Damaging U.S. Congressional Session Ends

Published: Monday, December 11, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

DAMAGING CONGRESSIONAL SESSION ENDS

The 109th Congress of the United States will not be fondly remembered by the industry

This weekend saw the 109th U.S. Congress adjourn after a year in which largely unforeseen damage was inflicted on the online gambling industry. Procedures-savvy politicians managed to circumvent standard Congressional debate in passing a bill that makes illegal financial transactions to online gambling operations.

The deed was done by the last minute attachment of revised anti-online gambling legislation that had stalled in the Senate to a must-pass but totally unrelated security bill in a late night manouevre immediately preceding the Congressional recess to fight mid-term elections.

The effects were far reaching and almost immediate as public companies withdrew from the U.S. market, American players were deprived of their pastime of choice, huge financial losses were incurred, drastic strategic planning changes were made and thousands of jobs were lost in several countries.

The good news is that in the final so-called 'lame duck session' no other anti-online gambling legislation was passed despite prior threats to do so by several Republican politicians. They were referring to Bill HR 4777 which was an amalgam of the Goodlatte and Leach proposals bogged down in the Senate and which sought to both disrupt financial transactions and update the aging Wire Act to specifically make online gambling illegal in the USA.

This means that a new Bill will have to be proposed in the next Congress, starting the process all over again...but this time with a more Democrat-dominated legislative body and perhaps a more focused lobbying strategy by companies within the industry. It also means that an initiative to take a comprehensive and even-handed look at the industry to weigh the pros and cons of regulation and taxation rather than prohibition has space to be introduced. This course has the support of influential associations like the American Gambling Association and could inject some much needed sense into the largely political moves that have caused so much damage.