Protecting Casinos & Robbing States of Revenue Most Important Issue for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hasn’t had time to pass a Senate Budget in nearly four years but he’s found a way to give states more debt and unemployment headaches. As states struggle to balance their budgets in the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression, Senator Reid wants to federalize online poker, effectively robbing states of BILLIONS of dollars in lottery revenue.
As reported by Politico, Reid allied himself with Republican Senator Jon Kyl to draft a bill that would federalize online poker and ban states from offering ALL other forms of Internet gambling. This would inoculate casinos in Reid’s state of Nevada from competition along with tons of Indian casinos in Kyl’s state of Arizona. In effect the Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection and Strengthening UIGAE Act of 2012 has made state lotteries enemy number one!
Many states from DC to California are contemplating offering online gambling, which has casinos in Nevada and Arizona shaking in the boots because it could kill their “game.” Something smells rotten and Messieurs Reid and Kyl seem to be the main bearers of the stench. Both Senators’ campaign donations probably show huge donations from American Gaming Association, Indian casinos and other big commercial casinos.
Despite Nevada’s 12% unemployment rate, well above the national average of 8%, Reid wrote a letter to Nevada Senator Dean Heller that federalizing online poker was “the most important issue facing Nevada since Yucca Mountain.” (For reference, Yucca Mountain was the proposed location where the federal government wanted to dump America’s entire nuclear waste.) This hardly seems to meet the Yucca factor.
Senate Majority Leader Reid appears to be intent on pushing an anti-competitive gaming bill that not only violates states’ rights under the 10th amendment but also flies in the face of the Justice Department’s review of the matter. In 2011, the Department of Justice reviewed the 1961 Interstate Wire Act and found it only prohibits Internet sports gambling not other forms of online betting.
States depend upon lottery revenues to support public education and other programs. Lottery revenues also help create jobs and boost state economies through retail locations, small and big businesses, which sell lottery tickets and in turn make money to hire people. In 2009, the 44 states with lotteries made $17.6 billion in revenue and in 2010 that increased to $17.9 billion of revenue, which supported state budgets and provided critical services to residents, particularly the poor.
In a letter to Reid and House Speaker John Boehner, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch warned “Federalizing Internet gaming would put at risk the $70 million a year that New Hampshire generates from its state lottery,” which goes “directly toward supporting public education at the local level.” Governor Lynch further noted, “The lottery also provides $14 million a year in direct revenue to New Hampshire small businesses.”
Idaho Governor Butch Otter also warned in a letter to Congresswoman Mary Bono, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, “The states have extensive experience in the gaming arena. Accordingly, any federal encroachment on this traditional state prerogative is ill-advised.” Governor Otter added the state’s lottery generates significant revenue to Idaho.
Due to President Obama’s failed policies, states have been saddled with declining revenue because people don’t have jobs to pay taxes or are earning less money. By seeking to ban state Internet gambling, Senators Reid and Kyl want to neuter an important vehicle states use to boost revenue all in the name of protecting fat cat casinos from competition in their states. No wonder Reid did nothing but spend America into debt and joblessness with his 60-vote majority during the first two years of Obama’s presidency; he’s focused on the wrong things! Sadly, Senator Kyl is willing to walk down this shameful road with him.
Reid is the biggest piece of shit to ever come out of Nevada!!!!!
Will Rogers I think said it…all politics is local. So back then…NV. or Az. was none of my business. Change has happened alright. Incremental it has been. Now blatent… been brought front and center by Morsi saying U.S. better limit speech, Ahmadinejad’s New New World Order, and Obama’s U.N speech “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”
Acronym is WTF! Drift is don’t slander the anointed One.
No surprise here.
reid is a cockroach running around in plain sight.
exactly the type of politician America has got to rid it’s government of or continue to wallow in the cess pool until all are choked to death on our own waste.
More time in office does not mean better decisions…..just more personal power and personal wealth.
I have a friend in the commodities market, and “no” I don’t have the money to gamble in that market. We went to college together. He told me that Harry Reid was being paid off by wildcat miners who were pulling gold out of federal land in northern Nevada. This land is owned by the American public. The wildcatters are stealing directly from us by trespassing on our land and mining gold ore. The ore diggers do not create legal jobs and most of the crews are undocumented Mexicans. This is so very typical of the liberal Democrat who is presented as “upright”, “supportive of the middle-class”, and “a friend to the poor working-class illegal immigrant” by their liberal media cronies, but Reid and his ilk are financially rewarded by illegal activities which pay off the politicians rather than pay taxes. Last time I talked to my friend was about seven months ago. The gold mines had become more difficult to work without heavy machinery, so the wildcatters switched to an easier silver lode. Guess what I see on television? All the gold sellers are now running ads for silver. And the ignorant people of Nevada just re-elected this crook two years ago.
