US House Committee votes on web gambling ban

Millions of Americans continue to gamble online despite the ban

The US House Committee on Financial Services is to vote on 24 June on whether to dissolve the controversial Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

The Committee has marked up legislation (H.R. 5767) that would prohibit the Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve System from proposing, prescribing or implementing any regulations related to the current ban on internet gambling.

"Congress has studied this issue and heard from the financial services community and federal regulators that the current ban on internet gambling is burdensome and doomed to fail," said Jeffrey Sandman, a spokesman for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative.

"Now it is time for Congress to change course and find a way to protect the millions of Americans that are continuing to gamble online."

H.R. 5767 was introduced by Barney Frank and Ron Paul in April after they claimed that "it was clear at the hearing that the regulations are unworkable for the financial services industry, and this bill would therefore prohibit their implementation".

Last year, Frank introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2046) that would regulate web gambling.

The bill requires internet gambling operators licensed by the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to put in place safeguards to protect against underage and compulsive gambling.

It is also designed to ensure the integrity of financial transactions, while at the same time reinforcing the rights of states to control what, if any, level of internet gambling is permissible within their borders.

A tax revenue analysis prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests that taxation of regulated internet gambling is expected to generate between $8.7bn and $42.8bn in federal revenues during its first 10 years.