BARNEY SIGNS UP ANOTHER SPONSOR FOR PROPOSAL TO REGULATE U.S. ONLINE GAMBLING

14 September 2007

Virginia Democrat agrees to co-sponsor HR 2046


Political support continues to grow slowly for HR 2046 the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act proposed by senior Democrat Congressman Barney Frank.

The latest politician to give his support to the Frank bill, which seeks to legalise and regulate online gambling in the United States, is Virginia Democrat Robert C. Scott who signed up last Friday.

Congressman Scott is serving his eighth term as a representative for Virginia and is on record as voting against the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act last year when it was rushed through the House of Representatives under questionable circumstances, attached to a completely unrelated security bill.

Scott serves on the Committees for the Budget, Education and Labor, and the Judiciary. He also serves on the following subcommittees:

Consitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security
Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education
Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness

With his support, the list of cosponsors for the bill has now reached 36 - still some distance to go, but progress of sorts.

Congressman Robert Wexler's bill, the Skill Game Protection Act, which seeks to classify and therefore legalise poker as a game of skill has also added another sponsor recently. New York Democrat Congressman Eliot Engel is the latest to sign up for the Wexler bill, and is apparently another politician who refused to be stampeded into voting for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in October last year. He joins 11 other Congressman who support Wexler.

Engel is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee as well as the Foreign Affairs Committee. He serves on three subcommittees for Foreign Affairs, including the influential Telecommunications and Internet subcommittee under the Energy and Commerce Committee.

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