Internet Gambling Bill Shot Down

[Qbins Missile Crisis]

The House Financial Services Committee rejected a bill Wednesday that would have prohibited the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve from proposing and implementing regulations to enforce the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

Spearheaded by Congressmen Frank and Ron Paul, (H.R. 5767) would prohibit the Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve System from proposing, prescribing or implementing any regulations related to the current ban on internet gambling. Frank's bill, however, must be passed in the House and the Senate before the end of this year. That may seem like plenty of time to the uninformed but for anyone inside Washington, it's common knowledge that the Congressional calendar varies greatly from everyone else's. In other words, six remaining months barely translate into two remaining Congressional months.

H.R. 5767 essentially would serve to prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury and Federal Reserve System from implementing any regulations as they relate to the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, which deems many forms of online gambling illegal.

The defeat is a blow to both the online gambling industry, which has been looking for ways to repeal the UIGEA, and the banking industry, which wants no part in trying to regulate the online gaming industry.

"The PPA is surprised that the Financial Services Committee today failed to clarify what constitutes 'unlawful Internet gambling' under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA)," Alfonse D'Amato, chairman of the Poker Players Alliance, told Casino City Wednesday. "The King Amendment would have required a separate formal rulemaking with an administrative law judge to determine the definition of unlawful Internet gambling."

iMEGA.org -whose efforts are backed by a large contingency of Costa Rican online gambling sites - will continue to challenge the UIGEA in the Supreme Court. This is the only short term chance of having the Internet gambling prohibition overturned.

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Christopher Costigan
Gambling911.com
Publisher CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com
Originally published June 25, 2008 5:41 pm EST