Legislation seeks to enable some forms of online gambling such as Internet poker and wagering on horse racing
Congress is moving closer to passing legislation that will relieve U.S. financial services companies from implementing bans on Internet gambling as the Payments System Protection Act (H.R. 6870) was approved by the House Committee on Financial Services and appears headed for a possible vote by the full House next week.
Pushed by the committee's chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the legislation would delay implementation of earlier legislation that seeks to block Internet gambling. "Adults are entitled to do with their money what they want to do," Frank has said in explaining his effort to enable citizens to engage in some forms of gambling online.
Generally, opponents of the older legislation — the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 — maintain that online gambling can't be outlawed because there are many offshore gambling sites that are difficult or impossible to regulate and many Americans use the offshore sites anyway.
The new legislation also calls for institutions to block Internet wagers on sports, excepting jai alai and horse and dog racing.
If H.R. 6870 becomes law, it will be a boon to the estimated 23 million Americans who play poker over the Web. Jay Lakin, co-owner and VP of PokerSourceOnline.com, hailed the progress of the new legislation on Wednesday.
"Congressman Barney Frank was able to introduce the bill last Thursday and have it marked up and ready to be discussed on the House floor five days later," Lakin said in an e-mail. "It shows his true passion for this issue and steadfast belief that the federal government should not be determining what consenting adults do in their leisure time."
The proposed legislation seeks approval for the appointment of a special administrative law judge, who would define unlawful Internet gambling and carry out an economic impact study on compliance costs.
The Frank bill has the support of the Chamber of Commerce, the Financial Services Roundtable, and the Credit Union National Association; they all have criticized the older legislation banning online gambling as unworkable and burdensome.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, which supports the Frank bill, said: "Rather than prohibit an activity millions of Americans enjoy in the privacy of their homes, just as they can in a casino, Congress should create a framework to regulate Internet gambling as a way to protect consumers and collect billions in much-needed federal revenue."
Am eagerly awaiting all the SPAM for online casinos which has not been around for several years;
and the horror stories about people that lose their home to online gambling w/o even leaving the house.
I'll be glad when it does pass so I know when I'm playing I won't be in trouble.
Let's hope they pass it.
I hope this passes as well. It will give those of us a chance to play games that we otherwise would never have access to.
And so the internet gamling begins......i wouldnt be surprised if it passes.
Sigh...I didn't see anything in the story that said we would be able to buy tickets over the internet from the lotteries that we wanted to.
I dont know why they couldnt include buying tickets over the internet on our favorite state lotteries. Some one needs to push that too.
The reason why that is in place is because lottery tickets cannot be sold over state lines. That rule has been in place for a while. But it is up to each individual state to determine if they want to sell tickets online, as the current UIGEA specifically exempts state lotteries from that (ridiculous) piece of legislation.
Expect to see more states moving soon to sell online - my belief is that they will have to pay out less in commissions this way.
Hope this bill passes there are alot of people out there needing money, and I am not talking about people who lost there jobs or people who make good money or college grads..think about all the people who are handicap that cant find good jobs...that are blind in one eye or deaf in one ear....and having poker as a way to make money without being left behind in our country....
Congress should create a framework to regulate Internet gambling as away to protect consumers and collect billions in much-needed federalrevenue."
Protecting consumers is crap. They just want to stick their foot in it. This is money driven. But I hope it pass. It's interesting that it's horse and dog racing and whatever jai alai is and not sports betting. Like people are not going to continue to do sport betting. How are they going to tell what people are betting on when it's time to make deposits and withdrawals.
Dog and horse betting must be bigger than sports betting and whatever jai alai is. I wonder if they are going to go after the sports betting sites. As long as they leave pick 3 and pick 4 alone I don't care what they do.
Pronounced hi li it's a game where they use what appears to be a half banana about 2 ft long they place a ball in it and throw. it is known as the worlds fastest game. Pretty exciting to watch.
In the United States, Jai-alai is quite popular among gamblers in Florida where it is used as a basis for pari-mutuel gambling. In fact, professional Jai-alai in America originated at the Miami Fronton. World Jai-alai, which is based in Miami, has promoted the most extensive amateur Jai-alai program ever, with a number of schools in Spain, France and one in Miami, Florida.
I will be glad to when they pass the Law for Gambling on the Internet, I can stay right at home instead of going out of town, because we have no Casinos in Ohio, althought they are talking about passing a
Bill the Gov. of Ohio said that last week, that he will pass it.