Kyl's point might be important, he also was holding up the panel's work.
Kyl was speaking in favor of a GOP amendment that could have prevented the government from implementing the bill - even if it's passed and signed into law.
In October 2006, Kyl pushed through in the dead of night an online gambling prohibition by attaching the measure to an unrelated Port Security Act. President Bush signed off on the Port Security Act and, by default, the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (commonly referred to as UIGEA) became law. It attempted to hold banks in charge of policing online gambling transactions while requiring these very same banks to allow bets for Internet horse racing. State lotteries were also exempt from the new law, however, banking institutions have made it clear there is no possible way to differentiate the "good" transactions from the so-called "bad" one's such as online poker and sports betting.
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
