New Legislation Introduced to Regulate Skill Games

Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey introduced S 3616, the Internet Skill Game Licensing and Control Act. This bill aims to legalize skill games such as poker, bridge and mahjong. Since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), there has been calls for the relaxation of restrictions on games that have high skill elements, such as poker.

Although the hope would be that this bill is worked on during the lame duck session of Congress, after the November election but before the new year, my guess is that this bill will not be addressed, due to the seriousness of the recent turmoil in the financial markets and economy. Nonetheless, this does show that the desire is there by some in Congress to undo some of the draconian elements of UIGEA.

PoketFives.com has more details on this development, plus some quotes from the Poker Players Alliance. With governments looking for new revenue sources, it only makes sense to regulate these games, which now are being run from jurisdictions outside of easy US reach. Let US players play these skill games, which they enjoy, and allow them to be run in the US, via operators that are regulated and licensed. In this scenario, everyone "wins."