House Panel Backs Internet Gambling Bill
The House Financial Services Committee Wednesday backed legislation that would legalize Internet gambling and set up a regime to license and regulate it.
The bill was approved on a bipartisan 41-22 vote with one present vote from Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas. It would counter a 2006 law that prohibits online gambling with some exceptions and bars banks and credit card companies from processing payments for online bets.
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said he is aiming to move the bill on a parallel track with a related measure offered by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. His bill, pending before the Ways and Means Committee, would set up a system for taxing legal online gambling activities, which are estimated to bring in as much as $42 billion over a 10-year period.
The committee rejected two amendments that critics said would essentially gut the bill. The first, offered by Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., and defeated on a 37-22 vote, would require states to opt-in to the bill's provision allowing online gambling. The bill as offered would provide states with an opportunity to opt out of allowing Internet gambling for their citizens. The committee adopted an amendment offered by Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., that would give states one full general legislative session to opt-out instead of the 90 days included in the bill.
The panel also rejected, 43-22, an amendment from Bachus that would have deleted the bill's provisions and replaced it with language requiring the Treasury Department to develop and maintain an updated list of illegal online gambling sites that banks, credit card companies and other payment providers could use to block funding for online gambling transactions.
Those entities that block illegal online gambling transactions from sites on the list would be deemed in compliance with the 2006 law. To read more, see Thursday's CongressDaily AM edition. (Subscription required).
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