HR 6870 Approved

September 20, 2008

Poker players rejoice! Finally one for the online poker players of the world! Barney Frank has been tirelessly working to promote the virtues of online gambling and has been working hard to get it legalized and regulated. However, he is thwarted at every turn by those that want to see online gambling made completely illegal.

However, this week Frank got a real boost to his cause when the House Committee on Financial Services voted to approve the bill. The Payments System Protection Act, or HR 6870, was approved by the committee today, much to the chagrin of anti online gambling forces.

The bill makes the Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve System with the Attorney General define the types of unlawful online gambling. It also makes them conduct an economic impact study on how much it would cost to keep the financial institutions in compliance with the bill.

The bill will basically keep the UIGEA from being implemented, keeping online gambling legal for now. The argument is that by implementing the UIGEA, the government is forcing an unnecessary hardship on the financial industry. The committee also approved an amendment that gives the federal regulators only 60 days to block all online gambling in regards to sports, except for horse and dog racing and jai-alai.



Back to September 2008 Archive.