As more details emerge about the proposed online gambling legislation Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) would like to introduce during the lame-duck session of Congress, people are either loving or hating the legislation –and many of the haters are poker players!

Reid is hoping to attach the online gaming legislation to the bill that would extend the Bush tax-cuts, making it extremely difficult for opponents of such a measure to vote NO on such an important bill solely because of the inclusion of online gambling language.

One of the biggest sticking points for poker players is the fact that there would be a 15-month moratorium on online poker once the bill is passed. These 15 months would see all online poker rooms declared illegal until licenses are issued after the 15-month waiting period.

Other stipulations that have some online poker players in an uproar are the following:

• States can opt-out of legislation, meaning people living in more conservative states are less likely to have access to legalized online poker
• Only land-based US casinos will be allowed to apply for licenses after the 15-month waiting period. Further down the line offshore businesses can also apply for a license, but the vast majority of the market will already be spoken for by this point.

However the bill shakes out, it looks as if it will definitely be a ‘good news’, ‘bad news’ situation for online poker players.