Nevada Senator Harry Reid Says Nevada Online Poker Was A Mistake

Nevada Senator Harry Reid Says Nevada Online Poker Was A Mistake

Friday, 27 March 2015

Harry Reid has stated in an interview on KNPR, Nevada Public Radio, that he will not be seeking a 6th term in office, and that his support for legalized online poker in his home state of Nevada was a mistake.

Reid has also indicated that he has had discussion with Senator Lindsey Graham, who is behind the Restoration of America's Wire Act (RAWA). RAWA will ban most forms of online gambling - including online poker, and effectively transfers and limits any individual State's decision on internet gaming policy by an act of the federal government.

"I worked very hard to get online poker, I thought that would be great for the state of Nevada, it's something that’s done recreationally around the world. I thought it would be good for Nevada to have it controlled," said Reid, who went on to say that he believes that his position was incorrect and now takes the position that "I (Reid) think, for the state of Nevada, online gaming is not the direction we should go.": and furthermore stated that "I (Reid) believe online gaming is not good for a country."
 
Reid said that he felt that internet poker has swept across the country, despite it only being available in his state, New Jersey and Delaware; and that it is not being well controlled, "especially in Indian country".

While Reid did not specifically announce his support of RAWA, and avoided directly stating that he supported a complete ban on internet gambling, he did indicate that he would not stand in Lindsey Graham's way.  He said that he was for "Strong Controls", and indicated that he felt those controls should be provided by Federal, not state, legislation.
 
The full interview is available at http://knpr.org/ (addressing internet gambling at approximately. 40:20 into the interview



Tags: Harry Reid, Nevada, online poker, USA, regulation