Here is a copy of the speech given by Spencer Bachus on 3 December 2009 at the hearing of Bill HR2267 at the House Financial Services Committee:
“As all of us know Chairman Frank and I have very different views on this and we approach this very differently. He wants to legalise internet gambling and then he wants to tax it. On the other hand, I believe that internet gambling is and has been and will continue to be, a substantial threat to our youth and that any economic benefit from taxing internet gambling would be more than offset by the harm that it causes our young people and we have had hearing after hearing where experts demonstrated or testified to really what we have is a wave of young Americans who are addicted to gambling and the problems which that causes which are in many cases heartbreaking.
I saw an article in the New York Times where one mother wrote a letter to the editor describing the horror that had been created from her son, who she basically has lost to internet gambling.
Internet gambling - the characteristics are unique; online players can gamble 24 hours per day, 7 days a week from home; children may play without sufficient age verification and they can bet with a credit card – we have had testimony before that this undercuts a player, particularly a young persons perception of the value of cash, that the younger you become engaged in this behaviour the more addictive it is, it actually wires the brains of some of our young people; it leads to addiction, bankruptcy and crime. We have actually had testimony that one of the most outstanding young football players from Florida University’s whole career was ruined and that career started with internet gambling at a young age. He in fact was arrested for burgularizing a business to pay for gambling debts.
Young people are particularly at risk because if you put a computer in a bedroom or a dorm room of a young person it’s a temptation that many fall prey to. It is simply asking too much of young people that they resist this temptation.
Uh, the Chairman talks about America and what it stands for and that one of the things it stands for it not telling adults what they can and cannot do. One thing that America also stands for, and I think every society, whether it is American society or any other society, I think one of our number one goals ought to be protecting our youth. We certainly do not allow people to come into their bedroom and serve them liquor at a young age or sell them pornography and the fact that the Chairman says, well, you know, you can buy pornography on the internet, you can order liquor on the internet, you ought to be able to allow internet gambling, I think makes no sense whatsoever.
For more than a decade the majority of this congress has worked for and voted for legislation to combat illegal internet gambling. It’s always been illegal in the United States, but no-one could enforce the law because these criminal enterprises operated offshore and they operated offshore because that removed them from the long-arm of not only the Justice Department but also other law enforcement agencies. We have had letters from a great majority of Attorney Generals telling us that without some legislation, such as the legislation that we passed in 2006, they were powerless to stop internet gambling which was against the law of all their states and I will remind anyone who is interested in this subject that it is the state and the people of the state - the delegates from the states which have gone to their poles or their legislative representative have passed laws saying that illegal internet gambling should be stopped the state prohibits it and the last time I looked all of them did it through a democratic process in a nation of law it only makes sense to try to put these illegal internet criminal enterprises out of business not reward them as the Chairman would do. Congress took a major step towards protecting our youth and stopping this illegal activity with the passage of the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. It’s that Act that the Chairman continues to try to repeal or postpone enactment of and obviously he has allies in the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve who last week announced that they were again delaying implementation of the law another 6 months. These regulations should have been finalised and implemented more than two years ago. This Congress voted, the House voted, by an overwhelming number, over 330 members, as I recall, over ¾ of the Congress, to stop illegal internet gambling and Mr Chairman I think it’s time for you the Treasury and the Feds to stop delaying the will of the great majority of this Congress and the American people, quit the foot-dragging and enforce this law. The Feds are not here today, the Chairman didn’t ask for the Feds of the Justice Department to come in and defend themselves because they really have no defence – it’s they that ought to be testifying today and not most of the witnesses, many of which, their studies are funded by the gambling industry or their associations are supported by the gambling industry.
The absence of the Justice Department and the Federal Reserve is particularly egregious in light of a letter I received from the FBI earlier this month – without objection I would like to submit that letter for the record now?
(Chairman Frank: “Without objection”)
In the letter the FBI warned that technology exists to facilitate undetectable manipulation of online poker games. The FBI warns that technology can be used in peer to peer games to illegally transfers ill-gotten gains from one person to another. The FBI in their letter rejects claims from vendors who say they can validate age and location. The witnesses today are gonna’ again testify that they can, that technology is available to keep minors off the internet, off gambling on the internet. The FBI rejects that contention. So the law enforcement agency, the Federal law enforcement agency actually says that these so called “protections” won’t work. Before the UIGEA offshore internet casinos were proliferating, raking in more than $6 billion annually from Americans, $6 billion. We found out through disclosures that about $40 million of that has been spent right here in Washington DC hiring lobbyists, one of the first lobbyists they hired was Abramoff. If Congress repeals the law we will continue to have these online casinos.
In the next five years Chairman Frank, I feel that if you are successful in creating a Federal right to gamble on the internet we will create a generation of tens of millions of Americans who from their youth will be addicted to internet gambling and therefore lifelong problem gamblers – and that’s a problem for all of us. Gamblers being able to place bets not only from their home computers but also from their Blackberries as they drive home from work or their I-phones as they wait in line at the grocery store. One company has already developed an I-phone gambling software and plans to release it as soon as the law is reversed – they have announced that. I will do everything I can to make sure this never happens.
In conclusion, Mr Chairman, supporters of legalisation of internet gambling argue that prohibition has sent internet gambling underground and left the vulnerable unprotected. But that was the case before our laws; the vulnerable were unprotected because companies that tapped the American market violated our laws and our protection. No amount of regulations can begin to protect against this particularly predatory and abusive intrusion into American homes and the harm that it is causing our youth. No approach to blocking internet gambling will ever be perfect but what we have fashioned is our best hope.”
This entry was written by Nena on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 4:27 am and is filed under Articles.
