Nevada’s proposed intrastate online poker legislation, AB 258, is still living and breathing, but it wouldn’t have been born at all if the state’s man in Washington, Sen. Harry Reid, had his way. Nevada Assemblyman William Horne, who proposed AB 258 on behalf of PokerStars, told AOL News that Reid asked him not to introduce the legislation, as Reid preferred the focus remain on his own pro-poker efforts at the federal level. You know, because they’d been so successful up to this point.
Finally, while other states are at least debating how best to implement online poker, those poor bastards in Washington State are facing Class C felony charges just for playing online. The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) staged something of an intervention with almost 50 of the state’s legislators earlier this month, and the results provide stark insights into the American political process. Speaking to PokerNewsDaily, PPA exec director John Pappas said some legislators’ “jaws dropped” when he reminded them of what they’d voted to implement. “They didn’t realize there was such a law on the books.”
Seriously, and politicians wonder why fewer than 50% of voters bother to show up at the polls every other November. Or perhaps that’s the way they prefer it…