Congress Told Ban on Internet Gambling Doomed to Fail

Lance Bradley | April 2, 2008 at 10:20 pm

Despite the best efforts of some politicians the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) won’t work. That was the message delivered to Congress today by the American Bankers Association, Financial Services Roundtable, Wells Fargo and Credit Union National Association.

“The UIGEA and the Proposed Rule do not provide a rational path towards halting unlawful Internet gambling,” said Wayne Abernathy, American Bankers Association’s executive vice president of financial institutions policy and regulatory affairs. “The path leads to an increased cost and administrative burden to the banks and an erosion in the performance of the payments system, but it will not result in stopping illegal Internet gambling transactions. Imposing this enormous unfunded law enforcement mandate on banks in place of the government’s law enforcement agencies is not likely to be a successful public policy.”

Representatives of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve System acknowledged at the hearing the challenges U.S. financial institutions will face in attempting to comply with UIGEA.

“Testimony from the federal regulators and representatives of the financial services community made clear today that the prohibition on Internet gambling isn’t working now and will not work in the future,” said Jeffrey Sandman, spokesman for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. “U.S. banks and credit card companies, along with every other type of U.S. company involved in payment systems, would be forced to spend substantial resources to comply with a ban on Internet gambling that can be easily circumvented by anyone in the U.S. that wants to continue to gamble online.”

“Rather than trying to implement a ban that is unclear, burdensome and doomed to fail, Congress should instead look to regulate Internet gambling in order to protect consumers and collect billions of dollars that is being lost to offshore Internet gambling operators,” added Sandman.

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2046) last year, which establishes a regulatory and enforcement framework for licensed gambling operators to accept bets and wagers from individuals in the U.S. It would include a number of built-in consumer protections, including safeguards against compulsive and underage gambling, money laundering, fraud and identity theft. States would also have the right to control what, if any, level of Internet gambling is permissible within their borders and could apply additional taxes and restrictions.

A companion piece of legislation to the Frank bill introduced by Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA), the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2008 (H.R. 5523), would ensure the collection of taxes on regulated Internet gambling activities. According to a tax revenue analysis prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers, taxation of regulated Internet gambling is expected to generate between $8.7 billion to $42.8 billion in federal revenues over its first 10 years.

For more information on the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, please visit www.safeandsecureig.org.

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