Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has told one of the major British newspapers that he plans, in the next few weeks, to re-introduce a bill which would establish legal operation and regulation of US online casinos and poker sites.
Two years ago, Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), a bill which tightened laws against online gambling, and led to the arrests of some industry executives. The laws were finalized on January 19th 2009, but companies are not required to adhere to them until the end of the year.
Barney Frank’s bill has support from a number of congressmen, who agree that regulating internet gambling is more likely to be productive, and is a better approach than trying to ban the activity altogether, especially following the response by the European Union, who demanded damages for the amount lost in trade by the ban, which affected European sites that previously took American customers.
Mr Franks said “I expect an Obama Department of Justice to be less zealous about locking people up. These outrageous arrests in transit – they should be stopping that stuff.”
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