‘Net betting: Wait til 2013 … or 2015 … or 2017 … or …

That was the consensus of a G2E panel that featured former California legislator Lloyd Levine, CNIGA Director of Government Affairs Jerome Encinas and Harrah’s Entertainment‘s top lobbyist, Jan Jones. With HR 2267 still several steps shy of passage and its Senate equivalent having but one co-sponsor, the prospect is bleak that any legalization of Internet gambling will happen during the lame-duck congressional session. Amid so much talk of tax cuts, Encinas thinks it could get attached as a financial offset, but even that’s a long shot. As Levine observed, “Legislative time and glacial time are relatively in sync with one another,” with moderator Mark Balestra pointing out that it took Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) 11 years to an Internet prohibition passed.

In the improbable event that Congress can rush something through, it would not repeal the hated Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act but strengthen it, panelists argued. HR 2267 would supplement UIGEA by clarifying what is and is not legal, removing the nebula that surrounds the issue. The battle would be over how ‘Net betting is regulated — and much would ride upon how the issue is framed (as a means of avoiding layoffs or of capturing offshore revenues, for instance). If a 5% revenue-sharing arrangement stays in place, Levine noted, some large states might opt to collect that instead of setting up their own Net-bet regulatory infrastructure. Both he and Jones favor the view that the original, 90-day period for states opt out was a disingenuous way for Washington to keep as much of the tax money as possible. “Any first draft of a piece of legislation is exactly the way you want it,” was how Jones put it.

Out East, Sen. Harry “Sixty Votes” Reid is keeping mum on what his priorities are. Since it took old Sixty Votes until late summer to emerge in favor of online poker (Big Gaming having taken almost two years to get its act together as to what it did and didn’t support, and then give Reid his marching orders), nobody’s getting their hopes up for the lame-duck session. “You’ll have better odds at a slot machine” than of placing bets online if nothing is done in the next fortnight, Levine noted.

A total impasse is expected once the GOP takes the reins in the House of Representatives. “The Internet is really our growth revenue. This is the future of our business,” Jones contended, but Republican Encinas said that the House freshman class is one that’s opposed to further expansion of gambling. Levine added that, if HR 2267 becomes a priority for Reid, many GOPers would block it simply out of spite.

Tribes are reported to be divided over the issue. Encinas says that his constituency opposes it as erosion of their exclusivity, but Levin says that some California tribes are amenable to Internet gambling because of the sheer amount of money to be had in cyberspace. The one thing, they agreed, that might force Congress’ hand would be if Florida or California were to legalize online wagering on an intrastate basis. As Encinas put it, “There’s no instance in history where you can make money and the federal government’s not going to get a piece of it.”

Speaking of Reid, one of the latest theories to emerge for The Purge On Bonanza Road is that it may have conducted to placate major advertisers (read: Harrah’s and MGM Resorts International). In the wake of their Election Day skunking, Las Vegas Review-Journal Editor Thomas Mitchell and Publisher Sherman Frederick began muttering in their columns and blogs about “coercion” and possible election fraud by the casino giants.

For men whose newspaper is heavily reliant upon casino advertising, that’s like playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded revolver. Note that Frederick was toppled in favor an ad-sales guy, which I suspected would happen eventually … but not this soon. As for the election-theft insinuations, I’ll not give them the time of day except to note that if accused co-conspirator Culinary Union was going to steal an election it would have also done it for staunch ally Rep. Dina Titus (whose 2008 election was a casinos vs. Culinary proxy fight) instead of letting her lose to Dr. Joe Heck by less than 2,000 votes.

Two more years. Getting a vote of confidence from hard-to-please Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson was COO Michael Leven, who’ll receive a contract extension. For Leven’s part, he says his work is far from done, the company doesn’t have a deep bench and that he needs to further steamline Sands to “make us look like a real company, as opposed to just a lot of buildings.” That statement is partly a reflection of Sands’ non-Vegas operations tendency to look like a bunch of disorganized, sometimes rebellious fiefdoms, only loosely under supervision from headquarters. Considering the ages of both Adelson and Leven, the latter is clearly under no illusions about the need to start thinking about a post-Adelson era at Venelazzo and its progeny.