Big Day For Online Gambling In Washington
Published: Thursday, May 25, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
BIG DAY FOR ONLINE CASINO GAMBLING IN WASHINGTON
Goodlatte Bill goes before House Judiciary Committee on Thursday
The online casino gambling industry will be closely following proceedings in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee today (Thursday) as Rep Bob Goodlatte's Bill HR 4777 comes up for futher discussion and debate among the forty strong committee members.
The Bill seeks to prohibit Americans from playing and wagering at online gambling sites and aims to hamstring financial channels used to fund online gambling.
The committee will be deciding how they want to report the bill to the full House of Representatives. The committee can decide to pass the Bill on to the House as it is, pass it on with agreed amendments or pass on a substitute Bill which means the committee is offering a different version to take the place of the original bill.
Media coverage has centred around a number of expert opinions that the attempt to ban the $12 billion industry from U.S. shores will again fail, as online gambling sites operate offshore and out of reach of American law.
David Carruthers, CEO of the U.S. facing gambling group BetOnSports, which is listed in London seems confident that the attempt will fail: "Are they likely to succeed? I think not." He goes on to opine that the United States is likely to become fully open and regulated within five years.
"That view is based on the pure economic reality, and the emergence of regulation across the globe," he said. "The United Kingdom and other jurisdictions are setting the pace, and you can not ban this activity. There are far too many people participating, and the U.S. tax authorities are not going to pass up this opportunity of generating revenue," he added.
Other experts said they did not expect to see a resolution in the near future."I would not be surprised if there were some compromise passed within the next two Congresses," said Harold Krent, dean of the Chicago-Kent College of Law. "But I would not expect any kind of compromise passed in the near future."
Banking represetatives have already indicated their resistance to having to police anti-online gambling financial measures. Analyst Richard Carter at London's Numis Securities said Goodlatte's bill was likely to meet resistance from the financial institutions for the same reason.
Analysts also point to the problems associated with vested interest "carve outs," for example in horse racing which will again prersent hurdles to the bill's progress. "Previous attempts to outlaw online gaming have been bedevilled by wheeling and dealing over exemptions for vested interests in other gambling sectors," Carter said in a research note.
The bill also appears to contravene a World Trade Organisation ruling that the United States should not discriminate between domestic and overseas bookmakers, and on conflict between the US "moral objection" to online gambling whilst permitting horse race betting via the Internet.
The time factor is important, too - there are relatively few congressional days in which the bill could be heard before U.S. elections in November. "We continue to view the possibility of any bills getting through both the House and the Senate during this term of Congress as very slim," said Carter.
Charles Wilson at Bridgewell Securities said that while the anti-gambling campaigners were unlikely to succeed, they had regularly caused problems for related share prices. "I don't think they can be ignored, because the noise that surrounds them is impacting the shares," he said.
Opposition to the Bill is intensifying from lobby groups of various perspectives, major companies carrying on their own campaigns and the Poker Players' Alliance that claims it represents tens of thousands of American poker players. Michael Bolcerek, the president of the Poker Players Alliance, is currently in Washington performing last minute lobbying with members of the House Judiciary Committee.
Bolcerek claims that the legislation will turn private companies into the government’s “morality police.” It would require Internet service providers to remove gambling related hyperlinks and force banks to monitor purchases and transactions to ensure that people aren’t gambling online.
According to a PPA press release: “The plan is an affront to civil liberties. If the committee passes the bill, your ability to enjoy poker online will be at serious risk.”
PPA is urging Americans to call the members of the Judiciary Committee and voice their opinion on the bill.
