Heller to Reid: Stop playing politics on Internet gaming bill

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller on Saturday accused U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of being more interested in helping U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley defeat him in their Senate race than in passing a bill to legalize online poker.

Heller, R-Nev., said Reid, D-Nev., purposely waited until closer to the Nov. 6 election to try and force a quick vote on Internet gaming and then blame Heller for not wrangling the needed 15 Republican votes for Senate passage.

"Nothing was going to pass before the election. Everybody knew that," Heller said in an interview, adding that Reid's stunt set back efforts to get the bill passed. "We just make it more difficult by adding politics to it."

Heller said he, Reid and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., could have pressed for passage of the gaming legislation three months ago, but Reid waited so that he could inject the issue into the close Senate race.

"We have a major problem and that is that Harry Reid would rather have Shelley Berkley win this race than have this bill pass," Heller said, speaking after he was endorsed by a Filipino-American group in Las Vegas. "I told the industry that three months ago. And if someone would have told me this was going to happen right before the election I wouldn't have been surprised. And I'm not surprised. This is all politics."

Heller said he's still speaking with GOP colleagues in an effort to gather enough votes for passage of online poker legislation, which he said may still be possible in the lame duck congressional session after the election.

"I'm still going to work for this," Heller said. "And I'm going to get this bill passed."

Reid's office fired back at Heller.

"Instead of fighting for Nevada and trying to secure his colleague's support, Senator Heller has now chosen to question Senator Reid's intentions and lay blame on everyone but himself," said Kristen Orthman, a Reid spokeswoman. "That's unfortunate. Since May, Senator Heller has been tasked to secure Republican support, and Senator Reid has been willing to move on a bill as soon as he was told the support was there. To date, Senator Heller has been unable to secure any support for the most important issue facing Nevada since Yucca Mountain. Senator Reid will continue to fight to seek bipartisan support to legalize online poker that is important to Nevada."

Last week, Reid went on the warpath against Heller.

The Senate majority leader accused Heller of failing to produce 15 Republican votes for the gaming bill by a Monday deadline. Heller said he thought the House was going to move first on any measure.

"I did not want this issue to become political in nature but I cannot stand by while you abdicate your responsibility as a U.S. Senator representing Nevada," Reid said in the letter to Heller that was released by his office. "Nevadans deserve someone who will fight for them."

Berkley, D-Nev., jumped in, saying Heller "has failed to deliver" on a bill that could create jobs in the state.

The bill would seek to legalize online poker and establish a framework for it to be regulated on the federal level. It would open a vast market for casino companies that have been positioning themselves to cash in.

At the same time, the bill effectively would declare most other forms of Internet gambling to be illegal, reversing a Justice Department interpretation of the anti-gambling federal Wire Act last December that has encouraged states to explore online lotteries and other forms of Web gaming.

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow @lmyerslvrj on Twitter.