Good News for American Online Casino Industry

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The American online casino and internet gaming industry may well receive two Christmas presents in the first week of December. It has been confirmed that Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has scheduled a hearing on December 3 before the Committee for both the online gambling related bills that he had sponsored earlier this year. Reliable sources state that the Treasury and the Federal Reserve have agreed to defer the implementation of the UIGEA by six months. However there has been no formal announcement on this yet.

After a few months delay Frank had introduced the bills in May 2009. House Resolution 2266 or the Reasonable Prudence Regulation Act (RPRA) seeks to delay the implementation of the UIGEA by one year. House Resolution 2267 or the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act (IGRCPEA) seeks to legalize online gambling and create a regulated and transparent online gambling framework for its taxation. HR 2266 has 53 co-sponsors and HR 2267 has 63 co-sponsors.

The hearings for the resolutions, which have been popularly dubbed as the anti-UIGEA bills, will be held in public in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building. They will be broadcast live over the Web with the link on the committee's website. Frank will lead the questioning of the witnesses who testify for and against the resolutions. The opposition will be spearheaded by Spencer Bachus, who is the leader of the Republicans on the committee. The House Financial Services Committee consists of 41 Democrats and 29 Republicans.

If these bills make it through the committee they will have to be voted on by the House and the Senate and signed by the President before becoming law. Hence there is still a long way to go. Online gamblers still recall that an earlier legislation that Frank had introduced in 2008 was approved by a 30-19 margin in the committee. However the 110th Congress had lapsed before any further steps could be taken.

One of the reasons that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have apparently agreed to defer the implementation of the UIGEA Rules was that the hearings for the anti-UIGEA bills were scheduled for December 3. The UIGEA Rules are scheduled to go in to effect on December 1. It seems that some compromise has been reached between the representatives of the online gambling industry and the federal authorities. The UIGEA Rules will be deferred for six months and not one year as earlier sought by the industry.

Joe Brennan Junior of iMEGA said, "It's really surprising we got this concession. It's very unusual for any department of the government to essentially forestall an act of Congress. This is a testament to the power of Congressman Frank. This has been his pet issue, because it is part of his core values, for some time now."

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