UIGEA Congressional Hearing Fairly Positive

December 07, 2009 | News Category: Gaming Law

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The long-awaited UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) hearing took place last on Thursday last week. 22 House Financial Services Committee members were at the hearing in Washington. Also in attendance were a number of expert witnesses, mostly in support of regulated online gambling.

Although the support for the removal of the UIGEA, and subsequent regulation of the online gambling industry is very strong, there are those who are against it. A notable opponent of online gambling, Republican Representative Spencer Bachus, was there to voice his opinion.

The hearing lasted for 90 minutes, and was simply to get the ball rolling regarding Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation, the Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009, which is now well-known as H.R. 2267. At this time, the purpose of the hearing was for information purposes only, and will be further dealt with in the New Year, when additional discussion and testimony will take place, as well as voting when the time is appropriate.

The proceedings were appropriately opened by a statement from Chairman Barney Frank, the author of the gambling bills in support of regulating the online gambling industry in the United States. He said: “The notion that this Congress should tell millions of adult Americans that we know better than they what they should do with their own money on their own time on their own computer seems to me to be a very grave error.”

Since many opponents of online gambling claim to be opposed to it because they wish to protect children, since underage gamblers may be able to gamble online, Frank made sure to address this issue in his opening statements. While children are, of course, vulnerable to online gambling, they are not more vulnerable to this issue than many of the other things that are available to them on the Internet, and therefore Frank sees no reason to distinguish online gambling from other issues.

Frank continued to note that there is the possibility of underage gambling slipping through the cracks, but that there are many things available on the Internet that are not appropriate for underage Internet users. Frank said “…the notion that because some people will abuse something, you prevent everybody from doing it, is as great a threat to the liberty of the individual as any philosophy I have seen.”

Most of those that oppose legalizing online gambling in the United States come from a Conservative background, and see gambling, or at least online gambling, as a threat to society in general. Many opponents of Internet gambling are of the belief that gambling addictions, money laundering and other crimes would become commonplace in communities that allowed online gambling. They also feel that communities that had to face these problems and issues would be ill prepared to deal with the extra stress on their police forces and the need to have services available for those who do suffer from gambling addictions.

Most who were present at the hearing were in support of regulating this already large and popular industry of Internet gambling.