Wexler Bill Gets Another Sponsor

January 7, 2008

Congressman Robert Wexler has been fighting for online gambling, as have many others in our government. However, Wexler got some good news this week as his HR 2610 bill received its 21st co-sponsor. He is not attempting to make all online gambling legal, only those games that are skill based.

Wexler has put his focus on poker, mahjong, bridge and chess and is attempting to make those games legal as they are not chance games. He wants them exempted from the currently online gambling laws, known as the UIGEA, that currently makes them illegal.

Representative Robert E. Andrews signed up this week to co-sponsor the bill with Wexler and nineteen others. The bill is called “The Skill Game Protection Act,” and would make skill games legal, and leave non skill games such as slots illegal. It would allow those that are of age, 18 or older, to play these “Skill” games online.

He is also trying to get the online gambling system taxed and regulated so that everyone could benefit from making the games legal. He wants them to remain fair, but with checks and balances put into place so that compulsive gamblers and under age youth would not be able to participate in online gambling.

The bill has slowly been making its way through the judicial system, but many of the other bills that are attempting to make online gambling legal are overshadowing the bill. The Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act, or IGREA, HR 2046, has been getting a lot of press and Congressman Barney Frank couldn’t be easier. He wants all online gambling legalized, licensed and regulated.

 

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