Rep Steven Cohen from Tenn goes off

[0524432]

IMO, the most important part of this meeting was the introduction of the issues with the WTO that this current UIEGA presents.

Andrew Woods, moderator of the GPSTS conference at Harvard Law this past weekend, brought up the fact that 10+% of Antigua's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) came from online gambling. To deny this and other countries this market, defies the free trade agreement that comes with being a member of the WTO, which the US is.

That fact alone, is enough to overturn the current legislation.

[beanie]

if you buy that sports betting is the issue then that makes the issue very complicated. The feds are big time against sports. I believe that if sports was off the table poker wouldn't be having issues at all.

Right now we are being lumped in with a lot of other things and to a certain extent we can't distance ourselves because we have so few allies. The few allies we do have likely feel the same way about poker as they do about sports but the sports lobby is something we can't overcome.

[MicroBob]

This is particularly good news because Cohen is from Tennessee and every bit of help we can get in the typically conservative south is helpful.

Not quite as wonderful as we might like however because Cohen is a freshman congressman so his amount of pull in congress is probably somewhere around zero.

But he's a popular democrat stemming from his days in the state legislature and serves heavily democrat Memphis so it seems pretty likely that he could be around for a long time.
The only reason he's there now is because another popular democrat, Harold Ford Jr, vacated his seat to make a run at senate but lost to Republican Bob Corker.


Cohen was a big influence in getting a state-lottery for Tennessee and speaks frequently about how much benefit it has done for the schools, etc etc. I think he was in line or purchased the very first ticket or something like that when it was legalized which I think was in 2003.
I don't really agree with him about how wonderful it is but it's clear he is cool with letting Americans gamble if they want to gamble and he possibly also sees the possibilities of legalized online-gambling and how it could generate funds similar to the lottery if it was based within the U.S.

[hime]

No increase in scurvy in the UK, thank God!

[danzasmack]

They advertise for OTB online in NYC taxi's now. It's only a matter of time before i get in the cab and hear "ohhhhhhhhhhhh party poker!"

[MicroBob]

I neglected to mention that one of the lottery games available in Tenn and elsewhere is a WSOP/Harrah's sponsored scratch-off game which includes an entry to the WSOP-ME as a top prize.

It was advertised pretty heavily on TV, "Imagine yourself playing with the big boys at the WSOP main-event" blah blah blah which I thought was somewhat interesting.

[MCS]

[ QUOTE ]
They advertise for OTB online in NYC taxi's now. It's only a matter of time before i get in the cab and hear "ohhhhhhhhhhhh party poker!"

[/ QUOTE ]

This made me laugh.

Then it made me laugh again when I remembered that 2+2 story about some young guy who won a pot at a NL table and started whistling the Party Poker commercial music.

[Brad1970]

[ QUOTE ]
The only reason he's there now is because another popular democrat, Harold Ford Jr, vacated his seat to make a run at senate but lost to Republican Bob Corker.

[/ QUOTE ]

The fact that Ford was indicted & convicted of taking bribes has alot to do with it.

[MicroBob]

If Ford had wanted to keep his seat in the house I think he would have gotten 80%+ of the vote.