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The first independent gambling guide to the best online
casinos!
Bill to ban gambling at online casinos
gets another chance in the United States
Online Casinos are
looking at tough times in the near future if a Virginia congressman gets
his way.
The US House Judiciary Committee will mark up a bill introduced by Rep.
Robert W. Goodlatte (R) that would ban almost all of online casinos,
including bets on sporting events at online casinos and games of chance
-- namely poker, which has enjoyed a boom in recent years with the
proliferation of thousands of online casinos on the internet.
The online casinos legislation could get an unexpected boost from the
Jack Abramoff scandal. The disgraced lobbyist was key to blocking one of
Goodlatte's three previous attempts to ban online casinos, and backlash
over corruption charges could help the current online casinos effort.
The bill would update the Federal Wire Wager Act, which prohibits
gambling over telephone lines but may not apply to online casinos
because not all Web traffic travels over phone lines. It also would
force banks to block transactions related to online casinos and would
empower law enforcement agencies to force Internet service providers to
remove or disable links to online casinos.
"I am a big advocate of opening up the Internet to all kinds of
legitimate uses," said Goodlatte, who is co-chairman of the
Congressional Internet Caucus. "But we don't want the Internet to become
the Wild West of the 21st century." Goodlatte said he opposes online
casinos and gambling in general because it leads to "a whole host of
ills in society."
The bill effectively would prevent state lotteries from taking their
games online like online casinos, because technology does not exist to
keep gambling within a state. Fantasy sports leagues would be exempt.
Goodlatte said his bill is neutral on parimutuel horse wagering, which
has an online component that is the cause of an ongoing struggle between
Congress and the Justice Department.
The legislative fight over an earlier version of Goodlatte's bill was at
the center of the Abramoff lobbying scandal, which led to guilty pleas
by Abramoff and four former associates, including three former
congressional aides. Abramoff's client, a gambling services company,
opposed the bill, and the lobbyist funneled $50,000 of the client's
money to the wife of a key aide to former House majority leader Tom
DeLay (R-Tex.). The aide, Tony Rudy, pleaded guilty to charges that he
conspired with Abramoff to corrupt public officials and defraud his
clients. Questions about DeLay's role contributed to DeLay's decision to
leave Congress.
The current online casinos bill is backed by religious groups such as
the Southern Baptist Convention, professional sports leagues such as the
NFL and online-auction giant eBay Inc. On the other side are members of
Congress from casino-supported Nevada, who introduced rival legislation;
casinos; an organization of small banks that says its members do not
have the manpower to block all gambling transactions, even at online
casinos; and a group that hopes not to get dealt out, the Poker Players
Alliance.
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