Frank’s Bill Legalizing Internet Gambling Passes Vote
Much to the happy surprise of poker players all across America, Congressman Barney Frank’s HR2267 bill got the green light from Federal lawmakers yesterday.
The HR2267 bill, which has been strongly supported by poker players like Annie Duke and Andy Bloch, and had the full strength of the Poker Players Alliance behind it, secured a margin of 41 votes for it and 22 votes against it. The bill eventually garnered the approval of the House Financial Services Committee, although the organization first instituted a total of 14 amendments in Frank’s original bill. The bill was then passed by lawmakers and is expected to spurt on growth in the online gambling industry when it brings back American revenue to online casinos.
This bill which legalizes internet gambling and games like online poker in the US also permits American players to transact with foreign online casinos. The bill also attempts to regulate online gambling and has instituted a good system of laws to protect minors from gambling online.
Surprisingly, one the amendments in the bill included the exclusion of any online gaming sites that were in present violation of existing Internet gambling laws. This amendment apparently helped the votes swing in favour of the bill as it would appear that some representatives were in favour of cutting out sites like Full Tilt and PokerStars from being granted licenses to operate in the US in the future.
Some of the other amendments made to the HR2267 bill included restrictions for players, setting an age bar of a minimum of 21 years and imposing regulations to see that gamblers with problems or gaming addicts would not be encouraged by the casinos. These rules covered casinos not receiving funds from child support payments and not accepting credit card deposits. The bill also called for a statistics database and established US casino licensing laws.
