Poker backers praise N.D. bill

BISMARCK - Poker businesses have come from across the world to laud a bill they say could be North Dakota's next golden goose.

"I'm here because everyone wins from this fantastic bill," said Nigel Payne of London, chief executive officer of the world's third-largest Internet poker site.

"Sheer genius," said Allyn Jaffrey Shulman, a California attorney who specializes in online gambling law.

Payne, Shulman and several other lobbyists were praising the live Internet poker bill being sponsored by Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, and several other lawmakers.

The bill gets a hearing this morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The pro-poker businesses flew in to testify in favor of the bill and show off the technology at a public event at a Bismarck hotel.

The bill passed the House last month on a 49-43 vote. It proposes that the state become the first in the nation to license and regulate the Internet poker business, something Kasper and the industry lobbyists said they have been seeking for several years.

Setting up headquarters in North Dakota for U.S. regulation of Internet poker would bring in tremendous amounts of tax revenue and jobs, supporters said.

"We would relocate our entire legal entity to North Dakota," Payne said.

"Whatever state steps forward is going to come out way ahead," said Pat O'Brien, a former U.S. Customs agent who has a private law practice focusing on Internet gambling and international banking.

Those speaking at Kasper's news conference Monday said lawmakers and the public should not be misled into thinking that bringing in regulation of poker is the same as an expansion of gambling. Internet poker is being played by people worldwide but is not regulated by any government in the United States.

"There are millions upon millions upon millions of people doing this," Payne said. "How can we say unregulated Internet poker is better than regulated poker?"

Shulman called the Kasper bill "also very courageous" because other states that have considered regulating online poker have been intimidated by the U.S. Department of Justice telling them it "may" be illegal.

She said the 1961 federal law that bans gambling by wire transactions does not apply to poker because it was written only to address sports betting.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Janell Cole at (701) 224-0830

By Janell Cole,The Forum

News Added: 08 March, 2005

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