Online poker in the US received a massive boost yesterday, after lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favour of a bill designed to regulate online gambling.
Congressman Barney Frank’s HR2267 bill was debated for hours and received 14 amendments before ‘The House Financial Services Committee’ finally approved the legislation by a margin of 41 for to 22 against.
One of the amendments which helped swing the vote in favour of online gambling was the disclusion of sites currently flouting Internet gambling laws, such as Full Tilt or PokerStars, from ever being granted business licences in the future.
Additional amendments required online players to be at least 21 years of age, as is the case with land based casinos and not receiving child support payments.
Also, measures to prevent online gaming sites from advertising to minors or problem gamblers would be put in place, and deposits by credit cards would be prohibited.
The final amendments proposed the creation of a statistics database, and that all sites licensed by the US would be located and stay within the country.
The bill’s passing is being hailed as a minor victory for the human rights of online gamblers. Poker players will also be excited by the prospect of thousands of US players entering the market in the future, bringing a flood of money with them.
After the HR2267 was passed by the House Committee, PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato said:
“I’m glad the Financial Services Committee today overwhelmingly chose to act and protect Americans as well as preserve the fundamental freedoms of adults and the Internet.”
In reality, however, the politicians themselves will be more concerned with finding a way to regulate and tax the industry in order to bring relief to cash-strapped state budgets up and down the country.
The bill is just one in a series of steps needed to legalize online gambling in the US and will now likely be tacked onto a bigger bill and brought before the House later on in the year.
It is stupid to exclude the two largest sites. This is where the potential for a large deal of money lies. We may be one step closer but it looks like ir is still a long way from becoming reality.
Just a couple of weeks ago, many professional online casino players faced the harsh reality thinking that they may have been unemployed for the coming 2011.
the problem lawmakers have… is the transfer (money laundering) from terrorists and drug dealers… transferring large amounts of money by purposely losing large POTS in real money games… pre-staged… the only option for US online poker players is limiting the amount of money one can lose… over a predetermined period of time. (IE US players can only lose up to $20 per day). It’s a shame, but this is what our international community has forced US to conform to.