The Poker Players Alliance is unhappy that an Internet gambling...

asked for the language multiple times and it’s not being shared with us or anyone that I'm aware of,” he said Friday (http://xrl.us/bnqtxp). “Even other key Senators in the process do not have the language.” The poker group is worried based on the “vagueness of the wording” in a summary text of the draft leaked the week before, PPA said. Worrisome provisions in the summary include “player penalties, an excessive blackout period, a lack of international liquidity” and a “five-year penalty to companies that offered online poker in the U.S.” following passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006, the group said. One section says “any property involved in or traceable to a gambling transaction in violation of the new act (including winnings) is subject to forfeiture,” a possibility that “usually” only applies to criminal conviction, the group said: That could either mean that players can’t get their funds back from a shuttered unlicensed site, or the government will actually pursue players on those sites. “There was nothing like that in the 2010 bill” (WID Dec 8/10 p4), “so it was surprising to see in the summary,” Pappas said. “The devil will be in the details, and we're trying to get to the bottom of that.” A 15-month blackout period intended to help tribal casinos “catch up” to Las Vegas casinos in federal licensing should be shortened to six months, Pappas said, and the bill shouldn’t foreclose the possibility of U.S.-based sites accepting foreign wagers from “other legitimate and regulated marketplaces.” The PPA said it has given up on trying to return to an automatic opt-in for states that previously allowed poker, a provision of the 2010 bill, and can live with the summary’s requirement that states individually opt in through their legislatures. “It’s a fight we're never going to win” and some states will probably “immediately opt in,” while for others the PPA will have to “go in and work to get that done,” Pappas said. It’s better to compromise on federal legislation than let states devise their own laws, including proposed player penalties in California and Florida bills, he said. We couldn’t immediately reach the offices of Reid or Kyl for comment.