Duke testified during Wednesday's hearing

After a summer with little movement, Rep Barney Frank’s (D-MA) HR 2267 finally appears to be making some headway in Washington DC. The bill, known as the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, was debated in a House hearing on Wednesday and is scheduled to be marked up by the House Financial Services Committee some time next week.

Wednesday’s hearing covered much of the same ground past debates on internet gambling have touched on, including the impact of online gambling on minors, how to best deal with problem gamblers, and how regulated online gambling would affect brick and mortar casinos.

Those on hand participating in the debate included Ed Williams of the Credit Union National Association, which supports Frank’s bill, Tom Malkasian of Commerce Casino, Lynn Malerba of Mohegan Sun Casino, law enforcement consultant Michael Fagan, and professional poker player Annie Duke. Frank was also in attendance for most of the hearing, as was ardent online gaming opponent Spencer Bachus (R-AL).

Bachus and Duke clashed in one of the more talked about moments of the hearing when Bachus brought up Duke’s affiliation with Ultimate Bet, citing the site’s cheating scandal as an example of why online gambling is too problematic to be allowed in the States. Duke was quick to deflect the criticism and, in fact, used the cheating scandal as an example of something that was self-regulated within the industry, but could have been better handled had there been a governmental regulatory body in place.

The various brick and mortar casino representatives on hand for the debate held mixed opinions about online gambling. While Malkasian opposed the legislation, Malerba was more open to the idea. The subject of who would get licenses should the bill pass ended up being one of the hot topics of the day. Malkasian and others expressed concerned that sites they believed to be operating illegally currently would receive licenses from the US straight away. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) voiced a similar opinion.

With the hearing over and done with, the next step for Frank’s legislation is a mark-up by the House Financial Services Committee. That mark-up is unofficially scheduled for the week of July 26th, shortly before the House recesses for a month from August 9th through September 12th.  Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) announced during the hearing that he will be adding new components to the legislation when it is marked up, including technology to create some sort of stop-loss system to ensure participants don’t lose more than they can afford.

Keep checking in with BLUFFMagazine.com for more updates from the Capitol, including next week’s pending mark-up of HR 2267.  If you would like to watch the archived video of the hearing, it is available on the Poker Players Alliance’s website.

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