Bill legalizing online gambling passes hurdle
- Aug 4, 2010 -
Congressional advocates for legalizing Internet gambling in the United States have made progress in their effort less than two months after rules implementing a 2006 law that cracked down on the practice finally took effect.
The Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives voted 41-22 to forward to the full chamber the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, H.R. 2267.
The bill would have the effect of rescinding the four-year-old Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which largely barred online gambling in the United States by requiring financial institutions to block credit card and other payments to Internet wagering businesses. Long-delayed regulations enforcing the law went into effect June 1.
The new online gambling measure, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank, D.-Mass., would both legalize such wagering and authorize the federal government to regulate it.
The committee’s July 28 action came barely a week after Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land and other pro-family leaders wrote congressional leaders to express their opposition to the new bill, as well as a related proposal. The latter measure — the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act, H.R. 4976 — would provide for taxation of gambling revenues in conjunction with Frank’s legislation.
The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to consider H.R. 4976 in September, according to the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Rep. Jim McDermott, D.-Wash., is the bill’s sponsor.
“Together, these bills propose the most aggressive expansion of gambling in American history, a misbegotten policy that would inflict an untold number of social costs on American families,” Land and the others said in their July 20 letter.
Land is president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Among the other 13 signers of the letter were Tom McClusky, senior vice president of Family Research Council Action; Tom Minnery, senior vice president of Focus on the Family; and Penny Nance, chief executive officer of Concerned Women for America.
The federal government’s new reliance upon gambling profits would inflict widespread socioeconomic costs, particularly on families, the foes of the House bills said in their letter.
“The instant accessibility and anonymity of such [online gambling] sites make them a particularly alluring forum for teenagers and young adults; according to several studies, gambling addiction is the fastest growing addiction among young people,” the letter said. “Internet gambling sites also provide a ready mechanism for criminals to illicitly transfer or launder money quickly, secretly and with a low chance of detection.
“The real gains [from enactment of the twin pieces of legislation] will go to Internet gambling interests, and the real costs will be borne by American households. Whatever the amount of revenue raised by these bills, we strongly believe that it would never be worth the price of such an expansive and irresponsible gambling policy.”
The letter went to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D.-Calif.; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D.-Nev.; House Minority Leader John Boehner, R.-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R.-Ky.
In the Financial Services Committee’s vote on Frank’s bill, only four Democrats opposed it. Seven Republicans voted for it.
Frank has argued the 2006 ban inappropriately restricts personal freedom. He has said the bills McDermott and he are sponsoring would protect U.S. gamblers’ consumer rights and make sure online wagering does not benefit only the operators, who are located primarily overseas.
In 2006, the ERLC was among the organizations that joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the major professional sports leagues for baseball, basketball, football and hockey in supporting the ban.
When President Bush signed into law a bill containing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the action dealt a dramatic blow to online gambling companies. A couple of firms sold their American operations for $1 apiece, and others saw their shares fall by as much as almost 60 percent on the London Stock Exchange.
Before the current restriction on Internet gambling was enacted, Americans were expected to pay $5.9 billion, about half of the $12 billion wagered worldwide on Internet gambling, to overseas online casinos in 2006, supporters of the ban said. Online gambling sites frequently act as fronts for money laundering, drug trafficking and financing for terrorists, foes said.
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