Online poker’s favorite congressmen Barney Frank, Ron Paul, Luis V. Gutierrez and Peter King, are continuing their fight against the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act).
This time, they wrote a letter directly to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to express concerns over the UIGEA. As many of your probably know, the UIGEA’s aim is to ban online gambling by forcing U.S. financial institutions to regulate your transactions. This may have seemed like a good idea, but in reality it puts a tremendous strain on banks, lenders, and other financial institutions.
*BEGIN RANT* This is what Frank and Paul are trying to explain to the knuckleheads in power. Our economy is already suffering. Between the mortgage crisis, the war in Iraq, and outrageous gas prices, our government has its plate full already. They should focus on the big stuff and quit trying to keep loyal American taxpayers from playing $0.50/$1.00 Texas Hold’em online. Instead, they should be looking for ways to regulate online gaming, which would actually help the economy.*END RANT*
I’m glad we have congressmen like this, who are willing to stand up and fight for our personal liberties. If you’d like to read their letter to the Treasury, and find out how you can support them in the fight for online poker, continue reading.
Barney Frank and Ron Paul’s letter about the UIGEA
As you know, on Wednesday, April 2, the Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic and International and Monetary Policy held a hearing entitled, “Proposed UIGEA Regulations: Burden Without Benefit?” to examine the regulations issued last year by your agency and the Federal Reserve on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). At that hearing, the testimony of your representatives and the industry made it clear that the regulations are unworkable. Subsequently, we introduced new legislation, H.R. 5767, which would prohibit their implementation.
The regulations, like the underlying legislation, fail to define the term “unlawful internet gambling,” leaving it to each financial institution to reconcile conflicting state and federal laws, court decisions and inconsistent Department of Justice interpretations, when determining whether to process a transaction. Furthermore, some of the information needed to make this determination would likely be unavailable to banks, because customers or financial institutions in foreign jurisdictions will likely be unwilling or unable to provide it. At the hearing, representatives from your agency and the Federal Reserve admitted that there are substantial problems in crafting regulations to implement the UIGEA in a manner that does not have a substantial adverse effect on the efficiency of the nation’s payment system.
Your agency and the Federal Reserve have been struggling to issue these regulations, but as the hearing made clear, the underlying statute makes your job extremely difficult, if not impossible. Given the many other priorities that are pending at your agencies, including the mortgage crisis, HOEPA, and UDAP rulewriting and many other issues, we believe it would be imprudent for you to devote additional agency resources to this Sisyphean task, especially as we intend to vigorously pursue legislation to prevent the implementation of these regulations.
What you can do to support the regulation of Online Poker
Show your support for online poker by signing up at one of these US poker sites.
Sign up as a member of the Poker Players Alliance. The PPA just surpassed 1,000,000 members! It’s completely free and you have no excuse not to join. Whether you decide to become a member or not, you can use there website to send a free letter in support of online poker to your Senators and Congressmen. They’ve done all the hard work for you. Simply fill in your information and click SEND.
Do you know of any other organizations supporting online poker like the PPA? Feel free to post them here.
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Internet Gambling needs to be legalized. It is a very large market that is not being fully tapped into. The backhanded and undemocratic way that the US Congress passed the UIGEA is enough to overturn the act, not to mention the high demand for internet gambling. I started a campaign where we need 10,000 people to show their support for online gambling. Find out more here: https://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/legalize-online-gambling . If this interests you, join, tell your friends and you can make a difference. Thanks