In an interview today with Ante Up!, tampabay.com's poker podcast, former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato said he doesn't expect any of the presidential candidates to endorse legislation that would legalize and regulate online gambling.

"I think the presidential candidates will be somewhat reluctant, certainly to get in the lead in terms of promoting that kind of legislation," said D'Amato, a Republican who represented New York in the Senate from 1981 to 1999 and is now the chairman of the Poker Players Alliance, an organization that is lobbying Congress to change restrictions on online poker. "They will say they have very real, legitimate questions, and that’s understandable ... certainly before they would be supportive of this."

In October 2006, President Bush signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which bans financial institutions from processing transactions between their American customers and online gambling Web sites. D'Amato says he was upset at how the bill was attached to a port security bill. Democratic Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Robert Wexler of Florida, Shelley Berkley of Nevada and Jim McDermott of Washington have introduced bills to legalize, regulate or study online gambling.

- Scott Long, Times Staff Writer