eGaming Review award nominations have now been short listed to the top contenders in 19 categories and now comes the exciting time for industry influencers to choose between the cream of the crop in the i-gaming community for the winners of each categories. Our very own CEO of Income Access, Nicky Senyard will be on the judging panel early next week to put in her nomination.

Operator of the year

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This is a video interview from iGaming News with Joe Brennan of iMEGA, a “a not-for-profit corporation [...] dedicated to the continued growth and innovation of the Internet.” iMEGA currently has a lawsuit in US federal court that challenges the UIGEA. Here, Mr. Brennan explains where exactly iMEGA is in their fight against the UIGEA.

That the latest Republican Party Platform lacks an anti-gambling stance underscores an interesting schism in GOP ideology. Namely, a conflict between the Christian-right/family-values camp and the small-government/libertarian camp. Given how this schism is being largely ignored, moreover, it seems that former Senator (R) Alfonse D’Amato’s assertion that the UIGEA was the result of nothing more than Bill Frist’s unrestrained political opportunism isn’t so far off the mark.

Now, the Christian right is known for being anti-gambling (online or off). It’s also know for using family values to attack just about anything it opposes. So at first glance, the UIGEA doesn’t seem so controversial from a Republican point of view. As former Republican Senator, Alfonse D’Amato noted, the UIGEA was the result of Bill Frisk trying to win over the Christian right.

However, Republicans are also know for being more libertarian and pro-small-government. So the UIGEA doesn’t add on that level. As Alfonse D’Amato also pointed out, the problem with the UIGEA (from a Republican point of view) is that it’s intrusive.

Well, given how the latest Republican Party Platform skipped over online gambling, it seems all that more certain that the UIGEA was (as D’Amato contends), the result of a misguided political opportunist (Bill Frist).

When the UIGEA was attached to the Port Securities Act, the Republicans still enjoyed the comfortable margin that any right-of-center party would enjoy in the wake of something like 9/11. Since then, however, two consecutive Republican administrations have failed to capture Osama Bin Laden, and while pursuing him, have led the US into a disastrous war. The result: the Democrats aren’t looking like that bad of an option for many centrist republicans.

Add to that the overwhelming support that Democrats are giving to Obama, and the GOP has one hell of a race for the White House ahead of it. If they don’t rope in every potential Republican out there, their chances of keeping the Presidency are pretty grim.

Overlooking the UIGEA in their current platform, then, makes perfect political sense. While the Christian right has much larger concerns than online gambling, online poker players could easily be lost to abstinence, a libertarian candidate, or even an Obama who’s likely to tackle legislation such as the Port Securities Act.

Of course, the upcoming presidential race will prove to be historical import for reasons that are well beyond online gaming. However, the GOP’s decision to leave the issue alone this time around underscores how online gambling it’s not important enough of an issue to risk losing any votes in the upcoming election.

Generally, when an heated issues gets pushed aside while it’s still a relatively new one (like online gambling is), that’s usually an indication that it won’t remain a heated one for too long. And when issue that’s lukewarm can be settled in a way that generates wealth, jobs, and adds to the GDP, or not, it’s usually resolved to the benefit of entrepreneurs. So perhaps the future on US-facing online gaming operations is looking to be on the up after all.

Today, the iGaming News blog posted this video interview with Chuck Barnett of Mohawk Internet Technologies — an ISP on the Kahnawá:ke reserve just outside of Montreal. In this interview, Chuck (1) explains how Kahnawá:ke differs from the rest of Canada as a jurisdiction, and (2) discusses what he sees as some of the greater challenges facing the online gaming industry.

It seems as though online gaming might have a chance returning state-side sooner than expected. For the first time since 2000, the Republican Party Platform is void of language that explicitly opposes online gambling. Of course, this doesn’t quite mean that operators can start targeting the US again. It could just be political positioning to consolidate the GOP in the face of Obama-mania. As PokerNews.com reports:

In a surprising turnaround, the Republican Platform Committee today stripped language urging a prohibition of Internet gambling from its draft platform. Considering one of the leading opponents of an internet gambling ban is former Republican Senator, Alfonse D’Amato, Chairman of the Poker Player’s Alliance (PPA), a supporter of presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain, this move is not completely surprising. It appears to be part of an effort by the party to appeal to a wider constituency going into the November election.

Anti-internet gambling language had been included in the last two party platforms, in 200 and 2004, and was in the proposed platform for this year’s election. But it was removed just ahead of next week’s Republican National Committee meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. About removing the anti-internet gambling language from the party’s platform, Sen. Richard M. Burr (R-N.C.) said, “We can use this to make the tent bigger.”

This platform was being drafted on the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), where the Democrats seem to be united for the first time since the primaries started. Where it once looked like many Clinton support wouldn’t vote for Obama (and vice versa), that seems to have changed. For instance, since the DNC started, Clinton has thrown her support behind Obama.

It would make sense, then, that many of the GOP’s actions in the last week, and over the coming ones, could be interpreted as bringing their party as close together as possible. After all, having Republicans (such as former Senator Alfonse D’Amato) abstain from voting or (worse still) vote Democrat because they feel the UIGEA runs counter to the GOP’s small-government/libertarian strain, could be disastrous.

Besides, omitting any anti-gambling language from their platform is a completely non-committal act. The UIGEA is already a fait accompli, so by ignoring altogether, the GOP can stall on the issue and avoid alienating any of its supporters. This is, after all, a presidential race. The stakes are high, so as long as the party doesn’t outright antagonize its poker playing supporters by explicitly addressing the UIGEA, they stand a pretty good chance of retaining their loyalty through to decision day.

The point is that as interesting this GOP platform is for the online gaming industry, it doesn’t hold any promises.