Double downer

Lopez:

What will Moose do during lunch? From a WSJ blog: (I can't imagine this will do away with practice gambling sites--but that's fun like smoking oregano, so I'm told)

October 13, 2006, 12:38 pm
New Law Riles Poker Crowd
Poker players aren’t happy with Congress or President Bush, who today signed a law banning online gambling.

“Today is a dark day for the great American game of poker,” said Michael Bolcerek, president of the Poker Players Alliance , which claims more than 110,000 poker buffs. “Twenty-three million Americans who play the game online will effectively be denied the ability to enjoy this popular form of entertainment, even in the privacy of their own homes.”

The poker group, which fired off a news release, charges that Washington bluffed the public by attaching the gambling restrictions to a port security bill. In signing the bill this morning, Bush didn’t even mention poker or gambling, and instead stuck to his main theme for the campaign season: Security. “Our seaports are a gateway to commerce, a source of opportunity and a provider of jobs. Our ports could also be a target of a terrorist attack, and we’re determined to protect them,” he said.

The whole affair has left Poker superstar Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson fuming. “As a lifelong poker player, I can’t believe the underhanded way this new bill restricting online poker was passed through Congress. What does Internet poker have to do with the Safe Port Bill? We Texans don’t like this kind of trickery. Texas is a state where you can see an enemy coming, a friend is a friend, and you look someone straight in the eyes.”

The PPA finds it particularly galling that the law exempts horse racing, state lotteries and fantasy sports, and is pressing Congress for a similar exemption for poker. As it is, Bolcerek argues, the new law “leaves more than $4 billion in annual tax revenue on the table.” –Mary Lu Carnevale