Reuters News is reporting that soon, the full U.S. House of Representatives will be debating new legislation which would attempt to BAN Internet gambling. Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa have basically combined two versions of house bills and are attempting to BAN a $12 billion dollar a year industry which is getting about half of that income from US players.
Jim’s bill, which gets its support from conservatives and the religious right, has already been approved by both the House Financial Services Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.
News Flash
They want to keep online gaming away from minors.
These are probably the same guys who tried to stop the Playboy channel from showing on your local cable. This “anti-gambling” bill is expected to be debated next week by the full House.
The U.S. Justice Department is backing up their argument by offering up an old law from 1961 which “forbids interstate telephone betting”. Consequently, House lawmakers are attempting to clarify this law for prosecutors and show the world, PROOF, that the 1961 law regarding telephone betting also applies to the Internet.
That’s correct, 35 years ago (pre computer) the true ‘intent’ of the law was to protect minors from Internet poker. They were not targeting the organized crime families of that era or the growth of gaming in Vegas… it was definately to protect minors from Internet gaming.
Now I don’t know about you geeks, but we use broadband and I’m not even sure the landline even works! The handset is so old and dusty the dog won’t even play with….so can the Monday night poker game on TGC which arrives via broadband wireless even be considered “telephone betting”. I’ll get back to you readers on that one.
A Boom For DGCs?
Ahh….here comes the dilemma….the new legislation is looking to prohibit all gambling business from settling Internet wagers with credit cards, checks or fund transfers. SO, if you are playing with DGC, it appears for now that even with their efforts, the show will go on.
Reuters quotes Representative Goodlatte as saying “Gambling on the Internet has become an extremely lucrative business,” and “These offshore, fly-by-night Internet gambling operators are unlicensed, untaxed and unregulated and are sucking billions of dollars out of the United States.”
Hey BOB, welcome to the Internet.
Finally, we bet using goldgrams denominated by weight, so if you want to block my game of Texas Hold’em you will have to pry the mouse out of my cold dead hand.
Investors in the larger British-based gaming companies like Party Gaming Plc and 888 Holdings are said to be closely monitoring the House activity.
“In gold we trust”
A View From The Bottom, R. Duke
Technorati Tags: Internet gambling, online gaming, anti-gambling, betting, goldgrams, Texas Hold’em, Party Gaming Plc
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July 12th, 2006 at 2:57 am
Well Snap! The House Passed The Anti Gambling Bill.
7/11/06
Today’s press clippings:
“This is a scourge on our society,” Goodlatte
As expected, House lawmakers have passed HR 441, the bill that attempts to clear the way for a severe crackdown on Internet gambling. However, the frenzy of politics and press may just have been for naught as there is much less support in the Senate. Plus, November is quickly approaching and time is running out on the current legislative session. Oh, don’t forget about those elections.
Poker Players Alliance put forth a study this week and argued that Internet Poker alone could be generating as much as $3 billion in federal and state revenues each year. Hey that will fund another full two weeks of war in Iraq, lets regulate it and grab those taxes. Come on…last year the UK.
February 7th, 2007 at 1:05 am
[…] Look closely, the US has gone from Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (VA) bill, H.R. 4411, which originally got support from the Christian Coalition in an attempt to ban all Internet gambling, up to the present day which is, David Litterick — the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York attempting to connect the dots between online poker money and Osama Bin Laden style funding support. I just don’t see it. The original anti gambling bill was about stopping kids’ access to online gaming. How did they arrive at this new prosecutorial frontier? […]