Cringley's take on the bill

kerowo · #1 10-09-2006, 03:50 PM

Thrakkar · #2 10-10-2006, 01:37 AM

Excellent comment! Especially the implications on the monetary systems and ways to work around it.

ccc1433 · #3 10-10-2006, 11:31 AM

hello everybody, as a brazilian citizen that i am, can´t know that much about the impact of the bill on the elections on usa.

do u think it can help the democrats on this coming elections?

and also, since frist is a possible next republican candidate for the presidence, do u think this bill would help or mess his plans for it? how people in usa reacted to it? the major part of americans agree with frist?

sorry, i know this is very off topic, but for us in brazil, it´s very hard to know how politics goes in the usa. and it is so important.

thanx

MrWookie · #4 10-10-2006, 11:53 AM

ccc,

Most of this belongs in Politics or Legislation, but I'll offer you some. See those forums FMI.

I don't think this bill will help Democrats other than those that try to argue that our Republican leadership was holding up a critical bill over a trivial issue so as to appeal to a special interest group. Internet gambling is a non-issue to most voters, and it's not going to have much of an impact.

What is hurting Republicans is the Foley scandal. One Congressman was caught swapping nasty notes with his underage page, and he resigned. The scandal propagated as higher ups knew about it, but didn't do anything. Now a lot of the Republican constituency is up in arms calling for heads, and the Democrats are eating it up. I'd say there's a good chance the Democrats take over at least one house of Congress.

What that doesn't mean is that the gambling law will be instantly repealed. The anti-gambling lobby is strong, and many Democrats were in favor of the bill. It will take a huge effort from a pro-poker lobby to enact any changes. There's a chance of getting a poker carve out, and a chance of taking this on in the courts, but it's extremely unlikely to be outright repealed. And then we have circumventing the law. We can't know just what will be allowed and what won't be until after the Treasury Dept. and DOJ draft their guidelines after the bill is signed Friday.