Barney Frank, a Democrat in the House of Representatives,
proposed the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act.
Frank is the chairman of the House Financial Services
Committee.
"The fundamental issue here is a matter of individual freedom,"
Frank said at a press conference.
Financial institutions were barred from processing payments to
and from online gambling firms by a law which was rejected by
Congress but passed at the very end of a Congressional session as
part of a ports security bill that was guaranteed to be passed.
Frank's bill, The Internet Gambling Regulation and
Enforcement Act of 2007, proposes that background checks
are conducted on executives before a company is given a licence,
and that only licensed companies can legally trade. Financial
institutions are protected from liability under his bill.
Any licensed companies must demonstrate that they can weed out
gamblers who are under 18 years' old, can beat fraud and money
laundering, and identify and deal with compulsive gamblers.
They must also ensure an individual placing a bet is physically
located in a jurisdiction that permits internet gambling.
Individual states and Indian tribes would have the option to
prohibit or impose limits on iternet gambling within their borders,
according to the bill.
The director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network will
have the power to establish regulations and issue licences to
online gambling operators.
"Congressman Frank's bill is a common sense approach to internet
gambling," said Alfonse D'Amato, chairman of the Poker Players'
Alliance. "Licensing and regulation will allow us to sort out the
most responsible sites – those that are good corporate citizens –
from those engaged in unscrupulous activities and practices."
Frank told news agency Reuters that 11 of the 435 member House
of Representatives had co-sponsored his bill, but that he hoped it
would pick up support. "There is a group of voters who've been
activated here," he said.
Last year's law banning online gambling payments clarified an
uncertain position in which legal opinion was divided on whether or
not the 1961 Wire Act, which prohibits inter-state telephone
betting, applied to online gambling.
The US Department of Justice was operating a clampdown on online
gambling even before last year's law was passed. US authorities
managed to arrest Gary Kaplan, the founder of BetOnSports earlier
this year in what was considered a major coup. Kaplan lived in
exile in Costa Rica and was arrested in The Domincan Republic in
April.
