US Legislators Accused Of Falsehoods
Published: Friday, February 24, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
US LEGISLATORS ACCUSED OF FALSEHOODS
Internet legal eagle has a go at Goodlatte
Patrick O’Brien, an internet gaming expert at US law firm Greenberg
Traurig lashed out at "lying" US politicians this week, calling for
online operators to group together to combat “lying” US politicians
following the introduction to Congress last week of yet another attempt to ban
Internet gambling.
The bipartisan Internet Gambling Prohibition Act was reintroduced by Congressmen
Bob Goodlatte and Rick Boucher with the intention of increasing
the penalty for what the bill terms illegal gambling from two to five years in
jail and creating difficult financial conditions to cripple the industry.
In statements accompanying the reintroduction of the bill, its promoters suggested
legislation was needed help stem the “explosive growth” of internet
gambling. Goodlatte said: “For too long our children have been placed in
harm’s way as online gambling has been permitted to flourish into a $12 billion
industry.”
Rep. Boucher said online gambling operations “...often serve as a prime vehicle
for money laundering and other criminal enterprises.”
In response to these allegations, O’Brien said: “These politicians are
lying when they talk about online gambling and money-laundering and people being
driven to bankruptcy.” The online industry has to speak out on such emotive
issues, he said.
“You need more rhetoric in return. The operators do need a concerted effort.
They need to work with individual states. I don’t believe regulation will
happen at a Federal level.”
Susan Breen, partner and head of the betting and gaming department at
UK-based law firm Mishcon de Reya, agreed that more needed to be done.
“Maybe it needs to be a bit more upfront,” she said.
“These guys, like Goodlatte, Kyl and Leach, are just not going to give
up. But the question is, will someone collapse on the other side of the argument.
Will they buckle and let something in?”
Sebastian Sinclair, from US-based online gambling consultancy firm Christiansen
Capital Advisors, said that while the industry would be impacted by the
passage of any legislation, any Act would fail in its ultimate aim. “US
citizens will keep right on gambling online if they want to,” he concluded.
