Harry Reid, the US Senator who has been promoting online poker laws through a bill that he co-wrote with Senator Jon Kyl, evoked severe criticism from Dean Heller, when he hit out at Heller claiming that he was only looking to promote online poker and not other gambling games.
Reid also stated that the online poker bill was “the most important issue facing Nevada since Yucca Mountain.”
Despite several claims that the US online poker bill as designed by Harry Reid is unclear and does not suitably attempt to regulate and license online poker, it would appear that Reid is extremely insistent on pushing the bill forward in a possible effort to promote his legacy. Heller, a Republican Senator, was accused by Reid for pushing legalized online poker by getting 15 GOP votes that were for online poker but disregarded internet gambling as a whole.
Surprisingly although Reid and Heller appear to be working for the same cause – somewhat – recent news reports reveal that a lot of mudslinging went on in the same camp.
Heller counteracted Reid’s claims with a statement insisting that he had been working on his side of the bill whereas Reid and Kyl had not been able to do much with their bill. Heller’s supporters were of the opinion that although Reid had been promoting the notion that the House would action the bill; so far no progress has been made.
According to Kristen Orthman, a spokesperson for Harry Reid,
Let’s be clear, Sen. Reid has lived up to his part of the agreement and has the votes on his side in support of this bill…The premise of [this] question speaks more to the ineffectiveness of those tasked with whipping [up] the Republican votes. Time and again no one fights harder for Nevada than Sen. Reid, and he has the record to back it up.
However, not everyone is supporting Reid and many are of the opinion that Reid has sat on the bill for far too long. Some in the poker community have ceased to believe that the bill supported by Reid will ever get to the floor. Eric Herzik, the University of Nevada’s Chairman of the political science department, was very vocal about his strong opinions against Harry Reid.
I don’t think anything’s going to get done, and when that happens, Reid’s got the perfect defense …He can say, ‘I did what I could. These crazy Republicans. They’re enemies of the state of Nevada.
What’s more, some states have become tired of waiting for Reid’s bill to get passed and have started creating their own versions of online poker or online gambling bill. Delaware, Nevada, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey and California have already gone forward making laws legalizing some form of
online gambling.
