Kyl and Bachus Push for UIGEA to Start on Schedule

November 10, 2009 | News Category: Gaming Law

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While there are those politicians who support online gambling for a number of different reasons, there are still those ardent anti-gambling politicians who will keep on trying to ensure that online gambling does not become legal, and that anti-gambling legislation is put into place.

Two such politicians are Representative Spencer Bachus, and Sentator Jon Kyl. These two politicians have formally requested that the Treasury ignore the requests made by 17 other Congressman, and listen to them instead. Bachus and Kyl have requested that although there are 17 Congressmen that have requested that the implementation of the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) be delayed at this time, that the implementation should go ahead as planned, and not be delayed.

The UIGEA online casino ban is officially meant to take effect on December 1st of this year, 2009. Since there are online gambling bills that are waiting to be debated by Congress, 17 Congressmen have asked that the implementation of the UIGEA be delayed for a year, so that there will be time to see what happens with the possible new legislation. Should the new online casino bills pass through into legislation, the matter of the UIGEA will be made moot.

Bachus and Kyl have worked hard in their fight against online gambling. They have tried to downplay the request made by their opponents, by telling the Treasury to take note that the 17 Congressmen who have requested the delay of the implementation of the UIGEA, are only 17 of a total of 71 members of the House Financial Services Committee. The House Financial Services Committee is headed by Barney Frank, who is the author of bills in support of legalizing and regulating online gambling. Interestingly, Bachus and Kyl do not seem to notice that although there may only be 17 of the 71 member of the House Financial Committee making this request, that they are only two who are specifically coming out in support of implementing the UIGEA at this time.

The letter written by Kyl and Bachus states "Delaying the compliance date serves no interest except that of the Internet gambling enterprises that have long evaded American gambling laws."

Bachus and Kyl have chosen to ignore the fact that there are legislative actions that are in the process of being considered that would change the law regarding online gambling, as it is brought down by the UIGEA, should the online gambling bills be accepted. Barney Frank, and his supporters, are simply asking for time for the issues to be dealt with and resolved before officially implementing an act that is unclear and has a problematic prohibition in it.

Because Kyl and Bachus know that they are likely on the losing side, they would prefer that no-one takes the time to reconsider the issues, and would prefer to implement the UIGEA before any reconsidering occurs.