Pokercrat

The news and politics of poker

  1. 2009-03-05 06:22:04

    Anti-UIGEA Bill To Be Introduced This Month

    Reuters, on Feb. 20th:

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Democratic lawmaker will push legislation this year to repeal a U.S. ban on Internet gambling that has hurt trade ties with the European Union, a congressional aide said.

    "The bill introduction should happen in the next month," a spokesman for House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said.

    On Thursday, Reuters reported the EU could file a complaint about U.S. enforcement of the gambling ban at the World Trade Organization.

    Many of you are already aware that Barney Frank is one of the most vocal opponents of the nanny state shout-out to the "values voters" known as the UIGEA. It went in to effect on Jan. 19th, the last day of the Bush Presidency; banks and credit card companies have until October to start actual enforcement. Hopefully, before that happens, a more receptive Congress will be able to overturn the previous law.

    I realize this may not make the top 10 issues facing the nation for quite some time, so you're not going to hear too much about outside of the poker community. But seriously, why are we sending money overseas and giving already beleaguered financial institutions more headache to deal with?

    Posted by Ethan at 2009-03-05 06:22:04

Comments on “Anti-UIGEA Bill To Be Introduced This Month”

    • avatar for Jason M
    • Let's hope Mr. Barney Frank can get this through. If he doesn't, it's possible all online gambling sites will follow PartyPoker's lead and not allow U.S. players to even log in to their site :/

      Did anybody read this? I expected to see lots of comments about PartyGaming founder Anurag Dikshit. LOL. Not funny?