Barney Frank Reintroducing Online Gaming Bill

February 7, 2009

Barney Frank has announced his intentions to reintroduce a bill in the next few weeks to establish a licensing and regulatory framework for online gambling operators. the bill look look a lot liek the bill he tried to get moving in congress last year called the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007 (IGREA) introduced by Frank during the previous Congress.

Although this bill had plenty of co-sponsors it never gained any traction and died on the house floor. The goal of this bill is to provide the framework to license and regulate all forms of online gambling and not just so-called “skill” games like poker. Final regulations for the UIGEA were published in November 2008 and adopted on January 19, 2009, the last full day of the outgoing Bush administration. The UIGEA sought to put an end to poker players using US banks as a funding option and put several major online poker rooms in jeopardy.

The general feeling in Washington is that the new Democratic administration will be much less likely to pursue and arrest owners and operators like the former administration did. This opens up a whole new world to the CEO’s and anyoen associated with online gaming operations.

Frank also added this comment when questioned about his motivation for reintroducing another gaming bill:

I expect the chances for the new legislation to become law to be much better than had been the case for the IGREA, both because of the change in administration as well as “because public opinion [is] demanding the right to gamble online.”

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