A bill in the United States to commission a comprehensive, independent study into online gambling will not come up for discussion before next month, at the earliest, after being put on the backburner along with various other pieces of legislation.

Congress' priorities
The House of Representatives apparently believes that a debate on a resolution on former deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove should take precedent over the Internet Gambling Study Act, which seeks set up a mechanism to understand the pros and cons of regulating and possibly taxing online gambling.

US politics
And what makes the Rove resolution such a pressing issue? The former White House official is alleged to have leaked the identity of retired ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's wife, Valerie Plame, as a Central Intelligence Agency in retaliation for Wilson's op-ed in The New York Times in which he criticized the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq.

The Internet Gambling Study Act, sponsored by Nevada Representative Shelly Berkeley, was proposed last May and has the support of the American Gaming Association and many politicians. Alas, it will have to wait.