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http://www.igamingnews.com/index.cfm?page=artlisting&tid=5843
Free article by the River City Group’s Igaming news:
Friday, April 29, 2005
Prohibition 2005 – A Sneak Peek at the Kyl Bill
by Kevin SmithSen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., is preparing to introduce the 2005 version of his Internet gambling prohibition legislation, and Interactive Gaming News has obtained a draft version of the bill.
Like other recent versions of the Kyl bill, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2005 would make it illegal to use credit cards, wire transfers or other “instruments of banking” to fund online gambling transactions. But unlike previous versions, the 2005 bill doesn’t define legal and illegal online gambling activity, nor does it contain a carve-out for online horse betting, an activity that has generated hundreds of millions of dollars for states in which it is currently legal.
The carve-out issue has been at the heart of debates throughout the lifetime of the U.S. Internet gambling prohibition movement.
The racing, lottery and land-based casino industries have been vocal over the years; all are in favor of an exemption allowing individual states to decide whether they want to license and regulate various forms of interactive gaming. The Indian gaming lobby has sought exemptions as well.
Racing is the only gambling industry whose products are legal and regulated over the Internet in U.S. states and, thus, has the most to lose if the current, exemption-free bill is passed.
But getting such a bill through both chambers won’t be an easy task. The last exemption-free funding prohibition bill, authored by Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, and introduced to the House in 2000, was ultimately killed by special interest groups seeking exemptions.
What remains to be seen is whether things will be different this time in light of the World Trade Organization’s recent ruling in the Antigua/United States trade dispute regarding Internet gambling. The WTO ruled that it is within the United States’ rights under the organization’s General Agreement on Trade Services (GATS) to block foreign Internet gambling services as long as the services are illegal domestically as well. Because race betting is the only form of gambling that’s conducted legally over the Internet in the United States, it is speculated that legislators will want to close that loophole so that the United States can effectively block all foreign online gambling operations while remaining in compliance with GATS.
Nevertheless, some Washington insiders say that with each passing year without a prohibition bill enacted, Internet gambling gains more acceptance among the American public. The rise in popularity of Internet poker rooms has fueled industry growth over the last two years, and many believe that it will be nearly impossible to tell citizens now that the activity is illegal.
Add hot-button issues like the future of the Social Security system and the ongoing war in Iraq into the mix, and the bill could be seen as a low priority for most Senate leaders.
Further, Republicans in the Senate are threatening to move forward with a “nuclear option” policy to prevent Senate filibusters of judicial nominations, and Democrats have threatened to respond to such an unprecedented move by making it nearly impossible to get normal business done in the Senate. Under such conditions, it isn’t very likely that an anti-online gambling bill would see the light of day.
Kyl has introduced several bills aimed at prohibiting Internet gambling over the years, but none have cleared both chambers of Congress. Washington sources say the 2005 version could come to light within the next few weeks. Kyl will have until November 2006, when the 109th Congress closes, to push the bill through both chambers.
If the judicial nomination issue is cleared up, and the Senate returns to normal business, the 2005 bill could see action before the Senate’s late summer recess in August.
The bill would likely be referred to the Senate Finance Committee (of which Kyl is a member), where members would decide when (if at all) to schedule a hearing on it.
Attempts by IGN to reach Kyl’s office for comment on the 2005 bill were unsuccessful.
Click Here to view the draft version of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2005.
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About the Author
Nobody knows where Kevin Smith came from. He simply showed up one day and started writing articles for IGN. We liked him, so we decided to keep him. We think you’ll like him too. Kevin can be reached at kevin@igamingnews.com.Interesting news for sure. Am I reading it right that this new bill is actually stricter than previously failed bills by leaving out exemptions for horse racing, etc. Won’t that actually make it harder to push through the Senate.
It also seems to state that it’s the funding of an online gambling account (via credit cards, wire transfers or other “instruments of banking”) that is the illegal activity, effectively making banks and credit cards the responsible parties. Isn’t it already fairly hard to fund an online account this way for a US resident? Thus the popularity of Neteller and others.
So basically if this law gets through, and it appears to be a big “IF”, then it would just cement the current situation for funding accounts, so not really a big deal, except for the precendent it would set.
I imagine it will be harder and harder to push this through. Our current “poker craze” with people of all ages and life situations are watching poker on tv as a sport – I would imaging most everyone has someone in their family and friends circle doing some “illegal” gambling.
Yes it is a train they cant stop
online poker is to big now- the longer there go the more impossible it will be for them to stop online gambling :colgate:I would agree that poker has made it past the tipping point and is way too mainstream now for a prohibition to stop it.
A quick anecdote, was talking with a friend of mine who has played poker for the past 20 years and he was commenting how his family always kind of looked down on him for doing so (from the conservative midwest). But, since the popularity boom of poker, his family is now coming to him and asking advice on how to play. An interesting turn of events for sure. Just goes to show that once people understand something like poker more, the less taboo it becomes.
