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Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid desperately wants to push through legislation that would make online poker legal. And now Minority Leader Mitch McConnell might have an interest in doing so as well.
McConnell represents the horse racing rich state of Kentucky. It is home to TwinSpires.com, owned by Churchill Downs. TwinSpires.com already operates a legal horse betting site, however, many states have elected to opt out of allowing their citizens to bet horses online. Furthermore, banks sometimes make it difficult to deposit funds through the TwinSpires.com website as a result of the current climate of online gambling within the United States.
Churchill Downs is positioning itself to start offering “real money” poker online through its acquisition of Bluff Magazine. They have also filed an application to operate a Web poker site within the state of Nevada.
From Gambling Compliance:
“Senator McConnell has been a hard one to win over, but his Kentucky constituents really want this [Internet poker bill], and he’s up for re-election in two years. So he’s under a lot of pressure,” said Shanti Stanton, who became an expert on House floor procedures while working for Missouri Democrat Dick Gephardt when he was the House minority leader.
Stanton also suggested that the environment for legalizing online poker will improve once the elections are over.
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
