Bush to sign bill to prevent Internet gambling

Breitbart ^

[Kokojmudd]

US President George W. Bush this week is expected to sign a bill making it harder to place bets on the Internet, a practice which already is illegal in the United States.

Bush was expected to act quickly after Congress approved the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act making it illegal for financial institutions and credit card companies to process payments to settle Internet bets. It also created stiff penalties for online wagers.

Billions of dollars are wagered online each year and the United States is considered the biggest market.

"It is extraordinary how many American families have been touched by large losses from Internet gambling," said US Representative Jim Leach, the bill's main sponsor in the House, in a statement after its passage early Saturday.

The bill's chief Senate sponsor was conservative Republican Jon Kyl, who, like Leach, has said he believed Internet gambling was a moral threat. He has called online betting as the Internet version of crack cocaine.

"Gambling can be highly addictive, especially when its done over an unregulated environment such as the Internet" he said this year.

"If Congress had not acted, gamblers would soon be able to place bets not just from home computers, but from their cell phones while they drive home from work or their Blackberries as they wait in line at the movies," Leach said.

The US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board will jointly develop implementing rules for the new law, while financial institutions have nine months to incorporate its provision.

Leach cited research which showed that young people who tend to spend hours of leisure time on the Internet, are particularly vulnerable.

A 2005 survey by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center found that 26 percent of male college students gamble in online card games at least once a month, while nearly 10 percent of all college students gambled online at some point last year.

"Never has it been so easy to lose so much money so quickly at such a young age. The casino is in effect brought to the home, office and college dorm.

"Children may play without verification, and betting with a credit card can undercut a players perception of the value of cash, which too easily leads to bankruptcy and crime," Leach said.

Experts said the vast majority of bettors are placing wagers on poker.

"Everyone loses if this industry continues its remarkable growth trends," Leach said.

Republicans tucked the measure into a bill aimed at enhancing port security, which passed early Saturday.

[RightWhale]

There might be an authentic person involved who fights gambling in any form, but it wasn't real obvious. I would say it was the two wolves while the authentic benefactor was out looking to catch babies falling off third-storey balconies: it can happen.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Is there any analysis out there on how betting sites will circumvent the credit card ban, or how gamblers will go about placing their bets?

BTW, I do not gamble.

[djl_sa]

To be clear, all this "law" does is prevent U.S. based banking and credit cards from allowing transactions to "known" gambling sites.

Stupid law.

All we have to do to continue our past time is to open a netteller account or paypal (which can transfer to netteller). There is nothing they can do to prevent these types of transactions. So in effect they have a do nothing law... for their pandering.

The polititions are idiots because they show their pandering by having exceptions in the law. Idiots. Panderers. I've already called both Senators and my congressman to express my disappointment in this action. I would suggest everyone else do the same.

[mysterio]

Republicans mirroring the demostatists once again.

[D-Chivas]

Oh yeah, this will stop internet gambling. Yep. Right.

[mugs99]

It also created stiff penalties for online wagers.
Making criminals of those who have done no wrong. It makes me sick. I voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. I should have have voted for Gore and Kerry.
.

[stockstrader]

Yep, Vegas casinos, other state casinos, Indian casinos, state lotteries, stock market 'options and futures' trading, commodities trading, poker tournaments, church bingos--it's a good that we don't allow gambling in this country--it just MIGHT be addictive. (rolling eyes)

[Kokojmudd]

The polititions are idiots because they show their pandering by having exceptions in the law. Idiots. Panderers. I've already called both Senators and my congressman to express my disappointment in this action. I would suggest everyone else do the same.

Well said.

[Bogeygolfer]

"Oh yeah, this will stop internet gambling. Yep. Right."

Hate to say it but it very effectively will do just that. We are very effective at tracking funds and the banks are the main line of offense here. If you can't fund your account with a high degree of convenience you will lose the vast majority of players. This is far more serious than a matter of just convenience as well. Deposits and withdrawls now get fairly difficult and possible illegal from a different angle.
This will not stop gambling but I believe in it's present for it will destroy the online gaming industry. Everybody will run back to their local book or find other alternatives.

[LibLieSlayer]

Children are the reason. A friend of mine has put his 16 year old on permanent restriction for using his credit card to gamble in the Bahamas... online. His son lost his auto also... I mean sold and money spent on their home!

LLS

[SoCal Pubbie]

I thought they might use PayPal, but I assumed that that would be prohibited by either this same law or another down the road.

As for politicians, unfortunately their answer to all problems is to ban it or tax it (whatever the perceived problem is).

[navyguy]

Its because of RIDICULOUSLY STUPID stuff like this that I no longer have ANY confidence whatsoever in anyone in congress to get Jack Squat done.

Illegals are flooding us by the thousands every single day, the tax system is totally screwed up and corrupted, our schools have lowered their standards to the LCD, etc, etc, etc... so lets focus on internet gambling.

IDIOTS!!! Damn... I hate congress so much I can barely articulate it. WTF are those people thinking?

[CastleMan95]

I thought that most credit card companies already wouldn't fund known gambling sites. Lets just say I know people (Americans) who've tried to use them for funding poker sites and it didn't work. This ends up being a big issue for the banking industry who I know aren't thrilled with having to follow this law. People on poker message boards have been slamming republicans for this. I think a lot of those people are out to lunch politically. I do think they would be real surprised by the reaction on Free Republic.

[mugs99]

It is not all a moral question here

Yes it is. This movement was started by the Christian Coalition. They originally went after casinos but had to back off when Bill Bennett was outed for blowing $8 million on the slots. They regrouped and went after internet gambling.

"The bill's chief Senate sponsor was conservative Republican Jon Kyl, who, like Leach, has said he believed Internet gambling was a moral threat. He has called online betting as the Internet version of crack cocaine"....Christian Coalition talking points!
.

[pnome]

The republicans lost me on this one.


Guess all that talk about 'Freedom' was just that. Talk.

[CastleMan95]

The World Series of Poker, which is owned by Harrah's, will take a huge hit from this in my opinion. They had over 8000+ people enter the Main Event tourny this year...a very good chunk of whom were Americans who qualified for the tourny through online poker sites. I would imagine this would drop the entries for next year by at least a thousand or so (at $10,000 a pop).

[mugs99]

Is there any analysis out there on how betting sites will circumvent the credit card ban, or how gamblers will go about placing their bets?

There are already many ways to circumvent this. The bigger issue is enforcement. This makes placing a bet on the internet a crime. The government will now be able to arrest and incarcerate players.
.

[MamaTexan]

this is going to bite the GOP hard. They may not know it yet, but they have ticked off millions of people.

But they don't care.

Not as long as they have the hold-your-nose-and-vote crowd.

:-(

[mugs99]

To be clear, all this "law" does is prevent U.S. based banking and credit cards from allowing transactions to "known" gambling sites.
Not true. It makes the act of placing a bet over the internet a crime. Millions of American poker players are now criminals.
.

[djl_sa]

From what I understand, paypal already doesn't allow direct deposits into online gambling sites, hence the redirection to Netteller or some other service.

But not all credit cards ban this right now. I use my credit union card to fund my gaming. No problems. But I suspect that will stop soon.

But as far as penalties I have been reading what is available and there doesn't seem to be penalties to the individuals that are gambling because the wording appears to be trying to block the financial transactions...