US Internet Gambling Reform Bill In Danger

[Mousey]

US Internet Gambling Reform Bill In Danger
By staff


A proposed Congressional Bill designed to reform online gambling in the United States could be in danger of becoming reality due to supplementary legislation that promises a billion-dollar bonus for affordable housing.

Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank introduced HB-2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act, in April and Congressional hearings on the feasibility of the Bill were held in June.


It seeks to reverse the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) that Congress passed in October to ban Internet gambling in the United States by prohibiting American banks and credit card companies from processing payments to and from online gambling sites.


Frank’s Bill would create a framework for the Government to legalize, license, regulate and tax Internet gambling while also installing safeguards to prevent underage and compulsive gambling as well as money laundering and fraud.


Frank, a member of the US House of Representatives and Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has recently been an advocate for stopping home foreclosures, which are at an all-time high in America, and a clause recently added to his planned legislation would see one billion dollars placed into a fund to build affordable housing.


The money would be partially funded .. .........

For the rest of the article...

[EasyRhino]

Strange, the article implies that Frank supports the amended legislation.

Which, might actually cause it to have a BETTER chance of passing, because hey, who doesn't want affordable housing?

[jetset]

So far, Frank has showed that he is a savvy politician by carefully structuring his proposal to defang potential criticism, and (if this unsourced report is true and he has included a low cost housing element) this could be for the same reason.

The title surprises me and may be some journalistic licence rather than an informed political opinion.

This report is just too wooly to be sure. I'll be on the lookout for a more specific and sourced piece.

[jetset]

I've found this story here, too but again it seems to be more an opinion and purely speculative piece than one sourced from authoritative political origins:

http://www.gambling911.com/afordable...ng-070307.html
http://www.igamingbusiness.com/artic...rticleID=14030

I'm not sure what to make of it, but my gut feel is that Frank has added the clause (if this is in fact true) to improve the chances of support for his proposal to regulate, licence and tax online gambling.

Like EasyRhino, I would have thought that a 'welfare' issue like affordable housing benefits would enhance rather than drag down a proposal. I would guess it would appeal especially to the now dominant Democrat vote.

My perception is that the July 12 hearings are not intended to put the Frank bill on the floor for voting just yet, but are intended to be more of an extension of the June hearing, where bodies like the AMA hinted that further hearings would be useful.

With political support building, albeit slowly, I would think further hearings and the mainstream publicity that could flow from these, together with sustained appeals for players to contact their representatives and protest about the UIGEA would be the best course to follow right now.

And the WTO developments would be likely to increase pressure, too.

[EasyRhino]

Note that part of that modified legislation may be about sticking it to Fannie Mae for the affordable housing initiative. No one really likes Fannie Mae any more. Everyone things housing is too expensive. And many people are worried about homeowners getting squeezed by interest rates. It may be a pretty savvy move to attach that to gambling reform.

[Tailgun]

It's great that Franks has taken up this cause, but are there not other politicos motivated, for various reasons, to push this legislation? What about all the banking lobbyists who scorned UIGEA? Are they perhaps tying their concerns over scrapping UIGEA to these potentially beneficial mortgage financing reforms? That would be a killer combo of motivations to get passage.