Another brilliant column. Reid embodies the concept of “white collar criminal” and it’s compounded by the high office he holds.
Reid is a low life SOB and I will never understand why the people of Nevada continue to elect him. I do not know much about Kyl except that he is stupid.
I’d like to share your blog, but you’ve misspelled “revenue” in the title of the latest article! That said, you’re a real leader!
The word “revenue” is misspelled in the title.
Crystal is what i call not a real black woman but a girl that really has not experienced what it means to be a real black woman. Your half black so you can not identify with black women that is why you came down so hard on Michelle Obama and why you feel like you do towards the first black president. It’s not enough that he has made history but you want him to create the heavens and the earth too. Give credit where it is due. Where were you when tupac and biggie were shot because you are good at pointing the finder(you could have pointed out there killers with all that finger pointing) where were you when it took bush 2 weeks to send help to hurrican katrina, where were you when when the U.S. began loosing jobs when bush was in office. And why are you quick to point out the bad and not the good in the lives in other people. You will reap what you sew!
Clearly this conservative black woman is disillusioned by her own ignorance and desire to be accepted by the good ole boy crowd. The things she says and prints are merely lies embedded in her own selfish need to be heard and seen. So hell why not throw the black guy under the bus in order to forward her career. Im not saying Obama is the best president but he surely isnt the worst. Bush takes the worst president crown for our times.
Check his out, If the republican party would stop stone-walling the president on every turn he may actually get something accomplished. People lets be real…the republicans vowed to not only say no to anything he proposes or tries to push thru, but they indicatively said they will say HELL NO and then these fools actually picketed with those signs. He it is, In my research I’ve found Mitt constantly indicates that gas was $1.86 when Obama took office when in fact, gas was no where close to $1.86. In deed gas was over $4.11 at the end of 2008 and Obama was sworn in Jan. 20 of 2009. Which clearly is not at the time gas prices rose, food prices rose, America was being stertched thin in several wars on several fronts, health care neglected for millions of americans, Sept 11 crisis, trillions of dollars lost in bank scams, the fannie mae and freddie mack mess, please dont let me forget the Hurricane Katrine crisis, a surplus turns into a deficit, CIA scandal, I could go on and on with this but who the hell am I? Listen up people, lies are the misconceptions of truth when its told by people like this woman who hides behind her black skin pretending to be something she clearly is not. This election should be about Us the american people and who gives a damn if you’re black, white, asian, or any other color. If we ask for discernment our decisions will be made easy. The truth is, Mitt is a liar and he’s a strong reacting over bearing fool whose only aim is to make more money and help keep his friend rich. This was indicated in his willing-fulness to over talk the mediator and the president during both debates. This man is a loose cannon, as is his crazy son. To be honest, He is not good for this nation or any other for that matter as the president, a senator or a governor.
More often than not over the course of this entire presidential process, Mitt romney has blatenly mixed lies in with truth in order to decieve the American people into thinking Obama will give us 4 more of the last 4 years. In truth if congress in a whole would back the President for the betterment of the people of this great nation we may be further along. Im not for Obama so dont get me wrong, but I’m certainly not for mitt romney! my position is, Im for truth, freedoms, liberties and the American dream.
It has been more evident in this election that none of this is about us, but its about the color of skin, and the fact that this country is too good to be run by a black person therefore nothing Obama could have or would have ever done would’ve been sufficient enough. 43 presidents before him have screwed up our nation but his presidency is the one that is most likened to a lynch mob. Im ashamed of all of you fools and clearly this is never going to be a united country and this conservative black fool woman is one reason why, but the main reason is each of you individually and collectively. It has never been about “We the people” but it’s always been about doing whatever it takes to provide for the richest and most powerful of the people, those with the most influence. This may mean taking on a few slaves to continue to build a country that they can never call their own or paying women less money for the same job a man does. Or maybe it means forgetting about our older generation, stripping the rights of women away which allow us to make our own decisions, or simply outsourcing all of the jobs to other countries. Who really knows what this election is really about, who knows why birds of a feather flock together or why no one is really paying attention to the real issue. I dont know what this elction is about but I know what and who it aint about. wake up sheeple and please God help us all!
Hi there! I know this is kinda off topic but I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest authoring a blog article or vice-versa? My site goes over a lot of the same topics as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other. If you’re interested feel free to shoot me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Terrific blog by the way!
David, you you should not receive copies of the previous letters. As the letters go forward that amount could be in the hundreds. But if there’s a particular letter send us an email and maybe we can figure something out.