U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman, Barney Frank’s two bills to create legal room for the online gambling industry in America are to finally be given their dues in the political forum on Thursday 3 December whilst other aspects of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), due to come into force on 1 December 2009, have been delayed for another 6 months.
Bill HR2267, you will remember, is the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act. It is an attempt to provide a legal framework within which the online gambling can operate in the U.S. – whereby licences can be issued to those operators “playing by the rules”.
The HR2266 Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act, is an attempt to delay the drawn out implementation of regulations set out in UIGEA back in 2006, which were meant to be enforceable on 1 December 2009. The regulations that were due to come into force on 1 December were aimed at financial institutions, in an attempt to force them to block unlawful Internet gambling transactions. But this stipulation was a practicably unenforceable one, because according to UIGEA, wagers placed on horse racing and state lotteries are legal. The difficulty for banks and financial institutions would obviously therefore have been in identifying what wagers were being placed on horse racing and state lotteries (and thus allowable) and what wagers were being placed on other forms of online gambling (thus illegal).
Both these bills will now be heard tomorrow – Thursday 3 December 2009.
The press release from the House Committee on Financial Services succinctly reads;
Washington, DC - House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank today made the following statement after the announcement by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve that it would delay implementation of UIGEA for six months:
“The Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board of Governor’s deserve a great deal of credit for suspending these midnight regulations promulgated by the Bush administration which would curtail the freedom of Americans to use the internet as they choose and which would pose unrealistic burdens on the entire financial community,” said Congressman Frank. “This will give us a chance to act in an unhurried manner on my legislation to undo this regulatory excess by the Bush administration and to undo this ill-advised law.”
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/pressIG_112709.shtml
Barney Frank has always been a supporter of the online gaming industry, for sensible and democratic reasons, championing the freedom of individuals to do what they want in the privacy of their own homes. Back in 2008 he tried to reverse the fortunes of UIGEA with his HR 6870 Payments System Protection Act. Though being approved, it never completed during Congresses 110th sitting, and thus lapsed.
Though these bills have been delayed since their introduction back in May this year, the delay could actually have worked in their favour as now the HR 2266 has gathered 53 bi-partisan co-sponsors and the HR 2267 has amassed 63 co-sponsors. Despite this, strong opposition to the bills will probably be voiced by Spencer Bachus, the leader of the Republicans on the committee, who has never been a fan of online gaming.
It is obviously very important to the online gaming industry that this bill, the HR 2267, is passed. A link, care of the Poker Players Alliance (the PPA), to encourage your local representative to attend the hearing can be found here.
http://www.capwiz.com/pokerplayersalliance/issues/alert/?alertid=14410731&type=CO
To watch the hearing live over the internet you can click on this link here. Set your alarms for 10AM EST and keep your fingers crossed!!
Source; online pokies club website
This entry was written by Nena on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 9:52 pm and is filed under Blog, News.
