More Online Gambling Legislation

May 21, 2009

Online gambling players have been waiting a very long time to hear that the legislation that Rep. Barney Frank as promised them is finally ready to go to Congress. Frank announced last week that he has finally finished the Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009. The bill is asking the federal government to basically overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 and regulate, license, and tax online gambling operators.

He also introduced a second bill that many did not see coming. The second bill is simply an attempt to delay the financial institutions and banks from having to act on the regulations that were passed at the end of President Bush�s term. The second bill would keep them from acting on the regulations until December of 2010, which would basically by them time.

The idea of the second one is not so much as a chance to stave off the hounds for regulation, as it is to give them time to change those regulations and possibly eliminate them. If they have time to go back over the regulations and change them, or if the UIGEA is overturned � eliminate them, they will be able to be more productive without the pressure coming from the banking industry to get it done sooner.

The banks and financial institutions do not want the regulations in place. They say that there are too many rules that are not really enforceable and too many regulations that don�t make sense. They are not comfortable with the fact that they have to block all online gambling transactions as it is not a small request � it is a monumental demand from the banks and under the current rules if they fail they are held liable. Make no mistake about it; the banks don�t want the online gambling regulations any more than you do.

 

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