Another Co-Sponsor for
Online Gambling Bill
March
14, 2010
It has been a long time
since we have heard of anyone else joining the ranks of the online
gambling bill. We know that it has a lot of sponsors at this point, and
there for awhile it seemed as though everyone and their brother was
trying to get a piece of it. Then it went into committee and we heard
about the different hearings that were going on, but we didn’t hear
about anyone else jumping on board to sponsor it. However, the Frank
Bill, as it is now being referred to, has just gotten another sponsor
after all this time.
Representative Charles Wilson just became the 66th co-sponsor of the
bill – also known as HR 2267, or the Internet Gambling Regulation,
Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. (Now you see why they are
calling it the Frank Bill.) It has been working hard to get footing for
almost a year now, having been introduced in May of 2009. The Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, was supposed to go into
effect as of December 1st of the last year. But they were able to get it
postponed until June 1st of this year.
There are other bills on the table as well that are trying to gain
leverage through the recent popularity of online gambling. There is one
bill that would decide what would do with the taxes that would come from
online gambling, which if approved would push through the legalization
of online gambling. The fact of the matter of this bill is that it would
literally be pushed through as attached to something else – which is
exactly how the first online gambling illegalization bill got passed.
It is not known if Frank’s bill will pass before June 1st – if not there
may be another postponement passed – there really is no way to know
where it is going from here.
