Texas Representative Joe Barton flew into Las Vegas Friday to announce a his new proposed bill to license and regulate poker in the United States. An official announcement should be made later Friday with Barton slated to offer the famous "Shuffle Up and Deal" intro at the Rio on Saturday. The bill is currently called the Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2011.

The current draft of the Barton bill would amend federal laws that relate to online gambling to explicitly allow licensed sites to offer online poker. It would provide federal and state governments with regimes to license and regulate such sites. It would also make some minor changes to federal law to more strictly enforce the prohibition of forms of internet gambling other than poker.

The bill has not yet been introduced to committee officially but is expected to occur soon.

There are common elements with the former Campbell-Frank bill:

Individual states can opt out
Measures to prevent of cheating
Eligibility for licensing that favor large established gaming companies for the first two years.
Minimum age requirements
Self-exclusion provisions for problem gamblers
Child support delinquents prevented from playing online poker
Credit cards nor payment processors that accept credit card payments can be used for depositing or withdrawals.

Barton has apparently received support from previous opponents like Arizona Rep. Jon Kyl by specifying just poker in this legislation while tightening restrictions on other forms of gambling. The bill would strengthen other federal gambling law attempting to more specifically outline illegal online gambling activity while requiring the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to identify illegal unlicensed online gambling sites. It would then fine unlicensed gambling sites $1 million for each day during which they allow US players to play or the gross amount of wagers for US players accepted, whichever is larger. It also would establish an up-to-five-year prison sentence for operators of unlicensed gambling sites.

The timetable is quite swift by legislative standards allowing the Secretary of Commerce 180 days to prescribe final regulations, the Secretary of the Treasure and Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network would also have 120-180 days to implement their enforcements or amendments.

The Barton Bill's text can be found HERE

Rep. Barton Reveals New U.S. Poker Bill