This past Tuesday the House Financial Services Committee voted in favor of an internet gambling bill that would require federal agencies to define unlawful internet gambling before regulations are completed to enforce a ban against it. The vote was 30-19 for the bill.

For change to occur House leaders have to schedule a vote on the House floor before Congress is set to meet in a few weeks. The hope is that the bill will do enough that even if it is not passed this year, it will be discussed in the new session of Congress.

Representative Barney Frank is the committee chairman and has stated he plans to continue efforts to repeal the ban. Frank said He still wants to change the law and this move isn’t everything he wants done.

The bill that the committee passed on Tuesday will prohibit sports betting on the internet by exempting such wagers from the regulation process. It would also require the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to consult with the United States Attorney General’s office to develop a formal process to define unlawful internet gambling.

Representative William Lacy Clay along with Frank stated that the bill was not good enough for the National Football League and other professional sports organizations that are opposed.

"I'm trying to figure out what the difference is between Internet gambling and legal sports books run by all the major casinos in Las Vegas like Caesars, like Tropicana, like all of the others," Clay said.

Representative Spencer Bachus, from Alabama, was one of the few votes to oppose the bill. Bachus called the effort “the latest attempt to derail” the Internet gambling ban.



- 2008-09-19