Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

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.