Barney Frank’s HR 6870 passes Committee vote

Article via We Do It All Vegas:

Since the implementation of the UIGEA in 2006, Congressman Barney Frank has done what ever is possible to stop the progress of the enforcement bill and to clarify its specific purpose by arguing that U.S government should not have the right to determine how the American citizens invest their time and money.

Yesterday, Congressman Frank introduced a proposed bill (HR 6870 or Payments System Protection Act) in its effort to amend the problems and confusion caused by the UIGEA and its and to give financial institutions a detailed definition of what is and is not considered an illegal online gambling activity.

When the bill was introduced to the committee yesterday, Representative William Lacy Clay criticized the arguments of several professional sports leagues, saying: “I’m alarmed that major league sports would come forward to announce their opposition to the Bill. I’m puzzled by their stance especially when you have legal sports books in Las Vegas. I can’t figure out what the difference is between Internet gambling and Las Vegas sports books.”

The good news is that Frank’s bill has been approved today by the House Committee on Financial Services and would push the Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve System, in consultation with the Attorney General and a special Administrative Law Judge to classify and determine what really constitutes “unlawful online gambling” and initiate an economic a deep research and study on the fulfillment costs of the prohibition.

The enactment of the bill would delay the execution of the UIGEA through a process calculated to guarantee that the UIGEA regulations do not harm the operations of the U.S. payments system or wrongly prevent transactions considered legal.

The Committee also voted an amendment to a bill in where federal regulators are obligated to issue regulations to financial institutions to block transfers and transactions related to online sportsbetting and other gambling activities including online poker and casinos, with the exception of horse racing, dog racing and jai-alai. According to the new amendment, unlawful gambling operators would be specified by the U.S. Treasury on a list that would be check and revised by financial institutions to execute the prohibition.