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Frank bill passes out of Committee 29/07/2010
Stephen Carter
Frank bill passes out of Committee
A Congressional vote on Barney Frank’s bill to license and regulate egaming in the US moved one step closer yesterday, after it passed out of the committee stage by a 41-22 vote.
Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, called the House Financial Services Committee’s bi-partisan support for bill HR 2267 “historic”.
“The momentum of today’s vote and growing bi-partisan support for online gambling regulation demonstrates to congressional leaders in the House and Senate that this issue is a priority and should be addressed,” said Waxman.
However, two of the 14 amendments introduced during yesterday’s markup session would prevent websites deemed by US authorities to have intentionally violated state or federal gaming laws from being licensed. This could reduce the likelihood of US-facing giants PokerStars and Full Tilt obtaining federal licences in the US should the bill make it into law with these clauses still in place.
Among the other amendments which mainly dealt with reinforcing consumer protections were two relating to potential intrastate gambling initiatives, the first clarifying that such activities would not be impacted by legislation arising from the bill, and increasing the time states have to opt-out of any legislation from 90 days to a full legislative session.
The short time period written into the Frank and Menendez bills for individual states to consider whether or not they wanted to opt out of future legislation has been seen by industry observers as a potential stumbling block to federal representatives from US states supporting these bills.
The House Committee of Financial Services will now prepare a report on the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act for the US House of Representatives and the Senate to consider. Following this, the bill will be placed on the legislative calendar for "floor action" or debate before the full membership.
