Report: Reid and Kyl Agree to Add Internet Poker to Payroll Tax Bill

Published on February 10th, 2012 2:38 am EST

Will an online poker amendment be tacked on to the payroll tax bill, similar to how the UIGEA was added to the SAFE Port Act back in 2006?

According to a couple of sources, this may very well be the case.

Earlier in the day, an article on "The Daily Helmsman" claimed that Wendell Moore, "senior public policy advisor to a law firm that provides back-of-house operations for the Tennessee lottery", was told that "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to propose an online gaming amendment to the Senate's unemployment payroll tax bill this month."

That was just one source, and people were waiting for at least one more before they started to get excited.

Shortly after that, this popped up on the Twitter feed of Roger Gros from GGBMagazine.com (@GlobalGamingBiz):

"Source: NV Gov. Sandoval calls top casino execs and tells them of agreement between Reid & Kyl, adding internet poker to payroll tax bill."

The payroll tax cut and extension of unemployment benefits are set to expire at the end of this month - according to this New York Times article, there is no guarantee that another extension will be passed.

On top of that, if an online poker amendment is added to the bill, there is no telling what this will do to the negotiations.

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If there is any truth to this story, we'll obviously hear much more about it over the coming days..

Source: The Daily Helmsman - Officials: Federal bill could decrease HOPE funding


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Filed Under: Poker Legal Issues