| | |  | Last Updated: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 |  | | | Banning Online Gambling Bill Passed at Judiciary Level
- Friday, 2 Jun 2006
This week the House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill introduced by Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R) which intends to ban much online gambling, including bets on sporting events and games of chance -- namely online poker gambling, which has enjoyed a boom in recent years. The bill has been moving backwards and forwards for several months now and it finally reached this House Judiciary Committee, who, after several hours of debate, agreed to advance the anti-online gambling bill.
The bill would update the Federal Wire Wager Act, which currently prohibits gambling over telephone lines. The question is whether this act will apply to internet gambling because not all web traffic travels over phone lines. The act would also demand that banks block online gambling-related transactions and would allow law enforcement agencies to force ISPs to remove or disable links to gambling sites.
Online poker players are arguing that poker should not be included in this anti-gambling bill because poker is a game of skill and not chance, and should therefore not be considered as gambling. Last month, three World Series of Poker champions visited a House office building to defend their game against attempts to ban it online. If passed, the ban would blot out much of the online poker market which is extremely popular in the United States.
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