The Democratic Senator for Nevada, Harry Reid is a Senate Majority Leader, and the word is out that his Aides have been circulating a Draft Bill to make online poker legal. Nevada as we know is a state which is reliant on tax income from gambling operations – it is also the state where we find Las Vegas.
Las Vegas was once the gambling Mecca of the world, this is all changing and gambling spend in Macau is currently leading the race; with spend comparisons of $1 to $4. In other words, for every dollar spent in Las Vegas, $4 is being spent in Macau, which means ultimately, that gamblers are taking their money to Macau instead of Las Vegas!
As far as the draft online poker bill is concerned, it is believed that legalizing online poker will create much needed tax income at both state and Federal level. However the bill does not call for any other kind of online gambling; in this case sports betting and other gambling activities online would remain illegal. It is hard to imagine what the final outcome of a bill such as this will actually turn out to be, because as it stands it is strangely incomplete and open-ended. The language used allows for existing land operations in the State to offer online poker sites only. These operators are tracks, existing casinos, and even slot machine manufacturers.
What is odd about the bill is that it only applies to poker and there is also speculation that after the blackout period of two years and five months, overseas operators may be able to acquire licenses to promote online poker in this state.
It is without a doubt that the bill is positioned to benefit some of Harry Reid’s biggest backers. It also happens to be unfortunate that one backer which provided full support for Reid in recent elections was Harrah’s (Caesars Entertainment Corporation), as some rather embarrassing email correspondence between the Senator and this massive gambling operation was recently leaked to the public. It appears that executives of the largest gambling operation in the world were lobbying their employees to back Reid during the November elections – ouch!
The “Lame Duck” session of Congress takes place until the 17th December and it is during this session that Reid hopes to get his bill passed. Casino Harry has received $1.72 million over the past two decades (that’s 20 years!?), for election campaign funding from Casino Bet operator and this is public knowledge. However he has no personal investments in any gambling interests, unlike other members of Congress who have tried to cash in on what is considered to be a massive and highly lucrative investment opportunity.
So what if Harrah’s is a contributor? They have never made any bones of the fact that they have always supported the bid for online poker and gambling. If Senator Reid supported employment in a major motor manufacturing state, motor manufacturing would be one of his election campaigns’ major supporters.
There are many legendary poker players and while legendary poker status is not only measured by money, the amount of money a player makes, sure goes a long way towards measuring their success. We have spoken about Phil Hellmuth on previous occasions, the fact that he is a philanthropist and is also controversial. No matter how controversial this poker legend is, there is no doubt about the fact that he has more WSOP bracelets than any other player, and has raised awareness for the game of poker including raising the profile of this game in terms of being a fund raiser for worthy causes.
People have a completely different perspective of poker and poker players today, and what is incredibly interesting is, that these men are by the most part a bunch of incredibly bright boys, or men if you prefer. Hellmuth attended university for three years before quitting to focus on a poker career, many players of this game have done the same. It almost seems as though they discover a passion for poker while they are students and then turn it into a career.
By todays standards, Hellmuth may not have made as much money as some, but he has made more than most, his career has spanned a different era to some of the hot shot, very young players who have made millions by starting to play poker online. By comparison Peter Eastgate retired from poker at age 24, after having made $9 million or thereabouts, Phil Hellmuth has made $11 million in live tournament games and is still very much in the game. These two players come from a completely different background in poker. Phil Hellmuth is currently the 4th place holder for the most earnings ever made playing poker. Had he been born later – say two decades later, then comparatively these earnings would be considerably more.
Two of the more prominent achievements during his career have been the fact that he has 11 WSOP Bracelets to his name, and is still a strong contender. And that when he won the most memorable WSOP Main Event, he was only aged 24! Today this is not big news, but it was very big news back then when he was playing again Johnny Chan at the time, who was actually defending this title. The real honour was that Hellmuth was the youngest ever poker player to win this event and it was only when Peter Eastgate broke this record, 18 years later at the age of 23, that this age record was broken. 18 years is a long time to hold such a remarkable record!
Doyle Brunson – another poker legend is still playing today and is in his 70’s now; if Dolly can do it, there is nothing to stop Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth playing poker into ripe old age. He is considered to be a very bad loser, in particular when he loses against younger players in big tournament fields, but apart from these crazy bust-ups, most experts believe these antics are “hammed up” to help sell his brand of personalised merchandise – also appropriately branded “Poker Brat”. Needless to say the TV cameras love him!