July 28th, 2010 may go down as the day the second Poker Boom officially was kicked off. Not perhaps in the same way as when an accountant named Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP Main Event, but it will definitely rank among them. After seven months, HR 2267 faced a critical vote with the House Finance Committee and passed by a 41 to 22 to 1 margin. The HR 2267 bill, which was pushed hard by Rep. Barney Frank and the Poker Players Alliance has crossed a major hurdle on its way to becoming law despite extreme opposition by chairman Rep. Spencer Bacchus.

Rep. Bacchus has publicly argued that the legislation proposed would bring casino gambling into every house in the U.S. and urged his colleagues to not support the bill, even calling for Rep. Frank to withdraw the legislation. Despite his vehement opposition of the legislation, HR 2267 went through to the board and passed by a wide margin. While HR 2267 isn’t 100% out of the woods, it did take a major step towards regulating the Online Gambling industry in the U.S. It will now be sent to the House of Representatives, where should it pass in a majority vote, it will be passed in to the Senate for another vote, before being signed into law by the President.