Associated Press Writer

By DALE WETZELBy DALE WETZEL

Fargo state Rep. Jim Kasper is asking gambling companies to help finance a ballot measure that would make North Dakota the first state to license and regulate Internet poker businesses.

Kasper aggressively pushed the idea in the Legislature early this year, only to have the North Dakota Senate defeat a licensing bill and a constitutional amendment that would have given lawmakers authority to regulate Internet poker.

Kasper said he believes North Dakotans may embrace the proposal if its licensing revenues were used to reduce local property taxes.

"It's a natural," the Fargo Republican lawmaker said. "I believe if we did do an initiated measure, with the fact we're going to reduce people's property tax, I think it's a slam dunk."

Industry officials have been wary of the idea, while describing Kasper as tenacious in his pursuit of it. The Senate's 44-3 vote last March to reject Kasper's Internet poker licensing bill left officials wondering whether the concept would be popular among North Dakota voters.

Kasper said he has asked companies for financial support for an Internet poker initiative, but has not received any contributions. He has not registered a fund-raising committee with the North Dakota secretary of state's office.

"The key is convincing the key people in the industry that it's worthwhile," said Keith Furlong, deputy director of the Interactive Gaming Council, a trade group based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Nigel Payne, group chief executive for Sportingbet PLC, a London company that offers Internet poker and sports wagering, said he would be interested in reviewing any Kasper proposal.

"When the initiative is fully developed, we, as I am sure like others in the industry, will assess it on its merits and make a considered decision at that time," Payne said in an e-mail response to an Associated Press reporter's questions about the idea.

Payne lobbied for Kasper's Internet poker measures during the Legislature, testifying at the Senate Judiciary Committee's initial hearing on the issue.

The federal Justice Department asserts that Internet gambling is illegal in the United States, and no other state regulates Internet poker sites. Payne and other industry officials say they would welcome state licensing and regulation of Internet poker, believing it would help attract more players to the game.

In an interview, Kasper described an initiative as an option he is exploring, instead of making another try at getting the necessary proposals through the Legislature. During the 2005 session, he said he was not interested in leading a petition drive.

"I'm just weighing, should I try to put the energy together next year for an initiated measure," Kasper said earlier this month. "It's a huge time commitment, and I have to find the proper funding."

In e-mails to industry officials, Kasper has been more definite. "I am continuing to move forward here in (North Dakota) to put an initiated measure on the North Dakota ballot next November," he said in one message, sent last week.

The state constitution gives North Dakotans the right to circulate petitions to put proposed laws and constitutional amendments directly on the ballot. An amendment petition would need signatures from at least 25,688 eligible North Dakota voters, while a proposed law would require 12,844 names.

Kasper could circulate petitions for both a state constitutional amendment and an Internet poker licensing law if he chose. An amendment is needed in any case, to ensure North Dakota's licensing of Internet poker sites would not violate the constitution's anti-gambling provisions.

Kasper has been talking up a possible initiative at industry conventions. He said he discussed it last September at the Casino Affiliate Convention in Las Vegas last September, and at the annual Global Interactive Gaming Summit & Expo in Montreal last June.

Kasper plans to attend the Poker Industry Expo in San Jose, Costa Rica, next weekend, where he will be a featured speaker and take part in a panel discussion with Doyle Brunson, one of the world's best-known poker players.

The Montreal conference was organized by the River City Group of St. Charles, Mo., whose chief executive officer, Sue Schneider, helped lobby for Kasper's Internet poker measures during the Legislature.

"To my knowledge, there's never been a state initiative like what he is discussing," Schneider said.

"It really is uncharted territory."