House Financial Services Committee Accept Bill

Published: Thursday, March 16, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

LEACH ANTI ONLINE GAMBLING BILL ACCEPTED BY HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE

Bill seeking to curtail financial instruments now moves to the floor of the House of Representatives

There's a long way to go yet, but a Bill thought to be Rep. James Leach's HR4411 has passed the House Financial Services Committee today (Wednesday) and now moves to the House for debate, according to Reuters in Washington.

Without identifying the Bill, Reuters reports that it was cleared by voice vote in the House Financial Services Committee, and seeks to prohibit a gambling business from accepting credit cards, checks, wire transfers and electronic funds transfers in illegal gambling transactions.

Unlawful gambling, under the legislation, would include placing bets on online poker sites, for example, and any other online wager made or received in a place where such a bet is illegal under federal or state law.

By making it illegal to accept payments from people who live where federal or state law prohibits wagering, the legislation would impact offshore gambling Web sites used by many Americans to place bets.

It would also complicate the US vs Antigua case presently awaiting a US reponse to the World Trade Organisation, because the legislation as usual carves out some exceptions, including wagering on horse races and fantasy sports. By allowing such exceptions, the US would defeat it's own WTO claim that it objects to online gambling on moral grounds.

The bill now moves to the House floor for consideration.

Major professional sports organisations supported the legislation, including the National Football League and Major League Baseball, saying in a joint statement that sports betting "threatens the integrity of our respective sports."

But Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, the top Democrat on the House committee, opposed the bill. He said Congress should not seek to control how adults spend their money just because some lawmakers oppose gambling.

"Adults are entitled to do with their money what they want to do," he said.

A group called the Poker Players Alliance opposed the legislation as well.

"It is disingenuous to oppose Internet gambling and then write a bill that makes select forms of online gambling legal," said Michael Bolcerek, president of the group