New Cosponsors Don’t Help Online Gambling Bill Movement

December 18, 2007

There are now four bills that relate to online gambling sitting in committees in our government, and it doesn’t seem to matter that some of them have an impressive number of cosponsors. As more people sign on to sponsor you would think the bill would gain more attention and get out of committee but this does not seem to be the case.

Barney Frank’s bill that would regulate the licensing of online gambling now has 44 cosponsors, but again, it has not helped them. The online gambling regulation bill was sent to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection in April and has not moved since.

Rep. Robert Wexler has a bill that would allow online gambling for skill based games only, such as poker. The bill currently has 20 cosponsors and has been referred to several different House committees over this past summer, but yet there is no sign of the bill leaving committee.

Rep. Shelley Berkley’s bill calls for the National Academy of Sciences to see how online gambling should be handle in the US and is also sitting in a committee. Actually the bill now has more cosponsors than any of the others coming in at 68, but that does not stop it from being referred to several of the committees where it sits as well.

Then we have poor Rep. Jim McDermott whose online gambling bill is entitled the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2007. Such a long name for bill without only one cosponsor. However, that does not seem to matter to our government who is sitting on the bill in their House Committee on Ways and Means where it has sat since this past June.

It would seem that no matter how many online gambling bills they come up with the government does not want to see online gambling regulated and therefore they will all remain in committee forever.

 

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