Gambling News by House of Odds

Moderate Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) had a gambling problem -- not to say that
he gambled, but he was the driving force behind a bill that all but banned
gambling over the Internet. He was the victim of the so-called "Green Velvet
Revolution," a campaign by the Internet gambling industry and gamblers to
defeat those who pushed the measure. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) survived this
campaign. Leach had had serious races in the past -- most recently in
2002 -- but he was apparently not ready for college professor Dave Loebsack
(D). The online gambling community celebrated on Wednesday what it deemed an
important victory by getting Rep. Jim Leach out of office. And while it
failed to do the same in Arizona with another anti-internet gambling bill
sponsor, Jon Kyl, the fact that he will have little control in the Senate
over these next two years has helped to mitigate things. A group calling
itself Poker Players Against Jon Kyl went after the Arizona Senator
relentlessly. By most accounts, a few hundred thousand Arizona online poker
players and gamblers were notified about Kyl's work against their beloved
activity. Poker players in particular expressed outrage. Kyl - unlike
Leach - has been somewhat careful not to make his case against online
gambling high profile in his home state, a state that comprises many online
gamblers according to websites Gambling911.com has spoken to. Leach, on the
other hand, has proudly denounced internet gambling and even commented that
his ability to restrict some forms of the activity via banking instruments
was one of his greatest accomplishments. It may also have attributed to his
downfall.

It was learned on Wednesday that some online gambling websites had targeted
Iowa poker players and internet gamblers directly. Likewise, an Associated
Press article drew national attention to Leach's engagements against online
gambling one week prior to the elections, while failing to mention Jon Kyl.

"I don't believe a large volume of voters are motivated to go to the polls
because of Internet gaming, either way," said Brian Darling of the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, prior to Tuesday's
election.

What Mr. Darling and other conservative think tanks failed to realize
however is that he 8.5 million US voters affected by the Unlawful Internet
Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) annually spent about $6 billion last year
to gamble online.

The highly organized Poker Players Alliance is now close to 150,000 members
strong and has been instrumental about notifying poker players throughout
the US as to which politicians presented the greatest threat to their
favorite game of skill. It is believed that the PPA will attempt to work
with Democrats - most notably Rep Shelley Berkley (D) out of Nevada in
trying to bring a new bill to the table that might ultimately pave the way
to legality of online poker in the US.