U. S. Congress Holds "Poker" Hearings

Let us suppose that the United States Government abandoned the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act tomorrow. There would be world wide web complications of enormous potential:

What does the World Trade Organization do with the Antigua/US dispute?

What does the EU do with the biggest player in the online gaming world back in play?

Does Germany want to control its online poker players, if that means no US players?

Does anyone care about the UK "White List" if the US opens its cyber-doors to everyone?

Of course, the U.S. is not going to abandon the UIGEA anytime soon but the Congress did hold hearings yesterday and listening in might be of some educational benefit, but congressional hearings are boring, so let's just go for the high and low points:

"The UIGEA and the Proposed Rules do not provide a rational path towards halting unlawful Internet gambling," said Wayne Abernathy, American Bankers Association's executive vice president. "The path leads to an increased cost and administrative burden to the banks and an erosion in the performance of the payments system, but it will not result in stopping illegal Internet gambling transactions. Imposing this enormous unfunded law enforcement mandate on banks in place of the government's law enforcement agencies is not likely to be a successful public policy."

To be fair, not everyone agrees that internet gaming is harmless:

Spencer Bachus (R-AL) shared his never changing position that

"illegal internet gambling ruins lives and tears families apart."

.
He once again cited his favorite statistic

"74% of those who have used the internet to gamble have become addicted to gambling, and many of these gambling addicts have turned to crime to support their habit."

.
Both the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve had statements, you can read them here if you like. The condensed versions are: "The law cannot be enforced the way it was written without imposing a heavy financial burden on banks and slowing the commercial processing of payments and credits with the U.S. cyber economy."

The Poker Players Alliance offered up this statement:

"We commend the House Financial Services Committee for holding today's hearing to better understand the burdens UIGEA places on the banking industry. As many banks have commented, UIGEA is completely unworkable and puts undue strain on the financial industry's relationship with its customers. Banks should not be deputized by the federal government to enforce unclear laws that prevent their customers from enjoying lawful Internet poker. Even the Federal Reserve in its testimony agrees that the myriad of gambling laws are ‘not well-settled and can be subject to varying interpretations.' If the regulators don't know what an ‘unlawful internet gambling' transaction is how can the banks be expected to know?

"The proposed UIGEA regulations are troublesome but the trouble started with the statute. It is not practical, nor is it sound federal policy to try to prohibit adults from engaging in games of skill on the Internet. We urge members of Congress to reconsider this legislation and move towards regulation of online poker that will protect children and problem gamblers, fight fraud and abuse and collect billions in federal and state tax revenue."

Here is the "Summary Quote" many pro-gaming articles have used:

"Testimony from the federal regulators and representatives of the financial services community made clear today that the prohibition on Internet gambling isn't working now and will not work in the future," said Jeffrey Sandman, spokesman for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. "U.S. banks and credit card companies, along with every other type of U.S. company involved in payment systems, would be forced spend substantial resources to force compliance with a ban on Internet gambling that can be easily circumvented by anyone in the U.S. that wants to continue to gamble online.

"Rather than trying to implement a ban that is unclear, burdensome and doomed to fail, Congress should instead look to regulate Internet gambling in order to protect consumers and collect billions of dollars that is being lost to offshore Internet gambling operators."