Massachusetts Bars Internet Poker from Next Year's Ballot

Poker News - September 4th, 2009 - Written by Glen

The Associated Press has reported that the Attorney General of Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, ruled against the drive toward legalizing online poker within the state of Massachusetts. She attested that the reform did not meet legal requisites to be placed on the ballot.

The Poker Players Alliance and other special interest groups had been urging the State to add the issue to the ballot, but not enough support had been garnered for the issue. The target to hit was a minimum of 66,593, and the support groups had not managed to receive this number, despite the roughly thirty thousand Poker Player's Alliance members in the state.

In a recent court ruling, initiated by iMEGA, the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association, ended in judges declaring that the UIGEA would be up to the states to enforce, giving individual states the right to decide whether or not they would allow Internet gaming. Thus the Massachusetts ballot became of key importance, as though Massachusetts is not one of the states that expressly prohibits online gambling, the entire industry is covered in the grey cloud of uncertainty.

Ironically, the key supporter of online gambling on a whole, Representative Barney Frank, resides over Massachusetts. Frank is responsible for an Act that would legalize and regulate the online gambling industry on the whole. Poker players are being supported by New Jersey's Senator Menendez, who has also introduced legislature to support online gaming.

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