After the great news from both Nevada (Nevada Hopes to Launch Real-Money Live Online Poker) and New Jersey(New Jersey Plans to Allow Sports Betting) regarding online poker in recent years, it was back down to earth with a bump for the bill in Iowa as Senator Jeff Danielson’s bill SB 1068 came to a grinding halt. Danielson has heard 'no' not just once, not even twice, but three times now. In all fairness it did do a little better third time round and at least this time it made it to Senate State Government Committee. It wasn't that the bill didn't get enough votes to be pushed through however, it was simply down to a lack of time that meant bills of more importance were pushed to the forefront for debate and voting and sadly SB 1068 was not one of them. This then meant that the bill was abandoned without getting any wind into its sails and didn't make the cut off. The bill was presented with an effort to legalize online poker and have it supervised by the Iowa Racing Commission. It was in fact well supported by the casino industry within the state and it would have meant that these casinos would have had exclusive rights to licensing. The state at present has 18 traditional casinos and Wes Ehrecke president of the Iowa Gaming Association stated in full support of the bill that Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware had all made progress in legalizing online poker and that many Iowans were already playing with their money going offshore. He's correct, Iowans are playing offshore, and sites such as BetOnline and Bovada cater for them. The Republican chairman however Guy Vander Linden was at best lukewarm on the idea of online poker and the bill was no sure thing even if it had of gone further. He stated that unless it was proved collusion didn't exist then the most he was committed to saying was that, he would look the bill over.
Read also Iowa legislator to propose bill for the expansion of the current online gambling limits
