Thank you for contacting me about internet gambling. It is good to hear from you. As you are aware, the 109th Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA, incorporated into P.L. 109-347) on July 11, 2006, to prohibit internet gambling sites from accepting electronic money transfers related to gambling. On April 10, 2008, Representative Barney Frank introduced H.R. 5767, a bill that would prohibit any of the regulations required by P.L. 109-347, which were published in the Federal Register on October 4, 2007, from being implemented. It is important to note that H.R. 5767 would not have made internet gambling legal. It simply would have prevented further clarifying regulations from going into effect. Internet gambling sites would still be prevented from accepting electronic money transfers. On June 25, 2008, H.R. 5767 came to the House Financial Services Committee for consideration. During the mark-up, an amendment was offered by Representative Peter King of New York which would have required the regulators to re-start the rule making process, thereby delaying, possibly indefinitely, the implementation of any regulations relating to P.L. 109-347. Again, it is important to note that like H.R. 5767, the King amendment would not have made internet gambling legal. Unless P.L. 109-347 is repealed, internet gambling is and will remain an illegal activity. The vote to accept the amendment was tied 32 to 32, and House rules state that when a vote in committee is tied, the amendment automatically fails. Six Members of the House Financial Services Committee did not vote on the amendment even though two of those Members voted on the House floor throughout Wednesday, both before and after the committee mark-up. H.R. 5767 was subsequently defeated by unanimous voice vote. I cast my vote in opposition to the King amendment and to H.R. 5767 because the intent of UIGEA-to keep children and college students from becoming addicted to online gambling-is working. A study by the Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania recently found that online gambling among college students has decreased by 75 percent since the enactment of UIGEA. Though I agree that the regulations show areas that need improvement, the King amendment and H.R. 5767 were not good-faith efforts to improve the regulations, only to see that they were never implemented. Such drastic action is not warranted when the law is showing such obvious success in protecting children from the dangers of online gambling. Thank you again for contacting me about this issue. Your input is important to my work here in Washington. P.S. Communicating with the people I represent is very important to me. If you would like to stay informed of my activities in Congress, please visit http://manzullo.house.gov and sign up for my email updates. You can register to receive my e-newsletter, all my news releases, and updates on various issues. Sincerely, Donald A. Manzullo Member of Congress (Responds from Rep. Donald A. Manzullo – Two Plus Two Poker Forum [forumserver_twoplustwo_com] http://snipurl.com/ppa19)
