The battle for online casino USA continues to wage on in the United States of America. This article will talk about a couple upcoming hearings that could prove important. First there is a Senate hearing scheduled for Thursday, March 18th at 2:15 PM EST. Then there is a hearing in the House of Representatives the next day at 9:00 AM EST on Friday, March 19th.

Al D'Amato, the chairman of the Poker Players Alliance, has been one of the biggest allies poker has had in the fight for US poker sites. As a former Senator, he has an intimate knowledge of how the American government works. He was a witness at a recent hearing in the House.

The movement to license and regulate online poker has been picking up steam in the past few months. This is the second hearing in the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade in the last month. The hearing on March 26th had mostly positive results.

Much was covered in the recent House hearing that D'Amato attended, including the topic of poker bots. Rep. Joe Barton's poker bill would effectively make the usage and selling of poker bots illegal. It remains to be seen whether or not Barton's bill can gain the momentum necessary to make it law.

The first hearing will be in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. It is titled, "The Future of Internet Gambling: What's at Stake for Tribes?" Judging from the name, it looks as if representatives from tribes will be there to delivery testimony. It has not been said yet what the focus of the House hearing will be. It could be the topic of online poker rooms in general, or perhaps there will be further discussion of Barton's bill, H.R. 2366.