Reid: Republicans to Blame for Online Poker Bill Delay

It’s looking more likely that 2012 will come to an end without any movement on the Reid-Kyl federal online poker bill.

The proposal’s main supporter, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Republican support continues to be lacking as the days tick away on the lame-duck session.

“At this point, we’ve got none,” Reid said, in response to a question asking how much GOP support has been tallied. Reid has said that 15-17 Republican votes would be required. His fellow Nevada congressman, Sen. Dean Heller, is working hard to drum up the needed support , but is having a rough go of it.

“I am beating the bushes,” Heller said, adding that, “it’s going to be tough.”

As the Reid-Kyl bill looks to have tremendous difficulty in passing this go-round, all eyes will again revert back to the state-by-state online poker format. Nevada is leading the charge in that regime and is anticipating having the first legal Internet poker site up and running in early 2013.