Home / Poker News May 2009 / Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act introduced
Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act introduced
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2009-05-08 04:15
As promised, Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, who’s also the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and a champion in the poker and gambling industry’s anti-UIGEA fight, has introduced a bill aimed at legalizing online poker by allowing US-based companies to obtain licenses and to legally operate online gambling sites within a federally regulated framework. US based players would also be allowed to place bets by Frank’s bill.
Called the Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009, the bill was accompanied by H.R. 2266, the Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act, which is aimed at delaying the implementation of the regulations put forth in the UIGEA, for a year.
The targeted regulations, which were finalized on January 19th, and which would forbid banks and financial institutions from processing transfers from US customers to online gambling operations are set to be implemented starting Dec 1st 2009. If H.R. 2266 becomes a law, the above named regulations will only be implemented a year later.
This initiative represents the new Congress’ first move against the UIGEA.
Frank himself had attempted before to have the UIGEA overturned, and his IGREA of 2007 did manage to muster quite considerable support. Unfortunately though, the initiative ran out of steam and it never reached the House Floor.
According to some experts, the current political climate and the changes that have taken place on the level of the administration may aid this new piece of proposed legislation to finally overturn the UIGEA and its preposterous regulations.
H.R. 2267 establishes the criteria that would-be online gambling operators would have to satisfy in order to obtain a license. It also sets the guidelines in regards to the licensing process.
Under the Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009, licensed operators would be required to pay taxes on their revenues and they’d also be responsible for collecting customer taxes. H.R 2267 doesn’t specify exactly what activities would be taxed and it doesn’t go into detail on the taxation mechanisms either. D Congressman James McDermott’s recently introduced bill would cover those aspects.
H.R 2267 exempts financial institutions from any sort of responsibility concerning the transactions taking place between the online gambling operations and their patrons.
