In January Massachusetts held a special election for the United States Senate. The seat being filled was vacated by Senator Ted Kennedy upon his passing last year. Senator Kennedy had been in office over 40 years and Massachusetts is a state dominated by registered democrats. As much as the odds were seemingly stacked against him, Republican Scott Brown won the special election. While much of the debate since then has focused on what his vote means for health care reform, his vote will also impact any potential attempt to legalize or regulate online poker in the United States.

When there were 58 democratic senators, along with two independent senators they tend to vote with democrats, they were able to pass legislation without fear of a filibuster due to Senate rules. However now that they cannot achieve 60 votes without at least one republican, passing legislation in the Senate just got more difficult. For the most part republicans have tended to be anti-gaming.

The great hope of online poker players was that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, passed into law in 2006, would be overturned with democrats as the majority party in the United States House of Representatives and Senate. With President Barack Obama in office the prospect of overturning the UIGEA was promising. Unfortunately for internet poker players, regulating online poker has taken a backseat and may not be an issue to vote on this year. As democrats look to defend their majority in upcoming elections they will almost certainly look to the economy, the war in Afghanistan, and other local issues before even considering the UIGEA.

One thing is certain, proponents of the UIGEA haven’t forgotten about it and online poker players shouldn’t either. Doing your part by signing up for the Poker Players Alliance and continuing to write letters to your member of Congress are the best way to make sure this issue doesn’t fade away.