Barney Frank filing legislation against online gambling ban

[vinnie]

Congressman Barney Frank will introduce a bill in the next two weeks aiming to end the ban on online gambling in the United States.

A senior U.S. legislator said Thursday he would start pushing to lift a U.S. ban on online gambling in the next few weeks, but said it was too early to make any concrete move to lift restrictions ruled illegal last month by the World Trade Organization.
Congressman Barney Frank, the Democrat who chairs the committee that oversees financial services, told reporters that the online gambling bill passed last fall was "one of the stupidest things I ever saw."

"I want to get it undone. I plan to file legislation," Barney said, explaining that he would lay out his plans in the next couple of weeks but would not move them forward until other lawmakers are on board.

"I think a reconsideration among my colleagues is beginning," he said. "It's not far enough along yet so I wouldn't move the bill but I plan to introduce the bill and if storm of public unhappiness is great enough, I will try to substantially revise that ban."

The U.S. Congress House Financial Services Committee alone could not do more than lift a ban on using credit cards to pay for Internet gambling, he said.

"The first thing is to plant the banner out there and see how many people rally around it," he said.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, passed last October, took British-based Internet gambling businesses by surprise, causing companies such as Sportingbet PLC and Leisure & Gaming PLC to sell their U.S. operations.

The law prevents U.S. banks and credit-card companies from processing payments to online gambling businesses outside the United States.

A World Trade Organization panel ruled on another set of gambling restrictions on March 30, saying Washington had failed to change legislation that unfairly targets offshore casinos. It sided with Antigua and Barbuda, a former British colony in the Caribbean, that has promoted electronic commerce as a way to end the country's reliance on tourism, which was hurt by a series of hurricanes in the late 1990s.

The Geneva-based trade referee has said Washington can maintain restrictions on online gambling as long as its laws are equally applied to American operators offering remote betting on horse racing.

Franks also said he welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel's move to boost trans-Atlantic trading ties and increase global supervision for hedge funds.

Better coordination between EU and U.S. regulators would give multinational corporations less leeway to play one off against the other, he said, mentioning taxation and climate change as policy areas where companies threaten to relocate to avoid stricter laws.

"The response you often get is: 'If you do this, we will leave.' The mobility of capital gives them both in real terms and politically a great weapon," he said. "If you could get some kind of policy coordination on a trans-Atlantic basis; if you could diminish that threat ... you are talking about a pretty big chunk of the world, and that's a place to start."

Officials from both regions meet in Washington on April 30 for high-level talks.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which was passed in October 2006 and becomes law in July this year, effectively outlawed online gambling in the US by banning financial transactions to online gaming operators.

Many Americans have been reported to have taken out their dissatisfaction about the ban on Internet gambling in the election polls last November.

Who can blame them?

The fact that horse racing and state lotteries are exempt makes this current bill comical, hypocritical and transparent to all

 

[Chadman]

It's good to be a democrat. Thanks, Barney. I'll rally with you.

 

[shamrock]

Frank is my Representative, and I called his office at least 10 times on this matter. People calling your Representatives and senators works.

 

[ga_ben]

Never thought I'd agree on anything with Barney Frank. Go get em Barney. The devil must surely be wearing thermal today.:scared

 

[Nosigar]

Barney for First lady. :00hour

Go get 'em, girl!

 

[hedgehog]

Barney FAG...I hope he gets the legislation overturned, so I can bet on the internet without worry that my money will be seized.

good job Barney:s8:

 

[Terryray]

Time to Double Down on Online Gambling Font





By Sallie James

Amid the recent hullabaloo over the United States' trade agreement with South Korea, the unveiling of the Democrats' plans for trade policy, and new legal cases on intellectual property rights and countervailing duties on goods from China, another important development in U.S. trade policy has gone largely unnoticed. On March 30, a World Trade Organization tribunal handed down a potentially significant finding against U.S. restrictions on internet gambling.


The panel was set up at the request of Antigua and Barbuda, who complained that the United States had not complied with the WTO's earlier decision that it must change the way it regulates gambling over the internet. The previous ruling, in April 2005, found that while the United States was within its rights to restrict the import of goods and services on "public morals" grounds, as it had argued in its defense, those rules must be applied in a non-discriminatory manner. If the United States finds online gambling offensive, it must be consistent in its restrictions and apply them equally to domestic and foreign providers.


And therein lies the rub: the United States allows interstate online betting on horseracing. The United States had also agreed during the Uruguay Round to open its markets to foreign suppliers of gambling and betting services, although the United States Trade Representative (through a spokesman) claimed in 2004 that the previous administration "clearly intended to exclude gambling from U.S. service commitments" when they signed the deal. Both of those inconsistencies lost it the original case.

The United States Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in October 2006, ostensibly to bring its laws into conformity with the April 2005 ruling. But the compliance panel ruled that the United States has taken no satisfactory remedial action that would bring its laws into conformity with its previously-established obligations. Moreover, it appears that the United States applies its laws in a discriminatory manner, by prosecuting foreign gambling entities more than it does U.S. gaming firms. Game, set and match: Antigua and Barbuda.


There is still no official word from the USTR about whether the United States will appeal this latest decision. If they do not, though, the United States would need to change its Federal law either by closing the loopholes allowing domestic online gambling, or by freely allowing gambling online without any restrictions.


Of course, the United States could also choose to ignore the ruling, although it has a good record of complying with previous rulings against it. Antigua and Barbuda would in that case be entitled to retaliate against the United States, however their options appear limited. As a tiny island nation of 80,000 people, the normal recourse of WTO members who have had their rights infringed?the ability to increase tariffs on the perpetrating country's exports?will probably be ineffectual, not to mention economically damaging to Antiguans themselves. One option that has been suggested is for Antigua and Barbuda to ask for permission from the WTO to "cross-retaliate": to suspend its obligations to protect the intellectual property rights of U.S. companies.


Establishing a haven for software, music and movie piracy would presumably get the attention of the United States, although it may be an undesirable industry for Antigua and Barbuda to encourage if it leads to other more nefarious activities such as money-laundering, and may threaten Antigua and Barbuda's preferential access to the United States market under the Caribbean Basin Initiative. Presumably, though, the access granted to the United States under the CBI is less lucrative than would be a resolution to the gambling dispute in Antigua and Barbuda's favor.


If market expectations are any guide, though, the United States will likely end up allowing its citizens to gamble online. In the hours after the WTO ruling was announced, stocks in online gaming companies lifted. Investors clearly see the writing on the wall, even if the U.S. government does not.


Sallie James is a policy analyst with the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute and author of "U.S. Response to Gambling Dispute Reveals Weak Hand."