Mass Congress Support for Online Gambling Bill

A premature cause for celebration or a sign of change to come? Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), a longtime supporter of regulating online gambling and outspoken on the UIGEA bill, has now brought 50 members of Congress on board with his new bill on Capitol Hill. The name you need to know and watch out for is the Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act (HR 2267).

Why should you care?
Well besides legalizing online gambling, which the UIGEA bill outright banned, Rep. Frank's bill will create a concrete framework in which licensed gambling operators can accept wagers from US citizens and establish safeguards against the common dangers that are feared: compulsive and underage gambling, money laundering, fraud and identity theft.

Until then, things have been a little "hazy" on who could and could not operate a business, from where they could, and who they could accept wagers from - both domestically and internationally. The new bill intends to firm up those guidelines and bring back some order to the mess the UIGEA has created.

Additional provisions in the bill reinforce each state's right to decide whether they want to allow Internet gambling and the rules to be followed, or not. It will also allow the Native American tribes and states with previous experience in regulating gambling to have a say in the regulatory process, instead of dancing around the edges as previously done before.

Money, honey
Besides giving back the basic freedoms of each person and state about how gamblers access their games, a separate analysis was completed to calculate how much money this whole shebang will bring in.

During this recession and its bounce-back, it's no small number when results came back as a hefty $48.6 billion (not including online sports gambling) and will reach $62.7 billion (including online sports gambling) over the next decade.

So what's a nation to do? Hopefully get their representatives on board and educated. Till then, let's just hope that Rep. Frank doesn't lose any steam.

HR 2267 co-sponsors are:

Alaska
Don Young (R At-Large)

Arizona
Raul Grijalva (D 7th)

California
Michael Thompson (D 1st)
George Miller (D 7th)
Michael Honda (D 15th)
Linda Sanchez (D 39th)
Bob Filner (D 51st)

Colorado
Jared Polis (D 2nd)
Ed Perlmutter (D 7th)

Connecticut
Joe Courtney (D 2nd)

Florida
Robert Wexler (D 19th)
Alcee Hastings (D 23rd)

Hawaii
Neil Abercrombie (D 1st)

Idaho
Walt Minnick (D 1st)

Illinois
Luis Gutierrez (D 4th)
Bill Foster (D 14th)

Indiana
Andre Carson (D 7th)

Massachusetts
James McGovern (D 3rd)
Barney Frank (D 4th)
Michael Capuano (D 8th)
William Delahunt (D 10th)

Michigan
John Conyers (D 14th)

Nevada
Shelley Berkley (D 1st)

New Hampshire
Paul Hodes (D 2nd)

New Jersey
Robert Andrews (D 1st)
Frank LoBiondo (R 2nd)
John Adler (D 3rd)
Steven Rothman (D 9th)

New York
Tim Bishop (D 1st)
Steve Israel (D 2nd)
Peter King (R 3rd)
Carolyn McCarthy (D 4th)
Gary Ackerman (D 5th)
Joseph Crowley (D 7th)
Jerrold Nadler (D 8th)
Edolphus Towns (D 10th)
Mike McMahon (D 13th)
Charles Rangel (D 15th)
Paul Tonko (D 21st)

North Carolina
Melvin Watt (D 12th)

Ohio
Steve Driehaus (D 1st)
Tim Ryan (D 17th)

Oregon
Earl Blumenauer (D 3rd)

Tennessee
Steve Cohen (D 9th)

Texas
Ron Paul (R 14th)
Ciro Rodriguez (D 23rd)

Virginia
Bobby Scott (D 3rd)
Tom Perriello (D 5th)
James Moran (D 8th)

Washington
Jim McDermott (D 7th)