Some major factors at play:

1) Would big casino companies politically support legalizing online gaming?

"If MGM Mirage and Harrah's go from being lukewarm to 'Hey, we want a piece of this action,' then that's a game-changer, potentially," Silver said.

2) Would banks support online gambling? Enforcing new provisions of online gambling would create extra bureaucracy. Would that be worth the extra money?

3) And how would the NFL and NCAA stand?

"It sounds like: If the bill only contains poker, for example, while making it harder to do sports betting online, then the NFL might -- if not back it -- then at least not lobby against it."

If you don't know Silver: Time magazine this year named him one of the world's 100 most influential people. He's a statistics expert who developed baseball statistics concerning players' potential future performance.

Last year on his indispensable site FiveThirtyEight.com, he changed the way political junkies read polls. He came eerily close to predicting last year's election numbers. More important, he statistically debunked media myths about such things as: Would President Barack Obama's heritage cost him the election?

As for online poker, Silver thinks it can reach people who might not be gamblers, and who might then fly to Vegas to play face to face and spend big sums of money here.

"I certainly have come to Vegas more often since I started playing poker seriously six years ago. I make a couple trips out here a year, and spend some money on hotels, and food, and usually on blackjack on some stupid drunken Saturday evening," he says.

He also thinks MGM and Harrah's could be licensers and sponsor online poker rooms.

"It would do terrifically well," Silver said.

And online poker revenue could help if it stayed in the United States in a recession. For now, online gambling money is going offshore.

By the way, Silver played Monday with his three guiding principles:

• Play tight but don't miss opportunities.

• Don't outthink yourself.

• They need you more than you do, but you have to want this as much as anybody else.

I interviewed him mid-Monday. How was he doing?

"I'm not rich yet."

STARS AND DARFUR

Also at the World Series of Poker at the Rio, Don Cheadle and Annie Duke brought a host of celebs to raise $362,000 in their third annual Ante Up For Africa tournament. The event supports charities trying to help refugees and change policy on Darfur.

At the tables: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Brad Garrett, Cedric The Entertainer, Jason Alexander, Hershel Walker, Jennifer Tilly, Sarah Silverman, Montel Williams and poker pros Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Joe Hachem, Phil Gordon and Jennifer Harman.

Cheadle told me Thursday that every dollar goes to Refugees International, the ENOUGH Project, which advocates policies to help fix the troubles of Darfur, and a nongovernmental organization yet to be chosen.

I told Cheadle that, a few years ago, I saw Darfur on "E.R." more than I had on CNN.

"Absolutely," he said. "You're always competing with whatever is the most sensationalist issue of the day, whether it's Britney Spears not wearing underwear or (the death of Michael Jackson).

"The challenge is for us in the advocacy world is, for lack of a better term, to make this issue 'sexy,' " he said.

Hence, all the celebrities doing a poker tourney in Vegas. It worked. ESPN covered the event. More attention was brought to Darfur. Cheadle quoted Brad Pitt on celebrities helping the needy:

"Brad said it well -- 'We can't get out of the light, and they can't get in the light.' "

I told Duke I saw more media on her run-in with Joan Rivers in "Celebrity Apprentice" than on Darfur in the same time.

"What was really interesting about the Joan Rivers thing is I was representing Refugees International" on the TV show, Duke said.

"Refugees International got a tremendous uplift from it," she said, "but I wish there had been less attention on the way she was treating me, and more attention on the way refugees are being treated."

I told her I didn't have any Rivers follow-up questions. She looked relieved.

Contact Doug Elfman at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.