New Internet Gambling Legislation to Be Introduced Tomorrow

Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, announced plans earlier today to introduce legislation tomorrow that seeks to establish an enforcement framework for licensed gambling operators to accept wagers from individuals in the U.S.

Frank’s bill will include safeguards against compulsive and underage gambling, money laundering, fraud and identity theft.

Last year Frank introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007. Rep. Jim McDermott’s (D-WA) Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2008, a companion bill, was designed to capture revenues that are currently lost to offshore gambling operators.

Millions of Americans wager more than $100 billion annually with offshore Internet gambling operators despite the current prohibition imposed under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA). According to a recent analysis, collecting taxes on regulated Internet gambling would allow the U.S. to capture from $48.6 billion to $62.7 billion in new revenue over the next decade, a 21 percent increase from previous estimates. Without this legislation, this revenue will remain uncollected.

Representatives of the financial services industry, including the Chamber of Commerce and Financial Services Roundtable, have expressed concerns about the burden and ambiguity in the rules to implement UIGEA which require the financial services sector to identify and block unlawful Internet gambling transactions.

“We applaud Chairman Frank’s strong leadership to advance a common sense approach to regulate Internet gambling and reverse the intrusive, ineffective and burdensome prohibition,” said Jeffrey Sandman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, https://ssl.capwiz.com/safeandsecure/home/.