On Thursday, the show lineup for the CBS news program “60 Minutes” was announced. Absent from the list of three feature segments once again was an exposé on online poker. With the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event resuming from the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio on Sunday night, the timing could have been right for the story to air concurrently on the network. Instead the world will have to wait at least one more week.
With the recent election of Illinois Senator Barack Obama to the United States Presidency on Tuesday, “60 Minutes” will kick off its November 9th program with a look at the men and women behind his successful bid for the nation’s highest post. Here are the three stories that are slated to air this week, as shown on the website of the long-running new program:
OBAMA’S BRAIN TRUST – Steve Kroft goes behind the scenes on election night to speak to the brains whose strategy propelled Barack Obama into the White House. L. Franklin Devine, Michael Radutzy and Andy Court are the producers.
THE WASTELAND – Where do the millions of computer monitors, cell phones and other electronic refuse our society generates end up? Some of it is shipped illegally from the U.S. to China, reports Scott Pelley, where it is harming the environment and the people who salvage its valuable components. Solly Granatstein is the producer.
TED TURNER – The nearly 70-year-old media mogul looks back on a life marked by huge successes, steep downfalls and public feuds that have made him an American legend. Morley Safer reports. Deirdre Naphin is the producer.
The feature on online poker may examine a number of different components. The scandals that rocked Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker may take center stage, along with the boom of the poker world in general ever since Chris Moneymaker’s historic World Series of Poker Main Event win in 2003 after qualifying through a satellite on PokerStars. CBS traveled to Las Vegas during this year’s WSOP and spoke to Harrah’s officials as well as several well-known poker players. Show officials may choose to highlight the ongoing legal action in Kentucky as well as the ongoing issues associated with the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
Recent developments in these areas may be the cause for the delay in the feature’s air date. Excapsa, which sold Ultimate Bet to its present owner, Tokwiro, lost a $15 million judgment this week in a Canadian courtroom. The money will be used to compensate players who were victimized by the online poker scandal on that site. In addition, a petition filed by the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) and the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) may be acted upon on November 18th. A final forfeiture hearing is scheduled on the calendar of Judge Thomas Wingate on December 3rd.
Today, it was revealed that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had received the final regulations for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. These may be approved by November 19th so that they can be implemented prior to Obama taking office on January 20th, 2009. The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is actively involved in trying to sway the OMB away from approving the regulations and is meeting with the government agency today.
All told, the bevy of unsettled business may be the primary reason why CBS has chosen not to air the online poker story. In September, 60 Minutes celebrated its 40th anniversary and finished the 2007-2008 season as the “most-watched news broadcast,” according to its website. The news program’s correspondents include an array of “who’s who” in the news world, headlined by Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric, Lesley Stahl, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney, Charlie Rose, Morley Safer, and Bob Simon.
